Why is there no Starbucks in coffee-obsessed Italy?

Starbucks will open in Italy, which is simply playing a big knife in front of Guan Gong. After all, the history of Italian coffee culture is very profound. It can be said that Italy is the originator of Starbucks in coffee culture. It is precisely because howard schultz, president of Starbucks, discovered the charm of Italian coffee during his visit to Milan on 1983 that today's world "coffee kingdom" has been achieved.

Italians' love for coffee has penetrated into the bone marrow. On the Italian streets, there will be a coffee shop every few hundred meters or even dozens of meters, the density of which is equivalent to Shaxian snacks and braised chicken rice on the streets of China, and the locals don't worry about coffee at all.

In the eyes of Italians, real coffee is espresso. All kinds of other coffee practices, in their view, are drinks and cannot be called coffee. Diluted American coffee like Starbucks, or Starbucks' own "Frappuccino" series, Italians think it is just "boiling water".

Besides, the price of coffee in Italy is very low. In Italy, the average price of an espresso is only 1 euro, while the average price of cappuccino is 1.4 euro. In the depressed Italy, the average price of Starbucks is 3-4 euros, which really has no competitive advantage.

Italian coffee culture is also very different from Starbucks culture rooted in the United States. Italians drink coffee, which is a daily pastime. They drink about 2-3 cups of coffee every day and stand and chat with people around them. The environmental requirements for coffee shops are not high.

However, the environment of Starbucks is relatively formal, and many people will sit in Starbucks and work hard and talk about business, which obviously does not conform to Italian culture.

"This is not suitable for Italian espresso culture, and pure coffee lovers will not go there." A consumer said this in an interview with the British "Independent". However, Starbucks has not given up its ambition to enter Italy. However, its pilot projects in Milan and Rome this year have been postponed to 2065438+March 2008.