Wow, even Starbucks is an over display of affluence in Dubai.

[TheBigotBasher]

Remember this when you fill up your tank.

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Holy smokes. It's much prettier than a lot of places, though.

[Canuckistanian]

2. I'm not worthy

Only a High Priest could order a half-decaf latte in that holy place.

[Grey]

3. Yeah, but the coffee still sucks. nt

[TheBigotBasher]

5. Hear Hear.

As do their employment practices and much else.

[Captain Hilts]

9. It tastes like a liquified ashtray. nt

[Ken Burch]

11. And, in fact, "Vente" is Italian for "Liquid Ashtray Contents".

n/t.

[marmar]

4. And when it all collapses, Dubai will be the world's most elaborate ghost mall......

..... The height of hedonistic stupidity.

[Ken Burch]

12. It'll confuse the hell out of the extraterrestrial archeologists in 5,000 years

n/t.

[girl gone mad]

13. China currently holds that claim to fame..

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1223747/Ghost-mall-The-worlds-largest-loneliest-shopping-centre.html

[wickerwoman]

15. Half of those place are mafia fronts.

I used to live next to six major block sized malls in Shanghai and only one of them ever had any customers. The other five were either mostly unleased or had stores that got maybe half a dozen customers a week.

The only business that were doing OK were Starbucks and KFC.

[Liberal_in_LA]

6. wow

[KittyWampus]

7. sure looks empty. No bloggers, yuppies or urbanites wearing black.

[smalll]

8. "Even" Starbucks?

My impression has always been that "an over-display of affluence" is the kind of thing that Starbucks tend to go for.

:shrug:

[ChicagoSuz219]

10. Wow!

Can't imagine what Mickey D's looks like!

[JCMach1]

14. Note, this Starbucks went out of business, LOL

The space belongs to another cafe at the moment...

This image is an old one from Ibn Batutta Mall. Don't forget Malls are the UAE's cathedrals! I love some of them for some really nice architecture... so much so that when I visit U.S. malls now I have to laugh at the dark, generic, awful pits that they are.

Here is one of my favorite UAE Mall pics that best expresses the Ubercapitalist ethos here. It should be the UAE's national motto.

[Tx4obama]

16. I wish that....

the rich folks in the USA would build some awesome buildings in the USA instead of all the carbon-copy glass buildings they normally build that all look alike.
With our technology and man power we should be building structures that out do the great structures of Rome and Egypt!
All the metal crap that the USA builds 'sucks'.
We need to build stuff out of stone that will last 2000 years.
A stone pyramid and buildings like the Vatican and the Pantheon, etc. ;)