You can get coffee in paper cups in just about every corner kiosk, coffee shop and Petrol station in Norway if you ask for it. I am sure this goes for the rest of Northern Europe as well.

Well, another precinct heard from -- especially to richardab who talked about refills. I was recently in Paris, staying at the Familia Hotel on Rue des Ecoles in the 5eme. I love croissants AND French coffee for breakfast, but one day I just could not resist having an American breakfast at the cafe down the street called 'CC S Breakfast in America' -- an old-fashioned diner with red plastic upholstery, Coke bottle posters on the walls, and especially, great big cups of coffee with all the refills you want. I needed that, just once during my stay!

how about a dunkin donuts?

Krispy Kreme? Krystal? Waffle House? Jack-in-the-Box (Jacques-dans-le-Boite?)

Krispy Kremes are all the rage in London--sorry you anti-capitalists, but if the locals don't want it it will fail, be it in Japan, Europe or anywhere else. The locals must want these goods and came blame the Americans all they want but the Americans are not the one supporting these places in their countries (for the most part). No company is going to keep their business in a place where it is losing money just to "spread American capitalism" and destroy their culture.

Access to Krispy Kremes should be a basic human right.

Just wanted to share this official note I recently received from Starbucks Corporate:

"Dear Ms. xxx,
Thank you for your email. We do not have any coffeehouses in France at
this time. We will be opening them soon. Please feel free to contact
me at any time regarding our progress.

Regards,

International Business Development
STARBUCKS COFFEE INTERNATIONAL"

I know certain people already knew this but this is the official word, at least for now.

I think there may be a need for casual, takeout coffee and suspect it will be successful. A couple years ago, I was flying from US to Europe and sat next to a Swedish girl who was going home from a vacation in the US (she was in her 20s). She proudly showed me the Starbucks coffee and mugs she was taking back as gifts to her friends. I was speechless, but she said to me how cool she thought it was and said "we don't have anything like this in Sweden!" So, obviously it appeals to some folks. I think part of that is just the idea that it is cool to bring logo products back from a foreign country, but she was actually taking ground Starbucks coffee back to Sweden as a gift.

I have Starbucks coffee free at work so get pretty sick of drinking it all day and it does have an aftertaste I don't care for, but it is a lot better than insipid weak instant-type coffee (or heavens, Nescafe, which you still find way too often in Europe). It's a lot better than takeout coffee from McDonalds or some place like that, also.

What a tempest in a coffee pot!

All one had to do was type in Starbuck's on www.pagesjaunes.fr to discover there are none in Paris! Voila!!

Lol...now McDonalds is getting into the act with "McCafe"...an upscale [??] coffee bar in some of their stores.

OK, fine. They will bve opening one in France soon! Exciting but...

Dear Starbucks,

I love the fact that you have a shop on every street corner in New York City but why can't you open a shop on Rt 3 or Rt 46 westbound in New Jersey? I would like to have a good strong cuppa coffee while sitting in traffic on the way to work. Dunkin Dounuts coffee sucks.

Thank you.

There are Starbucks on Rt4 in Englewood NJ, Rt 17 N in Paramus and most likely in every town. If they are on every other corner in NYC, NJ is surely not far behind!

Starbucks will open in Paris in early 2004--near the Opera somewhere.

As someone else pointed out, in Europe you see many people run in, get a cup of whatever they want, literally gulp it down, and run off to the bus or subway station. I don't see anything sinister about giving people more choice in their lives.

I guess the American attitude towards giving people multiple options in their lives at all levels is more open than in Europe. Though this will probably change in Europe as American cultural influences grow stronger with the younger generations coming up.

i heart starbucks

While in Zurich 2 months ago with Swiss friends everyone was delighted to go to the Starbucks for breakfast. They thought it was great fun ordering all these sweet fun coffees (mochas) and asked for my help in understanding what was what! Too funny!

I have to admit that getting a nice vanilla latte and walking to the museum with it was NICE! But I still love the 'stand at the counter and shoot your espresso' too. Isn't it great to have CHOICES!!!!

I saw the Starbucks in Paris, or at least where it will be. It's kind of across the street from a monoprix about a block or two from the Opera. It looks like it will be a small one story shop, but it could be a two story mega-mocha place...

Interesting little article in this past Sunday's Parade magazine. It cited some European study which apparently claimed that drinking a lot of coffee is bad for the heart. It went on to note that coffee-related heart problems are not as bad in the U.S. and that the theory is that most U.S. coffee is filtered, whereas most European coffee is not. It said that the filtering process removes oils from the coffee.

I heard that they were going to be opening up a Starbucks in a Starbucks bathroom soon.

I'm here all week ladies and gentlemen.

My wife is Canadian and I remember vividly that when we got married 20 years ago and she first came the US, she was constantly amazed at all the freedom and choice that people had in their everyday lives. In Canada, things were done a certain why and that was that. Government and business made decisions for you about how it would be. In America, they actually constantly tried to find ways to give people what they want. There were no rules. What works is what works.

From some of the posts, I guess it upsets some that businesses should try to please customers and give them what they want instead of what a handful of people decide is good for everyone else. There is a word for those people: SNOBS.