I agree with most of what you say, and you’re very far from the kind of person I was referring to. What makes me distraught is that we get Starbucks and not Wagamama, Krispy Kremes or Paperchase. I want the *right* evil corporations.

Funnily enough, I was actually quite excited when Leicester got its first Starbucks in the early 2000s (I’d just come back from a stint in the US so I knew about adding syrups to Americanos and I was sure this made me the coolest person in Leicester) and couple of years ago I used to go to the one in Canary Wharf where I worked (after all, the area has no traceable personality so there was nothing to jeopardise). And who knows I might go into the one in here in Palermo once in a while, if I didn’t think that success might lead to more ruthless expansion. Basically, I just don’t want to see them everywhere I turn. Starbucks has given me the fear. And it’s easy to see why. You hear these nasty rumours of them opening stores on every corner to deliberately try and run out the competition. I’m not keen on that.

Gallego is indeed an extreme – that’s why it’s my favourite, because it stands above the rest. There are a lot of independently owned places in Palermo that are pretty formulaic. After all, being independent doesn’t mean a place exempt from feeling samey or soulless. Chainstores aren’t always bad either; I like that familiarity from time to time. I just want to see variety.

Starbucks does get demonised (it’s cool to be anti Starbucks now, just like it used to be cool to know how to order a Vanilla Americano), but having seen how they – and other stores like them – operate, I can’t help seeing them as a threat to variety on our streets and a threat to small-scale operations.

I like the variety I see here in BA; I don’t like the clone towns I see in the UK. Simple as that. All though I recognise it’s only as simple as that in my simple world where I write about nice travel things.

Oh dear, look what you’ve done, Matt. I’ve gone off on one again! Seriously though, thanks for the thoughts!

Some people say the Observer has a snobbish tone. I can’t think why.

I agree with you about Bar Gallego, Vicky. But you have to admit it’s not representative. There are scores of independent cafés within a mile radius of my apartment, and none of them is on a par with Gallego.

At least you have things in perspective. I’ve heard friends — otherwise intelligent people — say that Buenos Aires is ‘over’ for them now that Starbucks has arrived. In other words their hand-made, artisanal, freewheeling, second-world paradise has been tainted by corporate culture. My (locally born) wife, a Starbucks fan, has a crude but effective answer to this: “If you don’t like it, [expletive deleted] GO HOME!”

Apparently the Bank of England has 115 branches within a three-mile radius. No wonder people in the UK are resenting it.