Back on the road with Mr. Starbucks

The last time we checked in with the Starbucks fanatic known simply as Winter (shown here), he had visited some 2,850 Starbucks locations. Now, three years later, he’s up to more than 4,500, and has “no plans to stop” tooling around America in his 1997 Honda, slurping down all the talls with two sugars he can get his hands on. Back in 2002, Winter admitted to harboring Jared-esque fantasies. “I have thought of doing commercials along the lines of ‘Where’s Winter?’ and what zany adventures I am having, trying to find the next Starbucks,” he told us back then. “Whimsical is how I picture [them]. ... I, in the Ben Franklin tradition, must expect that they will pass on the idea, but who knows?” He seems to have given up that particular dream: “[Winter] makes it clear he isn’t interested in shilling for the company,” this latest story indicates. But perhaps even bigger things are in store: Before long, you may see a documentary about this guy.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

May 9, 2005 | Permalink