Starbucks in the city is not like Starbucks in the suburbs. Where I am, the bathrooms are locked and have keys. You have to request the key from the person behind the counter, and usually they'll give you one if you buy something or are a regular. In the nice suburbs, things are unlocked and nobody cares. The fact that this difference exists between stores of the same kind tells you all you need to know about the sorts of characters city stores deal with.

There's little things like this that tell you all you need to know about the place you're in. In one city, I remember seeing a Walgreens where even the peanuts were locked behind a glass case. And then there are the places where bank tellers are behind bullet proof glass all day long and have a protocol for entering and exiting, versus the nice suburbs where there's only a basic counter. The list goes on and on.