Associated Press
FRANKFURT, Germany — Europe is the last frontier for one of America’s greatest commercial icons.
But can Starbucks Coffee Co. make it in the homeland of the leisurely street cafe? Is it even possible to sell Italians more double-shot espressos or make the French drink skim milk cafe au lait out of a paper cup?
After building a caffeine empire that stretches from Seattle to Shanghai to Dubai, Starbucks finally waded into continental Europe yesterday, opening doors at a shop in Zurich, Switzerland, the first of 650 stores Starbucks says it will open in six neighboring countries by 2003.
Until now, Starbucks has cashed in on bringing Seattle-style coffee culture to countries where coffeehouses were seen as exotic imports — the United States, Japan, Britain and even Thailand and Saudi Arabia.
But Europe itself is new territory. And even chairman Howard Schultz admits hawking coffee there can butt heads with Europe’s proud heritage, fussy tastes and aversion to U.S. commercialism.
"Before we came to the continent, we had to understand how the brand would coexist with the very strong coffee culture," Schultz said yesterday during a telephone interview from Hamburg, where he was speaking at a culinary convention and checking out the German market.
"The Europeans, in particular, are quite pleasantly surprised when they taste Starbucks for the first time, because American coffee has had a bad reputation for so long," he added.
So far, the signs look good, said Karin Vogt, spokeswoman for the new Zurich Starbucks near the main train station and university. "People were lining up to get in even before we opened at 6:30," she said.
Starbucks has 665 stores outside North America and 3,302 in its domestic market.
In the next year, Schultz hopes to have 10 more stores in Switzerland, which is considered a good test market for Europe because it mixes German, French and Italian culture.
Then Starbucks plans to focus on the rest of the continent.
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