This Thursday Starbucks will be organizing its second annual Coffee Break event. This means that from 10 AM to 12 noon you will get a free tall coffee at all Starbucks Coffee outlets in China. I have at least 3 Starbucks Coffee outlets within a 10 minute walk from my office, so I might drop by to see how many people are willing to wait in line to get a free coffee.
The event will not be limited to China, but also takes place in the U.S., Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia. Last year China was not included in this list yet. During the Coffee Break session you can ask questions about Starbucks coffee or its coffee brewing process. During last year’s event many stores gave away samples of their food as well.
I think this is a smart idea. I expect lots of people to blog about it, which means free publicity. Also I think that a lot of Chinese have not tried Starbucks coffee yet, and this may be a good opportunity to lure them into the stores.
The Shanghai Daily also reports about the event, but it seems the editors did not check the Starbucks website, because they report that the event will take place on Friday. So it may also be fun to stand outside Starbucks outlets in Shanghai on Friday morning and see angry customers who do not get their expected free coffee. Or did I miss another press release saying that this event will be organized one day later in China?
Actually it do happen on Friday in China, due to we are in GMT+8. 🙂
damn it! Im not in Shanghai when they offer free macchiatos
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My coupon, W. gave one to me the other day knowing that I love idling away in Starbucks, says actually Friday 16th and the time is 10 am to 12 pm. Let’s hope the coupon is for real or it will cost me 12 kuai:)
This means that the Starbucks website has the wrong information. Confusing… BTW, does the coupon say that you need to give it to them to get a free coffee? That would be totally different from how it works in the rest of the world. We’ll find out tomorrow (or Friday :-).
The coupon reads:
—
Come in on Friday, March 16, between 10 am and 12 pm
Limit one, 12 fl oz drip coffee per customer
Offer valid only at participant Starbucks stores in Mainland China, HK and Taiwan.
—
No info on having to hand in the coupon.
But by now you should either already have had your free coffee, if Thursday was the day or not:)
I walked by Starbucks today (beforing having lunch and coffee next door at Segafredo Coffee), and found out that the free coffee event will be tomorrow. The staff did not know the word “Coffee Break”, but there was a sign on the counter explaining it.
So the Starbucks press release was not correct, I wonder if all other Asian countries also postponed the event one day.