Starbucks in Italy - the ongoing drama

"The Starbucks diaspora reached six more countries this year, including Russia and Egypt, bringing the total to 43. Among those countries where the chain is not: Djibouti, Mongolia, Italy. (I originally wrote "Jordan", but it turns out Starbucks is there.) Italians, as everyone knows, are fixated on their caffeine: the breakfast of champions is an espresso inhaled while standing up. It seems incomprehensible that Starbucks has not felt able to launch lattes in Livorno, or flog frappuccinos in Florence. Could 2008 be the year?" (Adrian Michaels, The Financial Times)

On The Financial Times, Adrian Michaels write that Starbucks bows to Italy's baristi, that is, the Seattle company does not dare to launch there because the cult of caffeine is an established dogma. More likely, Starbucks is just terrified of Italian bureaucracy, the worst economic conditions in Europe, and local - sigh - so-called traditions. As Michaels himself notes, "foreign multinationals have historically had a hard time navigating planning laws in Italy to build a network quickly and with enough scale.". I don't blame Starbucks at all...

Read more