The video is disturbing to say the least. Distributed by the tiktoker Oumnia Online last week, we see an establishment that displays “Starbucks” in large black letters on its front. Inside, the products also correspond to those marketed elsewhere by the famous international coffee chain, such as the chocolate marble cake or the double chocolate frappuccino. The location of the video? Oran, second largest city in Algeria.
And the store is so successful that it had to close early three hours earlier than planned for two consecutive days to deal with the crowds and optimize the management of its stocks, according to the media Proyecto Algeria. A few days later, the latter published a post on Twitter in which he apologized for promoting a fake brand.
No judicial process has been initiated at the moment.
And with good reason, Starbucks has not yet opened a store in Oran, as the company indicated to the BBC, which contacted both the headquarters and those responsible for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. If we trust the search engine on the company’s website, there is currently no brand store in Algeria. The American giant itself responded in this way to certain users of the social network X who questioned it about the existence of a branch in this town.
Also on TikTok, a man named Selim Haffar introduced himself as the manager of the establishment. He explains that he met the director of Starbucks during a trip to the United States and that he gave him authorization to open a franchise in Algeria while providing him with the recipes for the product.
According to him, he agreed that he would have to pay for a license once profitability was achieved. The multinational has not yet indicated that it will take legal action against this fake store, but the latter would risk, if necessary, a judicial process that could lead to the payment of large amounts of damages.
Source: BFM TV
