At the Greenbelt and Glorietta malls last Sunday with my family, Starbucks of course was part of the itinerary, after a visit to PowerBooks and National Bookstore. The branch that enjoyed our patronage was Glorietta 4, the one beside the cinemas and the video game arcade. Much like other Starbucks shops, the interior is warm and features the usual furnishings, bar, refrigerated glass cases, and lamps.
I find this branch interesting for the big logo sign hung outside the picture window.
The merchandise shelves are beside the other windows that give out onto a balcony for smoking and standing around. The sun streams in, bathing that area in light. Compared to other branches, this one is brightly illuminated during the day.
Ik enjoys a Vanilla Cream Frappucino with Irish Mint – a combination that leaves baristas scratching their heads and, once, coming out from behind the bar to kneel at her feet and ask her if she really did ask for mint syrup in her drink. With the vanilla.
After a leisurely half-hour or so sipping drinks and reading the paper, we walked to the new Greenbelt 5. At the beautifully-landscaped park, a tree is festooned with capiz shell lantern globes.
Greenbelt 5 is tres upscale and filled with snooty boutiques crammed with expensive clothes, jewelry, and furnishings offered to a fat-walleted clientele.
These luxurious and comfortable shopping plazas cater to the upper crust that make up a tiny fraction of the population, and to the slowly expanding middle-class funded by BPO growth and OFW remittances that, alas, could diminish in the face of rising fuel prices and food shortage.
But it’s too hot to talk about politics and social problems at length. Coffee and capiz shell lanterns, though…little things that make life a bit more vibrant.
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