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Monday, January 19, 2009

Starbucks taking over Indonesia


If you're a slave to venti caramel macchiatos or gingerbread nonfat lattes, like me, you're in luck.

If you're in Indonesia, anyways. Back in the States, not so much: The ubiquitous coffee chain is closing stores, paring costs and doing everything it can to boost a slumping stock price. In a cratering economy, overexpansion and high debt levels are very dangerous things. Even with original founder Howard Schultz back at the helm, they're playing it safe and getting back to basics.

But the good folks at Starbucks in Indonesia - if I'm a caffeine addict, are they my drug dealers? - tell me that a 10% expansion is in the works. They're already in big population centers like Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya, Bali, Jogjakarta, and Medan. But at only 73 cafes for hundreds of millions of people, they hardly need to worry about saturation at this point.

Conspiracy theorists, take note: In the Austin Powers movie series, Starbucks was actually Dr. Evil's vehicle for global domination. Next time you order a grande Pike Place blend, keep that in mind. :)


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