Starbucks- the oh so famous coffee store featured in almost every American sit-com, has been a topic of numerous posts and headlines in the US, since it’s been closing some of its stores and has announced that more will shut their doors in the months to come.
The story of Starbucks is one bound to be told and learnt in lessons at the faculty of economics… the company that was once opening a store daily somewhere around the world, is now shrinking drastically to survive…
Meanwhile, in Argentina, the land where outdated is still a breakthrough, Starbucks opened its first store a bit less than two months ago.
And why am I writing about it now, you might ask. The answer is simple, I wanted to experience it first hand before writing anything about it… (the other reason is that I didn’t even have a blog at the time, anyways)
And why hadn’t I experienced it first hand until very recently? This answer is a funny one… it turns out that the once global Starbucks frenzy hit the inhabitants of Buenos Aires, and so one had to wait in line (sometimes even for an hour) to enter the store and get the otherwise “on-the-go” cup of precious Starbucks coffee….
Why do we stand in a 200 mts long line waiting to drink the coffee of a company that is falling apart in the other hemisphere? (coffee which is -by the way- grown in the 3rd world, bought at ridiculously low prices by the 1st world and then stingily sold back to us as if it was gold) The answer is: I have no idea, but it’s not the first time… it is told that the Conquerors took the gold and silver from South America and left mirrors and necklaces in exchange.
In any case, Dechi and I went to give it a try. We paid a crazy amount of money for 2 coffees and 2 muffins, and sat down at a perfect recreation of an US store. We went on a rainy afternoon, making sure there were no people waiting in line. The mood of the workers was a bit overly-happy, but it wasn’t rude, so I can’t complain. The system was slightly different than in the US (a guy would intercept you as soon as you crossed the door, suggest you a product, write his favourite version of your name on your cup and hand it to you), but we figured it was because it’d be a bit hard for us “porteños” to get used to it so suddenly (we’ll see how it works out later on). The coffee was good and the muffins were great, but the total amount spent resulted in that I probably won’t go back anytime soon. I wonder how many customers will remain after the “new-old-thing” madness dissipates… with those prices, I’m guessing that not an awful lot…
Dechi was a bit upset when her name (Denise) was mutilated to “Denu” by the guy taking your order at the front of the store… not nice.
