What the Luckin Coffee Age Limit Row Reveals

A 26-year-old job seeker was rejected during a Luckin Coffee interview after a store manager said the age did not meet store requirements. The brand apologized, promised focused education for that manager, deducted performance pay and offered two free coffee vouchers. Luckin headquarters says barista recruitment standards for directly operated stores are set centrally and include no age restrictions.

The case points to a wider pattern in the freshly made beverage sector, where brands from Luckin to Cotti and Manner, plus tea drink chains, often list an 18 to 35 age range. An employee who took the interview said franchise stores set their own limits. Some job listings carry no age requirement while others state one, and multiple applicants report losing opportunities over age.

Recently, news about a 26-year-old job seeker being rejected during a Luckin Coffee interview because their age did not meet the requirements sparked widespread discussion. The brand later apologized and offered compensation, but the incident reflects a common age threshold issue in the freshly made beverage industry. From Luckin to Cotti, Manner, and then to tea beverage brands, 18 to 35 seems to have become an invisible red line in recruitment. Is this due to industry characteristics, or is it a choice under the imbalance between supply and demand in the job market? Front Street Coffee takes you through an in-depth discussion.

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According to a report yesterday by Gongfu Caijing, a job seeker posted about their experience during a Luckin interview: after the store manager asked about age and learned they were 26, the manager immediately said that this age did not meet the store's requirements, explaining that they needed young and energetic people and were worried about a communication gap with older individuals.

The post quickly triggered discussion among netizens and also drew the brand's attention. Luckin customer service subsequently contacted the person involved to apologize, promising to provide focused education to that store manager and monitor the store's operations, while also deducting their performance pay and compensating with two free coffee vouchers.

In the video, Gongfu Caijing called a Luckin store, and an employee who took the interview revealed that age limits set by franchise stores during recruitment are decided by each store independently. As for why it is limited to 18 to 25, the employee said they did not know the specific reason. Luckin headquarters customer service responded that recruitment standards for baristas at directly operated stores are uniformly set by headquarters, and these do not include age restrictions.

In fact, Luckin posts a huge number of barista job listings on various recruitment platforms. Some notices do not specify age requirements, but some stores' job descriptions clearly state an age range of 18 to 35. In actual interviews, more than one job seeker reported missing out on employment opportunities because they did not meet the age requirement.

Netizens generally believe that setting age thresholds for job seekers is not unique to Luckin. Brands such as Cotti and Manner also have age requirements for employees, and the tea beverage industry is no exception. Brands such as Chagee and Heytea also tend to prefer younger applicants in recruitment.

From recruitment platform information and netizen feedback, most freshly made beverage stores require employees to be between 18 and 35 years old, and some stores even lower the upper limit to 30. During interviews, some job seekers said interviewers' age requirements may be even stricter, with one saying, "They won't hire anyone over 25."

Tea beverage industry staff usually need to stand for long periods and continuously make drinks during peak hours, which is physically demanding and stressful, and older people may find it hard to endure. Young people, on the other hand, tend to be more receptive to new things, can quickly become familiar with bar operations and memorize recipes, and their personal image is also more compatible with popular drinks such as coffee and milk tea, which helps with brand promotion.

Taking into account factors such as physical condition and personal image, interviewers mostly tend to choose younger applicants with better physical stamina.

In addition, as graduation season arrives, the number of young job seekers surges, and many of them want to work in coffee shops or milk tea shops. Luckin, with nearly 20,000 stores, provides a large number of positions and occupies an advantageous position in the recruitment market, allowing it to set thresholds to screen employees who meet its requirements.

For corporate managers, they may prefer "more cost-effective" workplace newcomers rather than 26-year-old job seekers who already have work experience.

Image source: Internet

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