That example being in France, there are plenty of coffee shops serving good quality coffee much cheaper than Startbucks.
In countries like that it’s generally only the tourists from countries with no such traditions that end up in Starbucks since the locals just frequent the coffee shops which are generally much cheaper and generally have better coffee.
I live in a country that nowadays gets swamped with tourists - Portugal - especially in my hometown of Lisbon and lots of such large international brand shops pretty much only get frequented by tourists, plus there’s a certain styling of establishment that’s done to appeal to tourists - roughly, those establishments which look like the kind of thing you would find in the Departure Hall of a large Airport anywhere in the World, are aimed at tourists.
All that to say that in the context of a French Cartoon a Startbucks probably represents very well that kind of cookie-cutter same-style-everywhere-in-the-World establishment that’s actually worse and more expensive than the local version and exists to cater to tourists.
However I was thinking in the context that mixed purpose buildings are cool. Would I prefer a locally owned shop? Hell yeah. But it’s also cool to at least have SOMETHING available so close.
Nearest cafe and shop are both over a kilometer away from me. I wish there was a corner shop 200 meters away and a bar 100 meters away like at my old apartment. But the part of the city I live in is entirely residential.
That kind of mixed purpose building is pretty standard in Europe (I actually can’t think of a country I lived in or visited here that doesn’t do it for most appartment buildings, expecially in areas with more foot traffic) so probably the author of the cartoon didn’t even think about that side of things at all.
I suspect appartment buildings with shops on the ground floor qualifies as one of those “it’s so common that nobody thinks about it” kind of things over here.
That example being in France, there are plenty of coffee shops serving good quality coffee much cheaper than Startbucks.
In countries like that it’s generally only the tourists from countries with no such traditions that end up in Starbucks since the locals just frequent the coffee shops which are generally much cheaper and generally have better coffee.
I live in a country that nowadays gets swamped with tourists - Portugal - especially in my hometown of Lisbon and lots of such large international brand shops pretty much only get frequented by tourists, plus there’s a certain styling of establishment that’s done to appeal to tourists - roughly, those establishments which look like the kind of thing you would find in the Departure Hall of a large Airport anywhere in the World, are aimed at tourists.
All that to say that in the context of a French Cartoon a Startbucks probably represents very well that kind of cookie-cutter same-style-everywhere-in-the-World establishment that’s actually worse and more expensive than the local version and exists to cater to tourists.
Fair enough, I’ve never been to a French city.
However I was thinking in the context that mixed purpose buildings are cool. Would I prefer a locally owned shop? Hell yeah. But it’s also cool to at least have SOMETHING available so close.
Nearest cafe and shop are both over a kilometer away from me. I wish there was a corner shop 200 meters away and a bar 100 meters away like at my old apartment. But the part of the city I live in is entirely residential.
That kind of mixed purpose building is pretty standard in Europe (I actually can’t think of a country I lived in or visited here that doesn’t do it for most appartment buildings, expecially in areas with more foot traffic) so probably the author of the cartoon didn’t even think about that side of things at all.
I suspect appartment buildings with shops on the ground floor qualifies as one of those “it’s so common that nobody thinks about it” kind of things over here.