CAFE CULTURE: Starbucks tests waters in Paris
January 18, 2004 - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Paris—- If coffee is the fuel of France, then the cafe may be the soul of France—- a place to gulp an “express” in the morning or sip a leisurely cafe creme in the afternoon, to rest or flirt, to gossip or debate politics; in short . . . to be French.
So what happens when the American category killer, Starbucks, stalks into the heart of Paris? Last week, as the java giant prepared to open its first French store on the Avenue de l’Opera, Parisians seemed uncertain how to react.
“I don’t think they’ll catch on as an alternative to a typical French cafe,” says Julien Mendez, co-owner of a typical Parisian cafe, Le Rendez-Vous des Amis, in Paris’ Montmartre district. “It will work for people going to work. They’ll get their little to-go cups just like in the movies.”
“But it’s good!” interjects Anne Bory, Mendez’ partner in the cafe, with a strange mix of sarcasm and curiosity. “We could be like Ally McBeal, walking down the street with our little cups!”
In the country that made a hero out of a farmer who tried to destroy a McDonald’s with his tractor, Starbucks opted for a “soft launch” last week, opening almost soundlessly instead of with an American bang.
“Coming into anyplace—- any new market—- you have to demonstrate a general sensitivity to the local market,” Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz said on Thursday. In his announcement last fall of the new Parisian outlet, Schultz said, “It is with utmost respect and admiration for the cafe society in France that we announce our entry into the market.”
Starbucks’ varied European presence only muddies speculation on what the company will do in France. Since September 1998, Starbucks worked its well-known “flood the zone” strategy in London, opening 192 stores with another 192 across the U.K. Since early 2002, however, there are only 20 stores in Spain and 28 in Germany. With 16 stores in Switzerland and nine in Austria, Swiss group Bon Appetit lost $31 million in its partnership with Starbucks.
Those in France who know of the chain either lump it into the same “American fast food” category as the Golden Arches or think of it as a curiosity they’ve either seen on American sitcoms or while visiting America.
Nevertheless, nothing would do a better job of ruffling French feathers than the coffee chain multiplying as it has in London—- becoming another “McDo,” as it’s known here.
“I think their end goal is to multiply, but to do it slowly,” says Everett Hutt, American expatriate in Paris and marketing director for a large American multinational company. “I bet we’ll see 50 stores in five years. The problem with this more timid approach is that it allows a French knockoff to yank it out from under them. The French would love it!”
Anne Bory wonders, though: What if, a year down the road, Paris joins other cities around the world with the theoretical Starbucks on every corner? What if there were three Starbucks in Montmartre next year?
“If they’re everywhere, that changes things,” Bory said. “If they become a local hangout, that could be competition and there would be protests.”
Unlike North American coffeehouses, French cafes like Le Rendez-Vous des Amis also function as what Americans would consider a bar—- very social places where anything to go simply doesn’t exist and most of the income is from the nighttime drinking crowd.
“A cafe in Paris is closer to what we think of as a bar in the U.S.,” says Hutt. “It’s a bar, a place to eat and socialize, plus you can often get your Metro and lottery tickets along with your cigarettes.”
The head of UMIH, the association that represents cafes and bistros, agrees.
“The first cafe was founded in Paris over 300 years ago,” said Andre Daguin, referring to Le Procope, a Latin Quarter eatery that claims to be the world’s oldest restaurant still open for business.
“Starbucks is not going to compete with the French cafe,” Daguin told the Associated Press last week. “The cafe isn’t just somewhere to drink coffee, it’s a place where people go for social contact.”
Starbucks’ one direct French competitor is Columbus Cafe, a French-owned chain inspired by a New York cafe. It caters to the to-go crowd, serving muffins and coffee with syrup, both virtually nonexistent in French cafes.
Philippe Bloch, the co-founder and co-president of Columbus, says he isn’t afraid of Starbucks, although he acknowledges that the American company dwarfs his business.
“It’s like going to war where they have nuclear weapons and we have a knife,” Bloch said. On the upside, “Starbucks’ arrival actually confirms the fact that this is a viable market in France.”
Even if Starbucks were to multiply here, none of this seems to concern the owners of the Rendez-Vous des Amis very much.
Says Bory, “The French fast-food places that Starbucks is going up against, they aren’t the soul of Paris.”
Joe Ray is a free-lance writer living in Paris.
Photo Anne Bory, co-owner of a cafe in Paris’ Montmartre district, is fearful that Starbucks will multiply in the not-too-distant future. “If they’re everywhere, that changes things,” Bory said./ Photo by JOE RAY.
