Seattle-based coffee hawker Starbucks has announced that they have closed their Forbidden City location in Beijing’s former Imperial Palace after operating there for the last seven years.
The decision comes after a long line of criticism regarding the appropriateness of having such a symbol of the modern world in the middle of one of China’s primary cultural heritage sites.
“There were several choices, one of which was to continue, but it would not carry the Starbucks name any more. We decided at the end that it is not our custom worldwide to have stores that have any other name, so therefore we decided the choice would be to leave.” – Eden Woon, Starbucks’ vice president for Greater China.
The Palace management has made the decision to restructure all vending at the location, whereby all brands will now be sold under a unified Palace Museum brand.
Under the new plan, the Starbucks location would be turned into a beverage station, and Starbucks would not be the sole brand sold. The Palace Museum said that if its partnership with Starbucks continued, Starbucks coffee could be one of the beverage brands sold, but it could no longer do business in the Forbidden City as a stand-alone storefront. – via The Beijing News/Danwei
Personally, I think this is a good decision, and not because I was bothered by Starbucks in the Imperial Palace. One thing that came out of the Starbucks debate was the apparent hypocrisy of it. Chinese were complaining about Starbucks, but there were plenty of other shops/brands being touted with impunity. Additionally, the Forbidden City is crowded with small-wares hawkers all but begging you to buy their crap.
This move by the management seems to show they recognize they need to sweep the riff-raff out of the Palace before the guests arrive. Starbucks iced mochaccinos are an unfortunate casualty in a move for the greater good.
One thing’s for certain, Rui Chenggang is sure to be pleased.
Related:
Starbucks exits the Forbidden City :: Danwei
Starbucks shuts controversial China shop :: Yahoo News
