Starbucks to open in San Salvador

Starbucks has announced that it will be opening its first coffee shop in Central America in San Salvador. The store is part of a plan to open locations throughout Central America. The locations in Central America will be operated under license agreements with Corporación de Franquicias Americanas (CFA). Starbucks and CFA will open the first coffee shop before year end in the Santa Elena residential zone in San Salvador. CFA operates franchises for several global brands in Central America including Kentucky Fried Chicken, Wendy's, China Wok and Pizza Hut.

A writer at Examiner.com had this to say about the news:

Unfortunately, the presence of Starbucks in El Salvador has a downside, which is the presence of just another multi-national corporation sending its profits out of the country. El Salvador's economy is dysfunctional and largely dependent on remittances from Salvadorans in the U.S. The presence of Starbucks in El Salvador does nothing to make the country more self-sufficient in food production which is a major challenge for the government, concerned individuals and companies doing business in El Salvador.

I'm no fan of the globalization of US consumer culture, but that writer's statement also needs to be balanced with the construction jobs for the Salvadorans who built the store, the jobs for the workers in the store, the portion of the store supplies which are purchased locally, etc.