ARRIVING in London this Saturday is Winter, a man whose task it is to visit every Starbucks in the world.
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So far, in 12 years of trying, Winter (original name Rafael Antonio Lozano Jr) has managed to tick off 9,100, which leaves him with about 7,000 coffee cafes to go.
“In this world it is difficult to do something unique — I just have found the whole process a great deal of fun,” Winter told The Times of his time on the caffeine highway.
He’s been here on a Starbucks hunt a couple of times before, notching up 166 of the brand’s London branches in the process and now has 94 to go.
“I like Starbucks coffee. It is amazingly consistent. When I am travelling, it tastes the same wherever you go,” says Winter, who drinks one cup in each store, takes a photo and posts it on his website, starbuckseverywhere.net
Apart from finding the money to continue his project – it’s cost at least £60,000 so far – the biggest problem for the California-based software engineer has been that Starbucks shops aren’t as predictable as their coffee.
The buzzed company are forever opening and closing new branches.
“There’s huge uncertainty for me, as Starbucks does not announce which stores are shutting,” says Winter.
Despite cutting back on store numbers in the US, Starbucks’ roll-out programme is still on the up in Britain, where the property slump has made launching new outlets cheaper.
“We’re not only here to stay but our best days are ahead of us in the UK, where it’s still early for us,” said Howard Schultz, CEO.
“We’ve great confidence in our business here and we’re going to continue to grow the market.”
That means Winter will probably be back again someday to continue his eternal quest.
