Oh no --300 Starbucks to open in Italy
 

As someone who has traveled for many years, the saddest part of travel for me has been the proliferation of American brands across the world. Although I would never in a million years stop at a McDonalds (internationally or at home) at least I get the logic of being able to sample something different (for locals) or like home (for American tourists)

But coffee in places with the best coffee in the world? I don't get it. A terrible trend imho.

http://www.thelocal.it/20170216/starbucks-prepares-to-open-up-to-300-stores-in-italy

If the demand isn't strong enough for the service/goods, the shops will not all remain around for very long. If there is enough demand to sustain the locations, all the more power to them.

As a coffee addict I love my brewed coffee every morning. Unfortunately when traveling the only place to get a good quality brewed coffee (Cafe Filtre) is often either Starbucks or McD's.

I used to travel with a small coffee maker-but that is a PIA for foreign travel

I do enjoy espresso and espresso drinks (no flavorings) both at home (I have a very nice Gaggia machine) and when out of town but my morning ritual (which I dislike having to vary from) is three cups of strong black brewed coffee.

So while I don't particularly like having to deal with an American company when traveling it is a force of habit.

When I lived in the States (late 70s to mid 80s) the coffee one found in the US, both in private homes and in restaurants and cafes, were just black water with no taste what so ever. This was due both to the roasting procedure used and the brewing method (percolators). Then, a little later, Starbucks started its massive invasion. Compared to what one used to get before, it was wonderful, it even smelled like coffee. But compared to what one gets in Europe (with the exception of the British isles) I can't call it good coffee. It's drinkable, though, and much better than most other places in the US.

Mind you, other than in the UK, I never go to one od their shops, and I will certainly never go to one in Italy.

Why? Why?
The only possible positive way to look at this (and it's a weak brew at that) is maybe they'll learn something.

I wouldn't worry about it that much. They've been saying this for years. Last year they said they would do this by 2017. The article in the Italian paper says they are going to do this by the Fall of 2018, but I wouldn't hold my breath. They did open one in a former post office building in Milan last October. In the article, the founder of Starbucks indicated that he got his inspiration for Starbucks from a coffee bar in Milan, but he knows he could never compete with a typical Italian coffee bar. What the plan is, to be rolled out also in select cities in the USA such as LA and NYC, is to open really super high-end coffee places, with special decor, high-priced blends, etc.

He said he knows he could never compete with a regular coffee bar in Italy So he is going for a small niche of super-high end coffee. The plan of opening 200-300 is just pie-in-the-sky from the Italian publicist. All he really said was, "Hopefully the demand will be so great that we can open hundreds of Starbucks all over Italy." Going from a single store in Milan to opening hundreds of franchises across Italy is a long way off. It's not as if they've signed leases to open 300 stores. It was almost one year ago to the day, on February 28, 2016 that Starbucks announced, "With Humility and Respect, Starbucks Turns its Eyes to Italy."

In its new press release this year, it indicates that what will set them apart from the corner bar, in addition to super-premium coffee, is that they will have Wi-Fi. Good luck with that. When I first moved to Italy in 2010 I still had to go downstairs to pay telephone booths to make a phone call, and there was little WiFi anywhere. You had to go to an "internet point" and pay by the meter. Now, many of the corner bars have WiFi.

A Starbuck representative thinks it will work for Italians, "especially those who have travelled. It's a way to remember 'I was in New York. In Bologna, the most recent coffee bar to open at the central station has a counter filled with brownies and a variety of muffins. In most large cities you can now find a few American-style coffee bars, offering novelty coffees with flavoured mixing syrups and topping sauces, whipped cream or fat-free whipped milk, all adorned with chocolate or nut sprinkles, tiny meringues and even marshmallows. While some Italians turn their noses up at American culture, others are attracted to it, whether it's popcorn at the movies, Halloween, or cheesecake." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35728428

I did notice something interesting yesterday. I was standing at a bar in Venice and a couple walked in. The man ordered a beer, the woman ordered a latte. I thought, "This will be interesting, she just ordered a glass of milk. This is not Starbucks." I tried to watch the barista to see what she was going to do, but I lost my attention. When I remembered, I turned around and looked at the couple who already had their drinks on their table behind me. The woman had a drink in a soda glass, not in a coffee cup, and it looked grey, and sort of like it needed to be stirred to mix it up. I asked the barista how she made that, since the lady had just asked for milk. She shrugged and said, "it's an American thing," and said she does mezzo mezzo, making it half milk, half coffee, and smiled.

I have seen the palms in front of the duomo di milano on pictures... :mad::mad::mad:

Some of my italian friends are at least not lucky with that and some are really angry about this.

Isn't it crazy? For some reason to open the Starbucks in Milan in return the government required them to plant a garden of palm, banana, and pineapple trees in front of the Duomo. Crazy.

without going into the merit of the architect's idea, there were palm trees in Piazza Duomo already in the late 1800s. Nothing new here!

Are you sure about that? I have never seen an old foto or a postcard like this. If I remember the old fotos and postcards I have seen correctly there were some in the old zoo. But even this is long time ago. The zoo was located where today is the Westin.

Here are some photos: http://milano.repubblica.it/cronaca/...omo-158435628/

This gets into hot territory. I don't know when the first palm trees arrived to the Duomo in Milan, but I know that they were not there when Mussolini took over. He planted palm trees in front of the Duomo, of course not native to Northern Italy, as a symbol of how fascists conquered palm tree covered North African countries. They came down after that nightmare ended.

In order to get extremely coveted store front place in front of the Duomo in Milan, a competition was held a few years ago, and Starbucks won. There were over 300 stores that competed and Starbucks won by promising to plant not only palm trees, but also banana trees. This set off a cultural storm.

The world knows that there is an immigration crisis, with hundreds of thousands of people fleeing Northern Africa in scanty, over-crowded boats. As in the USA, in Italy there is a lot of talk about immigration. I am definitely staying apolitical on this. I'm just reporting. What I'm hearing is that Starbucks won the competition for the spot on the Duomo by promising to plant non-native North African palm and banana trees to make immigrants feel wanted, as if they were still home. The opposition party responded with the slogan, "What will they do next? Bring camels and monkeys to the Duomo?" Again, I'm just reporting. I can't tell you how many times I've been confronted about politics in the USA since I've been here. I'm just saying, similar debates are going on over here.

According to the original source news article (http://emanuelescarci.blog.ilsole24o...o-a-fine-2018/) "Starbucks confirmed that it is coming to Italy, but the timing is delayed: now they are talking about the second half of 2018. The American colossus is probably thinking well about that: Italy is not Great Britain or Spain. It's a necessary, but very difficult and competitive market. According to Antonio Percassi, the businessman in charge of bringing Starbucks to Italy, "In the next 5-6 years Starbucks could open up 2 to 3 hundred stores, if the market responds."

That's a long way from saying that Starbucks is going to explode and open a couple of hundred stores in Italy. People are already not liking their planting of palm trees in front of the Duomo in Milan already. They also recently announced they are opening 12,000 new stores, including 5,000 of them in China. I'd just wait for now.

Banana trees in North Africa? Strikes me nearly as foreign as palm trees in Stockholm. Contrast and change is interesting. Palm trees in Northern Italy have shown up and then been gone for millennia. Flora and fauna transport by the Roman Empire was done too.

Starbucks is unlikely to sign leases for longer than 3-5 years in much of Europe, and I can't see Italy being a major exception to their practices on the continent. My bet is that they or their national/regional franchise/license partner isn't going to dare to sign leases for even 50 locations for Starbucks from the start. They will tip-toe into the market and some of the first locations will be gone in 3-5 years from opening.

Well, the palm trees put up by Starbucks in front of the Duomo in Milan last Thursday certainly didn't last long. They were already burned down by protesters last night (video below). Starbucks certainly doesn't understand Italy if they hoped to break into its coffee market by using a theme championed by Mussolini to hail his North African Empire, not far from where he and his mistress were hung upside down.

http://video.ilgazzettino.it/primopi...o-2270701.html