Can Frequent Free Cup Promotions Hurt Coffee Culture and Store Service?

Manner's two-cup set promotion for its roasted nut latte, which included a lilac-purple ceramic cup, drew heavy demand. Store orders surged, service slowed, and some customers received only the cup without their drink. Regulars who do not collect merchandise switched to other brands on promotion days, while employees said the promotions came too often with too little staffing.

Collectible cups tied to new drinks push merchandise fans to order quickly, and the ceramic giveaways have long driven sales for the chain. Staff reported 20 work hours generating over 10,000 yuan in one case, with unfinished orders piling up. Employees want store staffing addressed, and the company's feedback channels were described as existing in name only, raising questions about how promotion-driven demand is managed.

Manner recently launched a two-cup set promotion for its roasted nut latte, offering a lilac-purple ceramic cup, which attracted a large number of merchandise enthusiasts to snap it up. However, during the promotion, store orders surged, and service speed dropped significantly. Some customers only received the cup without getting their drink, and regulars switched to other brands as a result. Employees, suffering under high-intensity work, complained that the promotions were too frequent and staffing was insufficient, while the company's feedback channels were said to exist in name only. This article reviews the chain reactions triggered by the promotion, presenting the dual predicament of employees and customers.

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Recently, to build hype for its newly launched roasted nut latte, Manner once again rolled out a two-cup drink set, where buyers could receive a lilac-purple ceramic cup with their order.

In the eyes of Manner fans, the exquisite ceramic cups the brand gives away with each promotional event are an important reason that pushes them to spend money and place orders. Merchandise enthusiasts even wait in advance, and as soon as the event starts, they race to grab the cups, afraid that being a step too slow will mean missing out on the cup they want.

However, in this promotion, some customers reported that store order volumes were so large that staff could not complete all the drinks within the promised time, and in the end they only received the merchandise they had grabbed from the delivery rider, while the new drink they did not get to taste had to be picked up at the store another day.

Although this was only an isolated case, many users said that whenever Manner runs a cup giveaway promotion, most stores see orders surge and service efficiency drop noticeably, so much so that some regulars who do not care about merchandise simply give up on Manner as soon as they hear there is a promotion that day, and switch to coffee from other brands to perk themselves up.

Faced with this situation, some netizens suggested that Manner arrange more staff, while employees under immense pressure, looking at the unfinished orders, also admitted that they really hoped the company would face up to the current staffing situation in stores.

"A total of 20 work hours generated over 10,000 yuan in sales, exhausting employees to death," "The whole person is just like a machine, endlessly taking orders, grinding beans, steaming milk, pouring latte art, packaging, and collecting from the front area," "Today was so busy I didn't even have time to eat lunch," "When orders exploded, I really wanted to faint," "Worked from seven to four thirty, I wanted to die," "Yesterday when I went to do a part-time shift, I almost got into an argument with a delivery rider."

Many people said that recently Manner has launched a cup-giveaway set every few days, attracting merchandise fans to place orders enthusiastically and boosting store revenue. But at the same time, on the day each set goes on sale, many employees feel as if they are going through a terrible nightmare. Many said that when they opened the store and saw the receipt printer spitting out more than two meters of labels, they only felt "one wave of blackness after another before their eyes..."

Yet even though store order volumes rise briefly on promotion days, as long as revenue does not meet Manner's standard, the company will not assign additional staff to the stores, leaving those workers who do not even have time to drink a sip of water full of complaints: "How many times a month does Manner have to run promotions??!!" "Giving away cups, giving away cups, giving away cups... endless cups to give away."

After the coffee-splashing incident, Manner said publicly that it would set up internal feedback channels and listen to employee opinions. But some workers who tried to report conditions to the company believed that the "direct opinion channel" Manner opened served only as a decoration, and that the opinions they raised with their superiors would not be adopted at all.

At a time when there is no way to give feedback and no way to change the status quo, diligent Manner employees can only vent their frustrations on social platforms, begging the brand to ease up and reduce the frequency of promotional activities so that workers can have more time to breathe.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

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