Starbucks in Vietnam

I came across an interesting video by CNBC on Starbucks’ alleged struggle in Vietnam.

I agree with several points brought up in the video clip, but there isn’t much data to back up their thesis that Starbucks is struggling in Vietnam. The only corroborating data is a Starbucks store per capita. Apparently, the figure in Vietnam is much lower compared to that in our neighboring countries.

Nonetheless, there is no financial data that indicates Starbucks is struggling in our country. Moreover, Starbucks has been expanding slowly yet steadily in Vietnam.

To show that Starbucks is struggling, the video reported that the chain owns less than 3% of the market. Well, which market? If you’re talking about the market that involves every mom-and-pop shop in every province and everybody across all income brackets, then I am not surprised at the low market share. Coffee at street stalls is significantly cheaper than coffee at Starbucks and I doubt you can find the chain outside of the major cities such as Hanoi, Saigon or Danang. But Starbucks isn’t for everyone. To make the market share figure more relevant, it has to be for the upscale market. Compare Starbucks with Runam, the Workshop and stores in shopping malls, and see how the green brand fares. My experience with Starbucks in Saigon is that it never lacks traffic. It always seems popular to the citizens. The point is that the video lacks quantitative evidence to make the case.

There is one more example that I want to add regarding how Starbucks doesn’t really fit in the Vietnamese culture. We Vietnamese people like to go to coffee shops and spend hours there working or browsing the Internet. In Starbucks stores in Vietnam, you are given one Wifi code for each receipt and each code is good for two hours, I believe. Asking for one more code is possible, but if a customer forgets, it will be inconvenient for an average Vietnamese customer.