Billionaire Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz was on Bangkok’s Lang Suan Road yesterday to inaugurate the coffee chain’s first “community” store outside the United States.
As part of the community store model, THB10 will be donated to farming communities in the north for every coffee purchase at the Lang Suan location.
It’s no accident that Bangkok was chosen as the first location for a community store outside the US, and the fourth in the world after New York, Los Angeles, and Houston, Schultz said.
“As I join the team today to celebrate 15 years in the market, there is an unparalleled passion our partners [staff] demonstrate for delivering the Starbucks experience to our customers in Thailand. I have never been more confident in our ability to grow this market, doubling store count over the next five years,” he said, according to the Nation. “The community store in Langsuan signifies our ongoing commitment to give back to communities, and more specifically, to support and sustain local coffee and farming communities in northern Thailand.”
Photo: Associated Press
