Starbucks has become the status symbol for unnecessary consumption

You can't tell me there isn't a correlation between people who buy a lot of unnecessary products and starbucks lovers.... when I used to get a lot of shopping/organization/product recommendations content on tiktok literally all of them would have a starbucks in view somewhere lol.

(I'm not talking the people who may occasionally buy coffee when they're out, but the people who make these starbucks drinks a part of their "brand" and daily routine.)

because sb doesnt make good coffee, if people like their sweetness of their drinks it's hard to mess it up making it yourself at home. it's much cheaper to make at home and not time consuming or complicated. There is no excuse for the average person to be spending 9 dollars on a sub par coffee drink daily, except that they get some kind of joy in giving some establishment their money to fill up an empty hole and enjoy that dopamine rush.

It's also a gateway drug to more excess spending. As starbucks drinks and target hauls go hand in hand. Throwing everything in your cart, buzzed up on sugar and caffeine while in a target induced trance. (target apparently uses some psychological tactics to "hypnotize" their shoppers into spending more)