Posted on 05/05/2009 9:06:19 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
WARSAW -- After the new Starbucks opened, I walked by the place a couple of times, just to see the crowds. Strategically located midway between the university and the stock exchange, the world's best-known coffee franchise immediately attracted a well-heeled clientele. Lines twisted around inside the shop and out the door. Up and down the street, blue-jeaned students and dark-suited stockbrokers carried their white paper cups with pride, the famous green label facing outward.
Yes, Starbucks has come to Warsaw at last. The brand might be out of fashion in the States; the company might be losing money. Its shares might be worth a third of what they were at their peak in 2006; it might have diluted its once-exclusive image through massive overexpansion. (After drinking the watery brew served by a sullen barista in a Starbucks at the Salt Lake City airport recently, I mentally cheered the chain's decision to shut down 600 U.S. shops.) But here in Central Europe, the arrival of Starbucks has been greeted with undiluted enthusiasm -- so much enthusiasm, in fact, that the phenomenon seems to require further explanation.
This is particularly true since Starbucks knock-offs have been available in most Polish cities for the better part of a decade. Older cafes, the kind where you drink coffee out of china cups, have been available for the better part of three centuries. Looking at that line of 20-somethings, all waiting patiently for the chance to pay twice as much for a cup of coffee as they would pay across the street, one had to wonder what was up.
The answer lies partly in the magic of brand names and status symbols but also in the psychology of the post-communist world.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Apparently we have Coffee addicts everywhere. When I went to Shanghai and Beijing two years ago, I found Starbucks FILLED ( you can’t find a seat during peak hours ). And the price, good gosh ! They are comparable to the ones in the USA !
Too many people even in the 3rd world willing to part with their money IMHO.
Starbucks isn’t that good, and is over-priced. They are everywhere, however, and try to find a competitor in the ‘burbs
I hate going into starbucks. If I’m out with some people & they go into starbucks, I feel like I’m going into the lair of the enemy.
I could barely imagine a more libtarded scene than how they have done out starbucks’s
Starbucks - Proof that PT Barnum was right!
DUNKIN’ DONUTS! BEST Coffee anywhere! Period!!!
I hate Fourbucks coffee. I will NEVER again go into a starbucks for coffee.
Next Anne will tour the Polish hooters restaurant knockoff in Krakow and give us a full report.
Try the independent coffee houses. You might find a jewel.
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