A Starbucks’ Last Burst Of Glory In The California Desert

Baker, CALIFORNIA — I was driving along the I-15 from Las Vegas at the end of an 8 week trip away from home-base San Diego that took me in my Chevrolet Venture extended mini-van to Wyoming, Montana and Iowa doing shows in my other incarnation. I did some of these “gigs” by driving back and forth between the states. One day I drove 650 miles.

And suddenly, this afternoon, I felt every single mile of it.

I pulled over and drank water. No help. A rest stop could be seen on the highway. Perfect to pull over and take a short nap? Closed.

Then there…in the middle of the desert…in Baker, California…along the I-15 there was… a Starbucks. Yes, Starbucks, where so many posts for this site have been written, so many hours have been spent in long breaks while on trips up down the California coast, so many minutes have been spent sipping a latte (uh, oh I better never run for political office — that’s a negative). I sat down to answer my emails and drank my latte.

I marveled at how this little store in the middle of the desert was crammed with teens, families, senior citizens, some Japanese tourists, a mother with an infant — all so profoundly relaxed in the cool air conditioning that shielded us from the 105 degree plus temperatures outside as Starbucks-franchised music played jauntily in the background.

And then I saw it.

A sign…saying that this Starbucks would close on August 24 — part of a massive cutback of the company’s many stores that popped up like a quickly spreading rash until the market was over saturated and the Seattle corporate office was hit in the coffee beans by the sagging American economy, high gas prices and increased competition from companies such as Dunkin Donuts and McDonald’s. A list of 600 Starbucks that’ll be closed is HERE. Starbucks is pulling back worldwide: closing 73 percent of its stores in Australia alone. Starbucks won’t vanish: it’s trying new things such as going into partnership with Pepsi to strengthen the Tazo brand.

I look around right now at the three teens and twenty-somethings working so hard providing friendly and fast service. The kids. The happy customers.

It feels like home.

Two days from now many who live here will lose their second home. As many Americans are now losing their first homes.

And those who travel will lose an oasis that will vanish from this lonely hotspot in the desert as quickly as a mirage that never really existed.