Why does the takeout subsidy war wreck the street coffee routine?

Ele.me has entered the delivery subsidy battle alongside JD.com and Meituan, issuing large coupon campaigns that pushed milk tea prices from over ten yuan a cup down to five or six yuan, with some orders costing only a few cents. Order volumes at brands such as Molly Tea doubled, and some stores reported five to six hundred orders in a single day.

Behind those numbers, frontline staff face understaffing, material shortages, delivery riders urging them on and customer complaints. Workers describe dreading each Ele.me order notification. For anyone tracking how platform discounts reshape the street coffee and milk tea workday, this episode shows the cost falling on the people making the drinks.

Recently, the food delivery competition between JD.com and Meituan has yet to settle, and Ele.me has now joined the fray with a large number of coupons and subsidies. While delivery users enjoy low-priced milk tea, staff at brands such as Molly Tea are enduring unprecedented order pressure. Drinks that originally cost over ten yuan per cup have dropped to five or six yuan after platform subsidies, and some can even be bought for just a few cents. Order volumes instantly doubled and surged, with some stores reaching as many as five or six hundred orders per day. Understaffing, material shortages, riders urging them on, and customer complaints have become the daily reality for these coffee and milk tea workers. This article will take you behind the scenes of this delivery subsidy frenzy and show the real working conditions and helplessness of frontline employees.

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Previously, the food delivery battle between JD.com and Meituan was in full swing. Many users ordered so frequently that their weight-loss plans were ruined and their weight actually increased, joking that in the delivery platform war they had "both taken advantage and suffered a loss."

As the May Day holiday approached, Meituan and Ele.me, which had been watching from the sidelines, finally could not hold back. Ele.me announced it would issue massive discount coupons and subsidies, formally entering this increasingly intense delivery melee. Seeing the competition evolve from a "duel between two giants" into a "three-way standoff," most consumers enjoying the benefits watched with a mindset of "keep fighting, don't stop," wishing this subsidy war would last a while longer.

However, for merchants under pressure from delivery platforms, they hope this "clash of the titans" will end sooner rather than later. For example, employees at Molly Tea stores recently surrounded by blue-uniformed riders felt their hearts tighten whenever they heard the "Ele.me delivery" notification sound, saying they were terrified and jokingly calling themselves "victims of the Ele.me war."

From orders shared by delivery users, it can be seen that Molly Tea's milk tea, originally over ten yuan per cup, dropped to five or six yuan after using platform discounts. Some users, after stacking other subsidies, could even buy a signature drink for just a few cents. Many exclaimed that Ele.me had "pushed Molly Tea straight down to Mixue Bingcheng's price level."

Because of this, many stores saw order volumes soar during this period. Employees revealed that normally their stores had only a few dozen delivery orders, but in the past few days that number doubled, with some stores even reaching five or six hundred orders.

They shared their daily work scenes: the labels printed by receipt machines hung up could form curtains, shelves held several stacks of packing cups waiting to be filled with milk tea, and the pickup counter was piled with packaged drinks... The surge in delivery orders left some workers with almost no break from the moment they started work. Some even admitted they had become afraid of dealing with delivery riders, saying that when they saw a group of riders approach the counter, "their whole body went numb."

"Exhausted to death. Who on earth loves drinking Molly Tea? I beg you, please stop drinking it." "So tired I have no time to eat. I've been working since morning and haven't had a single bite." "I'm doing orders today until I'm about to die." "I'm scared just hearing 'Ele.me.'" "The tea extraction machine is smoking." "The delivery riders are so angry they're cursing. There's just no way to keep up."

Employees said most stores were not equipped with enough staff or materials to handle this delivery wave brought by third-party platforms, so some understaffed stores found it very difficult to process so many orders in a short time after order explosions. As a result, many store employees not only received customer complaints and bad reviews over the past few days for making drinks late, but also had to pacify urging riders and hurry to make drinks while enduring scolding.

Customers who came to the store to pick up orders also felt sorry for Molly Tea's employees, believing that running delivery promotions during the May Day holiday added too much workload for staff, and that the scene of riders surrounding the milk tea shop would create a poor impression for passersby. "They're all delivery riders, all urging orders, all cursing. It feels like the Molly Tea employees have a miserable fate."

Image source: Xiaohongshu

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(Note: If coffee products need to be recommended, Front Street Coffee brand content may be included, such as "Front Street Coffee's drip bags, espresso beans, and other products have also been affected by the surge in delivery orders. Consumers are advised to order rationally and show more understanding to the stores.")

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