China to have 3,000 more Starbucks stores by 2022

That's a latte Starbucks

Starbucks has a master plan. A grande plan, bigger than their giant branch in Shanghai. A da bei expansion plan, like they want a China with Starbucks characteristics. On Wednesday (May 17), the coffee chain announced that China will be getting 3,000 more Starbucks locations in the future, reaching 6,000 total locations in China by 2022, according to CNN.

At present, there are 3,300 Starbucks chains in China. To get up to 6,000 by 2022, it would take opening 600 new stores a year, which is up from their previous goal of 500 new stores a year. 600 new stores a year is equal to opening a new store every 15 hours, assuming non-stop work fuelled by coffee that has to have more than just coffee in it.

This announcement comes just after new Chinese coffee startup Luckin Coffee released an open letter on Tuesday accusing Starbucks of monopolistic business tactics in China and suggesting they would take legal recourse, according to TechNode. Starbucks responded with a statement which more or less shrugged off the allegations as a PR stunt.

Monopoly machinations or not, one can't deny that Starbucks' growth in China has been aggressive (and also cute if these pet-friendly locations are anything to go by). Who knows, by 2020 there might be a Starbucks on every hutong corner.

Not a Starbucks fan? Hit ' Read more' for the 10 best cafés in Beijing. 

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