Winter (programmer)

Last updated
Winter
Born
Rafael Antonio Lozano Jr.

(1972-03-20) March 20, 1972 (age 51)
Other namesJohn Winter Smith
OccupationSoftware programmer
Website Starbucks Everywhere

Winter (born March 20, 1972, as Rafael Antonio Lozano Jr.) is a freelance software programmer and consultant. [1] He was previously known as John Winter Smith, but reported having legally changed his name to the mononym "Winter" in 2006. [2] He is best known for his goal to visit every Starbucks location in the world, [3] visiting as many as 29 locations in one day. [4]

Contents

Background

Winter was born in Chicago, Illinois, with his family later moving to Houston, Texas. [5] He attended the University of Texas at Austin, where he graduated with a double major in philosophy and computer science. [6] Winter works as a freelance programmer. [7]

Winter also is a competitive Scrabble player, with over 7,000 tournament games under his belt. [8]

Starbucks

In 1997 Winter began visiting various Starbucks locations, expressing the intent to visit every Starbucks location in the world. [5] To minimize the amount of Starbucks locations, he eliminated any licensed stores to focus solely on those owned by the company. [9] For each location to "count" he would drink "at least one four-ounce sample of caffeinated coffee from each store." [4] He would also take a picture and post it on his website. [10]

Winter has estimated that he has spent over $100,000 on the project, [11] drinking an average of 10 cups of coffee a day and once spending $1,400 on a plane ticket to purchase a cup of coffee from a Starbucks in British Columbia before it closed. [12] As of November 2021, Winter reported having visited over 16,000 global locations, including over 13,000 in the United States and Canada. [13]

Documentary

In 2006 Winter was the focus of the documentary Starbucking. [14] [15] Starbucking was directed by Bill Tangeman and premiered at the 2006 Omaha Film Festival, [16] with the DVD released in April 2007. [17] Tangeman filmed about 40 hours of footage over a one-year period of Winter traveling to various Starbucks locations and interacting with people, [18] including a woman with whom he had been romantically involved. [19] Critical reception for the film was mostly positive, [20] with DVD Talk writing that although the film "doesn't offer much repeat viewing value", it was "highly watchable". [21]

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References

  1. Rem, Kathryn (Sep 10, 2008). "Closures kick Starbucks quest into high gear". Seattle Post Intelligencer.
  2. "IN A RACE AGAINST TIME, HE'S FUELED BY CAFFEINE". The Tribune. April 7, 2006. Retrieved 28 December 2012.
  3. Donahue, Bill (August 29, 2004). "Chain Reaction". Washington Post. Retrieved 27 December 2012.
  4. 1 2 Parrott, Les (2008). 3 Seconds: The Power of Thinking Twice . Zondervan. pp.  165–166. ISBN   978-0310272496. starbucking winter.
  5. 1 2 "Winter 14 yıldır Starbuck'lıyor bu hafta sonu 10 bin rekoru kıracak". Hurriyet. January 15, 2011. Retrieved 27 December 2012.
  6. Roth, Daniel (July 12, 2004). "Seeing The World On Ten Coffees A Day". CNN Money. Retrieved 29 December 2012.
  7. "Skurrile Rekordjagd Auf Kaffeefahrt im Starbucks-Reich". Spiegel. 2009-07-28. Retrieved 29 December 2012.
  8. "Winter - Career Tourneys - cross-tables". cross-tables.com. Retrieved 6 August 2019.
  9. JARGON, JULIE (May 23, 2009). "A Fan Hits a Roadblock on Drive to See Every Starbucks". Wall Street Journal.
  10. "Man on a mission to visit every Starbucks in the world". London: Telegraph. May 29, 2009. Retrieved 28 December 2012.
  11. "Caffeine High: Texan on Road to Visit Every Starbucks". Fox News. August 7, 2002. Retrieved 28 December 2012.
  12. "First Person: Winter". Financial Times. May 15, 2009.
  13. "Starbucks Everywhere" . Retrieved May 19, 2018.
  14. "'Starbucking' star aims to visit every Starbucks". Las Cruces Sun-News. March 29, 2007. Retrieved 27 December 2012.
  15. "Documentary captures man's quest for caffeine". Tampa Bay Times. August 14, 2005. Retrieved 27 December 2012.
  16. "That's a lot of lattes Man who's been to more than 5,500". Daily Herald. January 12, 2006. Retrieved 27 December 2012.
  17. "Collecting Starbucks visits, one cup at a time". Star-Telegram. Retrieved 27 December 2012.
  18. "WHICH RAISES THE QUESTION: IS HE OFF HIS BEAN?". Palm Beach Post. January 21, 2007. Retrieved 27 December 2012.
  19. Gibson, Caitlin (October 25, 2009). "Whatever Happened To ... Starbucks Guy?". Washington Post. Retrieved 27 December 2012.
  20. "Review: Starbucking". DVD Verdict. Retrieved 27 December 2012.
  21. "Review: Starbucking". DVD Talk. Retrieved 27 December 2012.