Why Is Starbucks So Expensive in China? 中国星巴克高价咖啡的

Starbucks plans to open hundreds of new stores in China over the next two years. (Jason Lee/Reuters)
Imagine walking into Starbucks and discovering that your grande latte cost $27. You'd probably think that the world's coffee supply had suddenly vanished. Or that you'd traveled by time machine many decades into the future.
These inflated prices gives you a pretty good idea of the relative cost (adjusted to per capita income) of what a Chinese person pays for the drink. China's per capita income, at about $7,200, is around five and a half times less than the American figure. Yet at a Starbucks in Beijing, a grande latte goes for about $4.80--or a dollar more than what it costs in the United States. A simple beverage of espresso and steamed milk is pretty damned expensive in China.
Considering this, it's a small miracle that Starbucks is still in business there at all. But in fact, the Seattle-based caffeine empire's China operations are thriving. Last December, Bloomberg reported that Starbucks plans to double its China workforce by 2015, adding hundreds of new stores in cities across the country in the process. The company even expects China to become its second largest market--behind just the United States--by this time.
In fairness, per capita income is a crude way to measure the buying power of Starbucks' actual customer base: The majority of its stores are located in China's large, coastal cities, where most people earn a lot more than the nationwide per capita average. Nevertheless, it's striking that in a developing country, one lacking an indigenous coffee-drinking culture, so many people are willing to pay a premium for Starbucks products. Logically, wouldn't it make sense for Starbucks to drop its prices a little in order to attract even more customers?
The problem with this idea is pretty simple--operating a Starbucks store in China is expensive. For a country where labor is cheap--Starbucks baristas in Beijing make much less than their American counterparts--this may seem counterintuitive. But labor is just one component that goes into making a grande latte, as this _Wall Street Journal _infographic shows:
What's expensive are the logistics. The coffee beans Starbucks brews in its Beijing stores, as well as other materials like cups and mugs, don't cost any more to import in China than in the United States. The problem is getting these materials from point A to point B. "Transporting coffee beans from, say, Colombia to the port of Tianjin is about the same as transporting them from Colombia to the port of Los Angeles," says David Wolf, a public relations professional and expert in Chinese business. "It's getting them from the port in Tianjin to the store in Beijing that's expensive." China has invested billions of dollars over the years to improve its port and transportation infrastructure, but the combination of taxes, fees, and middle-men add to logistics costs--which are then passed on to customers in the form of marked-up frappuccinos and lattes.
So if Starbucks is so expensive in China, why do so many people go there? Most cities in the country have coffee shops that provide a roughly similar cup of coffee--and similarly comfortable atmosphere--at much lower prices. How does Starbucks make it work?
One major issue is culture. Since the Chinese economy opened up to import products in the late 1970s, these goods acquired a certain cache with image-conscious consumers. "Traditionally foreign products were regarded as better-made, higher-status, and simply nicer," Fei Wang, a Washington, DC-based consultant who grew up in Wuhan, told me. "A person's social standing was defined by the objects they own." Far from acting as a deterrent, high prices actually enticed customers who wanted to show off their new affluence; put another way, purchasing a good like a cup of coffee at a premium was a good way to obtain "face" in business or personal relationships. And Starbucks had the good fortune of entering the country at a time when coffee drinking became fashionable among hip, young Chinese consumers.
There are signs, however, that Chinese preferences for high-priced, imported goods may be waning. With the rise of e-commerce--and more frequent foreign travel--Chinese consumers have begun to feel that they're paying too much for simple pleasures like a cup of coffee. "After living in America for awhile I was shocked at how expensive Starbucks was when I went back to China," says Wang. This trend appears to be happening across other industries, too: A disgruntled shopper told the Wall Street Journal's Laurie Burkitt that it simply wasn't "worth shopping in China anymore."
Could the Starbucks allure fade in China, as the country's once-non-existent coffee shop market matures? Probably not anytime soon. The company has proven adept at adding local touches in its Chinese stores, such as green tea flavored coffee drinks and collectible mugs, and has shown a flexibility that has eluded other foreign companies hoping to capitalize on the market. Eventually, though, Chinese customers may decide that a latte is just a latte--and the no-name place down the street is more than good enough星巴克打算用两年时间在中国开设过百间门店。(杰森·李/路透社)
试想一下,走进星巴克突然发现你的大杯拿铁要花27块。你可能会想:难道全世界的咖啡供应突然紧缺,还是你乘坐时光机来到了未来的世界?
但这些高涨的价格能让你很好地了解中国人支付一杯饮品的相对成本(相比起个人平均收入)。中国人均收入大概为7200元,美国人是他们的5.5倍。然而一家开在北京星巴克的一杯大拿铁要花4.8美元,售价整整比美国本土的星巴克高出1美元。在中国,一杯简单的浓缩咖啡配上热牛奶真是他妈的太贵了。
想到这里便觉得星巴克仍能在中国生存下去已经是个不小的奇迹了。但是,这家总部位于西雅图的咖啡帝国在中国的生意可谓蒸蒸日上。上一年的11月份,彭博资讯曾报道星巴克计划至2015年使它在中国的职员数翻倍,计划中打算在中国各个城市开设上百家门店。公司甚至希望2015年后,中国能成为它继美国之后的第二大市场。
个人平均收入通常会被作为衡量星巴克顾客实际购买力基础的大致指标。大部分星巴克门店开设在中国的大型海滨城市,因为那里人们的收入平均都高出全国人均收入的总体水平。然而,奇怪的是,在一个本缺少咖啡饮用文化滋养的发展中国家,竟然有这么多的人愿意支付高价去购买星巴克的产品。所以从情理上说,星巴克怎样会为了吸引更多的顾客而降低身价呢?
这个问题的答案其实很简单,那是因为在中国要开一间星巴克的成本很高。虽然在一个劳动力廉价的国家,北京星巴克咖啡师的薪水远低于他们的美国同行,这看起来可能与昂贵的产品价格相违背,但职员的薪水仅仅是星巴克生产一杯大拿铁成本的一个方面。华尔街日报的图表显示:
由此可看出,后勤费所占的比例相对较高。星巴克北京店所用的咖啡豆和其他原料例如杯子和马克杯,进口到中国的费用不会比进口到美国的贵多少。问题在于需要把这些原料从点A运输到点B。“例如将咖啡豆从哥伦比亚运送到天津港口,其运输费用与从哥伦比亚到洛杉矶港相当。”大卫·沃尔夫解析道,他是研究中国商贸的公共关系领域的专家,“真正的原因是把原材料从天津的港口运送到北京的门店里,这个中间的过程花费高。”虽然中国这些年投资了数十亿美元去改善港口和交通的基础设施,但是税务、运输费用以及中介费等等合共的金额增加了后勤费用的支出,而最终这些费用将会以高价咖啡产品的形式转嫁到消费者身上。
既然星巴克在中国的消费如此高,那为何依然受人热捧呢?其实中国的大多数城市都有咖啡馆,而且都能提供与星巴克水准相当的咖啡饮品,还能为顾客营造一个舒适的氛围,更重要的是价格比较经济。那么星巴克是靠什么维持营运的呢?
一个主要原因是文化底蕴。20世纪70年代中国经济实行对外开放,并开始输入外国的商品,而这类商品的消费者常具备一定的品牌意识。“通常国外的商品都被看作是质量更好、层次更高,就是比国内产品高一个档次,”王斐(音译)这样对我说,他本人出生自武汉,现在是驻华盛顿顾问。“一个人的社会地位可以从他所拥有的事物反映出来。”价格高的产品不但不会成为人们购买的障碍,而且正好吸引了那些希望炫耀财力的顾客争相前往。从另一个方面来说,你购买一件商品例如一杯价格不菲的咖啡能够使您在商务时或在朋友圈里增添不少“面子”。现在喝咖啡在那些追求时尚的中国年轻顾客中越来越流行,这便成为星巴克此时进军中国市场的大好时机。但是,有迹象表明中国顾客选择高价进口产品的趋势正在衰退。现在随着网上购物的普及和更多的出游机会,中国顾客开始意识到他们为享用一杯普通的咖啡付出太高。“在美国生活一段时间后,我回到中国,发现星巴克咖啡在华的售价竟如此高,这令我很惊讶。”王斐说。这种趋向在其他行业也开始出现。一个顾客不满地对《华尔街日报》的劳里·勃奇克说,现在在中国购物越来越不划算了。这个国家本来是没有咖啡文化的,但随着它的咖啡产业成熟起来,这会使星巴克对中国顾客的吸引力下降吗?或许近期不会有什么影响。星巴克公司善于为它的中国门店增加本地元素,例如绿茶口味的咖啡饮品和推出可收藏的马克杯,这很好的展示了星巴克产品的灵活性,并有效地防止其他外国公司占领这个市场的企图。虽然最后中国人还是觉得拿铁只不过是一杯普通的饮品,但是那些在街边的普通咖啡厅还是不能够满足他们
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