Starbucks opens 6,000th store in Chinese mainland

Starbucks Tuesday celebrated its 6,000th store in the Chinese mainland, located in downtown Shanghai.

Shanghai thus became the first city in the world to have 1,000 Starbucks stores, Starbucks China said.

In 2018, Starbucks announced it would have 6,000 stores on the Chinese mainland by the end of its fiscal year in September 2022. The company achieved that as scheduled despite challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic.

Starbucks opened its first store on the Chinese mainland in January 1999 in Beijing.

The number of Starbucks stores on the Chinese mainland has grown dramatically over the past decade and is expected to grow to 9,000 by 2025, creating 35,000 new jobs, according to the company's strategic plan released recently.

Starbucks China also revealed a plan to set up its first digital technology innovation center on the Chinese mainland over the coming three years.

A Starbucks coffee creative park in Kunshan, east China's Jiangsu Province, is expected to be completed and start operating in the summer of 2023.