More Starbucks Stores to Come

Just yesterday Starbuck's Argentina opened a store in Caballito and tonight they are opening one in Maure 1818 (corner with Arce).

The store openings are coming fast this year. Next week they will have one in Martinez, probably along Av. Libertador....

Their website has a handy store locator using Googlemaps within the site itself. So far, they don't have the Caballito store nor the Maure store, which if you count those they are up to 17 stores.

We are also working on a new Biscotti for them. It should be ready anytime now.

Starbucks Helping Out?

I just read an article from Treehugger.com on how Starbucks is offering fairtrade coffee in Ireland and the UK.

I just wanted to take a moment and applaud that effort. I think it's a great start!

Here in Argentina they are also buying from a local small company (ahem...mine) and I have to say that they have been wonderful--so far ;-)

So take a small break from the Starbucks bashing and at least give them a sign when they do something right. I also know that they do lots of donations and they don't always publicize them.

Okay, now you can dived yourselves up again and go back to your I Hate or I Love Starbucks sides.

And if you want you can read the article here.

Chocolate and Sugar & Spice

This is actually a clothing store called Chocolate. The picture is of the store in the Unicenter Mall in Martínez; however, they have stores in...

• Paseo Alcorta inaugurated in 1992 in the exclusive barrio of Palermo Chico.
• Alto Palermo (inaugurated 1990 and currently the sight of the first Starbucks in the country)
• El Solar de la Abadia (award winning architecture, rehabbed from an old ice factory, inaugurated 1995)
• Patio Bullrich (inaugurated in 1988, this used to be a market for cattle, and even pure bred horses)
• Av. Santa Fe 1430
• Av. Cordoba 4856
• Honduras 4928
• Dorrego 864.

This weekend only, with your purchase of at least $100 pesos, they will give you Sugar & Spice Passion for Chocolate Cookies.

Starbucks Argentina Strikes Gold

Something just happened to me that has not happened since I started this business. Today was Starbuck´s grand opening to the public. It was such a huge success that they called me from the store (not even three hours open) to ask me for a favor; could I make a delivery today since they are doubting that they will be able to wait for their own shipment from the warehouse before they would run out of cookies? The background noise gave every indication that the place was packed.

Mind you, their initial purchase was not a tiny one. They were expecting to be busy, it´s just that they turned out to be busier than they expected.

I was going to stop by to say hello and have a coffee, but now it seems I will be making a delivery.

By the way, there was a pretty good article in Perfil regarding Starbuck´s. The picture above is from the article. I will see if I can take a picture from the place itself; although, there might not be much to see except a mob of people drinking coffee. Check back later on today though if you are curious.



My hat is off to you Starbuck´s, the opening looks like a huge success.

According to the article they plan on opening 3 to 4 more stores before the year is up. That would be about 4 stores in 6 months.


*** update 1***
Links to other sites writing about the Starbucks opening:

Apertura de Starbucks
Cuando Abre Starbucks?
MSNBC in English
Street Insider.com in English
Starbucks Goes to Argentina from Bloggingstocks.com
Confessions of a Starbucks Addict part 2
Will Starbucks be a Hit in Argentina?
Fiebre por Starbucks - Merodeador
La Nacion - Starbucks abre su primer cafe y sumara otros cuatro
La Verdad acerca de Starbucks - Todo por 2Clicks
Starbucks abre hoy su primer café en el país - Clarin
Starbucks desembarcó en la Argentina - Apertura
Starbucks Madness - Buenos Aires Daily

N°84 speaks...(with PODCASTS!)

***update 2***
I just got back from delivering their emergency stock of cookies and I was surprised at what I saw. I was also kicking myself for not taking my camera. There was a huge line of people waiting to get in. Sure, I thought they would be busy, but I did not expect to see a long line snaking out the building and around the corner.

The employees told me that the line has been constant since they opened up at 8am this morning.

I would say that for now, it looks like a runaway success.

Starbucks Argentina

I previously wrote about Starbuck's coming to Argentina. Tonight I went to one of their pre-opening events. Since it is opening, I can now come out and say that yes, we did get picked to be one of their product suppliers; in fact, we supply them with cookies and brownies.

This is Argentina's first store and it is located in the Alto Palermo Shopping Mall (Flash web site).

The store is big. It is also very cozy and comfortable. The outside seating is very spacious. I can't say enough good things about the place. I was very impressed. There are lots of comfortable chairs, couches, and ottomans. This place was made to entice you to stay and enjoy your cup right there on the premises.

As soon as I walked in the door I was offered a cappuccino brownie. Funny, I didn't supply this. Right away I saw John (this guy flies around the world and is in charge of making sure that all the international stores get the products right) and asked him if those brownies were his doing. He was guilty as charged and I humbly congratulated him; they were fantastic.

One other thing they seemed to have gotten right, and this is something that is very difficult to pull off, is that the employees that I have dealt with during this whole time are so enthused and so into this project you would think that this is their store. This is difficult to fake on an ongoing basis.

The store opens this Friday the 29th of May at 7am.

The previous post I wrote on this subject generated some passionate debate. In that post I also linked to other blogs that wrote about the impending arrival of Starbuck's. Makes for some interesting reading...

Below are some pictures of the event...

Starbucks and Argentina

This coffee falls into your stomach, and straightway there is a general commotion. Ideas begin to move like the battalions of the Grand Army of the battlefield, and the battle takes place. Things remembered arrive at full gallop, ensuing to the wind. The light cavalry of comparisons deliver a magnificent deploying charge, the artillery of logic hurry up with their train and ammunition, the shafts of with start up like sharpshooters. Similes arise, the paper is covered with ink; for the struggle commences and is concluded with torrents of black water, just as a battle with powder. ~Honore de Balzac, "The Pleasures and Pains of Coffee"

This quote was actually about drinking a concentrated coffee on an empty stomach and its effects on the author as he sits down to write. It did remind me though of all the passion that the topic of coffee brings up when you mention it to local Argentines and expats.

The locals don’t really like what is normally consumed in the States (drip style coffee) and the expats don’t really like the coffee beans that are available in Argentina. When the topic of coffee comes up both sides just don't understand each other. Now just to clear things up a little. There is one local type of coffee that is virtually undrinkable unless you were brought up on it. I make this last point because it is the majority of the coffee available in the supermarkets so someone is buying this stuff. This is called Torrado and basically what it means is that they use sugar in the roasting process. This does not mean that the coffee made from these beans is sweet. It is an awful sour tasting concoction that results from roasting sugar and coffee beans together. It’s just plain nasty.

Argentina does have a strong and healthy coffee culture (not built on that Torrado crap thank God). There are many old style coffee houses. The city of Buenos Aires has even put together a list of cafes that have a historical relevance. And they have some newer modern coffee chains, kind of like Starbuck’s. The most important players in this category being Café Martinez, Bonafide, The Coffee Store, Havanna Café, McCafe and Aroma Cafe. The demand is so great for this that even the gourmet ice cream shops have gotten into the coffee game. Freddo offers coffee and tea and in some cases shares a store front with Aroma Café. Persicco and Volta offer coffee as well. Chungo does the same and basically just about all the gourmet ice cream stores do this.

So why on earth can’t you buy a decent coffee bean to take home? This is what most expats are complaining about. The only chains that offer coffee beans for home grinding are Café Martinez, Bonafide, The Coffee Store, La Bolsa del Café and Estación General de Café. Some of these businesses have been around for a long time like Café Martinez and Bonafide but the current day concept of gourmet coffee shops are fairly new. I mean those businesses started out as importers of coffee and eventually morphed into what they are today. This is still relatively new to Argentina. My impression is that most people only go out for coffee. There has been little demand for that gourmet mono-source coffee bean from Guatemala or Jamaica, but I also see that changing. Bottom line is they make their coffee with espresso machines here and sometimes they will cut it with milk. That’s pretty much the two main variations and they go by either “un café”—no milk, straight shot, or “cortado” –for the one with milk, or “lagrima” –mostly milk with a little bit of coffee, or cappuccino. There is one more variation that is called “café con leche” and this is normally served in the morning. It is the only one that comes in what would approach an American sized cup-a-joe and it is more like half milk, half coffee. Some places even leave a container of milk and a separate one for your coffee and you mix it yourself. For the other coffees, they are served in small cups that can be ordered a bit larger by ordering a double or “doble”. You can forget about drip style coffee. I have never seen it offered.

So why does Starbuck’s want to be in Argentina? I am sure it’s the same reasons why you would find that gas stations, car washes, movie theatres, ice cream stores and even some furniture stores all trying to get into the coffee market here. Just about everyone goes out for coffee. Argentina should actually be a no-brainer for a brand like Starbuck’s to be attracted to it. The real question is where will Starbuck’s fit into this local market? Are they a little late? Will locals go to Starbuck’s? I am not in the coffee business but I do supply it with baked goods. My impression is that there is room enough for another player in the market. Starbuck’s should be a catalyst for a lot of healthy competition among the gourmet coffee segment. Their focus should be on offering high quality gourmet products as well as integrating some of the local staples like medialunas and reacquainting the local Italian segment with their beloved cantuccini while offering authentic chocolate chip cookies to those American expats and tourists. They will be held to a pretty high standard so they will not be able to get away with giving out cheap products with their coffee like some local chains do. However, their main sex appeal will be there never ending variety of coffee drinks. This will be a novelty because no one has tried that approach here really. It will be interesting to see how locals will take to some of these new novel coffee drinks added to their current short list of coffee options. That I think is a crucial key to Starbuck’s success in Argentina.

If you would like to see some of the posts and comments regarding this topic I have collected several posts from other bloggers in Buenos Aires and an article on the subject. There were many comments flying around the expat sites as well but I can not publish those here. The topic makes for some interesting passion filled reading….

Moving to Argentina - Starbuck´s Finally Coming to Argentina

Expat Argnetina - Time to Cry for Argentina... Starbuck´s is Coming!

Cafe Culture in Buenos Aires - Not a Starbuck's in Sight.

Do Argentines Love Coffee or the Experience of Drinking it?

Your Set of Works - by Yanqui Mike

Yanqui Mike on Coffee Beens

Starbucks abrira en dos meses. - 283 comments and counting (in Spanish).

A Texan in Argentina: Confessions of a Former Starbucks Addict

Picture of Starbuck's coffee with brownie I found at this site.

Arm Chair Sales Manager

This is an experiment. I get many questions regarding what it would be like to do business in Argentina. For those of you who do not know our story I will give you a short summary.

We started baking cookies out of our home after I begged my wife to try it just for the hell of it. I would go around with a Tupperware in hand visiting the local bars and cafes of Palermo Viejo.

The demand and interest soon started to grow for our homemade cookies. We soon rented a small space in Palermo Viejo and started to serve delicatessens, wine stores, and cheese and meat shops. We also noted that we would outgrow our new location quickly so we started to look for a new place.

Now we have a state of the art baking facility consisting of 600m2. We supply the same type of small independently owned shops that we did from the beginning but we also supply some bigger clients as well. Some of our clients include McDonald’s, Falabella, Aroma Café, Freddo, Munchi´s, The Coffee Store, Al Queso, queso, etc.

It is impossible to give an exact reason or explanation as to how we got from baking cookies at home to sending out pallets of cookies to major corporations. However, I could give you a glimpse into what happens client to client. This is where this experiment comes into play.

I want to give you the opportunity to play armchair sales manager. I will present you with either a target or new client. I will give as much information to you as possible and either a problem or a goal and you can give me comments as to what you would do or what you think I should do. You can pretend to be my coach, boss, or mentor.

I present the first case. In this case I will with hold the name of the client. I may or may not do that in the future. We will see how this evolves.

The Coffee Store

This is a new client for us. They have a chain of coffee shops throughout the city. For those of you in the States, it would be the closest thing to a Starbucks that we have. Our proposal to them was to present a low priced yummy alternative to what they were currently offering with their coffees in the shape of a cantucci (little biscotti). However, for us that product is a very low margin product and part of the agreement was that they would also buy from us Cookies as well as have our brand in their shelves, which they would buy on consignment (Sugar & Spice branded product). We would also develop new products for them down the line.

Four months have passed by and they seemed to be very pleased with our cantucci. The product on consignment sells well in some stores and in some others it doesn’t. This last point was to be expected. So far, they have not added any other products to their line-up. This, even though, one of their locations even went so far as to open packages that were on consignment to sell the cookies out of a jar. I have had meetings with them and have presented several options.

Our cookies are a high price alternative to what they currently have. My argument is that if they have better tasting, higher quality cookies, even though their margins might shrink a little bit, they will end up selling more.

What do you think? What should be my next move with this company? What would you do? If you need or want more information you could also ask me and I will do my best to answer you.