cool beans

Starbucks has opened a branch at my university. Let all the yuppies rejoice!

I have to admit my surprise: Hong Kong is by tradition a strictly tea-sipping sort of city. (Something to do with its Chinese heritage, I suppose.) As my sister learned the hard way, drinking coffee for your morning tea (dim sum) is simply not done. She had to resort to smuggling packets of instant coffee into the restaurant and ordering a glass of hot water every morning. Some cha chaan teng (which are like American-style diners, but with mainly Chinese food) in Hong Kong will serve a half-coffee, half-tea beverage for lunch or dinner. And, yes, the tourist and business districts have coffee shops. But it's one thing to cater to the international jet-set. It's quite another to cater to local Chinese.

There are two issues in selling victuals to locals versus selling to the jet-set. The first is taste preferences: items that Cantonese people think compliment each other -- Thousand Island salad dressing and imitation crab meat is one example -- would scare Westerners. The converse is also true: try finding bleu cheese dressing, for instance. Places like Burger King, which serve the same menu here as in America, are only found at the airport. Fish McDippers with chili sauce, on the other hand, can be bought at over 200 locations in Hong Kong.

The second issue is cost. Basic foodstuffs, imported mainly from China, are much cheaper than items imported from America. [Don't get me started about the cost of a box of mac-and-cheese here!] Meals are therefore much cheaper: in my neighborhood, US$3 will get you a take-out meal of a pork chop, lots of rice, and vegetables. Places that charge US$7 for sandwiches (um, Subway) don't stay in my neighborhood long. Pizza Hut, at US$15 per large pizza, became a "fine dining", first-date destination here in Hong Kong. McDonalds has stuck to fast food, but competes by charging a lot less here than in America.

So will Starbucks succeed here at my university? At first, I didn't think so. Starbucks serves mostly the same beverages in Hong Kong as it does in Boston. [No chai latte, though!] And with a US$4 list price for some drinks, I thought Starbucks was pricing itself out of the local market. But then my Irish classmate dragged me there yesterday. Show your student card and the campus Starbucks discounts your coffee 30%!! US$2 for a "Tall" cafe latte -- maybe the yuppie mother ship is trying to call me home!