These are typical Starbucks customers in China, a tea-drinking nation where a cup of coffee the first thing in the morning is a foreign concept.

China, including Hong Kong and Taiwan, has more than 430 Starbucks and will be the company's biggest foreign market. Starbucks will open in its 20th mainland China city, Xian, on November 22.

For the most part, Starbucks coffee shops are places where young Chinese gather to socialize and drink frothy, sweet drinks. On a recent weekday morning, for instance, just a small handful of customers dropped by a Starbucks store outside a shopping mall in Shanghai.

Starbucks is pushing that trend, working to educate more Chinese consumers about coffee drinking by getting its name in fashion magazines and on talk shows. "We definitely want to raise the level of interest in coffee," said Eden Woon, Starbucks' vice president for Greater China. "Breakfast, admittedly, is not a big deal here."

Because their Chinese customers tend to spend more time in the stores than their U.S. counterparts, many Starbucks coffee shops in China are bigger and offer more comfortable seating than similar stores in the United States, Woon said.

Source:佚名