Is a fair coffee promotion possible when blind boxes arrive opened?

Chagee's Jellycat-style milk tea cup plush blind boxes sold out fast in many cities. Some buyers collecting orders found the boxes already opened by staff, with styles visible. Stores said the batch was opened early for quality checks, but customers suspected screening for popular styles.

Under the campaign rules, buyers order a designated set and randomly receive one plush. Once the unknown element disappears, the fairness of the promotion and the experience both suffer. Staff and customers tell different accounts, and the dispute keeps circulating, raising the same fair coffee promotion question for other chains.

The Jellycat-style milk tea cup plush blind boxes launched by Chagee have recently seen a sharp rise in popularity, and the limited-edition sets sold out in many places shortly after going on sale. However, some consumers discovered when picking up their orders in stores that the blind boxes they received had already been opened by staff in advance, turning them into "open boxes" with the styles fully visible. Some stores explained that this was done out of a need for quality checks, but many users were not convinced and suspected that someone had deliberately opened the boxes to screen for popular styles. Once a blind box loses the surprise of the unknown, the fairness of the campaign and the consumer experience are also called into question. Regarding this box-opening controversy, brand employees have also offered their own account, with both sides sticking to their stories, keeping the incident simmering.

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Nowadays, plush toys with a Jellycat style are becoming sought after by many young consumers, and major chain brands have keenly seized on this trendy toy craze, turning their own products into adorable, likable plush figures to drive fans to place orders.

Not long ago, Chagee launched a set of Jellycat-style plush charms based on the shape of a milk tea cup. The accompanying limited-edition blind box sets were snapped up by users as soon as they went on sale, and many stores posted notices that the plush toys were sold out not long after the campaign began. In some cities, this limited-edition merchandise could no longer be bought from stores within just a few days, forcing many fans to turn to second-hand platforms to try their luck.

According to the campaign rules, after consumers place an order for the designated set through channels such as the mini program, they can randomly receive one blind box plush. But recently some users reported that when they went to stores to collect the plush they had ordered, they found that the blind box had actually become an open box.

A netizen from Jiangxi posted that when he went to the store to pick up his order, the staff brought out blind boxes that had all been opened, saying that this batch of blind boxes had quality problems and had therefore been opened in advance for inspection. The user also said that the staff told him on the spot which styles were inside the opened blind boxes and let him freely choose the plush he liked to take away.

At the time, this user did not realize anything was wrong. Only in hindsight did he realize that what he had received was not a "blind box" at all but an "open box," and so he questioned whether it was reasonable for store employees to open the boxes for inspection.

Consumers who encountered similar situations were not few. In the comments section, they shared photos of the blind box charms they had received: "I only discovered when I got home that one had signs of being pried open," "I received it this morning, and the tear strip on top had been torn open a little, and you could see inside," "The takeout I ordered arrived with the bottom of the box having been picked open." They all speculated that the blind boxes they received were open boxes that employees had opened in advance to inspect.

According to blind box collectors, trendy toy blind boxes sold on the market usually come with an "ID card." As long as you open the box and see the card, you can determine the style of the blind box without opening the bag. Because of this, some consumers believe that store staff may have deliberately damaged the outer packaging of the blind boxes and used the "ID cards" inside to pick out the popular styles among this batch of plush charms.

Many fans pointed out that the value of Chagee's blind box plush toys has been rising steadily since they went on sale, with some popular styles already doubling in price on second-hand platforms. Therefore, they suspect that some employees may have opened all the blind boxes in stores for profit, kept the popular styles, and then sent out the less popular plush figures with orders.

For collectors, opening the packaging without knowing what is inside is precisely where the fun of buying blind boxes lies. Even if they do not get the style they want, they will only lament their bad luck and will not feel dissatisfied because of it. But once a blind box becomes an open box, the surprise of opening it is completely gone, prompting people to exclaim, "What's the point if they're all opened?" At the same time, they also believe that the conduct of store employees undermines the fairness of the campaign and affects users' consumer experience.

In response to consumers' questions, Chagee workers explained that stores all have corresponding plush inventory, and whenever a customer successfully places an order, the store's plush stock automatically decreases. Employees are not allowed to make advance internal purchases under relevant rules, so most store charms were actually bought by customers.

As people who personally experienced the campaign, they said that official channels such as the mini program updated the product content in the early hours of the campaign day, and many users who had been waiting placed pre-orders in advance, which led to store plush inventory being emptied early, rather than what netizens guessed—that store clerks deliberately held them back and did not put them on sale.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

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