Move over Starbucks in NYC - 'Luckin' has arrived from Bejing

On a busy corner in Greenwich Village, a new coffee shop with a dark facade and a spartan interior hummed with life.

Baristas in black paperboy caps worked quietly behind the bar, tapping away at screens and at boxy gray coffee machines. Customers, who were required to order by phone, streamed in to pick up their drinks. There was no line.

By the doors, sandwich-board signs advertised syrupy concoctions with eye-catching names: iced coconut latte, iced velvet latte, pineapple cold brew, pink sunrise.

Above the entrance, two words glowed in white: Luckin Coffee.

“It’s different,” said Ari Birnbaum, 18, who traveled downtown from his home on the Upper West Side to try Luckin one day last month after learning about the shop on TikTok. “It’s cool. It’s sleek.”

It may not be a household name in New York City. But Luckin, which was founded less than a decade ago in Beijing and has more than 26,000 stores worldwide, nearly all of them in China, has dominated its home market with a futuristic retail model built around an efficient mobile-order system, inventive drinks and plenty of discounts.

Now Luckin has made it to the United States, the birthplace of Starbucks, the java goliath. The Chinese company has opened four stores in Manhattan this summer. The one in Greenwich Village stands a block away from a Starbucks that recently closed.