What do %Arabica store closures mean for the coffee shop model?

%Arabica has closed stores in several Chinese cities, including the Xiamen MixC store, which shut on May 15 after nearly five and a half years, plus the Shenzhen Bao'an Airport store and the Xinghe Cocopark store. The brand has not explained the reasons. Speculation points to mall format adjustments, rising costs, and profitability. In some areas where stores closed, the brand's coffee trucks have appeared, and its first Fuzhou location used the truck format.

Regular customers are split. Some see the truck as a flexible response to buy-and-go habits, while others feel the brand's design-led store character is fading. The closures drew wide attention because the Xiamen shop was the city's first and attracted many coffee enthusiasts at opening. In Shenzhen, the Xinghe Cocopark store had seemed busy, yet it and the airport branch no longer appear on the official mini-program, leaving users surprised by the quiet exits.

Recently, the chain coffee brand %Arabica has seen stores quietly closing in multiple cities including Xiamen and Shenzhen, sparking widespread attention and discussion among netizens. Among them, the Xiamen MixC store, the brand's first store in the city, ceased operations on May 15 after nearly five and a half years in business; in Shenzhen, the Bao'an Airport store and the Xinghe Cocopark store also closed successively. The official side has not explained the reasons for the closures, and netizens speculate they may be related to mall business format adjustments, rising costs, and profitability. It is worth noting that in some areas where stores have closed, the brand's coffee trucks have appeared, and the first store in Fuzhou also adopted the coffee truck model. Long-time customers have mixed views on this: some believe it is a flexible adjustment in response to the "buy and go" consumption habit, while others regret that the brand's distinctive design-oriented store features are being weakened.

Recently, the chain coffee brand %Arabica has seen stores quietly shutting down in multiple cities, drawing considerable attention and discussion among netizens.

According to reports from Xiamen netizens, the %Arabica Xiamen MixC store, which officially opened its doors at the end of 2019, officially closed after business hours on May 15. Local residents said that this coffee shop, which operated for nearly five and a half years, was the brand's first store after entering Xiamen, and at its opening it attracted many coffee enthusiasts to visit and check in. Little did they expect that this city's first store would quietly close, which truly surprised long-time customers.

Meanwhile, Shenzhen netizens posted that recently two %Arabica stores in the city also quietly closed. One was the Bao'an Airport store, which had been in operation for less than a year, and the other was the Xinghe Cocopark store. Local users were greatly shocked upon learning that these two stores had closed one after another, especially the Xinghe Cocopark store, which in fans' impressions had always done good business and was always full. But currently, traces of these two stores can no longer be found on the official mini-program.

The successive unannounced closures immediately aroused the attention and concern of many users. In their view, although %Arabica is less well-known than chain stores like Starbucks, Luckin, and Manner that are everywhere, its products have always been deeply loved by coffee enthusiasts.

Moreover, every store the brand has opened in multiple cities across the country has its own unique store design, and some stores blend with the local landscape, forming an eye-catching scenic line that attracts tourists to take photos and check in. So when regular customers learned the news of the store closures, they only felt caught off guard.

As for the reasons for the closure of several stores, the official side has not given an explanation, so netizens have their own speculations. Some believe the brand is cooperating with the mall's business format adjustments and relocating to open new stores. Others think it may be that costs such as rent and labor have risen, but store profitability has been poor, so the stores were closed to cut losses.

However, some pointed out that although the first %Arabica store in Xiamen has closed, at the same time a brand coffee truck is parked in the mall plaza, and there is news that the official side may reopen a store nearby next year. Based on this, many believe that current users' consumption habit is mostly buy-and-go, and they do not stay too long inside the store, so the brand, having realized this, seems to have begun reducing the store size of some outlets.

For example, the city's first store that the official side opened in Kunming Hang Lung Plaza in 2021 quietly closed its street-facing storefront in March this year, and when it met local residents again, it was a coffee truck parked outside the north gate of the mall. And the recently opened first store in Fuzhou also adopted the coffee truck model, and did not choose a location in a well-known local mall to open a store.

Users who noticed the changes in %Arabica stores believe that the brand may have closed some stores in business districts in order to reduce operating costs such as store rent and to better fit current users' buy-and-go consumption habit, switching to a more flexible coffee truck model to provide services to local customers.

However, long-time users who love %Arabica can hardly hide their disappointment as they look at the shrinking stores. They said that the design-rich stores are actually one of %Arabica's major features, and many passersby are attracted by their simple and refined appearance, thus stepping into the stores to buy coffee. Now, for the sake of store profitability, the official side has abandoned high-rent stores in business districts and switched to small-footprint coffee trucks, which in their view seems like giving up the brand's characteristics, and is inevitably lamentable.

Image source: online screenshot

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