What Does the Coffee Beans Name Dispute Mean?

China Post announced its Xiamen International Trade Building location as the country's first post office coffee shop, but this claim is disputed. Stores in Shanghai and Zhongshan had already opened under the post office coffee name, following a 2021 authorization to Shanghai Zhongyu Jiaye Management Consulting. The coffee beans name on each store's menu stays the same, yet local branches and the Beijing headquarters offer conflicting statements about which outlet is authentic.

The timeline shows Beijing headquarters negotiations in February 2021, the registration of Zhongyu Jiaye on September 1, 2021, and a Zhongshan store that opened last December. Coffee beans by country of origin are a common menu feature in these shops, but the franchise rumors and contradictory public announcements have left customers unclear about who actually operates each location. Sorting out the statements from each party is the only way to clarify the mix-up.

China Post recently made a high-profile announcement declaring the post office coffee shop at Xiamen International Trade Building as the "first in the country," but this has sparked questions from post office coffee shops that had already opened in various places. From negotiations for authorization at the Beijing headquarters in 2021, to the establishment and operation of Shanghai Zhongyu Jiaye, to the claim by the Zhongshan Postal Branch that it already had an authorized store last December, a dispute over "first" and "authentic" has surfaced. The official WeChat public account's statement and local declarations contradict each other, and franchise rumors have made the situation even more confusing. This article will sort out the timeline of post office coffee, the statements from all parties, and the focus of the controversy, and include professional coffee news to help you clarify the truth behind this mix-up.

Recently, China Post's official WeChat public account and Weibo simultaneously released news announcing the official opening of the post office coffee shop at Xiamen International Trade Building, and specifically emphasized that it was the "first post office coffee shop in the country." This news was quickly reprinted by major media outlets. However, some netizens pointed out that before this store, other stores named post office coffee already existed, and the relevant operators did not agree with the claim of being the "first."

According to public media reports, in February 2021, China Post's Beijing headquarters held negotiations with the person in charge of Zhongyu Jiaye regarding the post office coffee project. On September 1 of the same year, Shanghai Zhongyu Jiaye Management Consulting Co., Ltd. was registered and established. Subsequently, China Post's Beijing headquarters authorized the company to open "post office coffee IP stores."

At the time of opening, Zhongyu Jiaye claimed that the "post office coffee" it created was China Post's first independently operated coffee shop, and the wording "first post office coffee shop" in the press release was also endorsed by China Post's official WeChat public account and Weibo. When the Xiamen post office store opened, the official account also released this news and called Xiamen the "first post office coffee shop in the country."

But as soon as the promotion of the "first post office coffee shop in the country" came out, some netizens pointed out that before the Xiamen International Trade Building store appeared, similar-themed "post office coffee" had already appeared in places such as Shapowei in Xiamen, near the Wukang Building in Shanghai, and the Huabai area in Zhongshan, Guangdong.

More netizens began asking whether "post office coffee" could be franchised, and questioned the claim of being the "first in the country," wanting to know which ones were truly post office coffee. When netizens asked similar questions to the official "China Post" public account, the reply they received was: "Xiamen is the first."

Therefore, those "post office coffee" shops that had already been operating before the opening of the Xiamen International Trade Building store came under some questioning. On the evening of the 18th, the official Xiamen Postal Service public account issued a statement saying that it was currently in the trial operation stage and that there was no "franchise center" of any kind.

At the same time, another public account verified as "China Post Zhongshan City Branch" called "Zhongshan Philately" also issued a statement, which read: "Post Coffee post office coffee" is currently the only coffee-themed post office authorized for operation by China Post Group Co., Ltd. Zhongshan City Branch. This confirmed that Zhongshan also had an officially authorized "post office coffee," and that the store had already opened last December.

This Zhongshan "Post Coffee post office coffee" recognized by China Post Zhongshan Branch also specially produced a video to answer questions of public concern, including "Is it really China Post?" and "Can I franchise it?" In the video, affirmative answers were given to both, and it was revealed: "The specific franchise plan is still being urgently discussed in meetings." (Because the video platform lists "franchise" as a prohibited word, "jia meng" was used instead in the video.)

Some netizens also asked: "Isn't Xiamen the first? When did the Zhongshan store open?" Zhongshan "Post Coffee post office coffee" responded: "We opened in December of last year, think it over carefully."

For a time, who exactly was China Post's first post office coffee shop, and whether franchising was possible, became even more confusing. Ms. He from the Zhongshan Postal Branch explained that what China Post's public account meant by "Xiamen post office coffee is the first" referred to "the first coffee shop opened inside a postal business hall," and that outsiders had misunderstood the wording, believing that the wording of the relevant news announcement was not rigorous enough, which led to the controversy.

China Post's official WeChat public account and Weibo both said that "Xiamen is the first post office coffee shop in the country," while the previously existing "post office coffee" shops also claimed to have official recognition. It seems that China Post, for some reason, failed to learn that several "post office coffee" shops had already opened before, thus creating this mix-up.

Image source: Weibo screenshot of the video comment section

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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.