Quote:
Originally Posted by SpongeG
i thought that the starbucks in montreal were all franchised and not corporate owned by starbucks like they are here - starbucks never wanted to spend the money or something to venture into quebec so they licensed the name and stuff
is that still the case?
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The truth is even worse than that. They were a franchise because starbucks didn't want to deal with bogus language laws. For instance, the sizes are short, tall, grande and venti, none of which were in french. To get around language laws, they argued that the words are made up and mean nothing, but for marketing reasons, they thought that short and tall sounded to english, so they changed the names to "piccolo" and "mezzo". Still not french, but no one will be firebombing the stores for being english imperialists at least. Also, things move a LOT slower here for construction, so the idea of scouting a location and opening a store in a few months just wouldn't work here. It takes years and years to do anything here because of the insane bureaucracy and lazy work ethic.
Initially, the franchise called "coffee vision" managed to survive here with 8 stores and if not expand, at least turn a profit. Some locations even managed to have lineups, like at the bonaventure location in the tunnel that connects the metro to 3 or 4 "west coast express" style commuter trains. But they mistreated the employees (underpaid, no benefits ) compared to startbucks and turnover was high and training / drink quality suffered.
Starbucks moved in and took over the franchise recently, but they are still integrating the stores, changing them over one at a time to integrate with the computerized cash registers and inventory management. In quebec, every employee in a company with more than 50 employees has the right to do any job function in french, even if it is in an english neighbourhood with english clientel. so everything had to be translated from the computer systems that link up with seattle, to the training manuals, everything. at one point they could not hire anyone because they only had the old application forms from the franchise, not the official starbucks applications in french. i was told to wait and come back in 2 weeks when they had the french versions.
oddly enough, when i did finally apply, i filled out the english one anyways. the point was not that i had to do the application in french, the point was that i could be an undercover inspector, and hit them with a $2000 fine for not giving me the CHOICE to do it in french.
as it turns out most of my jobs in quebec are in english ,my co-workers are english , and my clients are english, so i only speak french at work about 5 - 15 % of the time, but every time i do something in english, like get get a computer in english , or an english telephone, or a document in english, i have to initiate by writing and signing a written request to have that computer or document in english instead of french so that when the office de la langue francaise does its inspections, there is a paper trail proving that the company never forced me to speak a language other than french, they were just responding to my requests.
as you can imagine , the cost of doing business here is insane. they have rules about everything.
they tell you what a store's business hours can be, and how many employees you can have on. a supermarket for instance is allowed to be open on sunday, but at dinner time, even the largest supermarket can have a maximum of 2 employees in the store. that means 2 cashiers, no management, no cleaners, no stockers, no security. this is to "protect worker's rights to have sunday dinner with their families" argh. you should SEE the line-ups at the cash registers. combine this with the fact that half the people are there buying beer (until 11pm) , it becomes a gong-show.
anyways enough of a rant, this is not the place for that, but to close the loop and bring the post back to the original idea, which is that there are too many starbucks in vancouver and not enough mom an pop shops, vancouver has a very open business attitude, with very little bureaucracy and very little protectionism. a small business owner can go to a govt business center in waterfront station, and have a single representative help you incorporate federally, provincially, get your permits, walk you through all the steps necessary, sell you recommended books on accounting practices and mangement, set you up with basically all the resources you need in one place and even point out pitfalls that you did not anticipate. you can do in one place in one day what it would take months to do in quebec.
vancouver has a really good thing going for it, don't forget that when entrepreneurs from all over the world come to do business in vancouver, they choose to come to vancouver not just for the amazing scenery and quality of life. they come also because of low taxes, ease of doing business, and lack of protectionist attitudes, probably due to the fact that british columbians have bought into the idea of multiculturalism.
vancouver has always been a small town trying to be a global city, but it was not until i moved away that i realized to what extent we have succeeded. GO VANCOUVER!
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Definitely, hopefully the these two buildings are the 150 meter tall ones that were rumored months and months ago to be built on the sites where the old Granville Bridge loops currently are.
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