Chetos Will Support Starbucks In Buenos Aires

Starbucks opened its second store in Argentina last week in the trendy Palermo Soho neighborhood of Buenos Aires, but with one of the most unstable economies in the world, who’s buying $5.00 capuccinos? Why, rich kids, of course.

Black Book’s Fernando Cwilich Gil says the same business model made McDonald’s a success when it ventured down yonder in 1986. Though Mickey D’s failed to fool adult Argentineans into eating their crap burgers, middle and upper middle-class teenagers were thrilled to have their first crack at the novel piece of Americana.

Going to McDonald’s in Buenos Aires in the early 90s meant two things: very expensive, shitty hamburgers (relative to the cost of, say, a superior tasting choripan) and clusters of bratty, spoiled adolescents hanging out for hours on end, smoking cigarettes and venting hormones on the plastic benches. Thus McDonald’s managed to carve out a little niche for itself, and after all these years settled into its role quite nicely as a purveyor of low-cost garbage to a (now) lower-income adolescent bracket. 

And while the teen poors are sadly eating McRibs ten years out of fashion, the beautiful chetos have moved on to the Bucks of Stars. Gil describes the scene at BA’s original location, in the Alto Palermo shopping mall, as “straight, Buenos Aires 90210.” At the new, Palermo Soho location he saw one sharp dressed teenager purchase $20 worth of mysterious sounding coffee drinks to sample by himself. This in an economy where the top jobs for young people pay about $350 a month. And the best part? He didn’t even seem to like the taste.

Rich Kids Fuel Starbucks Argentine Foray [Black Book]