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Parisian cafe culture faces American invasion

By The Associated Press

	LAURENT REBOURS / AP A Starbucks coffee shop on Avenue de l'Opéra in Paris attracts onlookers yesterday prior to its opening today. Ten Starbucks stores are planned for Paris in the next year.
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The Seattle-based coffee-shop chain opens its first Paris store to the public today, and the king of Frappucinos-to-go accepts it may not be easy to make ends meet right away in a country where people still like to sit down to drink their coffee — short, black, bitter, and above all, cheap.

"Our success in other countries does not provide us with an entitlement to be successful in France," said Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz.

Starbucks sees its international business posting an operating profit overall in fiscal 2004 for the first time in an eight-year global expansion drive.

Starbucks is in 33 countries outside the United States; France is its seventh country in continental Europe.

But Schultz said the company was taking a "long-term view" on France, where pre-launch research showed people remain skeptical about "whether coffee from America can measure up."

The findings also revealed that the French are already aware of the brand, he added. "Their curiosity will drive them into the stores," he said.

There, familiar croissants and "pains au chocolat" await them, to lessen the culture shock when the doors to the new Starbucks premises on the prestigious Avenue de l'Opéra swing open to the public today.

Another outlet opens Monday in the La Defense business district, the second of about 10 planned for Paris over the next year.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company