Welcome to Starbucksland

Anyone who has visited Lotusland in recent years have noted the vast amounts of Starbucks stores. Pretty much on every 3rd-5th block there is a Starbucks. I kid you not.

Here's proof:

• Today, I went to go get a hot chocolate for the caffine/sugar intake because I was very sleepy and I had a fun day of reading university policies ahead of me. So as I prepared to head out to the closest Starbucks, I realized that there are, not one, not two, not three, but four Starbucks within a five minute walking radius. I can almost walk in any one direction from my building and find a barista, ready to take my order.
• Metrotown Shopping complex. One of my favourite malls, and the largest mall in BC (second largest in Canada). Within that complex alone, there are again, four Starbucks. The shopper certainly need not go far to recharge when they start feeling weary from all that shopping. Another mall that's close to me, but much smaller, has two Starbucks, one on the lower level and one on the upper level, at opposite ends of the mall.
  
• On Robson Street, a well-known shopping district in downtown Vancouver, there are two Starbucks that are diagonally across from each other. You think that the two stores would be competing with each other, right? Wrong. They've actually done demographics study between the two, and believe it or not, the demographics are different: in one you will find mainly people in their 20s, and in the other, people in their 30s and up.

I'm just sitting here wondering why I'm even writing all this. You don't care. I think this is evidence that I'm going nutters. Starbucks has done naught for my sleep-deprived state and I still insist on spending money there.

Okay, may be they are an evil empire after all.

Or maybe I just need to sleep.