We were invited to open up a store there. We did very well. And then all of a sudden it was reported by a local blogger that perhaps we were being disrespectful of the history and culture of China. And I think for us as soon as that occured, you know we took a step back and said we don't wanna do anything that would dilute the integrity of the heritage of culture of the Chinese people. And if they want us to leave, we will leave. And I think we did that very respectfully and walked away. And I think many other companies probably would have fought it, but we didn't. And there's lots of opportunities for us and we don't want to do anything that would be inconsistent with how people would view an outsider. I'd like to open this up now to our audience here the China Europe International Business School and our first question today comes from Robert Zhang. Robert.

OK. Thank you. I'm Robert CEIBS first year student. I want to ask you a question about the price. Price? Yeah. Starbucks' products are expensive but it also means a fashionable experience, right? So can you tell me the reason can you tell me why people want to keep, er, want to get a premium?

I wouldn't say Starbucks' coffee is expensive. I would say it's a premium product in a premium price based on what it is we deliver to the consumer. And the price of coffee that we buy is significantly higher in price than most people in the coffee business. And then in terms of what it is we do to deliever on the experience, people really do feel that there is good value for the experience and what happens in the Starbucks store.

Hi, I'm Aleksandra Krainski CEIBS exchange student from Germany. Uh, we know that China is a nation of tea drinkers. How do you make it a nation of coffee drinkers and have you ever thought of adding a tea chain to your business, Starbucks tea?

Another good question. So you know where they came from.

I think it's, it's, I was talking about coming to China and being respectful of the heritage here. Starbucks is not coming to China to displace the love that people have for tea. We are coming to China to create a complementary beverage experience. So we have been in the tea business for over 30 years, but it's less than 1% of our sales. I don't think that there's an economic model that I can see for traditional tea store in our future.

Let's go to Sher Le now. Sher Le? My question is we've heard of the cappucino and other different products you have introduced. Well I was wondering what products have not needed or any ideas that did not work?

I'll give you one idea that was a big failure, and it was my personal idea. A few years back I had the brilliant idea that we should publish our own magazine. And you know on paper it looked like a great opportunity. All the people coming into our stores, you see them reading, uh, we sell lots of newspapers in our stores. Why don't we just create our own magazine? You know there's a hundred magazines or a thousand magazines out there that are fantastic. Not good enough for us, we'll do our own. And we got a great partner. And it was a timing. And we invested millions of dollars, fantastic-looking magazine, great editor and no one bought it. And we lost our shirt. And I have a rack of those magazines sitting permanently in my own office to try and remind myself and others a very important I think business lesson and that is, it's one thing to learn from your mistakes but sometimes you have to celebrate them. And the one thing that I do not wanna do at Starbucks is, is have the kind of failure where we start discouraging creativity and entrepreneurship. I'm very fond of encourging our people to recognize that our success is not an entitlement. It has to be earned. And we have no right to enduring success unless we continue to be relevant and close to the consumer. But there's a real balance here. The world is changing so quickly and the consumer has so many choices that the important thing is not only staying relevant but the important thing is preserving and enhancing your core business. So that it is not diluted by other things that you do. And this is a, an art not a science.

Notes:

Lose one's shirt: Face financial ruin, go bankrupt