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"Weather.com wanted New Yorkers to know about three closures as they prepped for the Hurricane Sandy: subways, schools and Starbucks.\nYes, Starbucks. The coffee chain was among the three urgent bullet points listed on the site on Oct. 28 as a top notification. The site has been since updated.\nBad news come in threes, and this sealed it: Starbucks has became tantamount to a public utility. Maybe it shouldn\u2019t be that surprising, given that there are 263 Starbucks shops in New York City, more than three times the number of New York public libraries (87). And given that the whole of New York has only 477 public restrooms, according to this crowdsourced map, it\u2019s a fair assumption that Starbucks has more toilets than does NYC.\nIndeed, people seem to feel a strong sense of entitlement when it comes to using Starbucks as library, toilet, storm shelter.\nThe company did suffer a few setbacks during the recession, with some 300 worldwide store closings in 2009. But it is seemingly invincible, with a projected growth of 18% this year.\nEvidence of people\u2019s unnatural demands of Starbucks surfaced previously, amid reports that New Yorkers were miffed at the chain, following the decision of a few of the busier New York locations to close toilets to non-employees in 2011. \nAn unnamed \u201Csource familiar with the company\u2019s New York plans\u201D told the New York Post, \u201CStarbucks cannot be the public bathroom in the city anymore.\u201D New Yorkers also grumbled after anecdotal claims that some Manhattan stores were making it harder to access their electrical outlets.\nIt\u2019s a Herculean expectation to demand of a coffeeshop chain. Starbucks could not be reached for comment (or sympathy).\nWhat makes this dependence even stranger is that Starbucks is not the predominant coffee chain in New York in terms of sheer numbers. As of this Nov. 1 Crain\u2019s New York report, there are 466 Dunkin\u2019 Donuts \u2014 that\u2019s  77% more Dunkin\u2019 Donuts than Starbucks. (Dunkin Donuts, based in Canton, Massachusetts \u2014 part of Sandy\u2019s scope \u2014 wasn\u2019t answering phones at headquarters, either.) Dunkin\u2019 Donuts followed suit with many (but not all) New York branches closing, but no one seemed to care.\n\nImage courtesy of Flickr, bfishadow"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2012/10/29/starbucks-hurricane-closing/>