Re: Starbucks

[Per Boysen <per@boysen.se>]

On 2004-08-07, at 17.33, Richard Zvonar wrote:

> 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?"
> -- 

Thank you for an informative post. Fighting economic/cultural 
imperialism is always a good thing IMHO. As is supporting any original 
outlet, like we use to do on this list.

Kindly

Per