"Starbucked"

I'm really not that cynical. Really. But, as I sat drinking a humongous cup of coffee at one of the nine Starbucks in Frankfurt – this one across the street from the Frankfurter Paulskirche (where the document creating a unified Germany was signed at the beginning of the 20th century), I started thinking about commercialism. To my credit (or discredit), I’ve visited four of the Starbucks in Frankfurt, one in Nürnberg, a store in Qatar, and at Kuwait City International Airport (KCIA) – not to mention several back home (in the store at Wydown and Hanley in St. Louis, a couple of the baristas who worked in the evening knew me by first name). What I’m trying to articulate is that Starbucks is everywhere (for a treatment on this phenomenon, as well as a great introduction to the history, economics, and social implications of the coffee trade, I recommend reading “Starbucked” by Taylor Clark). We often look for "genuine" experiences when we travel, but so much of America has beaten us abroad (except for the sign in German telling people not to set their drinks on the antique fountain in the corner, it looks like any Starbucks back home - though, occasionally, that's what I'm looking for). It’s not just Starbucks: at the Hauptwache train station in downtown Frankfurt, there’s a McDonalds in the underground station, one across the street and at least one less than three blocks away (further research shows - according to the "McFinder" - there also nine McDonalds restaurants in Frankfurt). And, take one look around at any train station in Germany or a quick glance around your train car and you’ll see numerous sets of the easily identifiable white ear buds attached to an iPod – myself included (I'm a huge Mac fan). Though, of the three – Apple, Starbucks, and McDonalds – “Mickey-D’s” causes me more consternation (is it because fast food’s ironclad relationship to obesity is that much worse than paying way too much for a cup of coffee?). Why does it seem that the worst – and obviously most commercial – aspects of American culture are exported? (And I’ve taken enough economics classes to understand that demand has a lot to do with it.) Such great American verbs as to "google" (man kann etwas googeln) and to "chat" (ich habe mit habe mit eine Freundin gechattet) have also crept into the German language. I’m not even sure if I’ve come to any discernable conclusion, but am I alone here? Though, I think I can, as Donald Miller realized in his book "Blue Like Jazz" - "I am the problem".