NYT Idiot Wants "Elite Status" Recognition for His Starbucks Patronage

[bijou]

Dream big, kid.   Dream big.

Rewards are nice, but recognition is better. So if I'm one of Starbucks's best customers, I want to have elite status, as I do on American Airlines. I want shorter lines, better freebies, special seating (Aeron chairs, preferably) and electrical outlets reserved just for me and my laptop.

Silly? No, he says.

When I dared express these thoughts in a post on the personal finance Web site FiLife a few months ago, commenters there and on the Starbucks Gossip site called me selfish and self-absorbed and suggested that I get a life. After all, it’s just coffee, they said.

He also "wants to be invited to "a members-only party when new products come out."  Again, like the old Calgon ad said, "Live the fantasy."

What to say? I've said this before, but if anyone wants to understand the basic cultural impulse of Luppies (Liberal Urban Professionals), watch the commentary track of Gosford Park. The screenwriter explains the tastes of the dying aristocracy of the early 1900's as largely a series of learned affectations designed to set them apart from the commoners. Thus their flat rejection of popular culture (something the proles like, in the main) and suspicions about anyone making money by actually making money (as opposed to just living off ancestral lands' rents).

And of course those forced to be most ostentatious about these affectations were precisely those least entitled to call themselves the aristocracy, that is, those who were only barely high-born, or actually quite poor despite their high social status, or otherwise in danger of losing their cherished membership in the club.

Those more secure in their position, or adequately dirty-rich, could better afford to flout the affected tastes of the country-manor set.

It's the same sort of overcompensation that is often said to lead to men with feelings of inadequacy buying big-engined sportscars. The same impulse leads those with a gnawing sense of lack of adequate social status to buy Volvos and Priuses, but of course they don't like to joke about that.

Many liberals are much concerned with setting themselves apart as members of the socio-cogno-cultural elite, and yet don't have any particularly strong claims on such status, to wit, either aristocratic lineage, high accomplishment in one's field, or (as ever) a big stinking heap of money.

...

http://minx.cc/?post=266282

Hat tip to http://houseofdumb.blogspot.com/

[Chris_]

I don't see the problem.

Affinity programs can be very effective. I do go to Marriott chain hotels because of my status and special treatment.  Same for AA.  That's about $20K-$50K a year for each. Even the local sandwich shop has a "club" that gives me a free sandwich after buying 12 and my car wash place a free wash after 10.

if I was a coffee junkie, why not ask that my continued and longtime patronage be rewarded?  Especially now that the coffee space has become competitive.

[asdf2231]

I don't see the problem.

Affinity programs can be very effective. I do go to Marriott chain hotels because of my status and special treatment.  Same for AA.  That's about $20K-$50K a year for each. Even the local sandwich shop has a "club" that gives me a free sandwich after buying 12 and my car wash place a free wash after 10.

if I was a coffee junkie, why not ask that my continued and longtime patronage be rewarded?  Especially now that the coffee space has become competitive.

My wife LOVES the VIP treatment she gets from Marriott.  She was gone for almost three months last year (Agregate) on business trips. Most of that was in Marriott properties. They treat her like a queen.

[Chris_]

I don't see the problem.

Affinity programs can be very effective. I do go to Marriott chain hotels because of my status and special treatment.  Same for AA.  That's about $20K-$50K a year for each. Even the local sandwich shop has a "club" that gives me a free sandwich after buying 12 and my car wash place a free wash after 10.

if I was a coffee junkie, why not ask that my continued and longtime patronage be rewarded?  Especially now that the coffee space has become competitive.

My wife LOVES the VIP treatment she gets from Marriott.  She was gone for almost three months last year (Agregate) on business trips. Most of that was in Marriott properties. They treat her like a queen.

The lounge is great -- you pour your own (so you can make 'em strong) and basically get free dinner and breakfast.  That can add up fast.

[Uhhuh35]

I'd give him "Elite Moron" status for wasting all his money on crap coffee.

[Rebel]

I don't see the problem.

Affinity programs can be very effective. I do go to Marriott chain hotels because of my status and special treatment.  Same for AA.  That's about $20K-$50K a year for each. Even the local sandwich shop has a "club" that gives me a free sandwich after buying 12 and my car wash place a free wash after 10.

if I was a coffee junkie, why not ask that my continued and longtime patronage be rewarded?  Especially now that the coffee space has become competitive.

I used to, until they went non-smoking. Hell, I was platinum. I normally don't smoke in my room and try to get one with a balcony or close to an exit, but in Fairbanks, Alaska? In March? When it's -38?

I still have Choice Rewards, Trip Rewards, Marriot, and the Holiday Inn reward system. I still have about 110K on Trip Rewards.

[docstew]

I don't see the problem.

Affinity programs can be very effective. I do go to Marriott chain hotels because of my status and special treatment.  Same for AA.  That's about $20K-$50K a year for each. Even the local sandwich shop has a "club" that gives me a free sandwich after buying 12 and my car wash place a free wash after 10.

if I was a coffee junkie, why not ask that my continued and longtime patronage be rewarded?  Especially now that the coffee space has become competitive.

I used to, until they went non-smoking. Hell, I was platinum. I normally don't smoke in my room and try to get one with a balcony or close to an exit, but in Fairbanks, Alaska? In March? When it's -38?

I still have Choice Rewards, Trip Rewards, Marriot, and the Holiday Inn reward system. I still have about 110K on Trip Rewards.

if you were really committed to that cigarette, you'd be outside in tshirt, sweat pants and flip flops like i always was... *****   

[Rebel]

I don't see the problem.

Affinity programs can be very effective. I do go to Marriott chain hotels because of my status and special treatment.  Same for AA.  That's about $20K-$50K a year for each. Even the local sandwich shop has a "club" that gives me a free sandwich after buying 12 and my car wash place a free wash after 10.

if I was a coffee junkie, why not ask that my continued and longtime patronage be rewarded?  Especially now that the coffee space has become competitive.

I used to, until they went non-smoking. Hell, I was platinum. I normally don't smoke in my room and try to get one with a balcony or close to an exit, but in Fairbanks, Alaska? In March? When it's -38?

I still have Choice Rewards, Trip Rewards, Marriot, and the Holiday Inn reward system. I still have about 110K on Trip Rewards.

if you were really committed to that cigarette, you'd be outside in tshirt, sweat pants and flip flops like i always was... *****   

There's a fine line between ***** and ****ing nuts. 

BTW, after smoking in my room, in that hellhole you picked me up at to go out that night, I finally had enough and got a room right next to the exit. I smoked outside....with all the f'n sled dogs. 

[docstew]

I don't see the problem.

Affinity programs can be very effective. I do go to Marriott chain hotels because of my status and special treatment.  Same for AA.  That's about $20K-$50K a year for each. Even the local sandwich shop has a "club" that gives me a free sandwich after buying 12 and my car wash place a free wash after 10.

if I was a coffee junkie, why not ask that my continued and longtime patronage be rewarded?  Especially now that the coffee space has become competitive.

I used to, until they went non-smoking. Hell, I was platinum. I normally don't smoke in my room and try to get one with a balcony or close to an exit, but in Fairbanks, Alaska? In March? When it's -38?

I still have Choice Rewards, Trip Rewards, Marriot, and the Holiday Inn reward system. I still have about 110K on Trip Rewards.

if you were really committed to that cigarette, you'd be outside in tshirt, sweat pants and flip flops like i always was... *****   

There's a fine line between ***** and ****ing nuts. 

BTW, after smoking in my room, in that hellhole you picked me up at to go out that night, I finally had enough and got a room right next to the exit. I smoked outside....with all the f'n sled dogs. 

those sled dogs were probably better company than what i was trying to get that night...

[Rebel]

those sled dogs were probably better company than what i was trying to get that night...

Damn man, you were there for about 3-4 years. You should have known that. You knew her Aleut or Athabaskan bro was going to be a problem.