Jul
2
El pobre Starbucks
Whenever I need a good chuckle, I head on over to 20 Minutos and click on a random story to read the reader comments. They never disappoint. If you want to read unadulterated, real-life colloquial Spanish and have a good laugh at the same time, there is no better place online. Open 24/7, 365 days of the year.
Today’s news that Starbucks is going to shutter 600 locations and lay off 12,000 people in the U.S. caught my attention. Not because I’m a fan of Starbucks, ni hablar, but because I was curious to find out what impact, if any, those moves in the U.S. were going to have on Starbucks overseas, particularly in Spain. A few months ago I wondered out loud about why Starbucks even exists in Spain. Based on the comments over at 20 Minutos, many Spaniards wonder the same thing.
20Minutos readers’ reactions to Starbucks’ woes in the U.S. were as amusing as I hoped they would be. A guy (or gal) who wrote under the moniker “No los aguanto” said:
“A mi esta cadena me pone enferma. Yo no entro por la chorrada america de preguntarme cómo me llamo ( el marketing este de tratar a las personas por su nombre, etc etc y los pajaritos y las ovejitas bee bee pio pio argg!!) y lo de que pase un buen día forzado. Es hipócrita total. “
A commentator called mmmm seems a little paranoid when he/she writes:
“El café que sirven en el de la calle Orense de Madrid es malísimo…. En recipientes de plástico bien tapaditos para no ver el contenido. Caro, caro, no sabe a nada.”
Another 20Minutos reader blames Starbucks for the loss of his precious Ray-Bans sunglasses:
“Precisamente en un Starbucks de Londres me robaron unas Ray-ban nuevecitas. No puedo demostrarlo pero estoy casi seguro de que fueron los empleados, pero no veas como se hacían los disimulados.“
Funny how everyone says they hate Starbucks and yet (still) so many people go there to buy coffee.
I was just discussing Starbucks with my dear brother. I don’t particularly care for their products, which, in my opinion are pretty mediocre, but, what one pays for is the ambience.
Thank you for posting.
Yes, Miss Profe, you’re so right. No matter where you go in the world you know that if there is a Starbucks there will be nice comfy chairs to sit in and cool music playing in the background. That is if you can hear the music over the sound of the coffee grinders!