This links to a report compiled by business analysts on Poland. a few years out of date but never the less, for the hardcore Polish forum members who like to stay well informed here it is.
This report is massive and covers huge amounts of research and data relating to Poland, a great student resource.
I agree 100%. Sick of those big, soulless chains. I'd rather go to a local café, with that little something...history and life. So sad to see McDonald's and Starbucks everywhere I go.
It used to be the case that whatever else McDonalds sold, you could always be sure of a half decent cup of filter coffee. However, I've noticed that in Poland Mack Shack coffee is often dreadful. I thought franchisees were bound to serve the same stuff everywhere.
I thought franchisees were bound to serve the same stuff everywhere.
The probably do, but it's all about water quality (and brewing temperature). Since now Poland's cities are being polluted with chlorine in water no wonder coffee tastes bad.
Starbucks, one of the most left-wing virtue signalling politically correct corporate monstrosities, has managed to incur itself into a cultural marxist feedback loop error. Recently, a couple of black men were loitering in a Starbucks and when asked to leave wouldn't. The race card was played, the men protested, were subsequently arrested and the rest is now un-folding history. Starbucks has temporarily undergone a re-tooling to train it's entire employee roster in further PC dogma with "anti-bias" training.
Another black man, sick of the marxist PC thuggery that has taken over his country, decided to document using his blackness to guilt Starbucks employees into giving him free coffee... and it worked!
Observe:
youtu.be/NsdOMrnRsvE
It would be interesting to walk in to a local Starbucks dressed as a black person and try the same thing.
**** Starbucks im never going there again after their sucking up to this marxist bullshit. If you're and owner or manager of a business you have a right to refuse service and ask people to leave - especially those loitering and refusing to buy anything
Ive never been to Starbucks in my entire life and never plan on going into one either.
Not for any political reasons at all. I just hate coffee, It has to be the most disgusting taste in the world. I rather drink a cement mixer (bar shot) lol
If I did drink coffee. I wouldn't want to hang around there with all those snowflake millennials wearing their skinny jeans, along with those stupid looking hipster beards, they just sit there on the internet and not talking to anyone?? Yawn!!!!
You got the right idea Joker - it's a choice to go there not compulsory. 13 zloty for lukewarm coffee plus the privelage of waiting 10 minutes in line to get it. The food is horrible - sweet and greasy. No interaction with other people
I wonder if they seek some kind of social gratification from their peers by being seen at Starbucks? Ive noticed a certain type of clientele they cater too, mostly yuppies from what I can gather. Why doesnt anyone talk to one another? Is it supposed to be like a library experience? lol
Do you have Dunkin Donuts in Poland?
Its another chain that is packed full of kawa drinkers in the morning, mostly ppl grabbing it to go while on their way to work. It looks busier than Starbucks.
Talking to a guy in Costa Rica a few years ago, Starbucks uses their third grade beans. You can buy a full pound of World class locally grown coffee, first grade bean, from the local stores yet a Starbucks would sell a 3rd grade bean brewed cup in that same country for 2-3 times what the pound cost.
I think you're talking about costa coffee. Theyre is quite a bit of them in poland. It's basically the same thing as Starbucks.
Yeah most people go to Starbucks to meet, chat, use their Wi-Fi, read the news, etc. It's common to over hear interviews as well. Some docs even see patients at Starbucks.
Their coffee isnt very good though its bitter asf and their specialty coffees are diabetes in a cup. Personally I like McDonald's coffee more.
I've never been to the States but comparing Starbucks in Kraków to Starbucks in London for example, I'd say people have different habits. So I'd expect customers in Poland are different, too. Lots of people that go Starbucks in Kraków are tourists - probably the same type of people who visit McDonald's in every foreign country they visit. I definitely prefer Starbucks/Costa Coffee to McDonald's.
As for coffee shops in shopping malls/airports etc, I don't expect cosy atmosphere so I don't mind going to Costa Coffee, Tschibo etc.
As for cosy atmosphere, small cafes are usually best. About two weeks ago I finally visited a cafe I'd wanted to visit for a while. The interior was great, cosy with vintage photos on the walls etc. I ordered coffee (latte to be precise, some may think it's not really coffee) and had the worst coffee in my life ... milk was overheated ( or whatever the word is) and coffee was ... hard to say as there was hardly any in ...
With chain coffee shops, at least you know what to expect.
Pozegnanie was Ok - a bit small and like a lot of Polish places of that era not enough toilets (a problem when you are selling a diuretic).
DD is back in Poland after a long absence ! I like them but they are mainly stand up counters - there is one in Galeria Polmoc and another at Centralna.
As to Starbucks, Costa and Green Coffee my issue is not with the idea of sitting in a coffee shop. More it's the service - you might have 15 minutes to get a coffee but you have to stand in line and wait for them to make it for 10 minutes, so your well deserved coffee break becomes a hassle. They never have enough staff, never have the right change in the cash register and the product is extremely overpriced - a coffee and a cookie can easily go north of 20 zloty. The sandwiches are horrible - lots of cheap bread and not enough filling.
13 zloty for lukewarm coffee plus the privelage of waiting 10 minutes in line to get it.
13z times five days a week = 65z a week 52 weeks a year = 3380z per year for your coffee
10 minutes a day waiting = 50 minutes a week 52 weeks in a year = 2600 minutes or 43 hours per year waiting for your cup of coffee
In essence these useful idiots are wasting 43 hours a year waiting and 3380 z ($975 US/ 800 euro) a year for a cup of coffee 5 days a week at Starbucks.
I buy about $60 of coffee per year (and that is for 7 days per week) and make mine at home (which is much better & no wait time) while brushing my teeth every morning.
Bought a nice aluminum and insulated go cup at Salvation Army for a $1 that fits in my trucks cup holder that I have used for years saving the landfill of 260 trashed Styrofoam Starbuck coffee cups just from one person per year.
Yeah but if you're one of the two black guys who just got arrested its the opposite - they didn't even buy anything and are gonna get a big fat check from Starbucks not to mention all the media outlets that want the rights to their story and interview them.
The coffee at Starbucks and Costa Coffee tastes the same to me, like burnt plastic, very bitter indeed. Of the bigger chains I prefer the coffee served at Caffe Nero, although there are only a couple of those in Poland, the chain doesn't seem to have caught on. Whenever I'm in Poland I always go to smaller cafes, never chains, and generally the coffee has been good although I don't much like segafredo which seems to be quite widely served over there, I find that to be quite bitter too, although I usually like Italian coffee.
a coffee and a cookie can easily go north of 20 zloty.
Yeah, you can spend as much on coffee and cake as you can for lunch....
Yeah then they moan that they don't have a deposit to buy a house, along with internet and mobile phone charges and the rest of the fripperies designed to extricate cash from naive youngsters of today.
Starbucks should add a tide pod latte to the menu. That would increase business amongst teens/millennials while promoting natural selection. Two birds, one stone.
