If I’m local, I avoid it. On the road, I know it’s a consistent product.
Also, in my area, it’s better than a lot of coffee shops. Definitely not the best, but better than probably 90% of them
The good thing about these global chains is that you see the logo anywhere in the world and you know exactly what to expect inside. Other that that, yes, Starbucks (and Stars Coffee it became here in Russia) is just a massively overpriced coffee shop. There always are cheaper and better ones.
McDonald's is probably the McDonald's of coffee
It's because of familiarity. It's why we have Starbucks in Spain at all, because of all the tourists. Because Starbucks coffee totally sucks compared to real Spanish coffee :) What Americans consider coffee is more like a milkshake containing some coffee flavour :') And that's very hard to find in Spain where the espresso/"cafe solo" rules (or cortado with a bit of milk) so tourists end up gravitating to Starbucks.
Because the local organic free-range kenyan pour-over place that serves me coffee in a biodegradable urn along with a kale-based "eco brownie" and some indie hip-hop playing at volume 11 doesn't have a drive-thru, obvs :)