Updates


Barcelona has been clusterbombed. It is only a light clusterbombing at this point, and there didn't seem to be many people in the stores. (They weren't empty, but they were by no means full either. That said, I am sure they are full of tourists in August). Spain appears to be a "Short, Tall, Grande" market and not a "Tall, Grande, Venti" market). It may be that the availability of high quality low cost Spanish coffee (which costs about €1.00 - €1.50 in a local cafe/bar) is such that Starbucks' two to four times as expensive coffee is priced out of the market, actually. We shall see. In Australia Starbucks appears to be doing fine despite charging a premium of 30%-50%, but this Spanish differential is much bigger. If the WiFi in the Starbucks stores was free, that would be something to draw me in, but it was for pay and expensive.