{"id":2253,"date":"2007-11-23T14:16:00","date_gmt":"2007-11-23T21:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=2253"},"modified":"2007-11-23T14:16:00","modified_gmt":"2007-11-23T21:16:00","slug":"the-starbucks-virgin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2253\/the-starbucks-virgin\/","title":{"rendered":"The Starbucks Virgin"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m standing in line at Starbucks this morning, in dire need of an eggnog latte fix (sinfully delightful, and good for you!). It was readily apparent that the guy in front of me may be the only person left on the planet who has never before ordered a drink at Starbucks. He was the rare and elusive Starbucks Virgin.<\/p>\n

And he looked mortified when the girl ahead of him fired off her order:<\/p>\n

“I’ll have a venti half-caf triple shot four pump sugar-free vanilla caramel macchiato.”<\/p>\n

The barista, full of typical Starbucks holiday cheer — nose ring and all — approaches Mr. New Customer who has been contemplating the menu for the last seven minutes and says, “What can I get for you?”<\/p>\n

“Um, I think I just want a cup of coffee. Uh, maybe with some flavor in it??”<\/p>\n

“We’ve got vanilla, hazlenut, Irish creme, almond, mint, Valencia, toffee…”<\/p>\n

“Uhm, never mind. Can I just get plain old coffee?”<\/p>\n

“Do you want short, tall, grande or venti? With or without room?”<\/p>\n

“I just want a cup of coffee.”<\/p>\n

As I watched this exchange take place, I saw an overwhelmed customer being “helped” by an experienced worker bee. One too busy to truly help this guy through the process of getting what he walked in for.<\/p>\n

Granted, the line behind Mr. New Customer was building rapidly. I’m sure Ms. Nose Ring felt compelled to speed this guy through the line and help waiting customers, most of whom probably knew exactly what they wanted.<\/p>\n

Mr. New Customer finally got his coffee, and he walked out mumbling and shaking his head. I wouldn’t be surprised if he never sets foot in a Starbucks again.<\/p>\n

And so my warped, caffeine deprived brain began to do what it often does — attempt to associate what I’m witnessing to the real estate business.<\/p>\n

Connect ordering at Starbucks to buying a home? Are you nuts?<\/p>\n

Not really, and it’s not that big a stretch.<\/p>\n

Ms. Nose Ring Barista seemed oblivious to the fact that Mr. New Customer was exactly that — a Starbucks virgin. The guy was overwhelmed with everything happening around him. He was afraid of making a mistake and looking Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m standing in line at Starbucks this morning, in dire need of an eggnog latte fix (sinfully delightful, and good for you!). It was readily apparent that the guy in front of me may be the only person left on the planet who has never before ordered a drink at Starbucks. He was the rare […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2253","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-real-estate","8":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2261,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2261\/the-odysseus-medal-competition-voting-for-the-peoples-choice-award-is-open-8\/","url_meta":{"origin":2253,"position":0},"title":"The Odysseus Medal competition — Voting for the People’s Choice Award is open","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 25, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Twenty-five nominees. I confess that it's faster for me on Sunday if I'm not too picky, but this week saw a surplus of very good posts. Vote for the People's Choice Award here. You can use the voting interface to see each nominated post, so comparison is easy. Please don't\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Carnivals"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Carnivals","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blog-carnivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1893,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1893\/this-is-what-it-smells-like-when-zunes-die\/","url_meta":{"origin":2253,"position":1},"title":"This is what it smells like when Zunes die…","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 5, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Going to the Social? Not anymore. News abounds. There will be better coverage in an hour or two. For now:New red iPod Shuffle New iPod Nanos with iPhone-like video New iPod Classics with iPhone-like video -- up to 160GB New iPod Touch -- a phoneless iPhone with WiFi, iTunes by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":478,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/478\/blogoff-post-101-taking-the-espresso-bus\/","url_meta":{"origin":2253,"position":2},"title":"Blogoff Post #101: Taking the espresso bus . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 26, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"We have the graphite version, very elegant. I buy the beans out of the silver bag at Starbucks, never the pre-packed stuff. Number 2 grind. Number 1 (Turkish) works, but it's too easy to pack down, and then it burns. The number 2 grind is on the edge of being\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2651,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2651\/the-odysseus-medal-competition-voting-for-the-peoples-choice-award-is-open-21\/","url_meta":{"origin":2253,"position":3},"title":"The Odysseus Medal competition — Voting for the People’s Choice Award is open","author":"Greg Swann","date":"February 24, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"We have 16 entries on the short list this week, out of an astoundingly long long list of 104 posts. I've already decided on the winner of the Odysseus Medal, so I'm not linking that way. Instead, this week I'm showing nothing but Black Pearls, practical hard-headed ideas for working\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Carnivals"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Carnivals","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blog-carnivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16541,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/16541\/whos-afraid-of-the-big-bad-bot-real-estate-ai-is-a-cargo-cult-of-trivia\/","url_meta":{"origin":2253,"position":4},"title":"Who\u2019s afraid of the big, bad bot? Real estate \u201cAI\u201d is a cargo cult \u2013 of trivia.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 30, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I'll talk more about this as we go forward: I am listing almost never, but I am listing as close to perfectly as I can. I have made myself into a killer real estate listing agent by way of behavior modeling: Double-thinking appraisers and experienced agents to get to the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fun With Vendorsluts"","block_context":{"text":"Fun With Vendorsluts","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/fun-with-vendorsluts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/BotBait.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4598,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/4598\/break-up-the-banks\/","url_meta":{"origin":2253,"position":5},"title":"Break Up The Banks","author":"Brian Brady","date":"September 23, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Wanna have some fun?\u00a0 I have an idea about how to \"save\" the banking industry.\u00a0 Through mergers and acquisitions, the banking cartel grew to become infallible.\u00a0 Dave Shafer pins the tipping point of this crisis to the repeal of The Glass-Steagall Act of 1933.\u00a0 I'm not so certain he's incorrect.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Real Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Real Estate","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/real-estate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2253\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}