A sip of Starbucks takes foam out of the price furor

Confession: I'm one of those Chinese consumers who have allegedly driven up Starbucks prices because I enjoy lingering in one of its stores.

Usually, on weekend afternoons when I have some time to unwind, I'll order a caffe latte and a chocolate brownie in the nearest Starbucks outlet, which is a 30-minute drive from my house in eastern Beijing. Then I'll check the news and exchange messages with friends on my smartphone or try to read a magazine. Or I'll just stretch my legs and watch people if I can get a window table.

A Starbucks logo is seen at a plaza in Lujiazui district, Shanghai, Oct 23, 2013. [Photo / CFP]

I've always known that Starbucks isn't cheap, which partly explains why I stay as long as I want to during every visit to its outlets. So the findings of a recent investigation by the national television broadcaster - that my latte in Beijing costs more than in London, Chicago or Mumbai - have just corroborated my suspicion.

But I was taken aback when some people said that a shot of espresso should cost less than half the existing price, probably 10 yuan ($1.63), in China, and that Starbucks coffee costs so much mainly because of people's blind faith in foreign brands.

So are we Starbucks fans really so dumb that we pay premium prices just for the foreign name? Perhaps we may have become less price-sensitive because we've learned from our experience that it is not worth our time to search for better deals in a local store.

I've observed the birth and decline of two local cafes, one near my home and the other near my workplace. A Beijing bakery chain opened an outlet in my street to loud firecracker explosions two years ago. It never saw enough customers, although it was the only cafe in the neighborhood. I had coffee at slightly lower prices than Starbucks in the now-defunct cafe several times but stopped visiting it after I saw a bored waitress scolding customers for parking their cars in spaces reserved for her management.