Published:  03:38 Saturday - February 02, 2013

The nearly 40 degrees Celsius hot weather seems fail to discourage some 200 people queuing in a front of a store at the Nga Sau crossroads in Ho Chi Minh City on Friday.<br><br>

They are waiting to become the very first customers to taste the well-known Starbucks coffee in Vietnam, with the country’s first store officially opened in the morning.

The grand opening of the HCMC store marked Vietnam as Starbucks’ 12th market in the Asia – Pacific, and adding up to its chain of some 3,400 stores in the area.

A long line of customers are seen in front of the Starbucks store in 
Ho Chi Minh City February 1, 2013 Photo: Tuoitrenews

“Vietnam is one of the most dynamic and interesting market in Asia, and we are proud to enter this country,” John Culver, president of Starbucks Coffee China and Asia Pacific, said during the ribbon cutting ceremony.

The HCMC store is operated by Coffee Concepts, a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based Maxim Group.

The store officially opened at 2pm, attracting a number of customers despite the hot weather of the afternoon.

“This is the first time I tasted a US coffee brand name,” Nguyen Ngoc Tram, 17, told Tuoitrenews in explaining why she was willing to queue for more than 30 minutes to be able to sip her Vietnamese Starbucks coffee.

“I feel very eager to buy my first Starbucks cup,” she added.

Most of other customers are young, and those who have already experienced Starbucks in the US and other Asian countries.

They came to see if there is any difference between Starbucks Vietnam and in other nations, they said.

An hour after the official opening hour, the long line in front of the store still remained, as there were more people coming to become one of the first to taste Starbucks in Vietnam.

Here are some of pictures:

Source:Tuoitrenews