By: Michael E. Martinez

Global growth seems to be very important to McDonalds. Tony Chen, who is McDonald's Public Affairs Director for China says, "The rapid expansion is something we would like to sustain for an extended period of time." Chen also stated, "This is one of our most profitable markets." I believe McDonalds wants to expand into Europe and China to broaden their diversity of customers and like all businesses, to take another company's market share.

McDonalds has had some lagging stores in the United States, sales have not been as good because of higher competition for the fast foods markets in our country, such as Burger King and Wendy's. I believe McDonalds is expanding into foreign countries to start a trend among fast food businesses. The market for fast food in countries like China isn't as fierce and is a relatively new concept. Even though McDonalds is finding that they have to conform their stores and some of their products to the customs and culture to the country they're located in.

Starbucks which is a very familiar business in the United States now has about 280 stores in 1999. In recent years, they have now expanded to about 1,200 stores. Starbucks hopes to double that amount in the future. Apparently, business is good as sales and profits are rising. Overseas stores are company owned but they have local employees who run the stores and share in the profits. One of the challenges Starbucks faces are cultural differences.

Some towns in Europe already have existing coffee shops that have been there for years. Starbucks will have to make their presence known to get in new customers. Also, as good as Starbucks coffee is, they're not known to serve a cheap cup of coffee. So price may have a factor in luring in new and existing customers.

One of the things Starbucks can do to make its expansion into Europe a little easier would be to possibly offer more types of tea as Europeans are known for drinking more tea than coffee. They can offer more local foods in their stores that the clientele is used to eating at local restaurants and such.