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”
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.