Why did coffee production equipment fail during the Good Tea event?

Good Tea launched a collaboration with the game Honkai: Star Rail, and demand overwhelmed stores. More than 1.2 million people queued in the ordering mini-program, and the topic topped trending searches. Limited-edition fruit smoothies required long preparation, and under heavy use multiple smoothie machines emitted white smoke or exploded on the spot while staff struggled to keep up.

Honkai: Star Rail, developed by miHoYo, launched its full-platform open beta in 2023 and built a large player base, so the promotion drew crowds far beyond normal traffic. Some stores kept backup machines ready, while others borrowed juicers from nearby shops to continue serving. The incident raised questions about separating drink and merchandise sales and adding cup storage services.

As soon as the collaborative event between Good Tea and the popular game "Honkai: Star Rail" launched, it ignited a consumer frenzy. The number of people queuing in the mini-program exceeded 1.2 million, and the topic quickly soared to the top of trending searches. Store orders poured in like snowflakes, and the limited-edition drinks were all fresh fruit smoothies with complicated preparation processes. Under high-intensity operation, multiple smoothie machines were overwhelmed, emitting white smoke and even exploding on the spot, while staff were so busy they didn't even have time to drink water. To deal with equipment failures, some stores prepared backup machines in advance, while others had to borrow juicers from neighboring Shuyi Shao Xian Cao and Luckin for emergency use. Behind this collaborative frenzy, issues such as the high threshold for obtaining merchandise and enormous pressure on stores were exposed, also triggering discussions about optimization measures such as selling drinks and merchandise separately and cup storage services.

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Today, Good Tea launched a collaborative partnership with the game "Honkai: Star Rail," putting event-limited drinks and various themed merchandise on sale.

It is reported that the brand's partner this time, "Honkai: Star Rail," is an adventure strategy game developed by miHoYo. Since its full-platform open beta in 2023, it has won the affection of a large number of players with its exquisite graphics and dramatic storyline. Therefore, after Good Tea officially announced the collaboration, many netizens continued to follow related developments.

After the event officially began, the enthusiastic participation of netizens directly pushed the topic #GoodTeaQueue to the top of trending searches. Many consumers said that after the official mini-program updated, they rushed in, hoping to quickly snap up the event's limited products, only to see the prompt "More than 1.2 million people are ahead of you in the queue" as soon as they opened the ordering page, exclaiming that they were surprised by the scale of the event.

Good Tea's workers also did not expect this scene. From on-site photos taken by passersby and delivery riders, the counters of many stores were piled with dozens or even hundreds of limited-edition drink cups. As soon as the labels printed out were hung up, they formed a curtain that brought pressure to the staff.

The continuous stream of order receipts, like snowflakes, made many workers couldn't help shouting, "Can't finish! Simply can't finish." Many said that in order to better cope with the order surge on the first day of the event, stores arranged more staff than usual.

Unexpectedly, even with four or five people dividing the work and cooperating, they still could not withstand consumers' buying enthusiasm. Many were so busy they had no time to even take a sip of water. However, just when things were already chaotic, many stores suffered one misfortune after another: the smoothie machines running nonstop on the counter started emitting white smoke, and some even exploded on the spot!

Good Tea employees said that the two limited-edition drinks launched in this collaboration, "Apple Golden Pineapple" and "Super A Cheese Grape," are both fruit teas made from fresh fruit into smoothies. Therefore, once the smoothie machines in the store emitted a foul burnt smell during continuous operation, the store's order-making progress would slow down because the "diligent veteran employee" was not holding up.

To deal with such emergencies, experienced stores were equipped with multiple smoothie machines in advance, and as soon as a problem was found with one machine, they immediately switched to another to continue. Stores without multiple machines could only explain to customers waiting to pick up their orders while looking for nearby stores or running next door to Shuyi Shao Xian Cao, Luckin, and others to borrow a juicer for emergency use.

In this regard, some event participants pointed out that the reason Good Tea's collaboration saw a large number of orders flood in within a short time was actually related to the event mechanics. After news of the collaboration leaked, some players calculated that to collect the full set of collaborative merchandise, they would need to buy at least 15 cups of designated drinks. So merchandise collectors might start with 4 or 5 cups in one order, and some customers ordered more than a dozen cups at once, putting enormous production pressure on stores.

Netizens who have experienced many collaborative events believe that if Good Tea referred to peers' practices, sold drinks and merchandise separately, and introduced cup storage services, it might reduce the burden on staff and also give participants a good event experience.

Image source: Internet

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