Slashdot Mirror
The Traveling Salesman Problem Meets Starbucks
Call Me Black Cloud writes "John 'Winter' Smith, a contract computer programmer, is living the traveling salesman problem. His personal quest is to visit every company-owned Starbucks and he's not doing too badly. After 7 years he's hit over 4,000 locations in the United States and 167 in Britain and Japan. What motivates him? That's one for the professionals to answer, but since Starbucks opens an average of 10 stores per week it doesn't look like Winter will be stopping any time soon. His website offers insight into why he does this ('to be different') and has pictures of the 4000+ Starbucks he's visited."
One of the great unanswered questions.
Just wondering if he's been keeping track of the health effects of going to Starbuck's so offten...
Among the paramedics at work they are known as Fourbucks, on acount of their prices. ;P
he would have written a computer program to keep track of all the starbucks, and visit them in the chronological order that they were opened, and have that program keep track of all the messy details of any that closed or moved, etc.
(yes, a douglas adams reference to the infinitely prolongued guy who insulted the universe in alphabetical order)
"But remember, most lynch mobs aren't this nice." (H.Simpson)
-- Joe
Visiting every starbucks to be different is like visiting every taxidermist's shop because it's the cool thing to do and all the kids are doing it.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Wouldn't want to mention this:
I'm scheduled for a short interview on CNN Headline News Thusday, July 8, at approximately 7:45 PM EDT.
Gotta love that Headline News. Ever since the merger they avoid any type of real news like the plague. And the average age of the news presenters is, what, 13?
Casual Games/Downloads
I was under the impression that the traveling salesman problem had to do with finding the most efficient (i.e. shortest) route to traverse a *finite* amount of points...how is this the same?
"Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true." - Homer Simpson
What's really important, though, is how many Starbucks he has seen across the street from another Starbucks.
What motivates him?
Caffeine, obviously.
Golfing Mongolia: A 2.3-Million-Yard Par 11,880 (free NYTimes reg. required)
Oh wait ... a handful of /.ers are now doing this!!!
Presumably his camera has some serious jitter correction built in...
ABSURDITY, n.: A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion.
Also, the name he goes by is simply "Winter". The only reason he has the "John Smith" in his name is because too many things (like the DMV) break when presented with a single name.
He is also a fairly good tournament Scrabble player. Because the National Scrabble Association's database can't handle single names either, he's registered as "Winter ZXQKJ".
What a sad indictment of society that people have some desperate need to be different and decide that the best way to satisfy that urge is to do something completely pointless like purchase products at every store of a multinational conglomerate. How exactly is becoming a complete and utter corporate slave a demonstration of how unique you are? I'd be much more impressed if this guy was attempting to visit every NON-Starbucks coffee shop. But that wouldn't garner him headlines, would it?
Let's face it: this guy doesn't want to be different, he wants to be famous, in his own pathetic way. You want to be different? How about volunteering for your local chapter of the non-profit organization of your choice? Not too many people do that. If that's not different enough for you, how about starting your own non-profit organization? Even fewer people do that. Hell, as long as you have this need to show everyone how different you are, might as well make it something that can benefit someone other than Starbuck's shareholders. Of course, none of these causes would get him a mention on slashdot, or the evening news, or anything else.
Call me a party-poorer but when I see stories about people following such pathetic attempts at gaining recognition, it makes me want to retch.
GMD
watch this
Here in Portland, we firebomb new Starbucks facilities. Fuck you and your corporate coffee. Quit Walmarting the good old coffee shops out of existence. They've just opened another one across the street from the tiny espresso shack I love to frequent in the mornings. If she ends up going under because of it, I think I might get in the mood for a little firebombing myself...
If that coffee shop goes under, it's not the fault of Starbucks, but the cheap customers. We have plenty of indy coffee shops in NYC that survive because there's enough people willing to put their money where their mouths are. If the shop goes under, then go rant to the PATRONS who decided the fate of the small shop; SB and WM only gives them the choice, they don't make it.
-- If god wanted me to have a sig, he'd have given me a sense of humor.
Is this a test sir?
Anything you order is free sir. Don't worry, it's clean sir.
Your sure this isn't a test, sir? You were in here last Tuesday, standing right where you are now. You asked, "how good is security?" It's excellent sir, tight as a drum.
You said if anyone came asking, we'd have to mod him down, even you. This is a powerful gesture, sir.
"You call it a new way of thinking; I call it regression to ignorance!" -- Operation Ivy
You're right! Firebombing companies we disagree with is the wave of the future! Screw laws!
F'en idiots couldn't even firebomb the place right. THEY DIDN"T EVEN START THE PLACE ON FIRE. YOU BREAK THE WINDOWS FIRST, THEN THROUGH THE FIREBOMB IN.
I'm definitely not a Starbucks fan (I prefer Caribou (the #2 chain)), but maybe some people like to get coffee at a place where they're not treated like they're interupting the employees by wanting to order. Or, they can get service even though they happen to be in a good mood and aren't wearing a completely black outfit to show that they're deep, dark people. IT'S FUCKING COFFEE PEOPLE! COFFEE! THEY SELL COFFEE!!
Fuckin nitwit.
Best quote from your article:
"if neighbors don't want the Starbucks, they should stay away from the store"
Casual Games/Downloads
I can understand this.
I, myself, have a desire to visit every McDonalds on the face fo the planet.
But first I have to buy a bulldozer, and a cargo plane to carry it between continents...
"Starbucks of Topeka, Kansas? Starbucks #2046 of Topeka, Kansas?
"Err... Yes"
"You're a jerk, Starbucks. A real kneebiter."
+1 Insightful, -1 Troll. What can I say, I'm an Insightful Troll.
I spent a while surfing his site which suprisingly wasn't /.'d into oblivion. After about 5 minutes I was convinced the guy is brilliant.
This is an amazing and important piece of work. The sheer volume of pictures, the sheer enormity of this effort is so impressive that I think this has to go down as one of those pieces of art/documentary/social commentary/lark that if it's preserved, people will look back on in 50 or 100 years (maybe less , maybe more) and just find terribly facinating.
First of all, just the pictures of all the architecture of locations in all 50 states alone is amazing. It's absolutely insane once you realize how much revenue and commerce Starbucks generates (all politics and love and hate of the company aside, it's just amazing when you see them all in one web site). Thes buildings had to be constructure, outfitted, opened, etc. The record of all these buildings, all these locations is like a mini snapshot of the whole U.S. from coast to coast and then world wide as well. It's an amazing piece of compare and contrast, and an amazing document.
Coming at it from the other side, I think the guy is a great artist also. This definitely qualifies as art in my mind, bordering on journalism, bordering on madness which is where a lot of great art comes from. Think of how many stories each state/city/area of a city/district tell about this experience, picture him going from store to store documenting this, etc. It's an endless story, he could write a book about it. Others have mentioned on here how comedians like Lewis Black have also seized on the sheer crazyness of the Starbucks phenomenon. Artists bring these issues into focus for people and the number of people critizing him here make me feel even stronger about the fact that he's doing something cool.
Winter is alright in my book. I don't think he's ruining the environment by travelling , I don't think he's a nut and don't think it's a waste of time. It's actually quite an important piece of work. Congratulations man.
This reminds me of Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged:
(Life, the Universe and Ev8hing)
He sounds like he'd get on very well with Dave Gorman, who, after a drunken bet, made it his goal to find 52 other people named Dave Gorman, and also got a bit obsessed with Googlewhacking.
Also Danny Wallace who after having bet Dave Gorman to find 52 Dave Gorman's got it into his head that he needed 1000 people to join him , without actually knowing what they were joining (there are now over 8000 joinees).
And then of course there is the inimitable Tony Hawks (not Tony Hawk) who needed to win a bet that he could hitch-hike around the entire coast of Ireland with a refridgerator.
All of their books are highly recommended (especially Join Me, which is the funniest book I've ever read.