Re: Starbucks

[Richard Zvonar <zvonar@zvonar.com>]

At 4:37 PM +0200 8/7/04, Per Boysen wrote:
>How about starting a separate "Starbucks list"? 
>Here in Europe we only hear about "Starbuck" on 
>Loopers-Delight. Not exactly essential reading 
>;-)

Starbucks itself may not have reached Sweden yet, 
but the underlying question that initiated this 
discussion has to do with corporate citizenship. 
There is a growing trend of "gigantism" 
exemplified by businesses such as Walmart and 
Starbucks, that is tending toward global 
domination of their respective market niches (in 
the case of Walmart, more than a "niche"). One 
result of this trend is the homogenation of 
culture, something of potential concern to all.

Your implication that Starbucks is limited to the 
United States is not entirely accurate; the 
company has been in Europe and Asia for several 
years (2000 stores as of 2002).  Considering that 
Sweden leads the world in per capita coffee 
consumption (1097 cups/year according to a 2002 
study by Nescafé) you should probably start to 
see local Starbucks "real soon now."

But the larger question is "How do you feel about 
this sort of economic/cultural imperialism?"
-- 

______________________________________________________________
Richard Zvonar, PhD
(818) 788-2202
http://www.zvonar.com
http://RZCybernetics.com