Starbucks at Meridian Crossing in Okemos
To some people, there’s nothing like a warm coffee or tea on a cold rainy day. I’m not one of those people. I despise Starbucks. The only time I ever go in one is with J. She likes a couple of their drinks and today, she was wanting something warm and comforting. Since there was a Starbucks right next to the State Side Deli where we ate lunch, she asked if I would stop in with her.
This Starbucks is located on the far end of the Meridian Crossings shopping center. You can see it from Okemos Road and there is an entrance on both sides of the building. With this business, it doesn’t matter which side you enter. The counter is in the middle. That’s only if you’re not lazy and actually go in. There is a drive-thru on the side of the building and the line wrapped back into the parking lot. I don’t do drive thrus and it was easier just to get out and go in the store.
There’s really not much there. There are a few tables if you want to pay for wi-fi while you drink coffee and a few displays of coffee making products. I’m guessing they do most of the business through the window.
Starbucks in Okemos
J ordered a chai tea and she talked me in to a hot chocolate. This is the first time I have ever gotten anything from a Starbucks. I don’t drink coffee. I don’t really like tea and I can get hot chocolate at QD for a lot less. I ordered a tall which is actually a small, but in the pretentious world of coffee drinkers, it sounds better if all three sizes have big sounding names. I don’t know…maybe you feel like you can justify the price if you order a “tall” instead of a “small.” Whatever. The one thing I will say I liked about this hot chocolate is that it wasn’t too hot. It was warm and tasted really good, but it didn’t burn my tongue. I do appreciate that.
J ordered a “venti” chai tea. You know why they call it venti instead of large? Venti means 20 in Italian and that’s how many ounces you get. Does anyone really know that? Anyway, it’s a drink she has gotten in the past and really likes it and this one was just like everyone other one she got, so that’s a good thing.
As you can tell, Starbucks isn’t my favorite place. IF I was a coffee drinker, there would be hundreds of places I would go first…maybe someplace that doesn’t charge for wi-fi. My hot chocolate was good and if J stops in again in the winter, it is something I would order again, but not something I would go out of my way for.
Mid-Michigan Dining 
I believe if you have one of their Starbucks cards (gift cards, basically) with at least $5 on it, you can use the code for free wi-fi. I’ve never tried it. With regard to sizes, I believe back in the day the sizes were short, tall, and grande, but they did away with the short in favor of venti, so that’s why tall is the small now.
If you can’t tell, I used to be a Starbucks junkie. I still have it occasionally, but I vastly prefer Biggby now that I’m in the Lansing area. My SO loves Biggby’s non-coffee drinks, so you might want to stop by next time you’re in the mood for something warm.
What’s wrong with small/medium/large?
It’s just pretentious that a mega corporation like Starbucks has it set up so another mega corporation supplies their wi-fi and charges for it while local coffee shops who probably can’t afford it give it awy for free with a DSL connection and a wireless router.
J usually does go to Biggby when we’re here in town, but Starbucks was two doors down and we would have had to cross five lanes of traffic to get to Biggby.