I prefer drinking straight from a cup.

Straws are the answer to drinking through a lid, which is the real necessity for takeout restaurants. Costco figured this out with a self-sealing flap on the lid you can sip from.

That said, it's all window dressing. As a kid I drank from paper cups with plastic straws. An iced coffee from some restaurants is now a massive plastic cup with a paper straw.

Not a great way to drink milkshakes, they're too viscous to drink straight from the cup. Paper straws collapse on themselves due to the low pressure inside the tube combined with weakened structural integrity due to moisture flowing into the paper. I wish I could say it sucks, but it doesn't sadly.

Also those paper straws are full of PTFE :(

You have something that's too viscous and your solution is to put it thru a straw? Am I getting that right?

Yes. Have you had milkshakes? You should try 'em, they're good.

So people are buying their daily caffeinated milkshake from Starbucks, and we wonder why there's an obesity crisis in America.

I drink a milkshake occasionally, non-caffeinated (just plain old vanilla), from a local place, I'm not obese and I'm not from America. Why are you setting up a straw man and getting upset about it?

I guess technically, this whole comment section is just straw man arguments.

But aside from the pun, we're talking about Starbucks. That is supposed to be a coffee/espresso business. You should be able to drink those without a straw. The fact that espresso milkshakes are so overwhelmingly popular that people require straws from Starbucks in America really isn't a straw man argument, it is entirely relevant. If people weren't buying milkshakes from an espresso stand, they wouldn't need straws. I certainly don't need a straw for any variety of normal espresso. The fact that daily caffeinated milkshakes are normalized in America is very likely linked with our obesity crisis.

They also require plastic see-through containers so that people can visually see the layers on their milkshake.

We'd be doing better if that didn't exit or was considered much more niche rather than entirely mainstream.

I thought we were on a tangent that relates to the new Starbucks CEO's commuting habits as compared to us plebeians who have to make do with paper straws to spare the environment. I guess obesity caused by Starbucks milkshakes tangentially relates to that in turn, but I wouldn't call it entirely relevant. As far as your point goes I agree, as a European I had no idea Starbucks espresso milkshakes were even a thing and it doesn't surprise me at all that a daily Big Gulp of sugar and caffeine makes people fat. People can do whatever they want, but I wouldn't.

The problem is that without a straw to mediate the max volume you can move, you end up with a massive blob of viscous liquid. When you get enough of an angle to start it moving, it will move as one and end up all over your face.

Aside from the reasons others have provided, a not-insubstantial number of people can't use their mouth: for reasons of disability or other, they cannot produce enough suction with their mouth alone.

For this demographic, paper straws are a significant issue: https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/07/11/627773979/wh...

Most people don't need straws. Default should be no straw, but have the nice plastic ones available for those who request them.

Agreed. Just do something like charge 10 cents for it and waive the fee for anyone with a disability, that should kill most of the waste.

You missed the big question: why is a CEO not only not moving to the HQ city, but taking a private jet every couple of weeks instead?

Someone needs to make a decision to raise the starbucks coffee prices 2x. Finally, here's the actual reason. No one can blame him: his commute is really long! And someone will pay for it. /S

It says there he will take it 3x a week in fact :(

Once upon a time, women wore heavy, probably toxic lipstick that smudged and smeared a lot on cups.

Also, some people drink coffee, tea, acidic, and/or sugary drinks from straws for dental cosmetic or health reasons.

Finally, disability or convenience reasons.

Maybe we all just need to start bringing a titanium folding sporf and a metal straw with us wherever we go and do away entirely with some single use plastics and their substandard, compostable imposters.

For me the amount of ice in e.g. Mcdonald's drinks hurts my teeth if I have to drink from the cup. And no, you can't order it without ice here in Europe. All orders go through a machine and you can't customise this.

It's also much easier to drink on the go without spilling.

Of course you can. In France, Germany, Italy, Poland you can ask for less ice or no ice. I always do.

Here in Spain you can only order on the portal screens anymore (the only thing you can do at the desk is to pay if you only have cash). And there are no ice modification options there. You can only modify some of the burgers.

I didn't realise that in other countries they still have staffing where you can order. But I bet that will be changed soon too. They recently rebuilt all the restaurants here to make this change.

The good thing is that they have table service now though.

No, you are right - the orders are more and more taken via screens (not everywhere but almost). But for some fast food places you can edit your order (BK, KFC if I remember well) and for those where you can't (McDonalds I think) I go to the counter with my command and say "no ice please" and it always worked.

Yeah true, BK has always advertised with customisation options so I'm not surprised they do allow this. I don't have one near me so I don't go there so much.

But I didn't realise I could ask at the desk to modify my order once it's placed. Thanks!