Starbucks Opens Fourth Store In Buenos Aires
Starbucks, that little mom and pop coffee shop, has opened a fourth store in Buenos Aires, indicating that even persnickety Porteños have given the famous brand their seal of approval.
The newest store opened last week in the city’s upscale Belgrano R neighborhood, on Avenida Elcano 3179. Starbucks representatives declined to say if the company plans to open other stores. Nor would they say how many customers they have here in Argentina.
They did say that in Buenos Aires the most popular drinks are the Caramel Macchiato, Mocha and Cappuccino.
As for food and snacks, the most popular treats here are muffins while in the U.S. they are muffins, rolls and scones.
(The Argentine stores also sell cookies made bay fellow expat Frank Almeida and his company Sugar & Spice. Frank came down here from Chicago and started the company from scratch – and dough.)
The local stores have at least one big advantage over their U.S. counterparts: Free WiFi.
Starbucks opened its first store in Seattle in 1971 and has expanded to more than 15,000 stores in about 45 countries. You can find their other BA stores at these locations:
- Shopping Alto Palermo – Arenales y Av. Coronel Díaz (Palermo)
- Av. Federico Lacroze 2301 – corner of 3 de Febrero (Belgrano)
- Callao 702 – corner of Viamonte (Centro)
*No, I didn’t get paid for this post. I don’t post or write anything here in exchange for payment. I write about whatever I find interesting and whatever I think you might find interesting. It’s that simple, always has been, always will be.
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You omitted to mention that Starbucks has dropped their prices in BA, to me a sign that business was not as good as they thought. While at first the cheapest cappuccino was I think 11 pesos, now it’s 9, at least in the Av. Lacroze store.
I was out last night and noticed that in the small shopping center on Malabia, between El Salvador and Costa Rica, they’re converting the old Spell Cafe into a Starbucks.
taos —
Another one is about to open on Malabia in
Soho entre El Salvador y Costa Rica
e
I can’t believe any self-respecting Porteno would do business with the Wal-Mart of the coffee world. The cafe culture of Buenos Aries is so well developed and ingrained in neighborhood life. Why sit in a plastic banana joint like Starbucks and drink their burnt-bean swill out of PAPER CUPS? Support your local barista!
@ everyone here
Everyone knows that Starbucks isn’t the best coffee in the world, but they are consistant with their coffee around the world. They are also smarter business people now because of their recent failures and store closures worldwide.
Starbucks locations are being opened up in B.A by another company that is currently responsible for the success of Burger King in B.A. The company is aware of what they are doing and from as far as I can tell, Burger King is not leaving B.A anytime soon.
People drink a lot of coffee and people like options. I guarantee I don’t drink Starbucks ever day, but I do crave their coffee once in a while.
They are not going away, and they also won’t take over B.A
Let’s try not to get too emotional about it! it’s just coffee and there are some other much worse things affecting the economy in Argentina then Starbucks… umm corruption?
If you can’t beat them, join them?
I wrote a post on Havanna’s new To Go only coffee kiosk that I happened by on Calle Florida. Another Coffee Walmart wannabe in the making? You decide.
http://tutoramigos.blogspot.com/2008/11/to-go-cup-coffee-will-it-stick.html
I love that cup of coffee…..
I also love that little cup of Gallego de la esquina coffee.
But it is not the same.
Also a lot of people enjoy keeping the cup with them. Specially while going to work.
I am a coffee drinker, used to work night shifts in many hospitals, mostly all my life.
Coffee used to be my friend.
That is why I think your article means a lot to me.
Starbucks coffee is like talking about my mom…
dragno
Porteños AND expats flock to McD’s and Burger King and pay premium prices for sub-standard meat so why not pay premium prices for sub-standard coffee?
9 pesos (down from 11 pesos) for a cappuccino?!! You can almost buy a 1/2 kg bag of coffee for that!
@Quickroute:
“You can almost buy a 1/2 kg bag of coffee for [$9]” And you might as well burn some newspaper and put that into your percolator. Call me spoiled, but I can’t drink cheap La Morenita. I currently am quite taken with the coffee sold in a cofee store in my neighborhood, at $32 for 1/2 kg. Better still is the Santos sold at the El Progreso patisserie in Santa Fe Av., at $44 for 1/2 kg.
Caffeine is caffeine, you may say, but life’s too short to drink awful coffee.
i know i am posting really late, but i think they won’t do too well down here, since lots of people are used to their own ‘cafes’ where they already know a lot of people and they usually go there on a regular basis in order to be with them and have long talks, etc.. rather than the coffee itself. Starbucks will be pricing their products way too much for the local market and once the starbucks fury is gone they will have to adjust to the argentine economy/reality.
Something similar happened with pizza hut, they couldn’t compete against the enormous amount of local pizzerias and closed a lil after the pizza hut fury was vanished.
“Porteños AND expats flock to McD’s and Burger King and pay premium prices for sub-standard meat so why not pay premium prices for sub-standard coffee?”
What makes you think the regular Argentine coffee is not sub-standard?
I agree with Juan. I’m totally shocked Starbucks has survived this long in BA, and I bet it’ll go the way of Pizza Hut, Dunkin’ Donuts and KFC (although those last two didn’t fail because of local competition). Anyways, as soon as Havana and Café Martinez get their act together and start trying to compete (Café Martinez already has a Frappuccino, although my friend said Starbucks is better), Starbucks is doomed in my book.
Personally, I have nothing against Starbucks, thanks to them I can drink a half-decent cup of coffee anywhere in the world, but in BA??? Give me break!
Being the largest coffeehouse in the world, I’m surprised there’s only four in BA.
Not a “mom and pop” coffee shop, unless you were being tongue-in-cheek.
[...] Lacroze 2301) and Centro (Callao 702) and all have free wifi. According to the article in The Argentine Post, the most popular drinks in Argentina are the Caramel Macchiato, Mocha and Cappuccino. Prices [...]
Hi Taos,
As some of your visitors have indicated there will be a 5th store in Palermo Viejo opening soon. I have been in Buenos Aires since 1999 and since have had children and created my own business. One of the things that I brought with me, and I still can´t shake entirely is that when I have a full schedule and I am out and about the city I just don´t have time to sit down and patiently wait to be served and then wait again to pay for the check. I do love that though when I do have the time.
Also, most coffee places here offered café, lagrima, cafe con leche, or cortadito or cappuccino and that was pretty much it. Nothing wrong with that if you happen to find your favorite coffee place and you liked it then you were set.
Before Starbucks came to town you did have some chains that popped up in the Starbucks style. I call these your modern coffee local Starbucks wanna be´s and one global competitor in the local market. There is nothing wrong with trying to copy a successful coffee chain. I really did not care one way or another for these chains. As for the local independents, there are some very good ones and there are some that just serve swill.
For now, Starbucks has tapped into a market that so far has accepted them. I do not see them competing against the local independents. This is not the USA and the local market looks nothing like the US did when Starbucks first started and it looks nothing like any US town that Starbucks goes into now, or goes out of for that matter.
The independents are going to be just fine. The ones that are going to duke it out are the local modern coffee chains against the two global giants. Believe it or not, the impression I get is that there is room for both of them. As for the local chains, it just depends on how well they are run. If they do their homework then the better ones will survive.
This coming year is going to be a very tough year for all Argentine retailers across the board. If any of them are going to drop out of the market I would expect to see that this year and no I don´t expect Starbucks to leave any time soon.
[...] Starbucks Opens Fourth Store In Buenos Aires [...]
Starbucks will probably only attract younger consumers, people obsessed with American culture. Their own Havanna is way better than anything Starbucks has to offer, hands down, ( I wish they could bring it to the US!) but people there are very trendy and flock to these kinds of things, even if it is not the best. Personally, any little cafe bar has an excellent selection of coffee. Most argentineans I have spoken with really don’t care much for Starbucks or Wifi (since laptops are super expensive, not to mention the risk of getting robbed while carrying it around town) and have no interest in going there.
And also, Havanna launched their own versions of the frappucino, and they are sooooo much better than starbucks!