Hey guys,
So I notice for instance, that a Canadian friend found Chipotle “Cool” while a lot of people in America see it as “Alright.” I don’t know if it was because Chipotle was a novelty back them. It seems Chipotle is starting to expand in the Canadian market.
Likewise, I met a few Latin American friend who found Starbucks as a “Chic” place to hang out. For instance, a lot of students from Private Universities would hang out at Starbucks. It catered to a more “upscale” clientele. While in America there’s a lot of seedy people who hang out at Starbucks. Depending on the Starbucks you might find a lot of working class people mixed in with more eccentric characters.
12 comments
Well American ~~restaurants~~ cafes and fast food chains are always more expensive than local ones, at least for the first decade or so. In the 90s/00s, McDonald’s, KFC, Pizza Hut were indeed for well-off people but working-class people like my parents would maybe go there for a once-in-a year event like a child’s birthday party. These days hardly anyone goes to McDonald’s and KFC (they’re still expensive but nowhere near as “cool” as they were in the 90s when everything “western” and “shiny” was all the rage), and Pizza Hut moved out of the country.
Starbucks was introduced in the late 00s and was THE place for bimbo girls. Overpriced coffee that’s barely coffee is just not worth it for most people these days though, so it’s mostly western foreigners that go to Starbucks.
Not really. Starbucks is kind of a thing where people get their fancy “coffees”, but not really seen as chic or something similar. McDonalds gets a lot of costumers, but it has kind of a trashy image and I mostly see teenagers there. Burger King is mostly the same. KFC has like <10 stores in the whole country and is widely unknown.
No, there are only American fast food restaurants over here. There are local restaurant chains which are decent. But fine dining aren’t chain restaurants.
I can’t really say the same for Starbucks here in the U.K. – yes, people might hang out there, but we also have local chains (Costa, Caffe Nero) so people will just meet up at their ‘local’ coffee shop.
Five Guys seems cool, but more because it’s kinda new to the fast food scene here. If teens are going to meet up anywhere it’s more likely to be the chicken chain Nando’s, I feel. Or McDonald’s.
None exist in Australia, except a couple of Hooters. Otherwise it’s just the fast food chains. Starbucks failed dismally (its used as a case study in business schools) and only has a few stores in tourist areas
We have a lot of 7-elevens, and while they’re not seen as cool in any way, they are certainly less seedy than they seem in the US.
The only US food chains I know for certain are from the US, like McDonalds or KFC, are kind of the cheapest options for food. I can’t say that I know for every chain where it comes from tho. There might be some that are cool, but I never bothered figuring out that they are from the US.
But, in general, restaurants that I find cool or chic, the ones “with a soul”, are usually not chains, but single restaurants. Usually family-owned.
Pizza Express seems to have a better-than-shite reputation in parts of the UK. Dunno why, or how Americans see it.
I wouldn’t say “Chic” or of great quality but when I visit the US I do want to try all of the famous restaurant chains that I’ve only seen on TV and aren’t in my country. For example I love The Office US and in that show they go to Chipotle several times. They have specific dishes like “the awesome blossom” and their signature “babyback ribs” so when I visited I was really excited to try those dishes. Similar to having a cheesecake at the Cheesecake factory, or an ice cream from Dairy Queen. I’m a foodie so I do like to know what the people in the movies/series are tasting when they go to these places. Same with supermarket snacks that you can’t really find here on a regular basis.
But in no way or form do I think it’s high standard food or fancy in any way. It’s just the novelty that makes it interesting.
But no I don’t find American foodchains in my country cool or anything.
Romania was so poor that when Mc’Donalds came here you had to be rich by local standards to eat there. It was luxury. USA is so rich that the poorest US state has a higher GDP PPP than 90% of Europe.
Chains are neither cool nor chic.
Hans im Glück and Co. are a bit fancier, but also not chic.
Starbucks doesn’t exist where I live.
Nope.
In Sweden we mainly just have McDonald’s and Burger King.
While McDonald’s is undoubtedly the larger of the two, Burger King *does* seem to have a larger market share compared to McDonald’s here than in the US.
There are a rare few Pizza Huts, which I think peaked in the ’90s. Never hear anyone mention them.
^(I had a few beers at one location about 15 years ago, when we couldn’t find a table anywhere else, and curiously noticed that they barely even had pizza on their menus. Most people seemed to just drink beer, but some people ate salads or BBQ.)
Subway first opened in 1999, but went bankrupt in 2003. They have however expanded aggressively the last decade or so, and there are now 162 locations. Mostly busstations, trainstations and airports.
KFC tried to establish themselves in the ’80s, but failed.
In 2014 they tried to reestablish themselves, and have opened 16 places since then. Never been there, or know anyone who has mentioned it.
Dunkin’ Donuts opened their first place in 2014, and had plans on opening 30-50 places, but went bankrupt in 2018 and closed down their 5 locations.
Starbucks opened their first place at Arlanda Airport in 2010, and was briefly hyped when they opened their first city locations in 2014. They peaked at 17 cafés a few years ago, and by the end of 2021 there were apparently only two left.
They *do* however, since quite recently, provide coffee machines for a nationwide chain of gas-stations, OKQ8, as well as refrigirated coffee drinks at supermarkets.
—
Typically NO chain, American or not, is seen as hip, chic, cool, or trendy, *especially* not among well-off people.
It’s usually all about independent, often family-owned, restaurants and cafés.
The exception may have been Starbucks, which for a brief while was trendy among teen girls and young women, but the trend was short-lived.
There may also have been another exception with a recent trend the last decade. A trend where several independent “hipster burger” restaurants, foodtrucks, small chains and franchises have emerged from nowhere.
The common denominator is being made-by-order burgers with freshly ground beef from small-scale local farms, and other local ingredients, rather than the traditional pre-fab patties and buns. Something slower than “fast food” but still faster than “slow food”, and often with local connection.
I wouldn’t say this trend was that popular among well-off people as places to *hang out*. However, some wealthy entrepreneurs jumped the train and opened similar burger places of their own.
*Some* of the emerging chains may have experienced some brief chic/cool factor, but it’s now clearly subduing, and the market is clearly oversaturated with both chains and independent burger places.