Starbucks and Luckin Coffee have a new and unlikely competitor in the Chinese coffee shop market – a café concept launched by the country’s state-run post office
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A China Post branch in Chengdu, Sichuan, China | Photo credit: via Shutterstock
According to Chinese media outlets, China Post opened the first ‘Post Coffee’ store in the Xiamen International Trade Building on 14 February 2022.
The new store is complete with China Post’s green and yellow branding, with a social media post inviting customers to “drink a cup of coffee and write a letter to the one you love.”
Images circulated of the
Post Coffee menu shows the coffee and tea beverages priced at 22-38 yuan ($3.48-$6.02).
Meanwhile, users on the Dianping social media platform reported long queues forming at the new store.
China Post has a network of 54,000 post offices across the country, a significantly larger footprint than Luckin Coffee’s and Starbucks’ 6,000 and 5,500+ respective locations.
While successfully scaling a fledging coffee concept is no mean feat, China Post’s move demonstrates the growing commercial potential of coffee in China, particularly among a growing demographic of affluent younger consumers.