Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Starbucks?

Anyone know if there is a Starbucks cafe in Israel? Or are we just Aroma/Cafe Hillel/Coffee Bean friendly?
Thanks!

7 comments:

israeligal said...

there are no starbucks in israel. there was one in tel aviv a couple of years ago, but it closed down because no one went there..:)
cafe hillel is really good though- enjoy!

Rabbi Michael Tzadok said...

It is actually a little more politically charged than that. Starbucks did try setting up here. However there were two major conflicts. First was the maintaining of Starbucks culture in regards to employee relations, which Starbucks on its website said its local partner failed to do.

Secondly is that Starbucks is 100% anti-Union, and because of the first issue they were faced with forced unionization, as Israel is a fairly pro-union country. Rather than unionize, they simply pulled out of the country. But you can find them in Egypt and Jordan if you ever get there.

nmf #7 said...

Israeligal- Thanks! I do enjoy- just a friend of mine asked for a Starbucks mug from Jerusalem, and frankly, I had never seen one.

Mekubal- That's really depressing. Were they anti-Israel in general? Why did Egypt and Jordan have no problem?

Anonymous said...

You can read this for more info about Starbucks-it's not in Israel anymore. :-(

Anonymous said...

Oops. I posted the wrong link.
It's here. And I'm not able to delete the last comment but if you are able to, you can do it for me.

Rabbi Michael Tzadok said...

Not anti-Israel, just anti-Union. Starbucks would rather close a store than have it unionize.

In addition to that they had issues with their partner here in Israel, which lead to the labor disputes. Starbucks has very firm policies about employee wages and empolyees receiving their tips. While most barristas in Israeli coffee shops are paid minimum wage and don't receive their tips.

Unknown said...

B"H

There used to be a Starbucks in Ibn Gvirol / Tel Aviv but they closed down years ago.

As far as I know, there is still ONE STarbucks left somewhere outside or in Netanya !!!