What is coffee material and how was it involved in the Heytea store conflict in Luoyang?

On August 17 around noon, staff and a customer at a Heytea franchise inside a Wanda Plaza in Luoyang, Henan, exchanged insults and threw counter items at each other. Video shows the customer first overturning coffee material on the counter, after which both sides threw boxes and straws. The store closed early for rectification and reached a settlement.

The store appeared as temporarily closed in Heytea's ordering mini-program the next day, and the brand's customer service declined to explain the closure. A staff member said he was preparing ingredients in the back kitchen and only came out after the conflict; the employee involved left the store shortly afterward. A witness said the woman cursed and moved first, and people with her later arrived at the store.

At noon on August 17, a violent conflict broke out between staff and a customer at a Heytea franchise store inside a Wanda Plaza in Luoyang, Henan, with the two sides exchanging insults and throwing items from the counter, leaving the scene in complete disarray. The incident quickly trended on Weibo, drawing widespread attention. After the incident, the store closed early for rectification, and both parties reached a settlement. The next day, Heytea's official ordering mini-program showed the store as being in "temporary closure" mode, and the brand's customer service declined to respond to the reason for the closure. This article sorts through the sequence of events, witness accounts, and responses from all parties to reconstruct the full picture of the conflict.

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On August 17, a netizen exposed on social media that a Heytea store employee and a customer had a fierce argument, with both sides not only hurling insults at each other but also continuously grabbing items from the counter and throwing them at one another, causing utter chaos at the scene. The incident quickly escalated and made it onto the Weibo trending list.

It is understood that the store involved is located inside a Wanda Plaza in Luoyang, Henan, and is a Heytea franchise. The conflict occurred around 12 noon on the 17th.

Multiple videos circulating online show that the customer was the first to forcefully overturn materials on the counter, after which the two successively picked up scattered items and threw them hard at each other while shouting abuse. In the footage, although someone nearby tried to stop the employee, the two became increasingly agitated, with items such as paper boxes and straws scattered all over the floor, leaving the scene in a complete mess.

Regarding this dispute, a reporter contacted a staff member at the store, who said he was not very clear about the specifics because he was preparing ingredients in the back kitchen when the incident occurred, and by the time he came out, the conflict had already happened. Not long after the incident, the employee involved also left the store.

A witness at the scene said, "The woman was the first to curse, and also the first to make a move," and that after the conflict shown in the video, people accompanying this female customer also arrived at the store and joined in. The three again picked up items scattered on the ground and kept throwing them toward the opposite side, and the scene was chaotic for a time until someone came to intervene, at which point the three stopped throwing things at each other.

As for the cause of the conflict, the witness speculated that it was because the employee involved had been busy earlier and had a slightly poor attitude, and the female customer felt she had been neglected, which then triggered her dissatisfaction.

After the incident was exposed, a staff member at the Wanda Plaza where the Heytea store involved is located mentioned that the store in the video had already closed early that afternoon and was undergoing rectification while closed, and that the two people who argued had also reached a settlement. As for the specific cause of the incident, the staff member said it was not convenient to disclose.

According to a report by Red Star Video, the person in charge of the Heytea store responded in an interview that the two clashed over an ordering issue, saying, "No matter what the problem was, we definitely must apologize to the customer." The store manager told the media that neither side was injured, and that the store had already apologized to the customer and done a good job with consolation work.

On August 18, according to Heytea's official ordering mini-program, this store involved was shown as being in "temporary closure" mode. For this reason, when a reporter tried to contact Heytea to ask about the specific reason for the closure and to further understand related matters, the brand's customer service said it would not respond.

Image source: online screenshot

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