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

在格林尼治村一个繁忙的街角，一家深色外墙、内部装饰简朴的新咖啡店里洋溢着生气。

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.

头戴黑色报童帽的咖啡师在吧台后安静地点着屏幕，操作灰色的方形咖啡机。只能用手机点单的顾客络绎不绝前来取餐。不需要排队。

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

门口的夹板广告牌上写着糖浆特调饮品的吸睛名字：生椰拿铁、丝绒拿铁、菠萝冷萃和粉红日出。

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

入口上方是几个白色英文字：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.”

“跟别的店不一样，”18岁的阿里·伯恩鲍姆说，他住在上西区，上个月在TikTok上看到这家店后专门过来探店。“很酷，也很时尚。”

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.

瑞幸在纽约可能还不是家喻户晓的品牌，但不到十年前创立于北京、全球拥有超2.6万家门店（几乎全在中国）的瑞幸已经凭借以高效的手机点单系统、创意饮品和丰富折扣为核心的未来零售模式称霸本土市场。

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.

现在，它来到了咖啡巨头星巴克的诞生地——美国。今夏这家中国企业在曼哈顿连开四店。格林尼治村门店距不久前闭店的星巴克仅隔着一个街区。

Luckin and Starbucks have been engaged in a great global coffee rivalry in recent years, as Luckin has surged past the Seattle-based chain in China. The next question: Can Luckin challenge Starbucks on its home turf?

过去几年，瑞幸和星巴克在全球展开激烈竞争。在中国，瑞幸已超越这家总部位于西雅图的连锁品牌。如今的悬念是：瑞幸能否在星巴克的主场挑战它？

Starbucks arrived in New York 31 years ago like a thunderclap, planting its flag with a 3,000-square-foot storefront on an Upper West Side corner and swiftly conquering the city. New Yorkers were enthralled by its cozy cosmopolitan atmosphere, friendly baristas and premium arabica coffee.

31年前，星巴克声势浩大地降临纽约，在上西区一角开了一家近280平方米的旗舰店后，迅速征服了这座城市。纽约客为其温馨的国际风情、友好的咖啡师和优质的阿拉比卡咖啡所倾倒。

自31年前进入纽约以来，星巴克已经变得像这座城市的地铁站一样常见。

It opened store after store in Manhattan, many right next to existing coffee shops.

它在曼哈顿遍地开花，许多门店直接开在现有咖啡馆的旁边。

But Starbucks is no longer the advancing force it once was. Its sales are sluggish. It has struggled to adapt to the mobile-order era. And it has been buffeted by the arrival of smaller, artisanal chains, which in New York include Variety Coffee, Café Grumpy and the private-equity-backed Blank Street Coffee.

但星巴克已不复昔日进取之势。销售增长疲软，难以适应手机点单时代，还受到许多小型精品咖啡连锁品牌的冲击，比如纽约本土的Variety Coffee、Café Grumpy，以及私募支持的Blank Street Coffee等。

Luckin was founded in Beijing in 2017 and quickly dethroned Starbucks as China’s coffee king. It offers an abundance of creative lattes made with arabica beans and a gamelike app that provides users with an addictive feed of coupons.

瑞幸2017年在北京创立，之后迅速取代星巴克成为中国的咖啡之王。它不仅提供大量由阿拉比卡咖啡豆制作的创意拿铁，更推出了一款游戏化应用程序，以令人上瘾的优惠券推送吸引用户。

Luckin arrived in New York on June 30, when it opened the city’s first two stores. One is in NoMad on Sixth Avenue, a block from a Starbucks. The other is in Greenwich Village near Astor Place, where for nearly 30 years a large Starbucks stood before closing last summer.

6月30日瑞幸登陆纽约，两家首店一家位于第六大道的诺玛德，距星巴克一个街区；另外一家在阿斯特广场附近的格林尼治村，而有着近30年历史的星巴克一家星巴克大门店在去年夏季闭店。

In late August, a third Luckin opened in Hell’s Kitchen, a block north of a Starbucks, and a fourth opened in the Financial District, within a few hundred feet of another Starbucks.

8月下旬第三家店落户地狱厨房，往南一个街区也有一家星巴克；第四家进驻金融区，与星巴克门店相距百米。

For Starbucks, Luckin’s arrival is an uncomfortable challenge from a company that the Seattle chain, in a sense, helped create.

对星巴克来说，瑞幸的到来是一种令人不安的挑战——从某种意义上说，这家西雅图巨头成就了对手。

Over the last quarter-century, Starbucks supercharged the once-sleepy Chinese coffee market, storming a country that had long preferred tea.

过去25年间，星巴克激活了曾经沉寂的中国咖啡市场，攻克了这个长期以来茶文化主导的国度。

瑞幸更注重便利性。顾客不会在杯子上看到咖啡师用马克笔写下的名字或画上的笑脸。

But the chain has since been humbled in China. Luckin arrived on the scene and, despite a significant accounting scandal three years after its founding that drove out its top leadership, jumped to the front of the pack.

但此后，该连锁品牌在中国受挫。瑞幸登场后迅速领跑，即便创立三年之际它曾经出现重大财务丑闻，导致管理层大换血。

Now Luckin has three stores for every Starbucks in China, according to the companies’ data. And although China remains Starbucks’s second-largest market, its market share there fell from 40 percent in 2017 to 14 percent last year, according to the firm Bernstein Research.

企业数据显示，瑞幸在华门店数已是星巴克的三倍。据伯恩斯坦研究公司统计，虽然中国仍是星巴克第二大市场，但份额已从2017年的40%降至去年的14%。

Already, Luckin has more stores in China than Starbucks does in North America. (With more than 41,000 stores worldwide, Starbucks still leads Luckin globally.)

瑞幸在华门店数已超越星巴克北美门店数总和。不过星巴克全球门店超过4.1万家，仍然领先瑞幸。

Luckin’s footprint in the United States may so far be modest, but its ambitions do not appear to be.

瑞幸在美国的布局迄今为止或许仍很有限，但野心却不容小觑。

Guo Jinyi, Luckin’s chief executive, told investors in an earnings call in late July that the company’s expansion in the United States would be deliberate and that the chain’s exploration remained in its infancy.

瑞幸首席执行官郭谨一在7月底的财报电话会上对投资者表示，公司在美国的扩张将会循序渐进，目前仍处于探索的初期阶段。

A Luckin post on Instagram that month sounded more aggressive, describing its first New York locations as “just the beginning.”

同月，瑞幸在Instagram上的帖文则显得更为激进，称其在纽约的首批门店“仅仅是个开始”。

Luckin declined to go into detail about its plans for New York, but vowed in a statement to inject “new vitality” into American coffee culture.

瑞幸拒绝详述进军纽约市场的计划，但声明中将承诺为美国咖啡文化注入“新活力”。

Starbucks avoided commenting directly on Luckin’s arrival, but said in a statement that its stores combined “convenience, connection and craft — offering not just high-quality coffee, but a welcoming experience.”

星巴克并没有对瑞幸的到来予以直接评论，而是在一份声明中称自己的门店融合“便捷性、联结感与工艺——不仅提供高品质咖啡，更营造温馨体验”。

As far as coffee shops go, Luckin and Starbucks have little in common.

在咖啡店的经营理念上，瑞幸和星巴克几乎没有共同点。

瑞幸位于第六大道的门店距离星巴克仅一个街区。

Starbucks was long powered by the vision of Howard Schultz: to bring Italian-style coffeehouses to the United States that would be so-called third places, spots beyond the home and the office to gather with friends or curl up with a newspaper.

星巴克长期以来一直秉承霍华德·舒尔茨的愿景：把意式咖啡馆带到美国，打造所谓的“第三空间”——家和办公室之外，人们可以与朋友小聚或闲阅报章的地方。

Mr. Schultz, who stepped away from the company’s management in 2023 but remains chairman emeritus, has suggested that the connection between Starbucks’s baristas and its customers has been essential to the chain’s success.

2023年卸任管理层但仍保留名誉董事长职务的舒尔茨曾指出，星巴克的咖啡师与顾客之间的情感联结是这家连锁企业成功的关键基石。

Luckin prioritizes convenience. Charm is not on the menu. Its customers should not expect to find their names handwritten in Sharpie on their cups, accompanied by smiley faces.

相比之下，瑞幸更注重便利性。温情元素并不在它的魅力清单上。顾客不会在杯子上看到咖啡师用马克笔写下的名字或画上的笑脸。

Luckin customers receive alerts on their phones when their drinks are ready, and they can pick them up without interacting with the baristas behind the bar.

在饮品制作完成后，瑞幸的顾客会收到手机提示，无需与吧台后的咖啡师互动即可取餐。

Starbucks has struggled in recent years to adjust to the growing popularity of mobile ordering. Some stores have had chaotic rush-hour pickup lines that Mr. Schultz has disapprovingly likened to mosh pits.

近年来，星巴克始终难以适应日益流行的手机点单趋势。部分门店高峰时段的取餐队伍混乱不堪，舒尔茨不满地将其比作摇滚演唱会上混乱推搡的“撞人区”。

The company’s chief executive, Brian Niccol, has promised that Starbucks will re-establish itself as a reliable “third place,” and has predicted its stores will soon look and feel quite different.

公司现任首席执行官布赖恩·尼科尔承诺，星巴克将重塑其作为可靠“第三空间”的定位，并预言门店即将呈现焕然一新的面貌与体验。

Since Mr. Niccol took the helm last year, Starbucks has ushered in plans to increase seating, hire more baristas and close pickup-only locations or convert them into traditional cafes. Aiming to provide a more inviting atmosphere, it has also scrapped a policy that allowed people to use Starbucks’s bathrooms without making a purchase.

自尼科尔去年上任以来，星巴克已推行增加座位、增聘咖啡师计划，并关闭只供取餐的门店或将其改造成传统咖啡馆。为营造更具吸引力的氛围，公司还取消了允许非消费者使用星巴克洗手间的政策。

But it is not clear how the shift will position Starbucks against competitors like Luckin.

然则这种转型将如何助力星巴克应对瑞幸等竞争对手目前犹未可知。

On a recent Saturday afternoon, the Luckin near Astor Place bustled with activity as jazz played softly from speakers.

在最近一个周六的下午，阿斯特广场附近的瑞幸咖啡店里一片忙碌，扬声器里播放着轻柔的爵士乐。

瑞幸在格林尼治村的新店。附近一家开业30年的星巴克今年夏天闭店了。

A smattering of people sat at three small tables, and a circle of young friends chatted in a corner, leaning over their phones. A churn of customers entered, collected drinks and left.

三张小桌子旁坐着零星的顾客，一群年轻朋友聚在角落里闲聊，低头看着手机。顾客们不断进出，取走饮品后转身离开。

About a mile away, outside the Luckin in NoMad, Valerie Kwong had been drawn to the chain for a simple reason. She was tired of seeing American brands dominate.

大约1000多米外，在诺玛德的另一家瑞幸门店外，瓦莱丽·邝（音）选择来这里的理由很简单：她厌倦了美国品牌主导市场的景象。

“That’s why I would go out of my way not to go to Starbucks,” explained Ms. Kwong, 29, an environmental engineer from Jersey City, N.J., who was drinking a hot latte.

“这就是为什么我会特意绕开星巴克的原因，”这位29岁、来自新泽西州泽西市的环境工程师一边喝着热拿铁，一边解释道。

As the Luckin in NoMad hummed, a Starbucks one block south was quiet. Overlooking a street corner, it has the type of uninviting atmosphere that the chain is trying to pivot away from, with no seats or bathrooms for patrons.

当诺玛德的瑞幸门庭若市时，往南一个街区的星巴克却显得冷清。这家位于街角的门店没有座位和顾客可以使用的洗手间，氛围单调乏味，这正是星巴克试图摆脱的形象。

For long stretches that afternoon, the baristas behind the counter easily outnumbered the drip of customers filtering through.

那个下午的大部分时间里，柜台后的咖啡师比进店的零星顾客多。

At one point, a woman looking for a comfortable place to sit wandered in. Unsatisfied by the lack of chairs, she turned around and left.

有一位走进来想找个可以舒服坐一坐的地方，发现没有椅子后，旋即转身离去。