Why Manner's delivery minimum matters for coffee shop economics

Manner drinks mostly cost between 15 and 25 yuan, but delivery minimums generally sit above 30 yuan, so a single cup cannot be ordered. Customers add pastries or bottled water to reach the threshold. During peak hours, some stores raise the minimum to 80 or even 100 yuan, and delivery fees draw heavy criticism too.

Regulars argue that high thresholds ease pressure on baristas, while more consumers want the brand to add staff or close the delivery channel so neither customers chasing minimums nor overwhelmed employees suffer. The friction shows how delivery thresholds and staffing costs shape daily operations, a key part of how much it costs to run a coffee shop.

After winter sets in, many office workers are unwilling to brave the cold wind to visit Manner stores and instead turn to delivery platforms to place orders, only to get stuck on the minimum order threshold. Manner's drinks are mostly priced between 15 and 25 yuan, while delivery minimums are generally above 30 yuan, making it impossible to order just a single cup. Consumers are forced to add bread or bottled water to reach the minimum, and during peak hours some stores even raise the minimum to 80 or even 100 yuan, with delivery fees also drawing heavy criticism. Some regular customers believe the high threshold can ease pressure on staff, but more consumers are calling on the brand to add more staff or simply shut down the delivery channel, so that neither customers scrambling to meet minimums nor employees overwhelmed by order surges have to suffer.

▲

Click to follow | Daily specialty coffee culture magazine Coffee Workshop

Once the winter wind starts blowing, noticeably fewer office workers are willing to make a special trip to a Manner store to pick up coffee, and people are more inclined to open a delivery platform, hoping that cup of hot coffee will be delivered right to their hands. But when they select their desired drink on the app and get ready to check out, they discover the order amount doesn't reach the minimum. Many consumers report that Manner's drinks are priced mainly between 15 and 25 yuan, but delivery platform minimums are mostly set above 30 yuan, so ordering just one cup means the order simply can't be submitted.

In order to have a cup of Manner in the morning, many people have no choice but to add a pastry, or casually throw in a bottle of water, to push the amount above the threshold.

In fact, Manner's high delivery minimum has long plagued customers who just want to buy one cup, and related complaints have been almost nonstop. Recently, consumers have found that aside from a few cities like Hangzhou and Nanjing, most Manner stores nationwide have unified their delivery minimum at 30 yuan.

Some users also mention that certain stores raise the minimum on their own during order peaks. "In Shanghai, during peak hours the minimum sometimes goes up to 80," and "I've even seen a 100-yuan minimum during the morning rush." Even after finally meeting the minimum, delivery fees have become a sore point for many customers: "Mine is 50 minimum with a 6-yuan delivery fee," and "Why is no one talking about their delivery? Why does 4 kilometers cost 9 yuan?"

Many coffee-dependent workers say that seeing this minimum order threshold makes them laugh in exasperation, and every time they want a cup of coffee they have to buy something extra to make up the order. If the bread or bottled water they usually use to pad the order happens to be out of stock, they can only give up on Manner and switch to brands like Peet's or Luckin that support single-cup delivery.

Some netizens specifically circled the message on Manner's store page on delivery platforms that reads "Order reasonably, refuse waste," and joked: "Refusing waste is the ideal; a 30-yuan minimum is life. Life isn't just about the goji berries in front of you—it's also about the drudgery in the distance."

However, some regular customers who frequent the stores see things differently. They say that most Manner stores now have only one employee on duty, and during peak hours it's hard to handle both online orders and in-store orders at the same time. In their view, appropriately raising the minimum order threshold and delivery fees can reduce the number of delivery orders and ease some of the burden on staff.

But even with this argument, more consumers still believe the brand shouldn't respond to feedback by raising the minimum order threshold, but should instead add enough staff to stores so that both online-order users and walk-in customers can smoothly get a hot latte.

Of course, besides adding staff, many netizens also point out that if Manner is unwilling to face the real needs of delivery users and instead shuts consumers out with a high minimum order threshold, then it might as well just shut down the delivery channel entirely. That way, customers no longer have to rack their brains over making up orders, and employees won't be thrown into a frenzy by order surges—a relief for both sides.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

Disclaimer: Some images in this article are from the internet. For some content on the website, such as images, we will respect the original creator's copyright and note the source. However, due to the large volume, there may be some images or text that we have not yet been able to credit in time; we ask for your understanding. If the original creator has any dispute, they may contact the website to handle it, and once verified we will correct it immediately. Compiled and edited by "Coffee Workshop." Please indicate the source when reposting. If there is any infringement, please inform us for removal. Thank you~!

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