At 7:45 a.m. at a Starbucks in downtown Seattle, customers want their coffee to go, and now. Hands clutching cell phones and briefcases fumble to toss Beck's latest CD onto the counter or perhaps tuck a pound of beans under the elbow for later. The Chinese, however, are remaking the "Starbucks Experience". Mostly avoiding coffee and takeaways. — and certainly music purchases — are opting for an on-site dinner of curry puffs and moon cakes during the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival. They can sit for hours. “In Hong Kong and China, coffee is still more of a social event thing than a daily necessity,” said Michael Wu, 34, chief executive of Maxim's Caterers, a Starbucks joint venture partner in Hong Kong, Macau and the South of China. “People come to meet their friends and talk.” Wu said Starbucks has increased the size of the stores it oversees in Hong Kong and China to about 2,000 square feet, to accommodate all the lollipop chatter. The concept of "Third Place", often used by president Howard Schultz to describe Starbucks: that home away from home where, for a fee, the host serves you coffee and also offers CDs and sweets. In the United States, though, Starbucks revenue is driven by the speed and frequency of its transactions, as people grab their coffee, and maybe a sandwich, before rushing out the door for their next appointment. But in the five years it has operated in Hong Kong, Starbucks has come to be seen as a destination restaurant rather than a takeaway, helped by Maxim's Caterers' experience as Hong Kong's largest restaurant conglomerate. “Chinese people in particular, for the most part can't drink coffee by itself, it has to accompany it with food,” Wu said, explaining the generalized Chinese notion of coffee that Starbucks hopes to transform. “That's why our sales per customer are higher than in the United States: They buy food with coffee.” Wu said less than 5% of Starbucks' China business he oversees is takeout, unlike in the United States, where the vast majority of sales are made. “They come here and use the store, which is why they pay a premium,” Wu said. “For takeout to take off, we need to convince loyal customers to come 10 times a month until it becomes part of everyday life.” Wu said Starbucks does most of its business in Hong Kong during the afternoon and night. , when people gather to review their day with friends and family, unlike in the United States, where much of Starbucks traffic is concentrated during the morning.