For Li Mei, the Starbucks in Xidan, a commercial district in the heart of Beijing, is so much more than a place to grab a cup of coffee. She spends most of her time there.
　　“I could stay at Starbucks for the entire day,” the 26-year-old freelance writer said.
　　A day at Starbucks for Li starts at 9 a.m. After ordering a sandwich and a coffee for breakfast, she turns on her laptop and starts to write commentaries or love stories, which are usually directly e-mailed to her editors. The stories are typically inspired by the people drinking coffee around Li or walking by in the street.
　　Wang Qiang, a businessman, is a patron of the Starbucks cafe at the China World Trade Center in Beijing’s central business district. He prefers a table by the window, where he has had countless discussions with many business partners and friends. “Every time a business partner or a friend comes to visit me, I usually say, ‘why don’t we go to Starbucks?’” Wang noted.
　　Beijing is about to welcome its 50th Starbucks cafe. To residents of this city, Starbucks is more than a cup of coffee. In fact, since the company opened its first shop on the Chinese mainland in Beijing in 1999, coffee has not been the top attraction for Chinese customers. Among trendy young people, Starbucks is a byword for chic, representing the culture behind the brand.
　　“I like the environment of Starbucks,” Li commented.
　　The signature of a Starbucks shop is its quiet ambience. The background music is often slow and relaxing, which is good for a person to sit alone, have a sip of coffee and ponder anything deep in one’s heart.
　　According to Charles Wang, President of Beijing Meida Coffee Co. Ltd., Starbucks’ shops are intended to fit into people’s lives as “a third living space” besides home and office, where people can linger, relax and discuss.
　　In the initial days after entering the Chinese mainland, Starbucks targeted as its customers foreigners living in China and Chinese returning from abroad. Some of these people had become accustomed to going to Starbucks for a coffee and relaxation after work. Therefore, in the first Starbucks cafe in China, regulars typically spoke foreign languages rather than Chinese.
　　
　　A status symbol
　　
　　As a result, going to Starbucks became a symbol of trendiness. The first homegrown Starbucks devotees were white-collar workers. They go to Starbucks more for the ambiance than the coffee. The music in Starbucks, mostly jazz, American country music and piano concertos, happens to cater to their pursuit of novelty and exoticness.
　　“If I am not in my office, I am either at Starbucks or on the way to Starbucks” became a mantra among Beijing’s white-collar employees.
　　“Actually people come not for coffee, but for the Starbucks name,” Li said. “To many Chinese people, Starbucks represents an American leisure culture.”
　　The success of Starbucks is partly attributed to its strategy of taking advantage of Chinese white-collar workers’ psychology. The coffee chain has placed advertisements in fashion magazines, which preach the brand as the incarnation of an easy lifestyle. The tactic has proven effective as for many people Starbucks cafés have become the first choice for spending leisure time. 　　Meanwhile, the successful advertising campaigns have managed to attract entertainment stars to the Starbucks craze, making it even more popular among young people.
　　But the lifestyle Starbucks tries to sell does offend people with traditional mindsets, especially senior citizens. Opponents criticize this lifestyle as too idle and purposeless. “You should do something better than sitting there, doing nothing,” Li said her father often tells her.
　　One treasured virtue in Chinese tradition is diligence, and traditionalists cannot get used to the idea of idle time. Seeing their children embrace this laid-back lifestyle, traditionalists view it as the result of the invasion of an aggressive Western culture.
　　“Some people tend to relate a fashion with a Western lifestyle, like my father,” Li added. “Their perception clashes with my desire for Starbucks time.”
　　Despite the traditionalists’ views, more and more young urbanites are hanging out at Starbucks in their free time.
　　
　　To localize or not
　　
　　In Starbucks outlets in Beijing, you can find traditional Chinese cookies on the menu. This is an obvious effort to offer clients more choices in the context of localization, although the step is not substantial.
　　“Localization will ruin Starbucks’ unique attraction,” said Wang, the businessman, who was first attracted to the coffee shop by its exotic ambience.
　　“I remember when I first went to Starbucks, I just wanted to impress my business partners,” Wang recalled. “I thought that discussing business at Starbucks was more elegant than Chinese teahouses and for the last two years I have not changed my perception. The possible localization of adding local food and drinks to the menu would lower Starbucks to the likes of McDonald’s and ordinary Chinese restaurants. Then I would not come here any longer.”
　　This represents the view of a large segment of Starbucks consumers. “I am here for style and detachment, which should not be diluted by things we can always see in the street,” said Wang Li, a customer at the Starbucks in Xidan.
　　Wang said she comes to Starbucks to meet friends, and hopes the coffee chain can maintain its special leisure atmosphere.
　　However, Starbucks’ localization attempts have suffered serious setbacks due to an insufficient understanding of Chinese food safety standards.
　　In 2005, mooncakes sold by Starbucks in Tianjin failed to meet bacterial control standards, according to the local quarantine authorities, which marked the first setback of localization of Starbucks in China.
　　By the end of 2005, the total number of Starbucks cafes on the Chinese mainland reached 146 and new shops are opened at a speed of two or three every month.
　　
　　Expansion plans
　　
　　Opening a Starbucks coffee shop requires an investment of up to 2 million yuan. Now, under Beijing Meida, a joint venture authorized to award franchises in Tianjin and Beijing, there are 49 stores in Beijing and 10 in Tianjin. Against a time span of seven years, that equals a new shop in these two cities every one and a half months, which draws envy from Starbucks headquarters in the United States.
　　
　　Since 1999, Starbucks Coffee International Inc. has established three joint ventures in China, including the one in Beijing in charge of granting franchises in Beijing and Tianjin, one in Shanghai and one in Guangdong, in charge of operations in the southern provinces of China.
　　Since 2003, Starbucks International, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Seattle-based Starbucks Corp., has begun to buy back shares in the Chinese joint ventures. As of now, it has bought 50 percent of the Shanghai company and 51 percent of the Guangdong company. A China headquarters of Starbucks Corp. has been formed, which has moved to open new shops in regional business centers, including Chengdu, Chongqing and Dalian.
　　Negotiations on a stock buyback between Starbucks International and Beijing Meida are ongoing. According to Charles Wang, Starbucks plans to buy back at least 50 percent of the stock of Beijing Meida. This will usher in a new era of Starbucks in China by putting all development under one command.
　　“Obtaining a controlling interest enables Starbucks to draft a grand plan for the company’s development in China,” said Yang Deyong, a professor at Beijing Technology and Business University.
　　Starbucks’ China headquarters has attached more importance to regional centers. It is expected that in the near future Starbucks cafes will be seen across the country, like the fast food chains McDonald’s and KFC.
　　Yet, however fast Starbucks develops in China, the prices it charges mean that it is affordable to only a small segment of the population.
　　Data from the National Bureau of Statistics indicate that in January, the monthly per-capita income in China was 1,121 yuan, while per-capita income in Beijing and Shanghai was a little above 2,000 yuan. In a Starbucks outlet in Beijing, a small cappuccino or latté is priced at about 20 yuan.
　　Although price is not the only factor determining whether Chinese people will shift from teahouses to Starbucks, it remains a vital factor in stimulating a change in people’s drinking habits. For China’s middle-class and modish youth, Starbucks is nothing less than part of their life, although it is a luxury for most Chinese.
　　Starbucks has no plan to lower the prices of the food and beverages it sells. In fact, Beijing Meida and Starbucks International disagree on introducing a populist approach. The latter noted that the most powerful weapon in marketing in Chinese cities is to set high prices for consumer products, since in China “expensive” is usually the byword for high quality and luxury.
　　This business strategy, however, will keep ordinary Chinese a long way from a Starbucks coffee.

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