Starbucks News – Our Opinion
Editorial 30th July 2008
Well, it had to happen. Not wanting to say ‘I told you so’, but we’ve been forcasting the demise, or at least the diminishing, of the Starbucks’ empire in Australia for a number of years.
A recent article in The Australian newspaper refers to recent sour news out of the company’s US [Seattle] headquarters as a possible reason for Starbucks’ abrupt decision to close 61 of its 84 Australian stores, but we have felt for a long time that there was a much stronger reason – the inherent strength of Australia’s domestic espresso industry.
On observing Starbucks’ worldwide rise over a number of years, they have clearly been a phenomenal success story in most countries where their tentacles have reached, but for a few countries – most notably Italy, and now Australia. And the reason is clear – its the strength our own domestic espresso culture.
A recent second place in the World Barista Championships in Copenhagen, along with three consecutive winners of the World Latte Art Championships are testament to this. It’s actually a huge compliment to the increasing strength and depth of our own unique espresso culture!
Ashley Felderhof, Founding Director of Crema Magazine, was interviewed by ABC News Radio to give his opinion on the demise of Starbucks in Australia. Click here to listen to the interview.
Tags: barista, coffee, coffee australia, espresso, espresso coffee, Starbucks, Starbucks Australia
Add to Facebook
Digg this page
Print
Add to Reddit
Add to Twitter
July 30th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
[...] not, it’s always sad to see a business closing, and people losing their jobs. Is it because they’re just not making good enough coffee that they’ve needed to close? Or is it more about dropping the ball on simple things like [...]
July 31st, 2008 at 1:09 pm
Interesting, but we will never know the real story as we will never be privy to whatever went on / goes on in the star-bucks boardroom. Sad for the franchisees who are business owners in their own right but at the mercy in the end of this type of scenario. Some I guess will ease their premises back and open back up as independent cafes, other not.