What does a coffee chain's holiday stockout say about voucher selling?

Luckin's Christmas red apple daifuku sold out at many stores after its December 17 launch, even as third-party platforms and livestream rooms kept selling discount e-vouchers. Some customers visited eight stores and still could not redeem. Store employees bore the complaints, and some were reported to the 12315 platform over stock they could not control.

The conflict traces to product supply and promotion running out of sync: vouchers keep selling while stores cannot restock. For shoppers holding unredeemed vouchers, the practical step is to check store availability before traveling and ask the platform or brand about refunds or exchanges, since frontline staff cannot resolve supply problems.

On Christmas Eve, Luckin's red apple daifuku became a holiday hit thanks to its cute appearance, but it also unexpectedly sparked a conflict between stores and consumers. Third-party platforms continued to sell e-vouchers, while many stores had long sold out and could not restock, causing a large number of customers to fail when trying to redeem their vouchers. Some consumers reportedly ran to eight stores without any luck. Store clerks became the ones facing the anger directly, and were even scolded by customers and complained about to the 12315 platform. In this storm caused by product supply and promotion being out of sync, who should be held responsible? And how should consumers handle the e-vouchers they still hold? This article restores the full picture of the incident for you.

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When it comes to Christmas Eve, the first image that comes to many people's minds is the uniquely Chinese holiday custom of "eating a peace apple." Because of this, as Christmas approaches every year, apples symbolizing blessings quickly become hot items on the market.

However, not everyone likes a real apple, so in recent years apple-shaped desserts have gradually replaced the role of the traditional peace apple. Luckin's Christmas-limited red apple daifuku launched this season is a typical example. Immediately after going on sale, it won the favor of many customers, and almost every day consumers made special trips to stores to ask about this cleverly shaped little dessert.

Yet for frontline employees working at Luckin stores, this apple daifuku turned into a nightmare on their Christmas Eve.

It is understood that Luckin's red apple daifuku was only officially launched on December 17. After that, in addition to store channels, e-commerce platforms and livestream rooms also recently promoted and marketed the product. To get a better price, many customers chose to stock up on discounted e-vouchers on third-party platforms, planning to redeem the physical item in stores before Christmas Eve.

But the reality was that a large number of consumers holding e-vouchers were told by store clerks after arriving that the red apple daifuku was already out of stock. Some netizens said that on Christmas Eve they went to eight Luckin stores in their local area one after another, yet still never managed to successfully redeem an apple daifuku.

Full of joy for Christmas Eve but unable to get the long-awaited red apple daifuku as they had hoped, disappointed netizens posted complaints on social platforms one after another: "I waited for opening time and checked four or five stores, and not even one had it," and "Not a single red apple daifuku in all of Fuzhou!"

When faced with consumers' questions, most Luckin store clerks felt both wronged and unfairly blamed. They explained that even before Christmas Eve, many stores had already sold out of the red apple daifuku. Because this product was a holiday limited edition, headquarters inventory was limited to begin with, so stores that sold out early simply could not restock and were forced to take the item off the shelves.

What left the clerks feeling helpless was that although stores in various places had run out of the red apple daifuku, third-party platforms were still continuously selling e-vouchers for the product, using discounts to attract consumers to buy. Because of this, when they encountered customers coming with vouchers to collect the dessert, they could only patiently explain the reason again and again.

Some employees admitted that after learning the store had no stock, some customers found it hard to suppress their anger and vented directly at them, "I got scolded all day," and "Customers only leave after scolding me a couple of times." As a result, many became nervous whenever they met consumers asking about the apple daifuku, and simply posted notices in prominent places such as store entrances and the bar saying "Red apple daifuku temporarily out of stock." This saved time in communicating with customers and also helped avoid unnecessary conflict with guests.

Even so, the innocent clerks said they not only had to endure the anger of some consumers, but the stores would also receive related complaints because of it. One clerk even posted a complaint form received by their store from the 12315 platform, sighing helplessly, "We are even more wronged than Dou E."

In the view of Luckin employees, they are actually just like ordinary consumers, victims of a brand that only cared about promotion, and they begged users to spare these innocent workers. At the same time, they said the product most likely would not be restocked after Christmas, and suggested that netizens who bought e-vouchers but failed to redeem them could apply for a refund through the third-party platform.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

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