The mystery of friendly employees

Tireless readers of my blog may remember my post from a few years ago when I described a tour of the US Embassy in Moscow and a visit to the "Starbucks" there - the only one in Russia at the time. As it turned out, it was not a real Starbucks, but rather a coffee stand that used Starbucks beans.

Fortunately for me (as a former Seattle resident addicted to espresso drinks), Starbucks has since been sprouting coffee shops in Moscow at rates similar to their expansion elsewhere. They joined an already bustling local coffeeshop market, but differed in the convenient "takeaway" or "to go" cups. Walking down the street with a Starbucks coffee cup elicits incredulous stares from most people, as Russians view sitting down to coffee or tea (and accompanying tasty treats) as a luxurious event to be savored. Unfortunately, while Russians excel at providing all kinds of tea (and perhaps due to this tea preference) coffee in Russian-born coffeeshops is equivalent to instant coffee. As the saying goes, people from Seattle only go to Starbucks when away from home (how I miss Uptown Espresso), and so I rejoiced at the arrival of Starbucks. It tastes just like it does anywhere else, and they have soy milk!

On to the economics: while a tall soy mocha in the States costs around $3.50, the same in Moscow costs more than $6!!! That's right, more than six dollars. And I pay it, gladly. I am not the stereotypical expat that tries to recreate the home country here, but in the case of coffee, I gotta have it. Granted, at these prices, not every day, although my Russian colleagues find it funny that I go there so frequently.

xx

I must applaud Starbucks for a truly amazing achievement: they have convinced their employees in Moscow to be friendly to the customers! Anyone that has been to Moscow knows that customer service is an unknown concept here (but you can find very friendly service elsewhere in Russia). I should note they were not able match this achievement in North Dakota; my visit to a Starbucks in north Bismarck several years ago was most unpleasant, the employees there were really annoyed to have to deal with these customer-type people that kept interrupting their conversations.

In the coming weeks I hope to unravel the mystery of how Starbucks gets their Russian employees to be friendly. On a side note, in this post I may have offended Moscovites and North Dakotans. Being that I am sort of both, I believe I can get away with it. Anyway, sometimes the truth hurts.