Blackbookmag.com posted an amusing article about the prevalence of Starbucks in Argentina - can it possibly survive?
Judging by the consistent line-up at my local, it can - although the wait may be more related to the Jamaican-styley tardiness of the baristas than the scrum of people desperate to enter. In Buenos Aires women drink coffee in order to get out of the house and cackle for a few hours.
Cac-kle : the high-pitched complaint of women indignant at the behaviour of others (generally husbands and itinerant neighbours) that continues unabated and uninterrupted without the need to draw breath.
Couples may be seen taking a leisurely coffee together, also to get out of the house but generally without feeling the necessity to utter a single word to each other unless to make some derogatory comment on passers-by (preferably of a foreign persuasion).
The point being - Drinking a coffee is expected to take a long time in this city. Starbucks is like some new-century version of getting a milkshake at a 1950s diner - they even offer new-century milkshakes, known as frappucinos. The entire customer base at both Starbucks close to me in Palermo consists of groups of teenagers snapping gum and smoking cigarettes and drinking expensive plastic cups of syrup and whipped cream.
Yesterday when I ordered a mocha to take next door to the peluqueria, the barista couldn't quite wrap his brain around the fact that I wanted it hot, I couldn't quite get mine around the streams of girls walking through the door wearing the exact same goggle-eyed sunglasses, the exact same strapless mini pouff dress and the exact same bandanaed tease hair-do.
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