As someone who frequents independent coffee shops on a somewhat regular basis (frequently even), it's hard not to notice the anti-Starbucks paraphernalia and attitude that seems to have found a niche in the independent coffee merchant's decor. Forgive me if I find this mindset a little childish and perplexing. First of all, let's call Starbucks what it is: it's the McDonald's of coffee. Starbucks mass produces coffee products in a short time with relatively consistent results. You won't find any coffee artists at a Starbucks, in fact, most of the time you won't even find baristas that have pulled shots on a manual espresso machine. What you will find, however, is a pretty good product at a reasonable price. Here's the thing, if independent coffee shops want to become wildly successful with numerous locations all over the place, then they should be emulating Starbucks not deriding them with their decor and snarky attitude. If the goal of the independent shop is to create coffee beverages that don't remind the consumer of an assembly line, then Starbucks isn't really their competition in the first place. People that want high quality espresso from highly skilled baristas aren't going to Starbucks anyway. It would be like a Lamborghini dealership lamenting the fact that a used car dealer opened a lot down the street from them. There's a place for McStarbucks AND legit coffee shops. So get over yourselves independent coffee shops, and stop pretending like you wouldn't trade places with Starbucks in an instant.