Amy Delva
Starbucks is on every street corner in New York City. For most people it is in their
daily routines. Just imagine if one of these people were to walk into a Starbucks a see
their favorite cup of coffee being sold at twenty-seven dollars. Most would perhaps think
that the nations coffee supply had abruptly disappeared. These inflated prices give
someone a pretty good idea of the relative cost (adjusted to per capita income) of how
much a Chinese person pays for the cup of coffee. 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 basically a dollar more than what it costs in
the United States. Why is simple beverage of espresso so expensive in China?
The difficulty with this idea is comely simple, functioning a Starbucks store in
China is expensive. For a country where labor is inexpensive Starbucks workers in
Beijing make much less than their American equivalents, this may seem counterintuitive.
