Americano To Go (Away from Forbidden City)

Following up on Neil's post, the Starbucks in Forbidden City is in fact, closing. The Chinese have gathered 500,000 signatures that caused the management to shut it down.

Is that good or bad news?

Tim Footman of The Guardian expresses a concern in his column today that "in a global market of implied cultural signifiers, absolutely any product - even a cup of mediocre coffee - seems to have the potential to challenge socialism with Chinese characteristics."

He points out what we all know: it is not coffee that Starbucks sells. They sell "a lifestyle, a feeling, a brand, a corporate reimagining of bohemian leisure." Although the Chinese are perfectly willing to sell the fancy coffee, they refuse to sell the name and lifestyle. It was either changing the name or closing shop.

If you change the name, you end up with mediocre coffee. Closing shop, I guess, made perfect sense.



Filed under: Activism, Arts and Culture, Food and Drink, Asia, China

Recent Posts

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)

Add your comments

Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

When you enter your name and email address, you'll be sent a link to confirm your comment, and a password. To leave another comment, just use that password.

To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br /> tags.


Featured Galleries

Cockpit Chronicles: LAX 'View from the office'
Soulard Mardi Gras: St. Louis, Missouri
A drive down Peru's coast
A Chinese tiger farm
Cockpit Chronicles: July catch up
Galley Gossip:  Positano, Italy
Cockpit Chronicles: Night Bike Tour
Galley Gossip:  Venice (Cannaregio)
GALLEY GOSSIP:  Prepare for takeoff

 

Sponsored Links