The Starbucks store in the Centerfield building, which houses Starbucks Korea’s headquarters, in Gangnam District, southern Seoul, is seen on Aug. 5, the day police raided the headquarters over the “Tank Day” promotion.YONHAP
Starbucks reclaimed the top spot among Korea’s coffee chains by estimated card spending in September, its first month in the lead since a “Tank Day” promotion set off a consumer boycott in May.
Customers spent an estimated 121.1 billion won ($90.4 million) at Starbucks with credit and debit cards last month, according to Mobile Index, a data platform run by AI data analytics company IGAWorks. The figure was up 4.3 percent from 116.1 billion won in August and marked the third monthly rise in a row. Card spending at the chain had dropped to 100.39 billion won in June before recovering to 110.1 billion won in July.
The figures leave out other payment methods, including Starbucks’ own prepaid cards and mobile gift vouchers. The data therefore cannot be read as total sales or as a gauge of how far customer trust has recovered.
A Twosome Place, which had led on the same measure since May, slipped to No. 2. Its card payments fell 6.4 percent to 110.5 billion won from 118 billion won in August, when it had been about 1.9 billion won ahead of Starbucks. Starbucks now leads by about 10.6 billion won.
Budget coffee franchise Mega MGC Coffee ranked No. 3 with 94.8 billion won, down 3.2 percent from 97.9 billion won in August. Paik’s Coffee took in 22.9 billion won, a 6.4 percent drop from 24.5 billion won.
Shinsegae Group Chairman Chung Yong-jin apologizes to the public over the Starbucks Korea “Tank Day” controversy at a press conference at the Josun Palace hotel in Gangnam District, southern Seoul, on May 26.NEWS1
Starbucks Korea, a Shinsegae Group affiliate, ran the promotion with discounts on its Tank tumbler line under the name “Tank Day” on May 18, the anniversary of the 1980 Gwangju Democratization Movement. The name evoked the tanks the military regime sent against civilians in Gwangju, and critics accused the company of mocking the pro-democracy uprising.
The boycott was not the only drag on spending. Starbucks Korea also put its summer product launch and promotional events on hold after the controversy. The company has since resumed new product releases and customer benefit programs in stages.
Those launches and benefits may have helped card payments recover as the backlash over “Tank Day” gradually subsides, industry sources said.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
