With gas at the pump prices threatening to hit $5 a gallon, is anyone still willing to spend those five precious bucks for a cup of Mint Mocha Chip Frappuccino? Starbucks Corporation, after a decade of sprouting what seemed to be a new high-priced coffee shop somewhere in the world every day, has announced that ten percent of its 6,000 stores will close. And that may be just the beginning of the disaster.

Comedians joked that if you didn't like a Starbucks, all you'd need to do is cross the street to another one. This situation has been literally true in some areas. We were at a Las Vegas hotel last month, and found a Starbucks next to the elevators on the first floor and another one just a 30-second escalator ride above it on the second floor.

In our home neighborhood, although there's a Starbucks about 50 feet away down the row in another storefront, a couple of months ago, our supermarket knocked out an aisle and set up a cozy, cutesy little Starbucks. The fact that hardly any of the busy shoppers ever stop for a cup of overpriced coffee is just beginning to dawn on the disappointed store owners. Looks like the stacks of Campbell's soup cans will be returning soon.

One shopper told me, "I don't go to a grocery store to sit and socialize. Why should I hang around the store and buy a five-dollar cup of coffee and five-dollar doughnut. I'll soon be home, and after I unload my groceries, I can heat up a ten-cent cup of home-brew that's still there from when I left the house."

The brutal fact about Starbucks is that the worsening American economy, fueled by brutally high gas prices at the pump, are forcing consumers to make hard decisions about how they spend their money. It no longer seems worth the expense for an indulgence that involves an hour or two of upscale mingling, where people gather to sip exotic, overpriced, calorie-loaded coffee, gab and show off their laptop skills.

By the way, I don't believe I've had a drink of coffee of any kind in at least 30 years. Way back then, I sipped the dank liquid only whenever I had the wintertime dog watch (midnight to four a.m.) aboard a Navy ship, and held on to a steaming metal mug just to keep my hands warm.

Now as then, I much prefer hot chocolate or tea. Sorry, Starbucks, but I'm not sympathetic to your plight because, like your Quaker namesake in "Moby Dick" could say, I hardly knew ye and fear ye hath set thine own the path to thy ultimate fate.

Learn more about this author, Ted Sherman.
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