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Comment by kijeda | Hacker News Reader

Maybe it has changed recently, but an interesting factor is the Austrian Starbucks have been run by an Austrian master franchisor, not by the company.

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The Austrian franchiser probably pays a lot for using the Starbucks brand and franchise concept to an offshore company (not in the US) owned by Starbucks, that pays a kickback to another offshore entity owned by the franchiser.

Now all the profit is offshore. Everybody happy, except the Austrian government (who don't get corporate tax because the franchise hardly makes any profit in Austria) and sausage stands (who wonder if they could make more money if they join the Starbucks franchise)

> Everybody happy, except the Austrian government

And the population of Europe, who does missing out on taxes from these large corporations. This is not an Austrian issue, but one of the whole EU.

This is interesting because Starbucks doesnt franchise in the US [0]. They do have one alternative that's what you see in most airports and in coffee shops with the sign "proudly serving Starbucks coffee", for example Barnes & Noble cafes are this style. These third party stores, for instance, cannot accept payment from the Starbucks mobile app and offer only a subset of drinks. I'm not sure what the term for this is but it is some kind of licensing deal.

[0]: http://investor.starbucks.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=99518&p=irol-f...

B&N serve full Starbucks menus in most of the states, not just Starbucks coffees, but everything else...they are effectively franchised Starbucks. Marriott franchises a lot of Starbucks in airports but also some hotels. In other China, Starbucks in tier one cities are mostly JV-owned, while in tier 2 cities they were able to convince the CCP to let them do fully owned stores.

B&N menu isn't the full Starbucks, at least in the half dozen I've seen.

Bakery & cafe food is definitely their own [0]. They also don't offer the full drink menu.

[0]: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/mobile/h/cafe

They serve frappachinos and chai tea lattes, so the menu licensed goes way beyond coffee. Food differs drastically between each Starbucks districts anyways.

I think my comment was unclear. By "coffee", I was referring to the whole slew of basic coffee- and espresso-based drinks. However, B&N does not serve every flavor of every drink, stock every syrup, etc.

You can see that B&N lists 12 items under Espresso-based beverages (even that is an overestimate because they include normal coffee and iced tea lemonade) [0], while Starbucks Espresso-based list has 31 items [1]. Newer items like the Flat White are not at B&N cafes.

Source: Spent a lot of time at Starbucks in college while my girlfriend was a barista.

[0]: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/h/cafe/espresso-beverages

[1]: http://www.starbucks.com/menu/catalog/product?drink=brewed-c...

I couldn't get chai tea lattes or every flavor syrup in Beijing anyways, so it is hard for me to judge. At least when I went to a B&N cafe Starbucks in the states, they had way more drink selection than a real Starbucks in Beijing.

I talked with a girl that worked at a Starbucks in a Fred Meyers in Oregon. They are technically Fred Meyers' employees, but the deal with Starbucks includes things like the fact that they cannot wear anything except the Starbucks uniforms. On Halloween, Fred Meyers' employees are allowed to wear costumes... except for the ones that man the Starbucks because of the deal.

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