Guardian UK: Starbucks to go

[marmar]

Starbucks to go
The US coffee chain is closing 70% of its Australian stores. Is it because we're too sophisticated for them?


Brigid Delaney
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday July 30 2008



In 2001, the battle of the coffee machines came to Lygon Street in Melbourne. The old masters of the Mediterranean who brought their coffee-making skills to Melbourne as post-war migrants were facing a new enemy: Starbucks.

Lygon Street is sacred ground for caffeinistas: its boasts a large student population, a bloody history with a spate of gangland murders, and has the highest concentration of pasta and density of latte fumes per square kilometre. In short – it's unique. Not the place for cookie-cutter American chains, complained the old guard.

In an interview with ABC radio in 2001, local traders said they had gone to the Melbourne City council to get the Starbucks closed down.

Jean Carlo Justi of Universita Cafe told the ABC: "I think that people know Starbucks you know, they should think that they are a fish like out of water in a way because it's not in tune with our street … We are more cosmopolitan."

Yet Starbucks moved in – its shock and awe business model meaning that chains sprung up almost overnight in Australia's major cities, clustering in cafe strips and putting the frighteners on independent retailers.

However, over the years the Lygon Street Starbucks seemed a bit forlorn. One blogger posted in a Yahoo chatroom: "There is a Starbucks in Lygon Street in Carlton nestled amongst all the restaurants and cafes. Strangely enough, it is always empty when I walk past." Ouch! .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jul/30/australia.starbucks

[Demeter]

1. Best News I've Heard All Week

A country that refuses to be Americanized by a corporation.

[BB1]

2. Probably the reason there are so little

here in North Western Europe. I despise them.