The Rise of Starbucks in Belgium

Tom Vandyck, correspondent for De Morgen in the United States, looks at the Belgian rise of coffeehouse chain Starbucks with mixed feelings.

I recently learned that the American coffeehouse chain Starbucks opened its first establishment in Antwerp. They already had one at Zaventem Airport, but this is the first one in a Belgian city. Hurray!

Allow me to make a prediction: Exactly the same leftist people who won’t eat a cheeseburger at McDonald’s will show up en masse for a Starbucks latte. It’s a curious thought. Although one place sells hamburgers and fries and the other coffee and muffins, there isn’t that much of a difference between Starbucks and McDonald’s. Someone who is even a little bit leftist in the U.S. would never let himself be caught at Starbucks for a long time.

Lofty Socialists

Disappointed? No wonder. Together with Apple and Nike, Starbucks is one of the popular American brands that fares well in Europe. Starbucks radiates hip urbanity. It’s where you would like to spend an hour with a Venti soy latte and your laptop. (That is to say a Mac and not a PC because they belong in the same group as McDonald’s and Coca-Cola: American brands that are not politically correct.)

Therefore, it is logical that a fan page immediately surfaced on Facebook, which soon grew to 3,500 members a week later. The store was opened with radio star Peter Van de Veire, a procession of VIPs, American Ambassador Howard Gutman, Antwerp Mayor Patrick Janssens and a performance by Das Pop, the band of Bent “The Smartest Person” Van Looy. From what I have read on the Internet and in newspaper reports, it looked like the arrival of Sinterklaas [St. Nicholas] but for grownups.

As a Belgian who has emigrated and as a reserved American, I look at all of this with embarrassment. I can understand that people in Moscow or Beijing went berserk when the first McDonald’s opened its doors in those cities. One should expect that the people of Belgium, in the year 2010, are accustomed to a little more. Why the national media and the mass of dignitaries who showed up for the opening of a coffeehouse that already has established 16,000 stores in the world? This kind of reaction would be more fitting for a new car factory. That would be truly remarkable.

In any case, I bet about $10 that the Antwerp Starbucks will be full of hip, leftist urbanites. Lofty socialists, so to say. That may seem curious because Starbucks doesn’t quite have a spotless social record.

Union Busting

That a person would pay five euros for a cardboard cup of coffee is his own business, naturally. Yes, Starbucks dutifully recycles and sells fair trade coffee. The chain is equally accused of using its dominant market position to choke the competition.

This practice is called clustering. When Starbucks starts to do business in a new neighborhood or city, it has the nasty habit to build not one, but a whole collection of establishments immediately; moreover, it tolerates operating at a loss for a long time. The consequences? Independent coffeehouses and other restaurants in the neighborhood cannot handle the competition and are forced to close their doors, while Starbucks has the area to itself.

Another success is that Starbucks has distinguished itself through the years by what is called union busting in the United States. Employees who wanted to establish union chapters were fired. People who had been involved with unions at any time didn’t even get hired. One woman who worked in the human resources department refused to cooperate in this illegal practice and was fired. Starbucks finally paid $165,000 for an amicable settlement in the lawsuit she filed.

So, no wonder many leftist people in the United States would rather drop dead than drink coffee at Starbucks. Such individuals rebel against chains that have homogenized the United States since World War II, in exact imitation of McDonald’s. They consciously move to multicultural neighborhoods where the houses are affordable and where franchise businesses have not yet penetrated. For them, Starbucks is the wrong type of business.

A person who is a little bit progressive here drags his Mac to his local, independent coffeehouse and buys his five-dollar coffee. When the green mermaid shows up on the streets, the neighborhood is ruined. The news that Starbucks opens a store in a historical European building like the Central Station of Antwerp would therefore fill many people here with horror.

By the way, Starbucks is aware of this. Since last year, the chain has opened stores in the U.S. where the Starbucks logo is not imprinted on every available surface and the decor has to mimic that of a small-scale neighborhood coffee shop. It goes without saying that hip, leftist urbanites consider this move to be even more perfidious.

Of course, the situation is not dramatic. It is no worse than other chains. It sits in sharp contrast to the homey, socially conscious, new age image that Starbucks likes to present. This does not stop me from walking by the Starbucks in Antwerp when I get homesick for America while on vacation in Belgium. They can chill my Strawberries & Cream Frappuccino in advance since I don’t like coffee all that much.