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Cafe con cookie? Spanish city in a frap over lack of Starbucks
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/12/murcia-starbucks-spain-facebook-coffee1
Giles Tremlett in Madrid Friday 12 March 2010 14.14 GMT
Murcia residents start Facebook campaign to attract global coffee chain – possibly for the muffins, the wifi or the mugs!
Beverage cups featuring the logo of Starbucks Coffee. Photograph: Stephen Chernin/Getty
Murcia is one of the fastest growing cities in Spain, the proud capital of the country's south-eastern market garden region. But the coffee guzzling citizens of Murcia say it still lacks the one thing that would prove they have made it onto the global map of cities that count: the green, white and black sign of a local Starbucks.
Now the city's cappuccino and mocha starved citizens have mounted a Facebook campaign to join the list of 16,000 places on the planet with a Starbucks.
"They have got it everywhere but here," complains Alicia Delgado, a recent contributor to the Starbucks campaign wall. "It is about time we had one too."
Enrique Marhuenda agrees: "The day we have a Starbucks, Murcia will be an important city."
Although Spaniards have long had a variety of good quality coffee on hand at almost every street corner cafe, Starbucks has already established 76 outlets in Spain and continues to expand there while it shrinks elsewhere in the world.
But do the people of Murcia, who can get Spanish carajillos, cortados, cafes solo and cafes con leche at the dozens of cafes doted around each neighbourhood, really know what they would be getting?
Some who have had the Starbucks experience insist they would kill for a muffin and a frappuccino. Others admit that the coffee is often better (not to say cheaper) elsewhere – but say that is not why they want their Starbucks. "The coffee is not really up to much," admits Maria Esther Ser. "But the muffins, the seats, the powdered chocolate and the cinammon are good – and the iced coffees too."
The Murcia fans are also organising an email campaign, hoping the firm will pay attention to the severity of their Starbucks starvation when bombarded by mails. The owners of the Starbucks brand in Spain, Grupo VIPS, were not available for comment.
Some Facebook users are not convinced that their fellow campaigners are only interested in the wifi, sofas and cherry mocha. "Admit it, what you really want is to steal those mugs," says Luis Vallejo.
Others believe Starbucks will destroy local cafe culture. "If I get back to Murcia this summer and find a Starbucks I will turn my back on my birthplace," said Marcos Campillo Supongo.
"In the US the Starbucks coffee is awful and priced like gold. A lot of people only drink it because 'it's Starbucks and it makes me feel cool.'"
Meanwhile, teachers on the Murcia university marketing master's course have already set their pupils the task of putting together a marketing plan for a local Starbucks.
For the moment, those who go to the Starbucks store locator screen and enter "Murcia" will continue getting the following message: "There are no stores matching your search parameters. Please try a different search."
The nearest one the Guardian could find was 140 miles away in Valencia.
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发表于 2010-3-13 04:37
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