Cat-themed cup sparks frenzied dash to Starbucks stores in China

A cat-themed coffee cup released by Starbucks in China on Tuesday sent some customers on a frenzied dash to their local stores, reports Beijing Youth Daily.

The limited edition cup has two layers. On the outside layer, pink cherry blossoms are printed onto light pink glass. The inside layer is in the shape of a cat's paw that you can see when the cup has been filled up.

The hit Starbucks cat paw cup. [Photo: Weibo account of Starbucks]

The cat paw cup was one of 30 new designs featuring images of dogs and cats that were released by Starbucks.

News of the cute cups spread like wildfire on social media days beforehand. On Tuesday when they went on sale, people queued up outside Starbucks stores before dawn. Many stores sold out of the cups in less than one day, and videos shared on social media show people getting into fights over who gets to buy the last cups.

Some cups, which sold for 199 yuan (around 30 U.S. dollars) in stores, were being resold online for as much as 1,800 yuan.

Starbucks cat paw cups being sold online. [Screenshot: China Plus]

Some social media users have called into question the madness of spending so much money on a coffee cup, while others have called the sale an example of hunger marketing given the limited amount of stock on offer.

Starbucks says that more cups are on their way and will be sold through its online retail platforms from Thursday to Sunday. For the online sale, each customer will be allowed to buy just one cup and sales will be limited to 1,000 cups per day.