Coffee shops have come a long way since the early days of coffee drinking. Always a social setting, the coffee shop is a place to sit and chat with friends. The first coffee shop in Italy, and one of the few contenders in the world for oldest coffee house in continuous operation, the Florian, was opened in 1720 in St. Marks Plaza, Venice. And coffee shops like the Florian served as local social hubs since their existence. The coffee shop has always served as a localized global commodity, although the coffee bean was normally imported from South and Central America, Asia, and Africa, coffee was specialized and ground to local perfection for communities all around the world. So how has something so localized, like coffee, become a world wide standardized phenomenon and product? Starbucks.
Starbucks has made a single cup of coffee come from nearly all corners of the earth. The coffee itself comes from South and Central America, South East Asia and Africa. The paper for the cups comes from Canada, Finland, Sweeden, and Norway, and the sugar comes from Brazil and Australia. It is a global commodity! The local coffee shop would most definitely have gotten its coffee source from the same regions of the world, and sugar from Central America/ Caribbean, but its milk and cups would be locally produced. We can see here that coffee has always been a global commodity because it will only grow in warmer climates (closer to the equator), yet it was always localized into its community and culture. Espresso in Italy, Irish Coffee, French Blend, Turkish Grind, the list goes on. And now we can walk into one single store, in 55 countries (as shown above) around the world and get nearly any regionally specialized coffee we desire. 
Starbucks started up in Seattle Washington in 1972, by the 1990's was expanding across the US and Canada, and by the early 2000's was a global enterprise. And although many locals will not deny their local coffee shops of their patriotism and allegiance, it is also to say that they have not completely rejected the American Born and bred Coffee brand of Starbucks from integrating itself into the coffee-culture on 6 of the 7 continents in the world (obviously excluding Antarctica).
Now, we all know the story about McDonalds and how it has also become a leading global enterprise. And we can easily compare Sociologists George Ritzers McDonaldization theory to the more recent global phenomenon of Starbucks. Within Ritzer's theory there are four sections he uses to explain the global phenominon he's dubbed as McDonaldization. First, theres the Efficiency, being able to get the product from all corners of the globe into that one shop to be quickly produced for the customer. Then there is Calculability, where as McDonalds tries to make you think you are getting a lot of product for your money (although the quality is not good) Starbucks instead convinces its consumer that it is paying extra for their Vente French Grind coffee because it is specialized, unique, fair trade, and brought to you from all corners of the earth for your convenience. There is then the Predictability that you can go into any Starbucks or McDonalds around the world and there will be the same products and service from country to country, and the building will be familiar and easy to spot. Lastly there is the Control that employees will perform the same types of tasks in the same way, wear the same uniforms and run the same business anywhere in the world.
But the key difference between McDonaldization and Starbucksization is that, with McDonaldization the food is much more specialized to each individual country to fit their diets and customs, excluding the classics which seam to appear everywhere---like the Big Mac. Starbucksization has instead globalized the different types of coffee in a standardized way. You can walk into a Starbucks in LA and get a caramel macchiato that tastes just the same as a Starbucks caramel macchiato in Japan, and from east to west you can guarantee that there will be the same coffee selections at any given Starbucks.
So is what we are seeing here with Starbucksization, the loss of localization with something so personal as coffee? Where communities would once meet in the local coffee shop to gossip and share news, we find many people crowded into tiny Starbucks, fighting for outlets to plug in their laptops, and sometimes having conversations. I can tell you that usually when I go into a Starbucks its to work on some sort of school project with someone I would not feel comfortable bringing to my house, and around me there are middle aged men working on business deals, and soccer moms feeding their kids low fat chocolate milk while sipping a double shot espresso. The Starbucks I know seems to want to create an image of a global community, somewhere where you can go and chat with friends and relax. But I have found it to be simply a coffee shop that enables and serves as a hub to the hustle and bustle of work and the internet that we know as the 21st century.
Coffee shops are suppose to be, and for centuries have served as a place to socialize and relax; to sit back and watch the world go by through the big glass windows, or amongst the community members and tourists in the piazza. So why are we so eager to embrace Starbucks, and its lack of ties to our communities and culture? Sure, maybe its convenient, but should we loose touch with something so rooted in our cultures and social ways because of convenience? You tell me.
PHOTO CREDIT THE FLORIAN
PHOTO CREDIT MAP
PHOTO CREDIT STARBUCKS AND MCDONALDS GRAPS
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