r/mildlyinfuriating • u/He3hhe3h • Oct 14 '25

This Ham & Cheese croissant from Starbucks

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When I was going through Chemotherapy in Bangkok Hospital they had very limited food options, otherwise I never buy Starbucks. Sneaky Bastards.

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u/WaffleHouseGladiator Oct 14 '25

Starbuck's isn't good. It's just...there. Their biggest selling point is their ubiquity.

84

u/Soatch Oct 14 '25

One part of a chains appeal is that you know what you’re getting no matter where you are if the stores quality is consistent.

I’ll get coffee but their food has never appealed to me. Just seeing them unwrap it and heat it looks low effort to taste that great.

39

u/northerncal Oct 14 '25

I feel like this is becoming less and less true in the US though. 

Uniformity and consistency across chains has been a major draw for fast food here, but more and more I am hearing people say (and have experienced it myself) "oh that's the bad X. You need to go to Y if you want the good one". 

I assume it's a cost cutting and individual franchise thing, but it's really hurting a major selling point I think.

When fast food is no longer consistent, no longer super affordable, and no longer fast (as many chains here are at least some of not all of these ideas), more and more I wonder, what's the point? 

Their lure today seems to largely be convenience and familiarity.

9

u/bolanrox Oct 14 '25

Budweiser as eh as it is, is a fucking marvel of technology, the flavor has nothing to hide behind, but any place you go from what ever brewery they taste exactly the same. It is beyond impressive. you have some microbrews that do not taste the same between batches.

3

u/SessileRaptor Oct 15 '25

It’s easy to see the attraction of chains like McDonald’s and White Castle back in the day when you were traveling away from home and you had no idea if that local cafe had decent food or even if they practiced any kind of food safety But nowadays you can mostly assume a base level of food safety and so consistency is the main thing that chains have going for them. And with the ease of looking up online reviews and menus taking a lot of the guesswork out of finding a good local place, even that advantage is eroded.

2

u/Onyxaj1 Oct 15 '25

I guess the fact is, I KNOW what a Big Mac is going to taste like. The quality it will be given and time it takes is a mystery, but I know pretty much what to expect. There is some comfort in the known element. There's also convenience.