Starbucks, office rents and CEOs form alternative outlook on China

Customers queue to get their coffee at a Starbucks outlet in Nanjing, capital of East China's Jiangsu province, on June 6, 2015. About 200 customers visit this less than 100-square-meters outlet in one hour.[Photo/CFP]

Starbucks "index"

Walking into any Starbucks in Beijing, people will hardly be overwhelmed by signs of economic slowdown. The queues are long and the seats are all occupied: those middle class customers don't bat an eye at paying 30-yuan ($4.6) for a simple coffee latte.

China's enthusiasm for consumption, like Starbucks' appetite for expansion, knows little bounds.

Since its first store opened doors in China in 1999, Starbucks has expanded to more than 1,900 shops in 99 cities, making China the chain's biggest market outside the United States.

When Starbucks actually closed that first store -- coincidentally in CBD -- in 2013, and another (also in CBD) in 2015, rumors abounded that high rents had done for the company, fueling the naysayers eternally bearish view of China's economic prospects.