(NEXSTAR) — Whether you’re picking up Starbucks on the way to work, visiting a banking company’s café, or stopping into a local coffee shop for a latte, there’s no shortage of options when you need some caffeine, especially in New York.
Nonetheless, a new offering has entered the market. More specifically, the U.S. market.
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On Monday, Luckin Coffee held soft openings at two locations in New York City: 755 Broadway in Brooklyn and 800 6th Avenue in Manhattan.
“This is just the beginning,” Luckin Coffee wrote on its Instagram page dedicated to its U.S. footprint. “NYC, we’re here.”
In this May 18, 2019, photo, customers sit at a Luckin Coffee outlet in a shopping mall in Beijing.(AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
New Yorkers weren’t the only ones to try out the new stores. The company highlighted a customer, Glenn, who reportedly drove 22 hours from Florida to be the first in line.
Luckin Coffee, which was founded in Xiamen, China, in 2017, bills itself as offering high-quality coffee at an affordable price with a “100% cashier-less environment.” Orders are placed via the company’s mobile app or “other third-party platforms,” with stores taking up a smaller footprint of pick-up and “relax” locations.
In addition to being among the most prominent coffee chain brands in China, Luckin Coffee stores — totaling over 24,000 — can also be found in Singapore and Malaysia.
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Starbucks captured attention in 2019 when it opened its first “Starbucks Pickup” location near Penn Station, a location that was nearly half the size of its usual cafe, where customers were encouraged to order through the company’s app. The chain had a similar offering in China, known as Starbucks Now, which CNN described as being similar to Luckin Coffee.
Its offerings are, however, about 30 percent cheaper in China than Starbucks’ are, CNN reports. You’ll find roughly the same offerings: hot or iced drinks, lattes, matchas, and cold brews.
Luckin Coffee tried to enter the U.S. market before, filing for an initial public offering in 2019. A year later, it was found that the company’s earnings had been fabricated. The Associated Press reported in 2020 that Luckin had agreed to pay $180 million to settle fraud charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
It was a seemingly small setback, however. In 2021, Luckin Coffee’s revenue surpassed Starbucks’ in China, according to The New York Times.
It’s unclear if Luckin Coffee has the same goal in mind for the U.S. — Starbucks has 17,122 shops here and 7,758 in China, the latest financial filings show. Luckin Coffee did not immediately respond to Nexstar’s inquiry.
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The coffee chain market has grown dense in the U.S. in recent years. Dunkin, for example, maintains more than 14,000 stores in the U.S. Oregon-based Dutch Bros recently announced plans to expand its presence to more than 2,000 locations by 2029. Biggby Coffee, which began in Michigan, has plans to grow to 1,000 locations by 2028. Competing drive-thru coffee franchise Scooter’s Coffee has more than 850 stores and is still looking to grow.
Starbucks, meanwhile, has been making several changes to its business in recent months.
That includes the end of its olive oil-infused line, the removal of an extra fee for non-dairy milks, the return of the Sharpie and the condiment bar, the reversal of its open door policy, and free refills for some “for here” orders.
In March, Starbucks removed more than a dozen drinks from its menu as part of its effort to trim its offerings by about 30%. Last week, the company announced it was modifying the way it charges for syrups, sauces, and matchas added to drinks.
