There is a major reconstruction project underway at EZE. Several new vendors have opened, or will open soon (including a McDonalds ...).

In Terminal A (which has most of the international flights), the HSBC ATMS have been relocated. After exiting customs and proceeding towards the outside of the terminal, there is a short corridor to the left with a Farmacity located at the end. There are two HSBC ATMS located in a small room on the front left of the Farmacity, with a red Banelco (network) sign overhead. You can't miss the Farmacity sign.

John

Good advice. I noticed it had moved last month, but initially was in the "Oh ****, they removed the ATM" mode until walking closer to the outside, looking back.

Darn.
I missed it.
Oh well. Maybe next time.

CB

If there's a McCaf�, there will finally be a place to get a decent cup of coffee

Business-wise, it would probably be a great place for a Starbucks

John

Are there any Starbucks in BAires?
I don't think I have seen any?

Just the one in Alto Palermo shopping. It opened in May last year and has of course been a huge success. When it first opened, the queues were almost a block long!

I only went once. The prices are virtually identical to those in the US which makes it much more expensive than the US when one takes into account the average salary here in Argentina. 15+ pesos for a cup of coffee is a disgrace I wonder how many cups they would sell in the US at 15 dollars a shot?

In my town of about 70000 souls there is no McDonalds and I don't understand why. In the UK a town of comparable size would have at least one if not two branches.
The kids who go off to BA or La Plata to university come back and rave about big macs and fries so it's not as if it isn't popular among the young.

Actually there are four Starbucks now in BsAs:

Shopping Alto Palermo - Arenales and Av. Coronel Díaz (Palermo)
Av. Federico Lacroze 2301 - corner of 3 de Febrero (Belgrano)
Callao 702 - corner of Viamonte (Centro)
Av. Elcano 3179 (Belgrano R)

and coming soon #5
Malabia - between El Salvador and Costa Rica (Palermo Viejo)

They've also dropped their prices since they first opened.

John

Wow - I didn't realise they had expanded so rapidly here. Thanks for the update John.

This is a very interesting point.... and one which Ive been looking into for a while now. My preliminary conclusion is that this is an issue of expensive logistics combined with a problem of economies of scale.

a) Logistics in Argentina is very expensive... mostly because the overall economy is relatively small, so there are very few large frozen food logistics providers and prices are high.

b) McDonalds would need to truck in everything they need for their stores, except for labor (which could be sourced locally).

c) Argentina does not have economies of scale in the fast food industry and also in frozen foods in general. In many G7 nations, the market penetration of fast foods & frozen foods is such that in a town of 70K, apart from 2 McDonalds and a few other large chains, you would have various mom & pop eateries that would use a lot of frozen foods.... that does not happen in Argentina. This makes it hard for suppliers to attain the economies of scale that are needed to keep prices in check.

This does not surprise me at all.... and despite what most of my friends say about the Buenos Aires coffee culture and all that.... Im willing to bet that Starbucks will do well here. They make money in Vienna.... despite their traditional coffee house history... I dont see how they will not also make it here.

Why would you go to a Starbucks in BA and pay 15 pesos? You can get a nice espresso at a nice cafe (in a ceramic cup with a chaser of mineral water) for a fraction of that price.

I predict Starbucks is going to hit Chapter 11 in this downcycle. It sure as hell deserves to. What a business model: fast food coffee service in a paper cup at prices that are as high as a high end restaurant.

Nice Thread Hijack folks!

I don't know about BA, but in Madrid where you can get a great cup of coffee virtually everywhere, the one lone Starbucks that I regularly walked by was never busy and I could not understand why a native would patronize it.

CB

Sounds just like the Vienna experience....