The 5 pump chai

That's what the guy in front of me at Starbucks had. "No water," he added. I don't even know what a 5 pump chai with no water is...

The next guy had a latte, 120.

I think that's degrees.

There's no longer 19,000 different beverages at Starbucks. There may be several million if you count outliers like these.

And why does it matter? Surely we could agree on, say, 1,000 different options that would be enough.

Nope. Never enough. Never enough because the selection is the equivalent of friendship, of recognition, of self worth. Having it your way is a power trip, and one that's well worth $4.

It's hard for me to imagine a business that couldn't offer the same to its best customers.