Starbucks in Italy: a new coffee experience to live in Milan

If you are in Milan on holiday or you need to get there for a job meeting you may have a rest in a familiar place: the first Starbucks in Italy opened in Milan in September, a stone’s throw away its famous Cathedral, in the city center. Why this American colossus of coffee struggled to open in Italy and what are the strengths of this coffee bar that can become the key to its success?

Starbucks in Italy, the place where this brand was born

Milan is considered the spiritual birthplace of Starbucks, because there its founder Howard Schultz was inspired to open his lucky franchise. “During my first trip to Milan in 1983, I was captivated by the sense of community I found in the city’s espresso bars – the moments of human connection that passed so freely and genuinely between baristas and their customers”. So Schultz wrote in a release. In 1988, he acquired Starbucks, with the intent to introduce the Italian coffee experience to Americans. Now there is an opposite challenge: it is about exporting a new coffee experience in Italy, in a place where the conviviality that is gathered around the coffee is combined with a new concept of technology. From these premises, on September 7, Starbucks opened to the public its first store in Italy, the Starbucks Reserve Roastery: it is the most beautiful Starbucks in the world and one of the three existing Roasteries in the world. It is housed in the historic and elegant Palazzo delle Poste Building in Piazza Cordusio in the center of town. and has a 25,000 square-foot space.

To get a coffee in Italy: a ritual which struggles with technology

If you are a business man or simply you are used to going around with your laptop or IPhone and to use them to work wherever you are, probably there is a detail I am sure you noticed at list one time, while traveling in Italy. Italy is a country where ‘espresso’ coffee is a must: drinking coffee is considered a ritual, the coffee bar is probably the most distinctive lifestyle landmark and you can drink a tasty and cheap coffee in every corner of the city (according to a 2017 report by FIPE – the Italian Federation of Public Exercises – there are 149,429 coffee bars in Italy)
However, if you need to charge your IPhone or to work with your laptop in a quiet environment using the Wi-Fi connection and seating at a table for a couple of hours, you would probably have some problems. Because the Wi-Fi connection doesn’t exist or doesn’t work properly, the plugs to charge your phone are missing and it is almost impossible to find a place where people are not so noisy and the waiters do not rush you to free the table for new customers. You will find this and more in the new Starbucks store in Milan.

Starbucks in Milan, all the strengths and the potential keys to its success

Starbucks coffee store in Milan is a comfortable and refined place developed according to the new concept Reserve. Where you don’t drink just a coffee but you live a complete experience. The attention to detail, from the finishes to the floor, from the lights to the fitting is one of the key aspects of this concept. Tuscan marble bar tops, a green Scolari coffee roaster in the middle of the store, a mosaic floor hand-laid by local artisans are some very stylish details you’ll find there. You will enter a relaxing and charming place thought to work, to have a rest and to meet your colleagues, taking advantage of the available technologies, free of charge to customers: in short, a place to stay a while. Moreover, Starbucks is considered worldwide a trendy place, cool to visit and where is cool to take a photo of yourself for the Instagram, drinking a coffee while typing or using your IPhone. What do you think, then, about visiting the new Starbucks store in Milan to take some stylish photos? A very glam idea could be to take a photo of yourself while getting your coffee with your cup surrounded by a trendy Made in Italy leather coffee cup sleeve. Meridio branded, of course.