Good article from the New York Times.
Summary
Starbucks China is losing customers at a very rapid pace. Starbucks corporate executives are angry. Brian Niccol, the new $100 million CEO of Starbucks, sounded the alarm in October, calling the competition “extreme”. For the Chinese Lunar year, Starbucks released a pork flavor latte. It cost more than $9 and was widely seen as a disaster.
Billionaire Howard Schultz, Starbucks’s former CEO, insisted that Starbucks would not enter a price war in China. He claimed “as chinese customers become more knowledgeable about coffee, they will want to upgrade from lower-end or discounted products”
Cuz it’s truly legitimately just bad coffee?
And somehow mcdonald’s is expected to be quality barbecue?
None of these chains are any good but we use (or used to use them) for convenience and consistency
Never excellence because we know all the excellent places get bought out and turned into corporate shit factories so we pick the least offensive shit factory that suits our lifestyles and just get on with the business of working in a world that is slowly burning down to feed the greed of a pathologically insatiable owner class
I should know this?
Exactly what I was thinking. Why should I give a shit that Starbucks is failing in China? I didn’t even know they were in China.
Yeah this more an Uplifting News article, but I guess people who still shop at (nonunion) Starbucks should know it.
Right? Post this in news this isn’t a YSK, and the OP fails to explain WHY YSK
Starbucks coffee tastes like my shit smells.
Oh hey, glad the Chinese figured out Starbucks is bad.
I too prefer locally owned coffed stores!
… Too bad I’m from Seattle, and Starbucks pretty much killed them all.
Fuck Starbucks.
They appropriated the ‘chill local coffee shop you can hang out at all day’, ran most of those out of business, first in Seattle, then nationwide, then all over the world, and now they just run a coffee themed fast food empire.
Fuck. Starbucks.
Pork Lattes for the Chinese, coffee flavored milkshakes for Americans.
What a fucking joke.
Just came back from Seattle and drank coffee from various coffee places that were not Starbucks every single day.
They failed miserably in Australia as well.
Local companies are out-competing the multinational on price, quality and local knowledge. Isn’t this the free market working as intended?
I couldn’t give a single shit what any Starbucks executive thinks about any decisions anyone else makes.
That last line from the ex CEO is so stupid, Starbucks is the lower end coffee shop, it’s the McDonald’s of coffee. Anyone who cares about quality coffee would prefer local roasters with fresh coffee anyways
Coffee culture in China is on another level. They have fast coffee like Luckin, Cotti, and dozens more brands, all of which are better and have more variety than Starbucks, and they have high end coffees with artisan beans, and all of them are cheaper than Starbucks. They’re not going to win there, for sure.
If Starbucks cannot compete on price, it is nothing. They failed in Australia for being worse than what we already have here.
Good, starbucks was never any good. Burned beans make for burned coffee; shit is nasty.
I’m trying to do that in the US too. Haven’t used a Starbucks except as an emergency bathroom for over 2 years.
Starbucks coffee is shit anyway. Support your local roasters and shops, or roast your own if you have the means. It’s a great and delicious hobby.
Coincidentally when I saw this post I was in the middle of roasting a batch.Now put a pork chop in there.
Love my Gene Cafe!
Big corporate just siphon money to another country and rich executives. Supporting local business, means the money stay local and they spend it back in the same community that spent it on them.
Plus the Star Bucks coffee is shit.
“as chinese customers become more knowledgeable about coffee, they will want to upgrade from lower-end or discounted products”
Sick burn.
Personally, I’d like the entirety of the United States to buy local from all types of restaurants instead of letting corporations pave over our regional food cultures.
Those Chinese brands mentioned in this NYT piece are all national/international chains, massive cooperations similar to McDonald and Starbucks, not local mom pop shops…
Sure, but there is a difference letting one corporation overpower the market and supporting a national or even international business.
We got Taco Bell some years back where I live and suddenly all the actually good places died, and sure, some of them were genuine local businesses instead of just corporate chsins, but I’d much rather support anything other than some American super corporation, get a shittier product that’s more expensive, just because they have the money to push their shitty product more than some smaller, albeit corporation shit.
Most American super corporations have enough influence and power as it is. Nothing wrong if we get some competition and variety. Lesser of two evils you know.
I’ve been avoiding starbucks for year. Garbage company. But I do have a gift card I think so I might be forced to use it, or give it away since if I don’t then they just get a free donation to their company.
