Just ‘cause it’s American, Europeans ain’t buyin’ it

American companies have made serious inroads into the economies of Europe and elsewhere, but this has come at a cost. There have been some pretty big flops along the way as executives naively thought they could simply replicate the American marketing model in other countries without making any changes. Some of these misjudgments are rather entertaining, and with the introduction of a coffee/olive oil concoction by Starbucks in Italy, we witnessed yet another product derailment.

Transcript

Americans are known for their sometimes unwarranted optimism, and American companies are no exception. As capitalist and shrewd as they are when skimping on their employees’ salaries, there is a certain wide-eyed naiveté to some of their actions when trying to roll out the exact same franchise in a completely different country. 

Welcome to Expat Chatter! I’m Brenda Arnold

I thought of this when reading that Starbucks had introduced Oleato in Italy back in February 2023, an odd-sounding blend of coffee and olive oil. Oleato, as melodious as that may sound to Anglo-Saxon ears, means “oiled” in Italian. It sounds about as appealing as a mixture of sorbet and shredded cheese, but hey, to each his own. 

Besides, Italians already have a well-established, ritualized coffee tradition of their own: cappuccino in the morning, espresso after lunch. The coffee is brewed by a giant metal monstrosity, operated by a friendly Italian who smiles at you before summarily slamming the metal portafilter over the edge of a bin to empty out the grounds before refilling it. This ear-shattering noise will wake you up just in case the espresso he’s about to brew doesn’t do the job. After completing the espresso procedure to the background noise of hissing steam, the friendly man ceremoniously slides a tiny little cup of black liquid across the bar at you, announcing this grand finale by saying “Prego!” 

I’m just not sure Starbucks can match that. As an American company, it seems like they should adhere to the maxim of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” But maybe they did in the end, since a quick check of the Starbucks menu in Milan, Italy, at this writing in July 2025 displayed a good two dozen kinds of coffee – but alas, not the “oiled” kind.

Domino’s Pizza, in a fit of foolishness, also tried to sell an Italian product to the Italians. They did so poorly selling pizza in the land that invented it that they were forced to cut their losses and pull out of Italy entirely. Maybe they never heard that joke about the salesman who tried to sell a refrigerator to the Inuit.

Walmart enjoyed a brief stint in Germany, too, although “enjoyed” might be the wrong word here. The firm responsible for gutting American small towns of their small businesses had a big surprise waiting for it in Germany, as the Germans most decidedly did not go for it. The company failed and had to pull out in 1997. 

If they had done their homework, they would have realized that doing things like making employees chant “Walmart! Walmart!” in a country that suffered at the hands of fascism would not be so popular. The same goes for requiring employees to spy on each other, in the style of the former East German secret police, the Stasi. As if these things weren’t bad enough, Walmart employees are required to smile and greet customers and smile again as they bid them goodbye. Germans like feigned friendliness about as much as they like chanting. As a matter of fact, they don’t even like real friendliness.  

Starbucks, on the other hand, has managed to make large dents into traditional café culture, at least in Munich. One after another, old-fashioned cafés disappear, replaced by a shiny, sterile Starbucks. I am sorely tempted to scream and shout at the evils of capitalism, but people vote with their wallets. If the old-style cafés had been flourishing, they wouldn’t have been pushed aside by the modern American version. 

On the other hand, the way people congregate in Starbucks, chatting or working on their laptops in groups, is perhaps just an upgraded version of behavior typical of the original Viennese café tradition, where 19th-century intellectuals gathered to discuss the issues of the day. Except instead of a famous author or poet, it’s Andreas the marketing consultant typing up a polite yet irate e-mail to his slacking colleague. And unlike the writers and artists of earlier times who went to cafés to escape their unheated apartments, this incentive probably does not play a role for modern-day Starbucks customers.

McDonald’s success is founded on standardization, which was drilled into me quite successfully during my teenage years working there. This means a limited number of products, served the same way in every restaurant. 

But there’s an exception to every rule, including for fast-food restaurants. 

McDonald’s may have established its concept successfully in Europe, but a bit of Europe has rubbed off on McDonald’s in the form of the McCafé. These cafés are physically sectioned off from the main dining hall and are furnished to look a bit cozier than the rest of the restaurant. The chairs and tables are still food court style, attached to the floor but rank a few notches higher on the comfy scale. And they, too, serve coffee and excellent cake, just like in a European café.

Domino’s flopped in Italy, McDonald’s adapted to Europe, and Oleato seems to have disappeared from Italy as well. Let’s wait and see what the Italians make of Starbucks’ olive oil coffee.

Thanks for listening! And if you enjoyed the podcast, why not forward it to a friend? Thanks – and see you next time!