Starbucks is moving into... France. This should be a hoot.
It is a fair bet that the likes of Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Sartre, and de Beauvoir, would not have become the giants of world literature they are today had they been fuelled by Starbucks takeaway caffe lattes rather than shots of strong espresso in such celebrated Left Bank cafes as Flore and Les Deux Magots. But that did not stop the giant US coffee chain announcing plans yesterday to open its first branch in France early next year and even to insist that customers would have to observe its no-smoking policy.
Until this year, we might have bemoaned further Americanization of a charming French tradition -- the cafes -- but as of now a takeover of France by American capitalists seems like a good idea. And the French may be ripe for the picking.
Starbucks could also benefit from the perennially ambivalent approach of France to all things American. While forever moaning about US cultural imperialism, US unilateralism and US-driven globalisation, the French flock to such temples to theAmerican way of life as McDonald's. Even Disneyland Paris, described by one intellectual in the Sartre mould as a "cultural Chernobyl", has proved as popular with the French as with foreign tourists.Posted by Alan at September 26, 2003 09:39 PMvia The Guardian (UK)