Luckin Has Landed In New York, Can It Compete With Starbucks On Their Home Turf? – CoffeeTalk

China’s Luckin Coffee is opening its first two stores in the United States, both in New York City. The company’s USA app is already live on the app store, and the Chinese student community in New York has been looking forward to it. Luckin Coffee’s top-selling beverage, coconut latte, has 700 million cups sold since its launch in April 2021. The choice of New York City contrasts with Chagee, a Chinese tea chain that picked Los Angeles for its first US outlet.

The U.S. is a much bigger market than Starbucks, which has 17,122 outlets and 69% of its revenue came from the US. If Luckin succeeds in the U.S., it will at least double its size in store count and maybe more in profit. Luckin Coffee’s operations outside China started in Singapore two years ago, where it now runs more than 60 stores. Malaysia, where Luckin operates through a local master licensee, is unlikely to be a major focus for the core team and may serve as a testing ground for similar partnerships elsewhere in Southeast Asia.

The company is still growing its (mainly China) store count rapidly since it crossed the 20,000 store mark in Q3 last year. As of 31 March 2025, Luckin had a total number of 24,097 stores, up from 22,340 at the end of 2024. Cotti Coffee, a rival chain founded by ousted Luckin founder Lu Zhengyao and former Luckin CEO Qian Zhiya, has sufficiently stifled Luckin in China, opening a few stores in New York City.

The biggest challenge for Luckin in the US is organization. The company’s product is its digital DNA, from product development to store operations and user engagement. Luckin is seen as an ecommerce company with physical stores as fulfillment centers, giving it an edge in expanding into other categories like milk tea. Mixue, the world’s largest F&B chain with over 45,302 outlets, sees Luckin as a real threat and has recently doubled down on selling coffee too.

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