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December 26, 2002
Diversity food
Starbucks & Co: Russell enjoys US "food" shops like Ben&Jerrys or Starbucks. When I first moved to Germany around 25 years ago - I missed English stuff like Cadburys chocolate and Walkers Crisps (ahh...salt and vinegar, beef, prawn cocktail...). German crisps only had one flavor back then - paprika. At first I was able to get hold of the odd bag of Walkers (or got them sent from the UK). And then - German crisp makers started to bring out their own versions and flavors. So now, I can get the flavors I like (salt&vinegar, cheese&onion) easily. And our local supermarket even sells Cadburys chocolate. So, the European side of things seems to be wrapped up, with the markets merging together (the crisp market being the example I follow :-)). On the coffee-side, Starbucks has only just started opening branches in Germany (Berlin). And they don't have it "down" yet. I was in the German Starbucks branch on the Ku'damm in Berlin last week. After ordering my "Latte", I was surprised they didn't ask for my name (as they do in the US - where they write it on the cup). So when the latte was finished and they called it out - about 5 people rushed forward. Ah well.....there's always room for improvement.
Posted by Matthew at December 26, 2002 10:55 PM