Its 6:00AM and I'm very tired but need to be in Edmonton by 9:00. Got outa Calgary early and have the GPS homed in on this Starbucks. But I'll be damned if its pointed to a nonexistent address .... circle around the block and see a Timmy Hortons sign. Pull in front and, my god! Drive-thru lineup at least 10 cars deep, spilling out to the street. Line out the door. No way am I waiting in that line for a watered down coffee and gooey portable breakfast. But if this place is packed, the Starbucks will probably be too.
With dumb luck, I see over to the left the sign for Seattle coffee addicts fix. I speed over and am delighted to see no cars in the drive-thru, I go inside and its empty, Get my latte and bag of cashews for breakfast. Service was snappy, and the latte hit the spot.
In retrospect its nice to see the locals stick to what works for them. Thankfully for out of towners, this makes access to our staples a little less hectic.