Starbucks invades France!!!!!!!! :) - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

mikemover · #1 01-13-2004, 12:01 AM

By Marni Soupcoff

Le Premier Starbucks Francais

It's always amusing when someone who's particularly fussy or fastidious or snooty is suddenly plunged into chaos or dirt or commonness. We can't help but laugh when the wine-snob gets served a Bud Light at a family dinner or the deconstructionist semiotics professor's son grows up to be a junk bond trader. The happenings of life have a nice way of bringing back to earth those who have drifted into the airy, affected stratosphere. And those of us watching often get a real kick out of the display.

Perhaps this is why I have been experiencing such a warm and fuzzy feeling ever since I learned that France is about to fete the arrival of its first Starbucks franchise.

Yes, France, the country that prides itself on its cafe culture and seems incapable of making a film without giant clouds of cigarette smoke drifting through each frame, will soon see a smoke-free Starbucks open its doors in the country's capital. The French people will now be ordering their lattes in butchered Italian (Un Venti Caramel Frappuccino s'il vous plait!) beneath the green glow of a corporate American logo.

The image could not delight me more.

Starbucks represents everything French elitists despise. It is a chain that has found success by bringing what was once considered a rarefied high-end product group to the masses. (Well, to the masses who can afford to pay three bucks for a cappuccino, at least.) The service is quick, the cups are to-go, black clothing is not de rigeur, and the rabble is welcome. Sure, Starbucks is guilty of a few pretentious trappings (the aforementioned Italian lingo and the Fair Trade coffee, for example), but the stores are, at heart, populist pockets where everyone--from the Wall Street lawyer to the suburban soccer mom to the 12-year-old kid on his break from working a shift at McDonald's--can feel comfortable grabbing a fast cup of bulk-sophistication.

This is not meant to imply that I have anything against Starbucks, mind you. To the contrary, I have the greatest respect for the company's success and count myself as a thoroughly satisfied customer. To one of my left-leaning friends' dismay, I often insist on holding our coffee meet-ups at Starbucks ("going corporate" as the friend calls it) simply because no other place in town serves up a chocolate malt frappuccino. And Starbucks does such a masterful job at marketing that I am strangely grateful to be forking over the hourly minimum wage merely to enjoy a small frozen drink in the midst of pleasantly bland music and a calming, neat decor.

Indeed, what I love about Starbucks is this character: commercial, popular, inclusive, profit-driven, or, in other words, American--a quality that the French, as they so enjoy reminding us, loathe.

"This is just not the way we drink coffee," a French student quoted in Scotland's Sunday Herald sniffed, complaining about the Starbucks experience. "We like to take our time."

Another French student bemoaned the "standardization" the new Starbucks will engender.

So, why would Starbucks open a franchise in Paris if the very concept of the American chain offends French sensibilities?

The answer can only be that Starbucks thinks it can turn a profit in belle Paris, of which I have no doubt. Because as much as the French like to fuss about their heightened senses of fashion, viticulture, and social consciousness, at the end of the day, a French consumer wants what every other consumer wants for his money: a good product delivered efficiently in pleasant surroundings.

They may hate the idea of it, but the French are bound eventually to succumb to the peculiar charm of a store that offers plenty of choices, always provides what you came for, and delivers the whole experience in a cheerfully modern package. Those are advantages that no amount of anti-American snobbery can negate and that will no doubt soon send plenty of Parisians begging Tazo Chais from their baristas, to the absolute horror of the French cultural guard.

I, therefore, wish the new Paris Starbucks the greatest of success, if for no other reason than that it will drive the French elite absolutely crazy. It may be a childish sentiment, but we do so like to see the high and mighty humbled from time to time.

Marni Soupcoff's column appears on Monday at TAEmag.com.

_______________

And I agree with everything she just said!

Mike

sfloriII · #2 01-13-2004, 01:29 AM

That's great!

I assume they'll be using the French Press to make coffee rather than our popular drip, right?

PS I was just "scolded" a couple days ago by the owner of a restaurant in McLean, VA for bringing in my own cop of Starbucks so I wouldn't have to drink their mainstream coffee! BTW, it's the same restaurant ("Corkies") that Dick Cheney used to frequent, if anyone cares.

#3 01-13-2004, 07:54 AM

Damn Mike - your life must be dull.....

jjl · #4 01-13-2004, 08:28 AM

Anyone here read 'No Logo' ? Didn't think so.

mikemover · #5 01-13-2004, 10:26 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by merc124
Damn Mike - your life must be dull.....

Actually, quite the opposite. But I had nothing else to do last night...and I drink a LOT of coffee.

Mike

need2speed · #6 01-13-2004, 10:51 AM

I understand the latest gourmet delight in Seattle is "Starbucks Steak", where coffee grounds are sprinkled over top of a perfectly good steak!

After reading Fast Food Nation, if one were to examine the medical evidence, the one of the really effective WMD deployed since WWII was the fast food craze launched from the USA...

cbdo · #7 01-13-2004, 05:55 PM

Wonderful country, France. Too bad about the French...

(and yes, my surname does ultimately come from that interesting place, where the only thing more important than achieving progress is simultaneously railing against it.)

need2speed · #8 01-13-2004, 07:41 PM

You know, France was a great supporter of the American War of Independence - financially, politically and with manpower. Many French officers and men died on the "seperatist" side against their common enemy - the damn British! Their participation was key to victory!

Winston Churchill said you must understand where you've been to know where you are going.

kerry · #9 01-14-2004, 12:19 AM

How can a freedom loving libertarian individualist be in favor of corporate conformity? Can you imagine what music would be like if it was run like Starbucks or McDonalds? All songs written at corporate headquarters and franchises sold to local musicians who agree to play only the corporate music. What a world!

dmorrison · #10 01-14-2004, 02:35 AM

I must add that I know everyone loves Starbucks but I just find the coffee bitter. May be I have a sweet tooth. But I don't visit their shops. Wish I owned stock in them over the last 15 years, but alas I don't.
But OH MY GOD there is a light here, I do love the bottled Frappuccinos. So I guess I am a starbucky too.

Dave

PS My knowledge of the Revolutionary War, flew with a Captain all month years ago who was a Revolutionary War buff. The French did not love or support the Americans as much as they hated the British so much, that they wanted us to win the Revolution So they could look down their noses at the Britsh. Sort of what they do to just about everyone who is not French.

wbain5280 · #11 01-14-2004, 02:46 AM

The French will soon surrender, just as they have in every war.

Rafi · #12 01-14-2004, 07:47 AM

It is interesting to note that if the French surrender in every war then why are they stil independant? You might say because others come to their aid but why ?

mikemover · #13 01-14-2004, 10:48 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by kerry edwards
How can a freedom loving libertarian individualist be in favor of corporate conformity? Can you imagine what music would be like if it was run like Starbucks or McDonalds? All songs written at corporate headquarters and franchises sold to local musicians who agree to play only the corporate music. What a world!

Mainly, the point is that it's a very "American" thing, and the fact that they are "invading" France, selling and Americanized version of something that the French have long prided themselves on, and that it is destined to be successful...I get a selfish satisfaction out of the whole idea of Starbucks being huge in France.

AND it's a libertarian success story....Free enterprise...Entrepreneurship...A small business grown into a hugely successful franchise...and the coffee is usually not bad! What's not to like?

Mike

jjl · #14 01-14-2004, 11:01 AM

Homogeneity. The Borg.

Botnst · #15 01-14-2004, 11:09 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by jjl
Homogeneity. The Borg.

This is weird, jjl, I agree with you but also with Mike.

I hate chain stores--go into one of them an its as though you've passed a portal into another dimension--one store, a billion entrances. I hate it.

But then, introducing that hated concept successfully in France satisfies a perverse neuron in my brain's pleasure center.

Here I stand, juggling a chain saw and a feather duster.

Botnst