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So what's really fueling China's rise to be the next superpower? Could it be...Starbucks?
Oh what a difference a global recession makes. Three years ago, as sales of its overpriced lattes tanked, the world's largest coffee chain scurried to shutter stores and slash payrolls.
Now, the empire strikes back.
Today Starbucks has set its sights on a kind of global domination. The chain celebrated record profits in 2010, as Nation's Restaurant News reports, and it's looking to parlay its recovery into worldwide expansion, with China as a major focus.
Displaying some Venti-sized ambition, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz admonished investors at the company's annual meeting in Seattle to "put your seatbelts on because the best is yet to come."
Company execs say that Starbucks is already one of the top 20 most recognized brands in China, and they want to triple the number of stores there by 2015. Coffee fiends around the world should also expect to see more Starbucks-branded merchandise in grocery stores, as the company seeks to build its portfolio of packaged goods to a point where it rivals the revenue generated by its coffeehouses.
And Starbucks isn't content with just hawking roasted beans.
By unveiling a new logo this year that keeps that strange double-tailed siren but pointedly drops the words "Starbucks Coffee," the company hopes to be able to slap its brand on an as-yet-unnamed array of products.
Watch out, China-you could be eating Starbucks chow mein by 2013.
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3-25-2011 @4:17PM John I. said... You know. I have been a pretty loyal Starbucks customer over the last 15+ years. However, lately I am getting very turned off by the company and I think their focus has been lost.
I need to save money and me thinks my zest for Starbucks will be the first thing I chop. Not likely this whole commercial boom they are striving for.
I will go back to Peets or Tully's.
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3-25-2011 @7:39PM A man said... Why is Starbucks expanding? Does this mean that they will actually start to give us customer service??? I haven't gotten any since I went to the first one in my state back in the early 1990's. As I see it, each time I've ever gone in to a Starbucks, I've asked for a medium decaf, they ask me for $6, hand me an empty cup and then ignore me. I don't see why people go there. STOP GOING TO STARBUCKS!!!!!
3-25-2011 @4:24PM Goob said... Big whoop! Maybe the Chinese will sell Starbuck's coffe to Walmart for less than Starbuck's does.
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3-25-2011 @5:53PM Adrian said... I like Starbucks, enough to have gone there twice today, but even I don't think I'm ready for Starbucks chow mein!
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3-25-2011 @6:16PM Al Schrader said... I love Chicken Chow Mein. First, I get the egg drop soup & I beak some of those fried egg noodle things into it. Then I pour a cup of that ginseng tea & a teaspoon of sugar, and guzzle that down.
Then stuff myself on chicken chow mein & fried rice. I go home, suffer, & sit on the couch like a beached whale. Once a month of this is about all my belt line can handle...Al-
3-25-2011 @6:06PM Jim said... Better off calling them "Fourbucks"...for the price of their coffee and a pastry, you can get a dozen donuts AND a coffee at Dunkin Donuts...Stay off our turf here in Northeast USA and we'll stay out of your Liberal NorthWest
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3-25-2011 @7:40PM jazzgirl said... Am currently living in China and we would have no 'real' coffee if it weren't for the Starbucks in the big city close to us. It's about a 45 minute busride up there, and we go every other weekend....worth it!
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3-25-2011 @10:20PM Bob said... I have a good idea for Starbucks that would help in selling their breakfast sandwiches......Supply condiments on request for the sandwiches. I always enjoy catsup on my egg sandwich and have to go next door to Atlantic Bread Store for same.... Starbucks clerks should use some common sense when ask for condiments instead of saying 'I never heard of that before'.........
Sandwich and Catsup lover!!!!!!!
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3-25-2011 @10:33PM Yon said... Why pay too many bucks for a terrible tasting juice when I can make my own, stronger, sweeter and better tasting and smelling coffee at home? People are that lazy? Or is it the social atmosphere in the coffee house? Probably a meat market place for the lonely in need of a passable bed partner.
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