What happened at the Luckin Coffee store?

A customer complaint says a makeup artist was styling clients inside a Luckin Coffee store, with hairspray fumes spreading through the seating and pickup area. Staff reportedly did not step in, saying no explicit rule forbids it. The post raised questions about food safety in open preparation areas and about how much control stores have over customer behavior.

Commenters said similar scenes turn up at other chain beverage stores, especially near exhibition halls and concert venues where crowds gather before events. Opponents argue spray cosmetics used close to an open bar risk contaminating drinks. Employees say stepping in could draw complaints and bad reviews, so they often stay silent. The case has renewed industry talk about store management boundaries.

Recently, a netizen posted on social media reporting that a makeup artist was doing makeup for customers inside a Luckin Coffee store, with the smell of hairspray filling the entire space, sparking widespread discussion about food safety and the consumer experience. Many consumers said they had witnessed similar scenes at chain beverage stores such as Starbucks, Peet's, and Heytea, especially at locations near exhibition halls and concert venues. Opponents argue that using spray-type cosmetics in an open preparation area poses a risk of contaminating drinks, while store employees helplessly say that due to the lack of explicit prohibitions, they worry that intervening would invite complaints and bad reviews, so they often choose to stay silent. Front Street Coffee has always been concerned about the quality and safety of the coffee consumption environment, and this incident has once again prompted the industry to reflect on the boundaries of store management.

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Recently, a netizen posted on social media giving feedback about safety issues in the store environment of Luckin Coffee, drawing attention and discussion from many netizens.

The poster said that when they went to a nearby Luckin store to pick up a drink they had ordered, they witnessed a makeup artist doing makeup and styling for another woman in the store. During the process, the makeup artist used hairspray, and immediately the entire store was filled with the smell of hairspray, making people feel somewhat uncomfortable.

This situation left the poster puzzled, and they called the official channel and raised three questions in a row: "In a place where coffee is made in an open area, can such use of cosmetics be allowed? Will there be no food safety issues? Will it not create safety hazards for customers picking up their orders?"

Regarding the poster's feedback and questions, users who noticed the post expressed their own views in the comments section. Many said that, in addition to Luckin, they had seen makeup artists doing makeup and styling for customers in a corner of chain stores such as Starbucks, Peet's, Heytea, and Chagee. Especially at beverage stores near certain large exhibition halls, when concerts, comic conventions, and other events are being held, the stores are basically full of people doing their makeup and styling.

Therefore, some netizens have long been accustomed to such phenomena. When they see these people doing makeup in stores, they mostly care about whether the other party has made a purchase before sitting down, and whether they will occupy too many seats and affect other customers' consumption experience.

However, others believe that it is very inappropriate for makeup artists to turn coffee shops and tea beverage stores into makeup rooms.

Nowadays, most coffee shops and tea beverage stores adopt an open preparation area design, making the production process transparent so that consumers can see the staff's preparation process. But this also means that when someone uses strongly scented perfume, hairspray, and other products in the store, whether in the dining area or the preparation area, the smell of these chemicals will fill the space.

From consumers' perspective, doing makeup and styling in food and beverage stores may cause trouble for other consumers in the store. At the same time, some invisible toxic substances in sprays may flow through the air and settle on drinks on the counter, causing food contamination.

Therefore, they believe that doing makeup and styling in beverage stores is "on par with indoor smoking," and that store staff should immediately dissuade and stop such behavior when they discover it, so as to maintain a good dining environment in the store and also avoid food safety risks brought by cosmetics, sprays, and the like.

In response, frontline workers at beverage stores helplessly said that from the perspective of food safety, customers using products such as hairspray in stores should indeed be stopped. But in reality, many staff members worry that speaking up to stop them will lead to customer complaints and bad reviews, and they say frankly that they dare not intervene: "It's hard to drive them out and hard to say anything; if the customer complains, the one who suffers is still yourself."

Industry practitioners said that the store regulations of some chain brands do not explicitly prohibit customers from doing makeup or styling in stores, so in the absence of an explicit ban, even if they know such behavior should not appear in the store, they can only turn a blind eye, and only when other customers report the situation to them will staff use that as a reason to step forward and dissuade them.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

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