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Posted by Coral on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 12.27 pm

In Argentina, especially in Buenos Aires an average salary for a young person not tops out at $350 a month, the minimum wage reaches over $700 including teenagers.

Posted by Peter Winterble on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 01.02 pm

If there ever was a “non-story,” this has to be it.  In a metro area of maybe 13 million people, neither McDonalds nor Starbucks is ever going to be considered as having “invaded” either Buenos Aires or Argentina. Coke and Pepsi, maybe, but not these two.

My guess is that if the market for Starbucks could or can be identified as rich kids from Zona Norte, the threat-level to the existing gazillion coffee shops is in the minus range.

In a free market, a new product ultimately lives or dies by quality and price.  My guess is that after an initial surge (make that micro-surge), Starbucks will either find moderate acceptance or die.  It certainly can’t survive on the sliver of a market segment identified in this article.

Peter Winterble
Buenos Aires

Posted by Fernando Cwilich Gil on Thu Feb 26, 2009 at 12.49 pm

coral: that’s $350 in US dollars. the actual minimum wage for a teacher for example, in argentina, is $1490 pesos. divide that by 3.5 and you’ve got ...

peter: there is no threat level to the other cafes per se, nor was it implied in the piece, just as mcdonalds is not a threat to the gazillion parrillas in buenos aires. the point of the piece was to highlight similiar marketing strategies by two smiliarly/notoriously “invasive” american corporations in otherwise unfriendly terrain, ni mas ni menos…

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