Joe, what's interesting about Starbucks is that you can usually trick them into giving you fancier drinks at lower prices by figuring out what goes into them and just asking for those flavor shots to be added at $.25/piece. So in a strange way the more expensive drinks are a kind of creativity tax. I became embarassingly fond of their cinnamon dolce lattes when they came out a few years ago, and after they were discontinued managed to reverse engineer the same stuff out of flavor shots (2x cinnamon + 1 vanilla + 1 caramel).
I agree re the way they treat their workers, though. They're one of the few big companies that manages to keep itself on the ethical side of the red line. I'm willing to pay premium prices for a guarantee of a cup of coffee I'll enjoy (not always the case with smaller places) and to pay for some part time worker's health care. They also put a huge amount of money into charities, including local events. I once got two giant tubs of their coffee (the ones with the spigots that they use for events), plus accouterments (half & half, sugar, stir sticks, cups, napkins) gratis this way for a university event years ago, just for the asking -- each Starbucks has a monthly charity budget for this kind of thing.
I'm primarily a tea drinker, but break out the coffee on special occasions -- it has an almost unsettlingly positive effect on wiping out the doldrums.
