Inlove in business

06/03/2023

06/03/2023

Cash is becoming more and more unpopular in Sweden. Economic experts say that the Scandinavian country could become the first cashless society within the next decade. Some go even further and claim that banknotes and coins may disappear altogether.

Sweden is one of the few EU countries that does not use the euro as payment. The Swedish krona has been the nation's currency since 1873. However , in the past few years less money has been in circulation. 6 years ago over a hundred billion krona were in use, today only 80 billion are in circulation.

One of the reasons for Sweden's unwillingness to pay with cash is a system called Swish . It is a mobile app that has been developed by Swedish and Danish banks, which also promote a cashless system.

In everyday life about 80% of all payments are made with credit or bank cards , mobile phones or via internet banking. Even small items are paid for digitally. Not only costumers are happy with not having to carry so much cash around. Most shopkeepers want people to pay with these new systems because it offers them more security and convenience.

06/03/2023

The American coffee shop chain Starbucks has announced that it will open its first store in Italy at the beginning of 2017.

Starbucks has always been very careful about opening shops in Europe, where drinking coffee has a big tradition. Especially Italy has long cultural and historical ties with coffee . It was first served in Venice where traders brought it from the Far East. In 1901 the first espresso machine was produced in Milan, the place where the first Starbucks is scheduled to open.

Italians, especially older people, have mixed feelings about the opening of an American coffee shop in their country. In Italy people stand at a coffee bar, where they drink their espresso, talk about politics and walk out again after five or ten minutes. In addition, there is a sharp contrast to the strong shot of espresso the Italians drink compared to what they consider watery and undrinkable American coffee.

The Seattle-based company, however, knows the risk it is taking. It wants to make Italian shops different than shops in other countries, with a bar and price that can compete with the cheap Italian espresso , that often sells for under a euro.