Not just coffee brewing at Starbucks ...

A news report today says Starbucks Corp will concentrate more of its growth in China and Japan as the company braces with slumping sales in the US and Australia. Starbucks founder and CEO Howard Schultz had earlier this month announced plans to close 600 stores in the US and eliminate as many as 12,000 jobs or 7 percent of the workforce. The coffeeshop chain employed about 172,000 as at last September. According to the report, Starbucks would shut three-fourths of its 84 stores in Australia within the next few days, backing away from a market it entered eight years ago.

During a trip to Beijing last year, the Starbucks logo at a particular outlet caught my attention as it blended with the local surrounding.