You get the same feeling in the rickety walkways of Pike Place Market, the first venue on most visitors' itineraries. This is retail as theatre, especially when big fellows in Wellington boots slosh around on icy floors throwing large fish and insults at each other. Past the fish, through the flowers and you're into handicraft hell. It's here that you're likely to get asked for directions to the original Starbucks. Why do people come on a pilgrimage to the home of frothy latte? In any event, the first Starbucks only sold coffee beans and the original owners sold up years ago.