What Is Behind the Luckin Coffee Co-Branding Backlash?

Luckin Coffee's second collaboration with the Line Friends Maltese puppy drew long wait times and complaints about staff attitudes. Order surges from frequent co-branding events overwhelm understaffed stores, and employees say actual working hours far exceed paid hours. The gap between manpower shortages and promised service experience has become the central problem behind the partnership.

The complaints echo what workers described after the March 1st incident at Luckin, when staffing was already tight. When dozens of orders print at once, two employees on shift cannot keep pace while delivery riders and customers wait. Online discussion has focused on why stores are not given more staff during peak promotion hours.

Luckin Coffee's second collaboration with Line Friends' Maltese puppy was supposed to be a fan-anticipated partnership, yet consumer feedback has turned toward long wait times and poor service attitudes. Frequent collaboration events bring overwhelming order surges, and understaffed stores leave employees struggling to cope. From the chaos during peak hours to the predicament of actual working hours far exceeding paid hours, the working conditions of Luckin employees have attracted widespread attention. This article examines the operational contradictions behind the collaboration, as well as netizens' discussions about the brand's employment system, and reflects on the long-term impact of this model on service quality and brand image.

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For 5G surfers who love cute things, most have probably heard of the Line Friends Maltese puppy IP. The puppy outlined in black lines is quite endearing, and Luckin, the collaboration maniac, naturally noticed this cute little dog's internet popularity, collaborating with it last year and receiving praise from netizens.

Thus this year Luckin partnered with the Maltese puppy a second time, both responding to fans' expectations and helping boost beverage sales. But this collaboration didn't receive the same flood of praise as last time. Netizens complained that they had to wait a long time after ordering to get their drinks, while some reported being brushed off when asking staff for related merchandise, expressing dissatisfaction with the current service attitude of Luckin employees.

Poor Luckin employees have grievances they can't voice. Since the "Luckin March 1st Incident," employees have been living in dire straits every day. If store business is average, it's fine—everything can proceed as usual. But if the receipt printer suddenly spits out dozens of orders in a row, the two people and four hands in the store simply can't keep up, making drinks to the point of breakdown amid delivery riders' and customers' urging. "Who understands? During peak hours, I really want to die, and still have to ensure timeliness rates."

"Real-life unplayable version of Overcooked," "Why not have more people during peak hours," "This situation calls for more staff, more staff"—seeing such busy scenes, netizens couldn't quite understand the store's staffing arrangements. Luckin employees are helpless about this. After the reforms, Luckin stores control staffing numbers, and having one person manning the bar alone has become the norm.

This leads to situations where when a store has only one Luckin employee and "unfortunately" encounters a sudden order surge, staff wish they could grow three heads and six arms, or freeze time so they'd have more time to cope. But the reality is they can't keep up with the system's data metrics and may be powerless to meet consumer demands due to the continuous stream of orders.

In response, some netizens suggested Luckin should raise employee wages so their efforts get due compensation. But Luckin employees generally say that getting Luckin, which is controlling labor costs, to raise wages is impossible. Many employees revealed that many staff members' actual working hours far exceed their paid hours, meaning they work over ten hours but only get paid for seven or eight, "Luckin only makes people work for free."

Beyond sympathy, many netizens believe it's not only Luckin employees under high-pressure working conditions—many chain brand coffee shops and milk tea shops are the same. Operators controlling labor costs in pursuit of store profitability has become the norm.

Relatively speaking, though, Luckin—with frequent collaboration events and high daily order volumes—has some unreasonable aspects in controlling labor costs, making people involuntarily sympathize with Luckin employees who are nearly falling apart during peak hours, and also worry that in the long run this will lead to declining service quality, creating conflicts between consumers who like Luckin and Luckin employees, thereby causing certain negative impacts on the brand.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

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