What Does Outsourced Closing Mean for Coffee Maintenance?

Some ChaPanda stores have started handing closing-time cleaning to third-party teams, a shift that lets late-shift staff clock off on time and keeps equipment cleaner through regular professional work. The change is not universal: franchise stores must pay an extra service fee to use outsourced cleaners, and the arrangement covers only daily cleaning, not scheduled coffee maintenance.

Workers still handle regular upkeep themselves, and some franchise managers have said that bringing in outsourced closing could prompt staff cuts to control costs. The pilot shows how the coffee industry is testing outside labor for routine store tasks, with savings on replacement parts offset by fee structures and job uncertainty that vary store by store.

Closing-time cleaning in the food and beverage industry has always been a major burden for late-shift employees, and coffee and tea shops are no exception. Recently, some ChaPanda stores have begun outsourcing closing-time cleaning to third-party professional teams, allowing many employees to clock off on time and even saving on replacement parts thanks to thorough equipment cleaning. However, this measure does not benefit all stores: franchise stores must pay an additional service fee to apply for outsourced staff, and outsourcing only covers daily cleaning, while regular maintenance is still handled by store employees. What worries workers even more is that some franchise store managers have said that if outsourced closing is introduced, they may consider cutting staff to control costs. Convenience and risk coexist—can outsourced closing truly let employees rest easy once and for all?

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For the food and beverage industry, regularly cleaning workstations and ensuring food safety is always a top priority, so before closing every day, food and beverage stores are often busy scrubbing pots, washing dishes, and wiping down equipment. Coffee and tea shops are the same. In addition to making drinks and taking inventory, late-shift employees are also responsible for cleaning the store and the work area. Due to understaffing, many people have complained online that they often work overtime cleaning without pay.

But recently, ChaPanda employees have been quite happy, posting one after another to celebrate escaping the drudgery of closing cleaning and being able to clock off on time. It is reported that some ChaPanda stores have now implemented "outsourced closing," handing cleaning tasks during closing hours to third-party professionals, significantly easing the overtime pressure on store employees.

Judging from posts and comments on social media, ChaPanda entrusts closing work to third-party companies, which are responsible for recruiting, training, and managing cleaning staff. These workers arrive on site before the store closes and, according to the brand's standards, clean and disinfect various types of equipment and tidy the premises. In other words, the brand pays to hire outsourced cleaners to help each store complete its daily closing work, thereby reducing the burden on employees.

According to employee feedback, these trained professionals are quite skilled, and the equipment and parts they clean are almost free of tea stains and shine like new, prompting some to exclaim that they "saved money on replacement parts."

Other workers plagued by overtime cleaning, seeing ChaPanda employees able to clock off on time, have expressed envy and called out to chain brands such as Luckin and Nayuki to "learn from them quickly," hoping their own stores could also outsource closing work.

However, although many workers have already tasted the benefits of outsourced closing, according to them, after a store outsources closing, employees cannot simply act like hands-off managers, standing by watching others work and waiting to clock off.

They said outsourced staff only handle daily store cleaning, and regular tasks such as cleaning the ice machine once a week are not within their responsibilities. Therefore, after outsourced staff finish their assigned work, the remaining tasks still fall back on store employees. The reality is that "outsourced staff do half, and employees do half."

In addition, although directly operated stores in some regions of ChaPanda have outsourced closing to third-party companies, franchise stores not directly managed by the brand do not receive this treatment and need the store manager or person in charge to submit an application before outsourced staff can be dispatched to the store.

Franchise store employees revealed that outsourced staff wages are paid by the third-party company, and hiring people to complete closing work at the store does not affect employees' salaries, but this service requires franchise stores to pay an additional service fee. Therefore, some managers have said bluntly that if a store applies for third-party outsourced closing, they may consider cutting existing staff to keep operating costs down.

From this perspective, even a good thing like outsourced closing cannot let exhausted workers rest easy once and for all, and may even increase the risk of layoffs. Some people have said bluntly that between overtime and losing their job, they would still choose the former.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

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