Topic: YANKEE (Coffee shops) GO HOME!!!

[Terry in Australia]

Hey I like coffee, but seriously Starbucks is not my cuppa tea, you might say. Especially at 3 times the cost vs local eatery. I thought I was drinking mud, no thanks.

Here people put their $ where their feet are, ie, put a new Home Depo out of business, due to very low sales because most everyone refused to leave the small hardware/lumber stores just to save a few dollars.

Maybe Aussies like Starbucks, else it would go out of business.

peace,
michel

Er, if you read my original post Michel, the whole theme of this thread is that Starbucks ARE going broke in Australia, and are closing all but a dozen outlets, remember?

Is there a high incidence of Alzheimer's in  your area? Maybe the locals just didn't notice the new Home Depot store, or just kept forgetting it was there? ha ha, Cheers, Terry.  

[rhos1355]

You bunch of coffee anoraks. Just drink the bloody stuff, don't discuss it until it goes cold!

[Terry in Australia]

You bunch of coffee anoraks. Just drink the bloody stuff, don't discuss it until it goes cold!

When it goes cold, don't you call it a "Frappe"?

[troppo]

When it goes cold, don't you call it a "Frappe"?

Whhen it goes cole i call it "Crappe"

[fuzzybutt]

i had a starbucks coffee once asnd i was wondering if i should use it to fill in pot holes on the highway,that stuff is awefull strong...never again,ill stick with tim hortons coffee

i have a friend in orilla ontario that ships me huge cans of timmies every month. GOOD coffee

[fuzzybutt]

Right! And Fosters is great stuff too, eh?

Are you kidding?
Its utter crap, why do you think we ship it all overseas?
You guys buy it, we dont 

only aussie beer we get here i think

[fuzzybutt]

This is the kind of coffee I like





And this is one example of a coffee machine, ubiquitous in every cafeteria in Spain

i take it the second pic is an espresso. i never had an espresso before until we pulled one out at this italian place i worked at. so, on a slow day a few of us decided to start it up and have a few cups. well, i was baffled at the teeny cups so i sipped one away. seemed like a small cup of coffee. well, i had another...and another....and another. well, in about 10 minutes i had 8 cups. another 20 minutes later it struck me. i could see my heart beat through my shirt. i was jumping all over the place like a manic. i never knew something so small could be so powerful

like good cuban coffee. if you've ever lived in south florida, you know what i mean

[rbmgf7]

i think i want a cup of this stuff!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kopi_Luwak


.....not!

[BobbyR]

[magnus72]

i dislike starbucks as i find their coffee roasted too much. In short, it tasts burnt, but I've drank coffee there from time to time. I still find it terribly expensive for what you get.


i'm not expert on making coffee, but I find grinding whole beans yields better tasting coffee than pre-ground coffee. Also, you're average coffemaker doesnt get the water hot enough before they hit the grounds. What I do, is I run the water till it gets hot enough, before I throw it in the coffee pot pre-brew. I got a little crappy 6 cup mr. coffee maker. People tell me all the time that french presses are the way to go, but they look like a hassle to clean.

i'd love to see these new Clover machines in action but I'm not sure I'd go to a Starbucks just to see them. Their design and function intrigues me as well as the price tag of 11 grand. It sucks that Starbucks bought them out.

http://www.wired.com/gadgets/miscellaneous/magazine/16-08/mf_clover

[Raul CB750K1]

i dislike starbucks as i find their coffee roasted too much. In short, it tasts burnt, but I've drank coffee there from time to time. I still find it terribly expensive for what you get.


i'm not expert on making coffee, but I find grinding whole beans yields better tasting coffee than pre-ground coffee. Also, you're average coffemaker doesnt get the water hot enough before they hit the grounds. What I do, is I run the water till it gets hot enough, before I throw it in the coffee pot pre-brew. I got a little crappy 6 cup mr. coffee maker. People tell me all the time that french presses are the way to go, but they look like a hassle to clean.

i'd love to see these new Clover machines in action but I'm not sure I'd go to a Starbucks just to see them. Their design and function intrigues me as well as the price tag of 11 grand. It sucks that Starbucks bought them out.

http://www.wired.com/gadgets/miscellaneous/magazine/16-08/mf_clover

The coffee machines I saw everywhere in the States was the "hot water" type, that is, hot water is poured over the ground coffee. The Espresso machines, instead, make the water boil until it goes above the "tank" by pure pressure, and then goes across the ground coffee.

Usually, the latter way of making coffe gives a more "foamy" and "creamy" coffee. As the taste of coffee depends very much in the brand/roast of coffee, the quality of the water etc, you can get a great or crappy coffee with both machines, but in general, I like the "espresso" variety more, if only for espresso. I have had great coffee -with milk- with "drop" coffee machines, but they don'tmake good "thick" coffee.


09:46 AM in the office, time to go for a coffee.... 

[alltherightpills]

People tell me all the time that french presses are the way to go, but they look like a hassle to clean.

French Presses are really easy to clean.  I mean it's not as quick and easy as pulling a coffee filter and throwing it in the trash, but it takes me about 45 seconds to clean my press every morning.  I've got nothing else to do while waiting for the water to heat up.

[goon 1492]

I too am a fan of home brew java, so I am part of the reason they're going out. That's ok I couldn't afford a three dollar cup either with two kids at home and two stepkids with an un supportive dad , home brew is the shizzle espically with a shot of brandy! or schnappes on a saturday morning

[BobbyR]

Starbucks was a manifiststion of the excessive lifestyle you Americans seem to enjoy so much. I say good riddence to them and the Cultural decadence that you Yanks try to foist upon the rest of the World.

[heffay]

[texaninseattle]

i had a starbucks coffee once asnd i was wondering if i should use it to fill in pot holes on the highway,that stuff is awefull strong...never again,ill stick with tim hortons coffee

YESSSS TIM HORTONS FTW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(I may be Texan but the misses is from Ontario)

[Terry in Australia]

Starbucks was a manifiststion of the excessive lifestyle you Americans seem to enjoy so much. I say good riddence to them and the Cultural decadence that you Yanks try to foist upon the rest of the World.

Well that'd be a whole lot funnier Bobby, if it wasn't true! I like the term you used, "Foist", meaning:

 foist
 // (say foyst)
verb (t) 1. to bring or put surreptitiously or fraudulently.
--phrase 2. foist on (or upon), to palm off or impose fraudulently or unwarrantably on:

That's certainly the way coffee loving countries feel about the way these crappy American coffee shops have sneaked in, to fill a need that was never there....... to supply excessive, foul tasting, "Adult Milkshakes" at premium prices!

Death to Starbucks, and the horse they rode in on!
 

[BobbyR]

Starbucks was a manifiststion of the excessive lifestyle you Americans seem to enjoy so much. I say good riddence to them and the Cultural decadence that you Yanks try to foist upon the rest of the World.

Well that'd be a whole lot funnier Bobby, if it wasn't true! I like the term you used, "Foist", meaning:

 foist
 // (say foyst)
verb (t) 1. to bring or put surreptitiously or fraudulently.
--phrase 2. foist on (or upon), to palm off or impose fraudulently or unwarrantably on:

That's certainly the way coffee loving countries feel about the way these crappy American coffee shops have sneaked in, to fill a need that was never there....... to supply excessive, foul tasting, "Adult Milkshakes" at premium prices!

Death to Starbucks, and the horse they rode in on!
 

Not to become too profound. The US has a very alluring lifestyle on the surface. We export the trappings of that lifestyle around the World. We export movies, we do not import movies. Even in NY finding a foreign film in a theater is a chore.
The kids in Japan watch these films and now the they have a new term for them called "other people" they listen to Metal music, party all night, want to work 9-5 and if they don't like a job they quit. Oh yeah, they apply for US work visas by the hundreds of thousands.

We have a chain called Outback Steakhouse, which is supposed to be Aussie and the commercial has some guy speaking so half assed strine accent. It was founded by some guys in Tampa Fla.
I am sure there are enough 'beautiful" people in Sydney who will support a Stabucks or two.

Once this Iraq nonsense is over the Americanization of the World will continue through the Internet, Movies and Music. I am sure this last statement will draw some heat, but it is true. Just look around you, look at the Hollywood actors in your commercials, the music on the radio, your pants, your new slang. It is very US based. I say this with a bit of sadness since a lot of good stuff gets lost when that happens. Now that I have been profound, I will go find more content for the Babe thread.     

[Terry in Australia]

Well you're partly right Bobby, and partly way off.

As you've guessed, "Steakhouse" is an American company, and the founders admitted on "60 Minutes" a few years ago, that when they started the chain, they'd never even visited Oz, they'd just seen one of America's "imported" movies, Croc Dundee.

Sydney will have the majority of the remaining "Starbucks", mainly due to it's weaker coffee culture (less Italian influence than Melbourne) and higher American tourist/migrant population.

America in recent years has lost a lot of it's international appeal, possibly due to Iraq, and the perception that America has meddled in other countries affairs purely for America's own greedy interests, and not to promote world peace, as the government "spin doctors" would have us believe.

It was way more popular as a tourist/migration destination in the 1970's and 1980's, and it might be that due to the "over-Americanisation" of the rest of the world in the last 50 years or so that a lot of interest in America has dropped away, but in the future I can see less world interest in the US and more in Asia, as America's "Global Empire" is slowly dismantled and it's economy continues to falter, similar to the way Britain's "Empire" collapsed after WW2. Cheers, Terry.  

[BobbyR]

Actually tourism is up in NY due to the cheap dollar. Yes it is true US troops lined up on another Country's border and invaded it. Not something to be proud of, but the World will get over it. The Germans have a few things they could apologize for, and they seem to do OK on the World stage.  Asia is where Americanization is most apparent since it is more noticiable.
The US is not crumbling and will not crumble anytime soon. We are the technology engine. We develop it and they build it. They build it, we buy it. It is circular. Toyota, Honda, BMW, and Hyundai all have huge car plants here so we have a growing manufacturing base and more will come. People clock into those plants on Monday and clock out with a check on Friday. This place is about money and we know how to make money.

[754]

Again, its not three dollars a cup for a regular coffee..

People think nothing of going to a bar or restaurant and paying big markup for products and service, yet.. the thought of a 2.00 coffee or 3.00 seems to curdle some folk on here..

 Dya ever eat outside of your home?

[Raul CB750K1]

Again, its not three dollars a cup for a regular coffee..

People think nothing of going to a bar or restaurant and paying big markup for products and service, yet.. the thought of a 2.00 coffee or 3.00 seems to curdle some folk on here..

 Dya ever eat outside of your home?

I can buy a can of Coke in the supermarket for 43 eurocents. If I order a coke in a bar it will cost me 2 euro. I understand the difference in price comes for the service: a waiter, a rent to pay, a restroom to keep clean, a dishwasher to clean the glass etc.

But when I can buy a coffee for 1.20 euro at any cafeteria, and Starbucks ask me to pay 3 euro, I start to wonder what does Starbucks coffee have to be worth almost double. They have to pay rent, the salary of the waiter etc. But where is the service at starbucks? They just pour already-brewed coffee into a paper cup where somebody wrote my name, and that's it. The cost of the coffee is just a few cents. As a product, it is much better the other coffee than Starbucks'.

 As Tim Hartford very well put in "the undercover economist", the price of Starbucks coffee comes from scarcity: they choose the best places, where hundreds of caffeine-deprived people go across every day on their way to work. And they won't mind paying 3 bucks for the convenience of a coffee quickly served, because they know they can afford to pay for a coffee the equivalent of 5 minutes of their working time.

[rhos1355]

Seeing that this thread has kind of shifted from coffee to "Amercanisation - right or wrong" I feel the urge to put my tuppence worth in.
Firstly I think the word "Americanisation" is a bit of a misnomer. In my humble opinion the term Corporate Capitalism is closer to the description. The fact that that the American model of corporate capitalism is predominant is no accident. It works, i.e. it makes money. And this also is no accident; Love 'em or hate 'em the yanks have something we europeans sorely lack, and that is a "can-do" mentality. Want your tyres changed at 3am? there's someone that'll do it for you. Want your prescription glasses fixed during yr lunch break? No problem sir.
Here in Europe? Forget it. It's erm, hmmm, I dunno, it's my lunch break, sorry sir we're short staffed today and so on and on and on.
That's why the image of America is so appealing.

[Raul CB750K1]

Love 'em or hate 'em the yanks have something we europeans sorely lack, and that is a "can-do" mentality. Want your tyres changed at 3am? there's someone that'll do it for you. Want your prescription glasses fixed during yr lunch break? No problem sir.
Here in Europe? Forget it. It's erm, hmmm, I dunno, it's my lunch break, sorry sir we're short staffed today and so on and on and on.
That's why the image of America is so appealing.

+1, over here they are discussing the liberalization of opening hours -that is, business can open as many hours as they please- and there is a lot of fuzz about it.

I'm not into going shopping at 2:00 AM, but what if I'm sleepless and had to do the shopping anyway? Let them open, and if it is not profitable they won't do it.

[Terry in Australia]

I remember that when I was in Europe back in the 1970's, a lot of places closed after lunch so the workers could have a "siesta"! Actually, I kinda liked that idea, and would like it adopted here............ 

I was getting excited that Oz's first "Costco" is opening here in Melbourne soon, my parents love shopping at the Costco store near my sisters place in CA, but apparently the Chinese are opening some kinda "Superstore" that's 10 times the size of Costco, here soon!

I wonder if they'd consider closing after lunch for a "siesta?