Starbucks to open its first Greener Store outside of North America in Shanghai Photo:Chen Xia/GT

US coffee chain Starbucks has made itself a trending topic on Chinese social media after it was discovered that the firm had jacked up the cost of its coffee. 

Earlier the US brand had been caught in hot water following an incident which involved driving away four local policemen eating outside a Starbucks store.

On Thursday the hash tag 'Starbucks worth buying' began trending on China's Twitter-like social media platform Sina Weibo. Related topics had been viewed 76 million times as of press time.

The company adjusted the price for some drinks from Wednesday claiming the price increase is a "comprehensive evaluation" and consideration of operating costs and other factors, a representative from a Starbucks outlet in Shanghai told the Global Times on Thursday.

The price increase of Starbucks is between a range of 1 yuan ($0.15) to 2 yuan. For example, the price of a cup of grande Caffè Americano has been increased from 28 yuan to 30 yuan.

This is the second time Starbucks has raised its prices in four months. The first price increase was in October 2021. 

Some netizens said that the price increase is within an acceptable range while others objected.

"I don't buy Starbucks because the brand association influences is too high. There are a lot of cheaper knock-offs," wrote one netizen known calling themselves 'Anchor66666'

Starbucks currently has 5,557 stores in China, according to its first-quarter earnings report for fiscal 2022. In-store sales in China fell 14 percent within the quarter from October 2021 to January 2022, as average customer unit prices fell 9 percent and transaction volume fell 6 percent.

In contrast to Starbucks' shrinking market share in China, Luckin Coffee, a domestic coffee brand reported a network of 5,671 stores in the third quarter of 2021, higher than Starbucks' latest disclosure. 

Recently the US coffee maker has suffered through a PR crisis and a backlash from Chinese social media users for driving out four local policemen in a branch in Southwest China's Chongqing city.

On February 9, two of its stores in Wuxi, east China's Jiangsu province were fined a total of 1.37 million yuan for selling expired food.

Global Times