Taste brings Starbucks to RSA

I heard some fellow call in the wireless yesterday afternoon, bemoaning the fact that Starbucks was coming to South Africa, he was worried what this would do to the fledgling coffee culture that was growing in Johannesburg. Did he think that Starbucks started with 1000 stores? I must say that my choice of words in the car were not PG13 even, sorry. The first Starbucks started 44 years ago, with a single store in Seattle, their experience no matter where in the world is supposed to be the same. Starbucks is awesome. If the coffee being offered by the boutique houses is of a better quality and the experience is fine for men wearing lumberjack shirts, skinny jeans and sporting beards, then fear not, the same patrons will continue to frequent that joint. When Starbucks IPO'ed in 1992, 21 years after being found, there were only 165 stores. Last year that number crossed 20 thousand.

All I am saying is that if you have a quality product like the hipster suggests, then he need not worry about big business with their generic offering upsetting his "experience". He need not worry if his experience is the only authentic one, if anything he should plan to roll out more experiences and spread the love. Everyone has choices. Well done to Taste Holdings, Carlo Gonzaga and his team for scoring the Starbucks licence here and across the continent. As per the release: The license agreement sees Taste owning the exclusive rights to develop Starbucks retail outlets in South Africa. As Taste is the licensee, it will own and operate the stores directly. As simple as that. Well done, really. The first store? That is coming in the first half of next year, you are going to have to be patient on that score.