Another thing that makes me proud to be Australian

While wondering around Melbourne's CBD this summer i did notice a few starbucks coffe shops, and even in sydney we did pop into one to ask for directions, but i still felt a mild stealth loathing build up inside me from seeing so many around. I think my response may be due to having spent so many years in Dubai- where its normal to have up to 3 starbucks within the one shopping center- and always seems to be the number 1 meeting place as well as the first option to spend an evening out for most students- so yes ive spent my fair share of hours there.
But now i was back home...I did not find this as such a welcoming, tho familiar, sight.

A few months ago starbucks closed down about 61 of its 84 coffee shops in Australia; This is the reason why;

The chain has been the victim of an ill-fated push in Australia, a market it only entered in 2000. Starbucks was snubbed by many Australians who have grown up on a diet of quality European-style coffee introduced in the last century to Australia by immigrants, especially from Italy.
The Financial Times

While the company's British and Asia expansion took it to markets without strong coffee traditions, Australia, with its history of European immigration, was always going to be a test. Starbucks has been trying to sell a watered down product in one of the most sophisticated and lively coffee markets in the world. As one of my students (who, incidentally, had worked at a Starbucks) put it, "why would you want to sit around a pretend lounge room drinking a weak and expensive coffee, when you can go around the corner and have the real thing?" Ironically, it seems that the thing that made Starbucks successful in the first place, its ability to adjust the original (European) business model to local (US) conditions, is the thing that let it down the most.
Sydney Morning Herald

The simple truth is that Australia has got a sophisticated coffee culture, a simple thing that people at Starbucks did not fully understand. “I never really felt the need to go to a Starbucks shop,” says Elise from Sydney. The coffee lover never really felt Starbucks had more to offer or more reasonable prices than its competitors. “I have always felt like we had been invaded by Starbucks. The proliferation of the shops has been fast and intrusive in my opinion.”

Since the opening of the first shops back in 2000, Starbucks has never really breached the difficult Australian market. The general feeling is that they tried to sell a coffee culture which already existed.
When selling coffee is not enough
by Maurizio Corda