Starbucks plans to open one location a day in this country for five years
An apple a day may keep the doctor away but in the case of China's ailing economy, the proposed solution is actually a bit different.
Starbucks is planning to open a new location a day (some days even more than one), every day, for the next five years.
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The ultimate goal for the company is to have 5,000 stores open in China by 2021.
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz told CNN:
"One of things I think we've done very well is we've invested significantly ahead of the growth curve -- in people, in system. We just finished a fantastic year in China where the results are as strong as they've ever been."
China's first Starbucks opened 17 years ago.
Though the U.S. has been (and will most likely continue to be for a while) Starbucks' biggest market, Schultz is quite confident that China can, and will, overtake the title and become the coffee giant's biggest market.
Schultz pointed out that business in China wasn't always primarily attracting Chinese customers, but that's changed in recent years:
"If you look five years ago, most of our business, believe it or not, was expats and tourists in China. Today, it's mostly Chinese."
And if the Chinese continue to indulge in their grande Pumpkin Spice Lattes as much as their American counterparts, Schultz might just be right about the Chinese Starbucks market after all.
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