How to Use a Coffee Pot: What Chagee Queues Teach Us

Chagee opened new stores in Hainan, Fujian, and Guangdong with a 9.9 yuan promotion, drawing long lines. Customers who ordered ahead through the mini-program still faced a second queue at pickup. At some stores staff did not check pickup codes and handed drinks out first-come, first-served, so waits exceeded half an hour despite the promised no-queue pickup.

Long-time customers said low-priced promotional drinks are often made in concentrated batches, and staff skip order numbers and taste notes to keep up. Most online commenters worried the practice damages the brand's image, with some wondering whether the crowding was staged. The episode echoes broader questions about how ordering and pickup systems are run, much like learning how to use a coffee pot at home.

Chagee has recently opened new stores in Hainan, Fujian, Guangdong, and other regions, launching a 9.9 yuan promotional offer that has attracted large numbers of consumers to queue up for purchases. However, many customers who placed orders in advance through the mini-program and went to the store to pick up their drinks still encountered a second queue. At some stores, employees did not check pickup codes and distributed drinks on a first-come, first-served basis, causing chaos at the pickup area. Consumers complained that what was supposed to save time ended up with them queuing for more than half an hour, an experience inconsistent with the official claim of "pick up in store without queuing." Long-time users were not surprised by this phenomenon, believing that low-priced promotional drinks are made in concentrated batches and that employees ignore pickup codes and taste notes to improve efficiency. However, most netizens worried that this would affect the brand's image, with some even speculating whether it was done deliberately to create a bustling scene.

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Recently, Chagee has been opening new stores successively in Hainan, Fujian, Guangdong, and other regions. To celebrate their openings, many stores launched a 9.9 yuan promotional offer, attracting many local residents to go and buy, with long winding queues often seen outside the new stores.

At the same time, many netizens on social media expressed dissatisfaction with some of the new stores.

Consumers in multiple places reported that they usually place orders in advance through the mini-program and wait until the system notifies them that their drinks are ready before going to the store to pick them up, in order to reduce waiting time. But after actually arriving at the store, many found that although they did not need to queue to order, they still had to queue in another long line to pick up their drinks, and when it was their turn, the staff did not check order numbers but simply handed customers the drinks already made on the counter.

This queuing experience made many users feel it was inconsistent with the official claim of "pick up in store without queuing," and many reported that they still had to queue for more than half an hour after arriving at the store before they could get their order. If they encountered one or two customers cutting in line to pick up their drinks, the overall consumer experience was even worse.

In addition, some people said that after standing in the long queue and reaching the pickup counter, they still had to wait for staff to make the drinks on the spot. Although they could watch the staff make the drinks and enjoy freshly made milk tea, this experience led many to joke, "If you didn't know better, you'd think you were queuing at Chayan Yuese."

For the opening of Chagee's new stores, low-priced milk tea, opening merchandise, and the like naturally attracted many deal-hunters to queue up and place orders to claim limited-edition perks. But for customers who just want a cup of milk tea, they are unwilling to spend time queuing, so most choose to order in advance, and after receiving the pickup notification, go to the store to grab it and leave right away.

However, they never expected that some store employees would not even look at the pickup code in customers' hands when processing orders, following a first-come, first-served approach, which made the pickup area very chaotic. Many people were deeply dissatisfied with Chagee's store management and pickup mechanism, saying bluntly that they had thought they could efficiently get a cup of low-priced milk tea, but never imagined that in the end they would still have to stand in line until their legs went numb, wasting their time for nothing.

In response, long-time Chagee users did not find this surprising. They said that once the brand opens a new store, it will inevitably use low-price promotions to attract local residents' attention and build up popularity.

And these low-priced products used to boost store sales are basically store-created items, so when some store employees see thousands of orders with identical contents, they inevitably think, "Since they're all the same cup, it doesn't matter who takes which," and therefore do not pay attention to consumers' pickup codes, taste notes, and other information, distributing pre-made drinks to customers picking up in order to improve serving efficiency.

However, most netizens believe that this practice will affect Chagee's brand image in consumers' minds and will also lead people to speculate whether the brand did it deliberately to create a bustling scene of new stores being widely popular.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

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