Starbucks opens first animal-friendly outlet in South Korea amid increase in pet-owning population

Starbucks has opened its first pet-friendly store in South Korea to attract the growing number of pet owners in the country, according to the global coffee chain on Friday.

The two-storey, 645-square-metre Guri Galmae DT store opened in the city of Guri, in Gyeonggi Province, on Friday. The cafe makes coffees and beverages on the first floor and offers a separate 166-square-metre space on the second floor as a pet zone.

The zone has chairs for pets, a reserved section where patrons can keep their leashes and a lounge where patrons can walk their pets on leash. Another section with a specially designed set offers a photo zone where pets and their owners can take pictures.

Pets are banned from the first floor to keep the baristas’ workstation clean. They can use a separate entrance that leads to the second floor.

Certain canine species that are categorised under dangerous breeds by the country’s Animal Protection Act, including mastiffs, pit bull terriers and rottweilers, are banned from the store. So are pets that are not immunised.

“I have been here since this morning and we’ve seen visitors keep coming,” an official from the company said on Friday afternoon. “There are still patrons waiting outside to enter.”

Starbucks Korea CEO Sohn Jeong-hyun said he launched the store after coming across consistent demands from consumers to introduce a Starbucks store where they can bring their pets.

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Last year, his company acquired an approval from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy to test the new store under the authority’s regulatory sandbox policy. It allowed the company to run the store for two years despite the country’s food safety law that bans patrons from eating at restaurants or cafes with animals.

“We will keep expanding our franchise to cater to consumers’ diverse lifestyles so that we can create spaces to satisfy visitors with not just pets but with their special someones,” Sohn said.

On Thursday, Sohn met the president of Happy Animal Companion, a local pro-animal activists’ group, at the store and presented her a charity donation of 100 million won (HK$600,000). It was part of the campaign jointly launched by the two parties last November to promote the protection and adoption of stray animals.

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Starbucks Korea’s pet business comes at a time when the pet-raising population in the country has been on a steady rise. According to a survey by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, pet-owning households accounted for more than 25 per cent of the country’s homes in 2022.

The pet-related market in the country was found to have reached a record of more than three trillion won in 2022 and is expected to have grown to 3.25 trillion won in 2023.

But there are concerns that pets allowed in the cafe might cause unforeseen troubles. There have been cases in the country’s pet-friendly stores that visitors feed animals random snacks that could be health hazards.

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In other cases, the pets’ unexpected behaviour have developed into conflicts between patrons.

“We have arranged the place so that pet owners don’t share the same space with those without pets,” the Starbucks official said. “We will see how things go from now on. If anything happens, we will adjust the environment as requested by our patrons.”