Coffee, Water, Biscotti …
"Colbert Report" writer races around Manhattan to visit every Starbucks.
July 31, 2007 — -- Most people go to coffee shops to grab some quick caffeine and a snack, or relax and visit with friends, but one guy decided to give his Starbucks visits a time limit as he challenged himself to shop at every one of the Manhattan cappucino-selling shops in one day.
That's no small task -- these days it seems like you can't walk or drive five feet without passing a Starbucks, which are on corners, in strip malls, inside your local bookstore, you name it, they've got a Starbucks.
New York City is particularly notorious for its high concentration of Starbucks locations.
There are so many, in fact, that Mark Malkoff, a comedian/writer for "The Colbert Report" not to mention a curious New Yorker, set out to do the impossible -- visit each of the 171 Seattle-born coffee company's stores in Manhattan in a 24-hour period and consume at least one product (that's not including the other four boroughs' sites or the handful of private stores located in corporate buildings throughout the city).
"Everyone thought it couldn't be done," said Malkoff in an interview with ABC News. "My friends, my family, Starbucks employees said it couldn't be done."
He decided to give it a try at the end of June, but for months Malkoff, who admits he's not a coffee drinker, researched and planned the best route, tested out different modes of transportation, and built up his caffeine tolerance all in preparation for the big day.
"I did two months of research to pull this off. The whole thing was calculated with hours, when [the stores] open, when they close," he said.
That included purchasing a new mode of transportation for himself. "You see these bike messengers. They get around faster than cab drivers, any car, so it occurred to me that I would have to buy a bicycle and risk my life on a bicycle in New York City traffic," Malkoff said.
On June 29, 2007, Malkoff, accompanied only by a friend with a video camera, began his challenge at 5:30 a.m. at the 181st and Washington Heights store in the northern end of Manhattan.
He purchased an espresso and then jumped on his bike and headed to the next location, with 170 Starbucks left for the day. Malkoff determined that he had to hit a different Starbucks every seven minutes for over 20 hours in order to complete his goal.
