What does the street coffee queue surge after reopening show?
The first New Year's Day mini-holiday after pandemic control policies were adjusted brought a sharp rebound in food and beverage spending across China. Long queues reappeared outside milk tea and street coffee shops, and some ordering systems showed more than a hundred cups waiting. Foot traffic in many commercial districts recovered to 60 to 80 percent of the same period in previous years, with brands such as Auntea Jenny and Naixue Tea reporting clear sales gains.
The recovery is uneven. Some stores saw order volumes surge past normal capacity, while others lagged behind, and consumers reported waits of four hours for drinks and another two hours for meals. Industry observers read the holiday numbers as an early signal rather than a full rebound, and expect a broader recovery in spring, when foot traffic and catering consumption are projected to strengthen further.
The first New Year's Day mini-holiday after the adjustment of pandemic control policies saw a concentrated surge of "recovered" people traveling across the country, and the food and beverage consumer market quickly heated up. Long queues reappeared at the entrances of milk tea shops and coffee shops, with orders at some stores skyrocketing, and some even saw over a hundred cups queued in their ordering systems. From Auntea Jenny to Naixue Tea, sales data from multiple brands rebounded significantly, and foot traffic in many commercial districts recovered to 60 to 80 percent of the same period in previous years. Although the pace of recovery remains uneven, the city's "bustling vitality" is gradually returning, and the industry is full of expectations for a full recovery in spring.
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The first short holiday after the full reopening has ended. Did you choose to lie flat at home, or join the queue and go out to spend?
The 2023 New Year's Day coincided with cities entering the "recovered" stage, as people gradually stepped out of their homes, daily life order gradually returned, and urban vitality was reignited. Business at beverage shops also began to pick up noticeably, with many brands once again seeing the long queues of the past, and some stores even experiencing order explosions.
Recently on social platforms, many netizens shared their "queueing experiences" during New Year's Day—some spent four hours queuing while out for a day of fun, then waited another two hours for a meal; others sighed that the streets and alleys were packed with people, and if not for everyone wearing masks, one could hardly feel the existence of the pandemic. The booming food and beverage consumption during the New Year's Day holiday got the brand-new year off to a good start.
Indeed, people who went out during this holiday probably spent half their time queuing. Even if you stayed in, ordering a cup of milk tea for delivery still meant waiting—around 1 p.m. on January 2, I tried to place an order on my phone, only to find the ordering system indicating that there were still more than 150 cups of drinks ahead in the queue, so I had no choice but to give up.
According to media reports, Liu Xinliang, public relations head of Auntea Jenny, revealed: "On December 31, overall sales at stores nationwide climbed sharply compared with the previous week. On the first day of the holiday, sales increased by nearly 60 percent compared with ordinary days, and among them, the store with the largest increase in North China saw its revenue more than quadruple."
Last weekend, multiple cities stacked the multiple nodes of "recovered + weekend + Christmas." A message on Weibo that "a shopping mall in Zhengzhou saw 100,000 people pour in in one day" trended on the hot search list, with reads so far exceeding 200 million, triggering widespread discussion, and many people lamented whether this was post-pandemic revenge consumption. Some merchants said they sold more than 10,000 sticks of candied hawthorn in a day, with customers forming long queues. A certain tea beverage brand also revealed that at its two stores in that shopping mall, daily cup output both exceeded 1,000 cups.
Judging from media reports across regions on the recovery of dining, foot traffic and revenue in the catering industry during New Year's Day in many cities such as Guangzhou, Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai, and Zhengzhou basically recovered to 60 to 80 percent of the same period in previous years, and most stores were still continuing to grow every week, which gave the entire industry hope. Everyone generally expects a full recovery next spring, with the pace of life and work returning to normal.
A week before the holiday, there were reports that customer traffic at Naixue Tea stores nationwide had already shown a significant recovery trend, with growth especially strong in North China, Central China, and Southwest China, where order increases at stores all exceeded 35 percent. Taking North China as an example, order volume rose 35.7 percent month over month, and among the top ten stores by sales, apart from the Hebei Shijiazhuang MixC store, the rest were all Beijing stores.
After three years of pandemic shocks, the recovery of the catering industry cannot advance in lockstep, nor can the road to revitalization be achieved overnight. There are beverage shops with hours-long queues, but also stores forced to close early and go home for the New Year. Although we are still in a stage of "warming with lingering cold," the overall trend is positive, and the city's "bustling vitality" is returning little by little...
Image source: Internet
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
