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For the past 17 years, Starbucks has opened a new store almost every three days.

Published: 2026-02-02 Author: World Gafei

Last Updated: 2026/02/02, Starbucks Zhenxuan Starbucks Reserve, a high-end Starbucks brand, emphasizes creating an upgraded Starbucks experience by using better coffee beans and handmade coffee drinks. Since the first store opened in October 2014, there are now 55 stores nationwide, and the Sinan residence where the laboratory is located is one of them.

Starbucks Starbucks Reserve, a high-end Starbucks brand, emphasizes creating an upgraded version of the Starbucks experience by using better coffee beans and handmade coffee drinks. Since the first store opened in October 2014, there are now 55 stores nationwide, and the Sinan residence where the laboratory is located is one of them.

"as consumers' income increases and their recognition of coffee culture increases, their demand for coffee has become diversified, requiring the atmosphere of drinking coffee and the higher quality of coffee." Euromonitor, a consultancy, analyzed it in an interview with Interface News.

The rapid expansion of Starbucks' selected stores and the opening of the lab this time can be seen as a responsive effort made by Starbucks in this context.

In fact, such a market background is established on a global scale, and similar changes occur earlier in other regional markets. In December 2014, Starbucks opened a bakery like Willy Wonka's chocolate factory in the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on Capitol Hill in Seattle. At the time, Liz Muller, vice president of conceptual design at Starbucks, said publicly that Starbucks wanted to create "a retail experience that subverts the 21st century."

Although the size of China's coffee consumption market has been rising in the last decade, reaching 6.9 billion yuan by 2015, the growth rate has been declining year by year since reaching an all-time high of 19.6% in 2011, with single-digit growth rates of 7.7%, 7% and 5.6% in 2013, 2014 and 2015, respectively, according to Euromonitor.

"the main consumers of coffee are still concentrated in first-and second-tier cities, and the market has gradually become saturated." Euromonitor added.

Just take the Shanghai market as an example, you can feel the lively degree of the market by looking at the new boutique coffee shops popping up around 05:00. And when many independent coffee shops are gradually chained and branded, the competitive pressure on Starbucks will continue to increase.

If it can better cater to the preferences of Chinese consumers, the American coffee chain may find more opportunities in the competition. The launch of zongzi, moon cakes and Chinese tea is an effort made by Starbucks, which has incorporated a lot of local design thinking into the design of this store.

"for example, in this space design, we specially set aside a lot of seating designs suitable for parties, because we find that Chinese consumers are becoming more receptive to coffee and will use coffee shops as places for leisure and party. and stay here for more time." Jiang Bolin said.