I think, along with the overbuilding (we could easily walk to three SBs in our old neighborhood), what is happening is what usually happens. Just like having a cell phone used to be a status symbol, people thought that buying a Starbucks coffee announced, “Hey, I’m not only a coffee gourmet, I can afford it!” Once everyone did it, it lost its glamour. Just a fad. I never fell for it, but I certainly fell for similar things in my 20s/30s, when appearances are everything, or so it seems.
My drug of choice in the mornings is Diet Coke. I drink it for the caf, not the lack of calories, because my parents brought us up on hideous Shasta diet drinks and — arghhh! — Tab, and regular soft drinks are too sweet for me.
