Why Is Luckin Coffee's Full Scan Closing Task So Unpopular?
Luckin Coffee introduced a "full scan" closing procedure in late July. Staff must scan every item bearing an expiration label one by one fifteen minutes before closing, then repeat the whole process the next morning. Frontline employees flooded social media with complaints about added unpaid overtime and constant system errors.
Under the old system, stores could close and count inventory early, photograph materials and clock off. The new task covers thawed, opened, unopened and to-be-scrapped items, none of which can be skipped, and the scanning app often fails to recognize labels. Because many new Luckin drinks are mixed with concentrated juice, the checklist keeps growing.
At the end of July, Luckin Coffee rolled out a new closing procedure called "full scan" within its store system, requiring employees to scan every item with an expiration label in the store one by one fifteen minutes before closing, and repeat the process the next morning. This move sparked a flood of complaints from frontline staff on social media — an already tight workforce was squeezed even further, unpaid overtime hours kept stretching longer, and the new scanning system frequently suffered recognition failures and error messages, turning this digital expiration-control measure into a "chicken rib" function that employees saw as nothing but extra burden. This article is compiled from Coffee Workshop, taking you behind the scenes of this controversy's specific procedures and employees' genuine feelings.
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The last page of the July calendar is about to turn, yet among Luckin Coffee's frontline employees, a wave of resentment has erupted in full force over the past few days, with all arrows pointing at management — a new head office rule that everyone is calling "way too much hassle."
Recently, a large number of posts complaining about Luckin's new system task have been popping up on social media, with a considerable number of employees discussing and liking them. Everyone complained that the company recently launched a new closing procedure called "full scan," which adds a pile of tedious operations to the already understaffed opening and closing shifts, effectively lengthening (unpaid) overtime hours.
According to employees, Luckin's previous system allowed stores to close and take inventory early based on actual circumstances, take out all kinds of materials, arrange them neatly, take photos, and clock off once all steps were done.
But the new system changed all that: fifteen minutes before closing, the scanning task automatically pops up, and employees must use their phones to scan every item and product with an expiration label one by one — whether thawed, opened, unopened, or materials to be scrapped that day (which previously didn't need scanning) — not a single one can be missed. What's more troublesome is that the next day, the morning shift colleagues have to scan everything all over again.
Most of Luckin's current new products are mixed drinks with added concentrated juice, and given the brand's rapid pace of launching new items, basically every store's fridge is stuffed with colorful ingredients. So at closing time, Luckin stores often stage scenes resembling "beverage military training."
At stores with high cup output, at least a hundred bottles of concentrated juice need to be brought out for scanning, photographing, and screen recording each time, and just the "full scan" alone takes over ten minutes. If only one person is on duty, they also have to juggle cleaning, making orders, and closing up — after all that rush, "voluntary overtime" of several tens of minutes becomes practically standard.
However, what really infuriates store partners is that when facing a pile of thawed juices that need to be scanned one by one, Luckin's new system still drops the ball. Whether it's a phone issue or labels blurred by moisture, some codes simply won't scan no matter how hard you try. After finally finishing the scan, the system reports an error, and employees have to calibrate it manually — workers can only sigh helplessly that this function is truly "chicken rib."
Even some veteran employees couldn't help speaking up. Previously stores would usually assign two to three people to the morning or evening shift, and the workload was fairly reasonable when divided up. Now at Luckin, a day on duty is getting more and more complicated, yet many stores only schedule one person to complete these tasks — as if they wish they could grow three heads and six arms to cope.
Luckin has always been known for its digital operations, and its employee management carries a distinctly digital orientation. According to employees, this new system is still in the testing phase, and the original intent of the scanning task is to prevent expiration dates from going unnoticed.
However, in the eyes of workers who diligently labor every day, this new task cooked up by developers not only fails to simplify the workflow but uses more steps (scanning, photographing, uploading) to repeat the same thing: inventory. In employees' words: something that was originally quite simple is now made incredibly complicated, and it constantly leads to unpaid overtime — sooner or later, morale is going to collapse.
Image source: Xiaohongshu screenshot
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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
