How a single barista handled the whole coffee machine line

During the Spring Festival, some Manner stores inside large supermarkets had only one barista on duty. That person handled printing orders, refilling beans, making drinks, explaining delays, processing refunds, packaging, and handing orders to delivery riders. Customers who arrived based on the mini-program's estimated time found their drinks still queued, with waits over an hour for a hot latte.

Regulars sympathized with staff but criticized holiday staffing. A single worker's output is limited, so understanding how to make coffee with a coffee machine does not help when one person must run every step of a busy coffee machine line alone. Delivery riders crowded the counter, and customers urged orders on, prompting calls for the brand to take feedback about long waits seriously and improve the holiday experience.

Holding a cup of hot coffee not only warms your hands and quenches your thirst, but also makes a great prop for photos, becoming standard equipment for many people when they go out. Recently, however, some consumers have reported that after ordering at Manner, they had to wait over an hour just to get a hot latte. During the Spring Festival, some Manner stores inside large supermarkets had only one barista on duty, single-handedly handling everything from printing orders, refilling beans, making drinks, explaining and processing refunds, to packaging and handing off orders—busy without a moment's rest. Customers arrived at the store based on the estimated time shown in the mini-program, only to find their drinks still queued up. Scenes of delivery riders crowding the counter and customers urging them on appeared frequently. While regulars sympathized with the staff, they also expressed dissatisfaction with the brand's staffing arrangements during holidays, believing that feedback about excessively long wait times should be taken seriously to improve the consumer experience.

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When the weather is cold, a cup of hot coffee not only warms your hands and quenches your thirst but also serves as a photo prop, making it a must-have item for trendy people heading out. Many people will stop by a brand chain store along the street to buy a cup during outings, holding it in their hands. But some consumers have found that after placing an order at Manner, getting a hot latte requires waiting over an hour.

Some users reported that during the Spring Festival, when passing by Manner stores in large supermarkets, they saw only one barista at the bar, busily running back and forth alone to print receipts, refill the coffee machine with beans, and make drinks, while also having to explain to customers who had waited too long, process refunds, and package finished drinks to hand to delivery riders coming in to pick up orders—almost never pausing throughout.

But even sacrificing rest time, the efficiency a single staff member can contribute is ultimately limited, causing customers who arrive at the store according to the estimated drink preparation time shown in the mini-program to find their drinks still in the pending queue. Some admitted that getting a freshly made latte from a Manner employee basically requires waiting over an hour.

Holidays are already peak periods when store orders flood in, yet Manner stores had only one employee on duty, which seemed very unreasonable to many users: "Orders exploding during Chinese New Year, and they don't even arrange one more person—how can one person handle it all?" "One barista, surrounded by a crowd of delivery riders." "Understaffed, the experience is terrible." "There's basically just one person in the store. They look so busy. Even just a few drinks ahead means waiting a long time."

However, such scenes are nothing new to Manner regulars. Even before the Spring Festival holiday, some netizens saw a handwritten notice at a coffee shop near their workplace. The employee said they were feeling unwell and could not speak to communicate with customers, so they wrote down on paper everything they wanted to say to each customer entering the store.

This note moved many netizens, who praised the employee's dedication to work. But more people pointed out that the reason the store employee had to work while sick was partly because the brand had not arranged a "backup player" for the store, leaving the employee unable to stop and rest properly.

Long-time customers said helplessly that recently they often see employees working alone in Manner stores. And every time they see a worker at the bar clearly sweating from being so busy, most feel too embarrassed to urge them and can only quietly find a seat, play on their phone to pass the time, or wander nearby and come back to the store to pick up their order after ten minutes or so.

Occasionally witnessing store staff being surrounded and questioned by delivery riders for not producing drinks in time, or being lashed out at by customers whose patience has run out, some regulars can't bear it and step in to explain a few words on behalf of the store employees, lamenting that "Manner staff really suffered during Chinese New Year."

While sympathizing, many netizens have long been dissatisfied with Manner stores' understaffing, believing that the brand should take seriously consumer feedback about excessively long wait times at stores, arrange as many staff as possible for stores during holidays and other special periods, improve production efficiency, and bring users a better consumer experience.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

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