American Coffee, Indian Beans – Coverage of TATA Starbucks Coffee in India

Is it the Brand name of Starbucks coffee or the Rich experience that makes it Starbucks

   Drum rolls and finally, Starbucks coffee emerges with the TATA alliance at Fort, Mumbai with it’s very first outlet. The wish of thousands of Indian’s and the long awaited FDI discussions dying slowly, 19^th October 2012 would now be written in history as Howard Schultz’s Starbucks’ entered India successfully.

The ambiance decor is done in similar fashion with reference to its worldwide retail presence such as the name and the logo placement. Once you are at Starbucks, coffee is not only the hot thing creating a tingling sensation on your tongue. Don’t be alarmed looking at a long queue outside but certainly you may enjoy the smell of roasted coffee beans swelling in the air. Enthusiasm of the long queues is kept up by the staff, as they provide these small cups of vanilla cream with chocolate sauce.

Entering the cafe would take you around 45 to 50 minutes but it’s worth the wait. An aura of Indian decor grabs your attention instantly. However there has been a lot of fusion art ware which gives it a sophisticated appeal. The wall paintings and the wooden furniture give a splash of warmth which is missing from most of the regular cafes in Mumbai. The place is smartly designed to accommodate a roughly around 120 people and still be a private affair for all of them.

On entry, you still have to face a small queuing situation while the table allocation is on the go. However keeping the visitor’s busy, the order is taken during your small wait in the inter parlor queue. Your name is written with a marker on the cup with your order. By the time, it’s your turn to be served the freshly brewed coffee, your name is called and you can sip your way to a relaxing table along with your pack.

The menu offers a very limited range of food and coffee servings which seems to be a strategic move by Mr. Schutlz’s as to not overload Starbucks during it’s initial stage. The Starbucks’ merchandise is placed near the queuing station so as to interest the people waiting for their turn could have a look at the mugs, coffee and etc. 

Price sensitive Indian Market has been a concern for global CEO’s from day one. Pricing of the coffee is quite competitive against the other cafes in Mumbai. A small cappuccino at CCD is around INR 75/- and tall cappuccino at Starbucks is just INR 115/- which falls in the ‘Will Buy’ zone for many of us. The staff at the Starbucks is not only of Indian origin but a mix of many cultures and creed. Some were from states itself.

It is a pleasure to see the manager of Starbucks having a small rendezvous session with the people in the queue. He certainly was keen to spread the word to check some great listings on the menu and consulted most of them to have the best variants of coffee that was served as a first time order.

 Definitely must have at Starbucks are: Hot Cappuccino, Hot Chocolate and Ice cold Coffee Frappe

(courtesy: Rasesh Raja- https://www.facebook.com/MoreOverCoffee)

 

Survived the ‘School’ phase, exactly what have you been back in those days?

Yep I admit, sometimes it takes few drinks and a lonely evening to have you enough dizzy to watch Glee. Interestingly the yesterday’s episode of Glee – Season 3 (Yes, In India we watch stuff that the world has already watched, talked and long forgotten about) reminded of a small trip to my past where I happened to pull up my white nickers and matching shirt parading myself off to school. As these Glee characters graduated from school, ready to take the next step, it got me to thinking about my school life; what I had predicted and where have I landed.

School; the first step of basic education has power to change us, make us, break us; how competitions for exams, contests, to be teacher’s pets or to be popular were so important then and now they are insignificant even to sit and ponder.

Hence the Big Question: “So how much has your school life contributed in making you what you are now?”

Of course, it outlines your personality by providing you a platform to embrace your skill set; be it academically inclined or extracurricular. But what if you’re a misfit? You are neither back bench-er nor frontbencher; you don’t belong to any club. Is this Position of your’s in a classroom defining your position in life?

 A simple search on Google will show that from JK Rowling to Lady Gaga had difficulty fitting in and were occasionally bullied for that reason. Don’t be surprised if you start wondering that it’s a trend now to admit you were an oddball in school; if you become famous later, because all of these celebrities are drop-dead-gorgeous and/or immensely talented; so obviously destined to succeed eventually. In fact, some people believe that if you have taken crap from your classmates and teachers, you won’t find it difficult to handle what life throws at you, thereby getting first your step towards success.

That does not mean if you are high school hero, you’ll inevitably end up becoming a future zero. People like Meryl Streep, Brad Pitt, Aishwarya Rai and the like were very much involved in school and continued to do that in their respective fields. So this just proves that if you’ve got the survivor skills, your position in school does not define you.

But you know what? School is not just about that. You enjoy many first time experiences. Growing up; your first crush (a teacher for many of us), your first love (for more romantically forward of us), it all starts in school. And if you were not in this, then you must have enjoyed gossiping, exchanging glances and smiles with others like you, while rolling your eyes at these romantic fools.

I don’t know how much has changed for today’s tech forward school kids; whether they hang out after schools or run home to play video games, facebook and/or tweet; whether they enjoy classroom debates and games or are just busy with their mobile phones under the desk.

Anyways, however you have spent your school days or they are doing now, you can’t deny that this extended temporary family of yours, with which you spent your childhood and some majority teenage years plays a significant role in developing your personality.

The French Giants, Renault is out with new Scala to fight Nissan Sunny

The Car Industry must be facing a slow down but the French Auto giants don’t show any signs of retreat from the heated market of India. Renault has launched its new sedan Scala in India recently at Delhi. Four variations of Scala are available, RXE, RXL as petrol variants and RXL and RXZ as diesel ones. 

The new sedan model is positioned between Renault Fluence and Renault Pulse. It is being called twin of Nissan’s Sunny due to their similarities (as they share same manufacturing unit, located close to Chennai in Tamil Nadu). It is extremely well designed with better look and feel than Sunny.

The Specifications of the car has been a very competitive with other brands, the exterior is changed to give a distinguished look from Sunny. With mileage of 21.64 kmpl in diesel and 16.95 kmpl in petrol, car touches 100 kmph in 13 seconds in petrol and in 15 seconds in diesel. Shipped with ABS and airbags for safety, ample legroom due to longer wheelbase, better CVT than rivals, Scala will prove a tough competition. It competes with Nissan’s Sunny, Volkswagen’s Vento, Honda City, Skoda Rapid, Hyundai Verna and few others.

Coming to competitors, on one end, Toyota Etios gives better mileage, looks superior; Hyundai Verna gives more options (5 of diesel and 5 of petrol). On other hand, Scala beats Vento in mileage and pricing, whereas it has similar pricing but better mileage compared to Skoda.

As far the petrol price hike is concerned, majority of experts are of opinion that it will not have major impact on car sales. It wasn’t long back when auto-industry advocated hike in diesel price and lobbied against a feared tax on diesel vehicles. The Sales of the diesel variants has turned into betting ground for car rookies as the price rise of diesel along with the other competition seems dicey. So, majority of auto sector welcomes decision, while a small section maintains that the move was ill timed as the festive season is coming up and car sales are supposed to go up and some price sensitive customers might have second thoughts.

Anyhow, path for Scala’s ride in market is a little challenging but optimistic for the French too.

 

Sources: cardekho.com, indiandriver.com, dnaindia.com, business-standard.com, carmanation.wordpress.com