Starbucks preps for full-on Swedish invasion

It would be rather sad if Stockholm's streets become littered with Starbucks coffee shops. I've never understood Starbucks: fantastically overpriced, not particularly good quality coffee, hot chocolates which are lukewarm at best, and yet everybody seems to want to go there.

Going to Starbucks, buying a coffee, getting your laptop out and 'working': nothing is more pretentious.

I am not sure why Americans love Starbucks so much. I am American and I love it myself. I know that Starbucks was in my favorite bookstore and whenever I went to browse books, I always looked forward to getting a frappachino or coffee to sip while browsing, so it could be that association. I know others who have said similar things.

I have also wondered if perhaps Americans felt that the Starbucks experience was somehow European, if you see my point. You know, the whole fancy Italian/French coffee concept of lattes and au laits made with the big espresso machines and such. It seemed to be a concept that was rather distinct for Americans who had grown up with low-quality coffee from Maxwell House, McDonald's and the local greasy spoon. And the pastries were uniformly good compared to other chains such as Dunkin' Donuts or 7-eleven that offered baked goods.

I think $tarbucks will succeed in Sweden because the coffee is not bad although I am not convinced it is any better than Wayne's/George/Espresso House. But their specialty drinks are better. Nobody makes a better frappachino than Starbucks. And their baked goods will be a nice alternative to the usual kanelbulle and chocolate ball in every café already in Stockholm.

I look forward to Starbucks. I like their coffee very much.

@Achilles7: Not everybody working at a cafe care about being seen. Sometimes it's just about the change of scenery, the non-stop coffee availability and the free wi-fi. If you haven't already noticed, Stockholm is packed with such places already and a big crowd enjoying them, so Starbucks will fit right in!

Looking forward to Starbucks as one more option.

Boy, am I ever glad I don't drink coffee!

While i appreciate Starbucks when traveling in China or other places where you sometimes long for a bit of westernisation, I wouldn't visit this McDonalds for Coffee in Sweden. Someone else remarked that Americans are so entrepreneurial they can even make Starbucks a success. That's telling.

As for the existing market I expect Starbucks to compete with the other boring chains, which are aplenty in Norway so I understand why they start there. I can also see them make some of the McDonalds crowd go for a coffee instead. But I don't see them compete with the more genuinely Swedish places. Maybe they will buy someone out for the location.

I actually prefer Costa Coffee when in the UK!1

is this a news article or a company press release? - extremely hard to tell the difference.

As an American I just want to say how sorry I am that you are about to get more Starbucks coffee shops in Sweden. If you like burnt coffee then they are the best place to go but if you like good coffee go else where.

yay now we can all get obese like americans -_-

This is kind of depressing. While it's nice to see a familiar place when traveling out of your own country, I don't see the big fuss about Starbucks - their coffee tastes/smells burnt to me. The hot chocolate is very good, though. And so are the ice drinks. Why does everyone want to Americanize everything when we're supposed to be so hated by everyone? What's wrong with the Swedish coffee shops, I've always really enjoyed visiting them!

@Groskh - well, you already kind of are. Whenever I travel to Sweden, I am the smallest and thinnest person of all of the group of Swedish friends I visit and their children are much heavier than mine. And I'm American.

I

Being American I can say from experience " Do not let our business chain stores take over your culture. Always keep your authentic culture as one of

your countries main assets.

All food products have a certain amount of residue as allowed by our FDA standards. People in the states were pretty upset when we found insects were

part of our coffee grind that we have been paying a premiumin for from Starbucks.

Of course you will have different owners and all may go well.

It's all hip and crap but when I want good coffee I go the McDonalds.

Now Swedes can go to Starbucks for Colombian coffee and debate the racist French Tintin comic books, the fate of Australian Julian Asange after prayers at the mosque. I think that it is all very multicultural. What is not to like about it?

I hate to see another American restaurant in Sweden. We have enough w/ Subway, Burger King, TGIF et al. I am afraid that our beloved konditori will bite the dust if this trend continues. Besides we are also getting fat like the Yanks but I do not feel it is the fault of eating places of various kinds but of inactivity and laziness.

Americans and swedes are newer countries without so much culture and heritage, their taste is bad and starbucks fills the city centers and train stations, so it's logical

I don't think Starbucks will actually last here. I mean maybe the first year will be good because its trending to have a Starbucks cup in hand.. but Swedes are pretty cheap and I doubt they are willing to pay 9 dollars for a cup of coffee. I hope it doesn't end up like Seattle..I was so sick of Starbucks.. stores right next to each other every block ..was a joke and way overrated !

Great!! I miss the muffins :-)), Specially the brand..

Yeah for you Starbucks haters when living in America I would buy Starbucks everyday and not just a regular cup of coffee then when I came to Sweden I had had a cup of Waynes coffee which taste like crap and then Espresso House which taste like smudge . My wife and I went to Paris ( euro) and actually we paid less for starbuchs then I normally pay for coffee in Sweden

Sweden already has the USA flag hanging up everywhere. Including hemkop.

Your children wear nothing but american labels. Swedish food is best described as bland and overpriced for the pretentious so starbucks will be a perfect match. I havent had a proper coffee in sweden yet. No wonder australia wins the best barista awards year in year out.

Starbucks has better coffee than the yuck served in the Swedish chains--Wayne's, George, Expresso House. SB's is even better than French cafe au lait, which is why SBs are so successful in Paris. In Europe you have to go to Italy to get better coffee than SB's.

In the U.S., Starbucks is inferior to e.g. Peet's in California or any old cafe in New York's Little Italy.

Härligt! Now we can see every independent coffee house in Stockholm close its doors, one after one. Thank you american big business.

It is a bold move since the Swedish coffee house market is already saturated with chains such as Espresso House, Condeco, Coffee House by George, Wayne's Coffee, etc...

OBS: USA coffee is world famous and considered to be the champagne of ALL Arabica-

As an American who has lived in SE for over a decade and hates hearing BS everywhere concerning the crappy coffee all around SE.

Kona (Arabica Typica) coffee is the only truly fair-trade coffee on earth and as USA is not a developing/3rd world country it is not legally allowed to use the fair-trade logo. As a picker in Hawaii gets at least 1USD/pound of cherry and fair-trade pickers have to pick 10 or more pounds for the same US dollar:( Fair trade...too who??

As far as American coffee goes- USA = 5-6g /125ml where EU is 6-7g/125ml

As I have watched people for years and even today at many places with brew coffee in SE that are making it USA grams to a pot:( Every pot that a vendor can get 1-4 more cups to sell gives them an extra million sek/year.

Fact: 60 cafe spaces up for sale in Stockholm today. I see the number getting over 100 by xmas as coffee is only 2nd to oil traded daily and only 2nd to water consumed (coke is #3;) and as Starbucks has reached over 600 new shops of their 1500shops goal by 2015...EU & USA are in for a supply and demand issue.

As coffee in SE is overall low/poor quality and top 10 gourmet is not very available I look forward to Starbuck's. They specialize in high end Arabica beans and SE still has a majority of Arabica it is not Central American or African and usually from Brazil & Columbia mixed with horrible Robusta from Vietnam and other starving farmers countries:( Robusta is the insatnt coffee bean, is twice the caffeine, and as smooth as battery acid!

So, the next time you want to say USA coffee is like our beer and close to water... try a cold Sam Adam's and if you can even find some Kona coffee to taste what coffee should taste like...you can even leave it out for weeks and re-heat and it will still be amazing as it's PH is 0.05 the lowest as Jamaican Blue Mountain. Actually Kopi Luwak from Java/Sumatra that goes through the Luwak's (a palm civ= cat) stomach is the same PH as Kona & JMB but when it craps out the cherries it is the only acid-free bean on earth and the most expensive at 3000:-/kg. AA+ organic Kona is #6 after JMB for kg price at 2000:-/kg. Hard to see the starving farmers in the world where fair-trade comes from. Jamaicans, Indonesians, Ethiopians, Kenyans, and many others children do not eat as well or much at all. Hawaiian farmers are hurting too but eat great food, have good schools, and great medical plans.

Soon the world's crops will fail the world...coffee is only one of the things many take for granted.

A tip- quit drinking coffee before China and India take it away from you as well as Brazil who from 2015 have sworn to only sell 40% of their coffee to the rest of the world. As Brazilians now drink 60% of the worlds largest supplier (40%).

American coffee is the best and anyone who knows anything about coffee knows it is true:)

The truth is ....coming.