On September 6th, 2018, Starbucks made its official entrance in the Italian market with the opening of a huge roastery in Piazza Cordusio, just a few steps away from the Duomo of Milan.
Rumors about the opening event had been going on for a while, fueled by the appearance of a bunch of palm trees at the edge of the square last February (which was, it turned out, an advertising campaign designed by the coffee brand). Starbucks spent months remodeling a former post office into the new coffee shop. The inauguration ceremony took place on a lovely Thursday evening and boasted a super-selective guest list: national and local press, city and regional representatives, influencers, bloggers and so on.
The two-story coffee shop looks different from a regular Starbucks Coffee. It has a deluxe style with uniformed waiters, bodyguards watching the main entrances, a liquors counter and a lot of puffs and sofas. It’s actually possible to eat there from breakfast to dinner, passing through lunch and happy hour.
But the biggest challenge that Starbucks had to face in the Bel Paese has nothing to do with the fanciness of its interiors nor its sought-after central location : it was all about the coffee. Italian coffee is known all over the world for its quality and related rituals: ask any Italian, in any place and at any time, and you will be told that coffee has to be exclusively espresso, drunk directly at the counter, standing, in a lapse of 30 seconds to 2 minutes, and paid straight-forward. It doesn’t exactly recall Starbucks’ style, does it? Furthermore, a lot of people in Italy have never even tasted an American coffee, and they like referring to it as “diluted water”. In the light of these facts, the main question is: did Italians really need a Starbucks?
Young people are by far the most enthusiastic about the company crossing the national border. Martina, a 22-year-old girl who lives in outskirts of Milan, told me that she’s “really looking forward to going there, to see what it looks like and taste their drinks”.
On the other hand, middle-aged people don’t seem to share the enthusiasm. “What’s it for? We already have our cafes!” is the answer you’ll probably get if you ask someone born before 1970. The economic factor plays an important role: while a coffee has the standard price of one euro in most of Italy, Starbucks offers its product starting from 1,80 euros. Considering that Italians drink an average of five espressos a day, it can have a considerable impact in Italian pockets/saving accounts etc.
Nonetheless, roughly a month after its inauguration, people are still queueing outside Starbucks, patiently waiting to check out the place everyone is talking about. It is true that about three-quarters of them are most likely tourists. This is one of the main risks the company is facing: the native Milanese will think about their café as a tourist attraction, thus limiting its use to a quick and isolated visit rather than developing a habit. This has nothing to do with Starbucks’ business model in the United States, its home country. There are 240 stores in Manhattan alone, and local customers visit them every day to drink coffee, eat, study and just relax alone or in company. It’s hard to picture such a place in Milan and, to be honest, it’s even harder to imagine that the Italian people will immediately embrace such a deep change in their lifestyle.
None of this seems to be restraining Starbucks’ plans to expand their business in Italy. The coffee chain plans to open three new venues⸺in Malpensa airport in Milan, Corso Vercelli and Corso Garibaldi. Is the initial excitement that spread across Milano just the thrill of a well-planned novelty, or is the enthusiasm destined to stay?
PHOTO: First Starbucks opening in Milan. (c) Laura Loguercio.
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