Getting good value out of Starbucks in Korea

Stay with me on this one…

So I fired up my google reader this morning and saw some interesting articles on Slate about Alberto Gonzales’ resignation.

From there I spotted a snippet about Jim Cramer ranting (the video) about the market meltdown in the US and calls for the Fed to lower the interest rates (a more entertaining Cramer video). As a person with heavy student loans around my neck, my ears are always open for news on interest rates, as I still need to consolidate.

Now, finally we’ve arrived upon your tip for today. From here I spot another feature called “How to Hack Starbucks.” Now, that article doesn’t actually give much of a ‘how to,’ but it points to a website that does. Now, not only do I not care about tea drinks (except for the frozen green tea Latte), but I’d have to figure out how to say all that in Korean before giving it a shot. It could be worth it just to know if it works out, though I couldn’t vouch for the quality of the final product since I’ve never had the original before. However, there’s another tip on getting a better, stronger, cappuccino (also an excellent lesson on second degree price discrimination (I think) for all of you learning about economics) that could be worth trying out… but I have a feeling that the Korean Baristas will just stare at me blankly, if my experience ordering off the menu, or even asking them to hold my tomatoes, at other places holds true.

As much as people in Seoul like to complain about the price of Starbucks, I thought this information might be useful. Some of my Korean friends claim to be boycotting Starbucks because it is priced so much more than other countries, but according to The Economist, Starbucks in Korea is actually pretty reasonably priced (unlike the paid subscription fee required to read that article. You can read it with a free trial subscription to a different site. I’ll keep looking and see if I can find the whole article for free somewhere and update this).

If anyone has any success with the Starbucks ‘hacks’ in a Korean location, feel free to post a comment. There is some debate in the comments section of the website itself, but there are also a couple suggestions for other hacks, so have at it. If I find one succesfull, I’ll post about it here, along with directions for ordering in Korean.

Skinny’s commentary: For the record, I’ve read the book Pour Your Heart Into it by the Starbucks CEO, and I believe that Starbucks, at least in the US, has a very good business model that treats their employees well. I have been interested to know if the same goes here in Korea, considering foreign businesses in Korea are usually some kind of joint venture, managed mostly by the Korean partners. I’m doing ongoing research on this. If anyone has any info. please let me know about it. Also I’m interested in comparisons to Coffee Bean, Gloria Jeans, Holly’s Coffee (500 won refills of whatever you order! But usually in terrible locations).

Just to round this out, I thought I’d post a video about a comedian that hits all 171 Starbucks locations in Manhattan. It has it’s moments. Not bad for UCC, though nowhere near my favorite UCC of all time.