Why Are Luckin Coffee Interview Practices Under Scrutiny?

Two Luckin Coffee interview incidents have spread on social media. One applicant said she was labeled timid and weak after failing, despite her performance that day; another woman, 26, said she was rejected as too old. A poster also said Luckin staff called demanding the post be deleted and later contacted her family.

Luckin customer service told Bonfire Video that interview matters are handled by dedicated personnel and that stores run under both direct-operated and joint-venture models, so interviewer standards can differ. With more than 20,000 stores, that split model is central to the recruitment consistency question now being raised.

Recently, Luckin Coffee has been trending on social media due to two interview-related incidents, sparking widespread discussion. One job seeker claimed that after failing an interview, she was labeled "timid and weak," which was completely inconsistent with her performance that day; another 26-year-old woman was rejected for being too old. The poster also revealed that Luckin staff had called her demanding she delete the post, and after being refused, they contacted her family instead. These incidents have drawn public attention to this chain coffee company, which has over 20,000 stores, and the issue of inconsistent recruitment standards under its direct-operated and joint-venture models has gradually come to light.

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Recently, a job seeker applying to Luckin posted on social media, recounting her experience of receiving negative feedback after failing an interview.

According to the poster, she had thoroughly prepared for possible questions from HR before the interview. However, upon arriving at the site, the store manager did not ask questions as usual but instead engaged in a casual chat with her. Although the actual process differed from her expectations, she felt she had been proactive and positive throughout and should have left a good impression.

But the result was far beyond her expectations—not only did she fail the interview, but she also received a comment she found hard to accept: "No experience, timid and weak." In this job seeker's view, the interviewer's description clearly did not match her actual performance that day.

She posted her experience on social media, and unexpectedly the post quickly attracted a lot of attention from netizens. Subsequently, Luckin staff also called, hoping she would delete the post. After she explicitly refused and declined subsequent calls, the other party actually contacted her family instead, continuing to demand the post be deleted.

Yesterday, Bonfire Video called Luckin customer service to verify this incident. The customer service responded that interview-related issues would be handled by dedicated personnel, and explained that Luckin stores are divided into direct-operated and joint-venture models, so interviewers' evaluation standards may differ, and specific interview details need to be consulted with store staff.

First "26-year-old woman applying to Luckin rejected for being too old," then "woman labeled negatively after Luckin interview"—within just a few days, two interview-related trending topics appeared consecutively. This not only made job seekers dissatisfied but also triggered widespread public attention to this chain coffee company.

Not long ago, Luckin's 20,000th store had just begun trial operation, and its store scale ranks first in the domestic coffee market. Such a massive store network naturally means the company needs to recruit a large number of employees to maintain daily operations.

And whenever Luckin posts recruitment announcements, many job seekers actively submit their resumes, hoping to be selected and become a barista behind the counter. It can be said that in the employer-employee relationship, the company holds more initiative and can carefully review and select young people who meet its conditions from a large pool of applicants.

However, Luckin, with its two store models, does not have a unified standard for recruitment requirements. Employees at directly operated stores are recruited by the headquarters, and the requirements are also uniformly set by the headquarters; while recruitment conditions for joint-venture stores are decided by franchisees themselves. At the offline interview stage, the staff responsible for interviewing may also improvise, further raising the entry threshold.

One netizen in the comments shared their personal experience: "Last time I went to a Luckin group interview, those with bachelor's degrees were rejected, those with associate degrees were rejected, those without degrees were rejected, older people were rejected, younger people were also rejected. At that time, dozens of people were sitting in a room, and a large stack of names was passed over."

Another job seeker with work experience said that when interviewing at Luckin, "as soon as they heard I wore a hearing aid, they immediately told me not to come. After waiting three or four days, they told me the result was no—the hearing aid is a decoration that could fall into the coffee, so they didn't want me." This unpleasant experience made the job seeker very angry, believing that the rejection reason given by Luckin lacked basic respect for people.

Actually, failing an interview is an extremely common occurrence on the job-hunting path. But in netizens' view, when pointing out where a job seeker is unsuitable, companies can absolutely use tactful and gentle expressions, rather than rejecting those who carefully prepared for interviews with ambiguous statements like "timid and weak" or "afraid of a generation gap at 26."

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