When Did Coffee Become Popular in Europe? Lessons from a Modern Tea Queue

Two Cha Yan Yue Se stores opened in Nanjing and drew crowds so large that a subway entrance had to close. Drinks sold out within five minutes, scalpers resold cups at marked-up prices, and riot police were called in to keep order. Cha Yan Yue Se apologized and promised purchase limits to resist proxy buying, while Sina Finance published an investigative piece calling the queue a premeditated fake prosperity.

The episode fits a familiar pattern in China's internet-famous tea sector, echoing how coffee houses spread across Europe centuries earlier when a new drink became a social event. People's Daily Online noted that milk tea is just a drink, and that proxy fees of up to 200 yuan per cup are absurd. With the pandemic still ongoing, the article also questions what crowded queues mean for public order and safety.

The opening of two Cha Yan Yue Se stores in Nanjing triggered a queue frenzy, forcing the closure of a subway entrance, drinks selling out in five minutes, scalpers reselling at high prices, and even riot police being called in to maintain order. Faced with questions over hiring people to queue and staged purchasing on behalf of others, Cha Yan Yue Se issued an apology and promised purchase limits, yet two hours later Sina Finance published an investigative article pointing directly at the queuing-by-proxy as a premeditated fake prosperity. Is this uproar brand charisma or a marketing trick? With the pandemic not yet subsided, what hidden dangers does crowded queuing bring? This article sorts through the whole incident and explores the queue economy and public order issues behind internet-famous tea drink brands.

Yesterday, two Cha Yan Yue Se stores opened in Nanjing. The crowds queuing forced the subway station entrance to be closed, drinks sold out just five minutes after opening, and a large number of scalpers appeared reselling at marked-up prices, even requiring riot police on site to maintain order. The incident quickly sparked heated discussion online.

Many netizens questioned whether this was the result of hiring people to queue and paying proxy buyers to build momentum, and some voices also called for restraint, saying that with the pandemic situation still severe, no added burden should be placed on ordinary Nanjing citizens and public resources.

People's Daily Online also weighed in, pointing out that milk tea is, after all, just a drink; brand promotion and social media inducement inevitably make consumers keen to check in, but it should not be overly "deified." A proxy purchase fee of up to 200 yuan for one cup of milk tea is truly absurd.

Facing the queuing controversy, Cha Yan Yue Se did not respond much on the opening day, only saying it would adjust business hours and plan the next day's queuing route well to avoid the subway entrance being congested again.

This morning, Cha Yan Yue Se published a long post explaining yesterday's queuing situation, saying it was deeply sorry that a small cup of milk tea had triggered so much unnecessary discussion and brought a storm to Nanjing. In response to yesterday's scalping, it would adopt purchase limits to "resist proxy buying and reselling."

Regarding speculation about hiring people to queue and paying proxy buyers, Cha Yan Yue Se said it did not know when "queuing = marketing hype" seemed to become an irreversible proposition, that it was only human nature for netizens to make such associations, and that it would not force everyone to fully believe in its innocence.

As for the police stepping in to maintain order, Cha Yan Yue Se specially thanked the district government, commerce bureau, armed police, market supervision authorities at all levels, and the shopping mall for lending a hand and jointly maintaining order, and said these helpful actions could also serve as proof of its innocence, since seeking attention in public was not their style, nor would they dare act that way.

However, just two hours after the official post, Sina Finance published an article titled "Exposing Cha Yan Yue Se Proxy Buying as a Premeditated 'Fake Prosperity'." The article said that in a Nanjing recruitment group they saw a part-time job posting dated August 19 for a milk tea shop hiring 50 people to fill a queue, with the address in Jiangning Baijiahu; another posting dated August 18 sought 20 people to queue for a milk tea shop, for at least 3 days, with the address in Xinjiekou.

This information was confirmed by the person who posted the recruitment notices, and the milk tea brand in both queue-filling postings was Cha Yan Yue Se. The article also mentioned that a video showed that after the two Nanjing Cha Yan Yue Se stores opened at 9 a.m., staff said five minutes later that all tea drinks in the store were sold out and could not be made anymore today, and that if customers wanted to top up, they could directly scan the code to add credit. But Jiangning police said after 11 a.m. that there were still many people queuing at Jingfeng Mall and advised citizens not to come to queue today.

Faced with the sold-out situation, Cha Yan Yue Se did not take action to cut off the queue, but instead encouraged people to top up, and did not inform subsequent queuing customers that the drinks were sold out. Sina Finance also pointed out that as an internet-famous new tea drink brand that initially opened stores only in Hunan, every time it entered a new city afterward, scenes of customers gathering to queue and scalpers buying on behalf at high prices would play out, and therefore believed this was a premeditated "fake prosperity."

Whether Cha Yan Yue Se's queuing uproar is genuine popularity or marketing hype, we will not draw a conclusion for now. With the novel coronavirus not yet effectively controlled, everyone need not gamble with their health for a cup of a drink; no matter how tasty the drink, it is not worth gathering and queuing like this.

Are brand-opening queues really all hired crowd? Not necessarily, but it cannot be ruled out either. As an internet-famous new tea drink brand, its "mystique," combined with merchant marketing and media传播, makes many netizens develop the mentality of "I must drink it," and that is also hard to avoid.

In addition, since the brand was founded years ago, its Chinese classical style and dissemination of local culture have consistently captured the hearts of a new generation of consumers. Add to that the herd effect—when one person says it is good, a group follows and says it is good; under this pressure to conform, more and more people will also believe it is good—so it is normal for Cha Yan Yue Se to have such popularity.

However, after all drinks were sold out, the merchant did not promptly take action to control the scene, and it even affected other citizens' right to use public transportation and disrupted public order, ultimately requiring police, riot police, and other resources to maintain order. This incident itself was caused by the merchant's unreasonable arrangements.

Is resisting "proxy buying and reselling" through purchase limits really effective? This year, when Blue Bottle Coffee opened its first store in Shanghai, it had purchase limits from the sale of the first cup, but this could not stop scalpers from reselling; on the contrary, it intensified the frenzy of people buying "scalper goods."

During this period, the pandemic has shown a new round of trends. Everyone, if you do not consider the cost of time or money, please at least consider the health cost... Finally, I hope everyone can visit stores rationally and consume rationally.

Image source: Internet, Weibo

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