I have now been in three different Starbucks franchises in my life, one in Manhattan and one in New Jersey and one this morning in Florida. My motivation each time has been wifi. The two suburban Starbuckses I've visited were small, cramped, and not especially clean. Starbuckses are full of people who speak a specialized dialect full of coffee terms I don't understand and seem really, really into the whole experience. This morning I had a croissant that was really more like a dinner roll shaped like a croissant. You pay for the Wifi, but it's fast and reliable.

I have now been in three different Panera franchises, too, including the one I'm in now and two in Greensboro (the ones at home are sites of occasional breakfast meetings). I'm here for the wifi. Elijah's here too for the same reason. Panera has in my very limited experience large, clean stores, along with wimpy bagels and some good-looking bread-based products. The crowd is more food-driven from what I can see, lots of moms and kids and people having meetings of some sort. The wifi is robust enough, and free.

Advantage: Panera, by a mile.

Elijah and I also went to an enormous Barnes & Noble today in Boca Raton. It had the book I wanted to buy him, but the wifi wasn't free, and worse, even though  the store contained a Starbucks the wifi was from AT&T and this morning's Starbucks sold me T-Mobile, so I couldn't even use the service I'd paid for.

Comments

[jc]

Ed, find a Days Inn and pull into the parking lot. They usually have free wireless that you can pick up. When you're finished surfing, you can go inside and p/u a USA Today and a cup of coffee. Not very good though. Also, they have decent bathroom when you finish your coffee.

[Joe Killian]

Terrific book.

Tore the top off of my head in high school.

[Doug H]

"Cat's Cradle" gets my vote as one of Kurt's best.

Bokanon lives!

[Phil Melton]

Barnes and Noble doesn't contain a Starbucks. The cafes are part of Barnes and Noble and serve Starbucks coffee through an agreement with Starbucks.

The B&N cafe branding has a similar look to Starbucks, so it creates confusion. The separate nature of the two entities is the reason you can't use Starbucks gift cards in a B&N, and why the wi-fi providers aren't the same.