The funny thing is that Turkey (Or at least, Istanbul) has quite a few Starbucks. (And Gloria Jeans, for whatever reason, really took hold there.) But the point is that if you have a Starbucks, you have people who can afford Starbucks.
That's a good point, but opening a single store (as in the article) is nothing to hang your hat on - pretty much every country has a social elite who could support a few stores.
In the heart of Hanoi there's a KFC (there's a few throughout VN, at least in the tourist areas) and the Vietnamese economy is booming... in Vietnamese terms. They're still incredibly poor with a 30% inflation rate, and the KFC is charging Vietnamese prices, not western prices. KFC may have plonked some stores down and localised them a bit, but that doesn't mean that the locals have anything like a western quality of life.
I found it interesting that although the food in the KFC was different (though still fowl), it was the same experience in terms of disinterested teenage staff, overloud music, and grimy plastic seating...
