The Venti Mocha ($9) Invades Moscow

Michael C. Moynihan | September 7, 2007

After a series of false starts and a protracted lawsuit against a tenacious "trademark squatter," Starbucks, that symbol of American bourgeois consumerism, is coming to the former Soviet Union. For $9, the fashionable Gazprom oligarch can purchase an authentic venti mocha (In New York City, the same drink runs $4.50). The New York Times reports:

Starbucks first registered its trademark in Russia in 1997 but did not open any shops here because of the economic crisis of 1998. Then in 2002, as the Russian economy was picking up again, Sergei A. Zuykov filed a request with Russian authorities to cancel the chain's trademark because it had not been used in commerce in Russia. He then registered Starbucks in the name of a Moscow company he represented as a lawyer.

Mr. Zuykov, a lawyer and a former car alarm salesman who says he has claimed many brands, defended his stake on the name Starbucks for three years, saying that if Starbucks would pay $600,000, he would abandon his registration. The company refused to pay.

He lost his case in November 2005 as Russia stepped up its bid for membership in the World Trade Organization and hewed closer to international standards for the protection of intellectual property.

Despite this setback, which allowed competitors a head start, Starbucks said it saw plenty of room for more coffee shops in Russia. Ms. Pucik, the Starbucks spokeswoman, cited data from Euromonitor International, a market research company, showing that Moscow has one coffeehouse for every 3,187 people. New York has one for every 365 people, and Paris one for every 126.

Full story.

In 2003, Jackson Kuhl looked at Starbucks's global expansionism.

Comments

lunchstealer|9.7.07 @ 1:23PM|#

Moscow has one coffeehouse for every 3,187 people. New York has one for every 365 people, and Paris one for every 126.

Holy crap. What percentage of the Parisian economy is devoted to coffee jerks?

|9.7.07 @ 1:30PM|#

I sell Adidums. They are like Adidas, but you get four stripe instead of three. Is good deal. For less money, you get extra stripe.

ed|9.7.07 @ 1:41PM|#

I dunno. Whenever I see a person lugging around a giant Starbucks container I feel a little sad for them, like I feel for the retarded boy who bags my groceries.

Travis|9.7.07 @ 1:46PM|#

Would you like low fat soy milk for your mocha Commrade?????

Brian Sorgatz|9.7.07 @ 2:34PM|#

Good news from Russia for a change. Bourgeois hedonism and frivolity are allies of liberty. Where there's a market for American brand-name venti mochas, the disturbing trend of Stalin revisionism can only run shallow.

Who says it's always bad to be shallow?

Which reminds me: Osama bin Laden dyed his beard a more youthful-looking black for the new video ("a popular practice among Arab leaders"). And that hypocrite calls us Westerners vain. The jihad will be not only televised but airbrushed.

|9.7.07 @ 4:10PM|#

The Venti Vodka Mocha. Coming to a Starbucks near you.

The Wine Commonsewer|9.7.07 @ 5:02PM|#

Intellectual Property? Holey Smokes, I thought the Reason position was that there is no such thing. Yet, here we are.

Ed, I never feel sorry for myself when I walk out of Starbucks with a Grande of Frog Roast mellowed with cream and Splenda (no sugar, please) for a buck seventy five. Dang, that is some good coffee.

The rest of it, well, you can have my share, but when it comes to straight forward coffee, Starbucks is hard to beat. Peets is pretty good too.

|9.7.07 @ 10:18PM|#

People may bitch about the taste of Starbucks coffee vs. Peet's ("overroasted" has been the typical complaint) but if you cast your mind back as to what was out there beforehand--well, really, I don't see what you're complaining about. Do people REALLY want to go back to the bland, dishwater, hot-water-with-one-bean-dipped-in-it that was standard?

Starbucks is one of the reasons I'm proud about capitalism. Hot diggity.

The Wine Commonsewer|9.8.07 @ 2:20AM|#

Oh Grump, you are the man! I am ever so grateful to Gen X for giving us back good coffee. Fucking hippies thought it was so booooge-wah to drink coffee (they never heard of Ginsberg or Sebastian sitting in coffee houses passing the hat cuz everything was sooooo ohhhhh yester-fargin-day).

You got dam had to drive to San Francisco or Seattle to get a decent cup of coffee. Not no more. Thankee.