What Does the Luckin 9.9 Yuan Promotion Mean for Coffee Shops?

Luckin Coffee launched a weekly 9.9 yuan promotion tied to the opening of its 10,000th store in Xiamen, and customers responded by stocking up on coupons and ordering heavily. Store employees have reported overflowing orders, long shifts, and physical exhaustion on social media, while customers complain about waits of more than two hours for a single cup.

The campaign delivered strong transaction data and attention for the brand, but it also raised questions about whether a sustained low-price strategy is workable. Staffing, ingredient restocking, and machine capacity all come under strain when volume rises that sharply. The episode points to a broader tension in coffee retail, where discount-driven traffic can outrun the labor and operations behind the counter, a shift with little precedent since coffee houses first spread across Europe.

Luckin Coffee recently launched a 9.9 yuan promotion celebrating its 10,000th store. While consumers are enthusiastic, the work pressure on store employees has also risen sharply. On social media, many Luckin workers complain about overflowing orders, physical exhaustion, and even losing two jin in four days. Although this promotion has brought the brand considerable transaction data and attention, whether the continuous low-price strategy can be sustained in the long run has become the focus of industry discussion. This article will take you through the real picture behind this 9.9 yuan frenzy.

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"Luckin sells for 9.9, and it's not like they're giving it away for free" "I waited a full two and a half hours for a cup of Luckin" "There's just no way to finish making them all, no way at all!" "This 9.9 farce—when exactly will Luckin bring it to an end?"

Online, not only are deal-hunting customers complaining about long queues, but a group of deeply frustrated Luckin staff are also venting and grumbling about this small-profit-high-volume promotion on social platforms.

Earlier this month, Luckin's 10,000th store officially opened in Xiamen, marking the brand's entry into the 10,000-store scale, and it simultaneously launched a weekly 9.9 yuan promotion celebrating the 10,000 stores. As soon as the news came out, it immediately had a large number of coffee lovers spreading the word and rushing to stock up on coupons and place orders.

So the more enthusiastically customers place orders, the harder Luckin staff have to work. The counter is covered with drinks waiting to be picked up, the machine keeps reminding them that new orders are flooding in, ingredients are restocked only to run out again in the blink of an eye, empty milk cartons pile up like small mountains... It looks like Luckin employees are truly about to collapse from exhaustion at the bar.

The crowd "grabbing" coffee at Luckin

This is a netizen surrounded by Luckin packaging bags

Staff: I really can't Luckin anymore

Many netizens working part-time at Luckin posted that they originally just wanted to do a side job, but ended up running into this wave of the 9.9 store anniversary and got so busy they broke down. "That kind of exhaustion that makes you want to blow up the entire universe," "I really can't work this crappy shift for even one more second!", "I really can't hold on—I lost two jin in four days." Even onlookers can feel the "fury" of Luckin employees and can't help wanting to request an extra chicken leg for these hardworking staff.

Just two days ago, Luckin announced that during Douyin's "Heartbeat Big Brand Day," the brand's single livestream session exceeded 100 million yuan in transaction volume. Total orders for the session exceeded 6.05 million, with 300,000 new followers and cumulative livestream views surpassing 12.14 million. The livestream room's exposure, order volume, and number of new customers placing orders all ranked first nationwide in the coffee and tea beverage category's group-buying sales weekly chart. This shows that this round of special discounts will continue for quite a long time.

The 9.9 yuan price point is undoubtedly a "temptation" for consumers, and it seems to have become the "focal price point" for competing for coffee users and the lower-tier market at present. This number, no more than 10 yuan, makes customers feel it's a good deal and not expensive, while also allowing the brand to avoid losses relatively speaking, and it can still maintain decent attention and popularity across major platforms. To some extent, the effect of low prices can be described as immediate.

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