Why did Luckin Coffee stores face a zero-yuan order surge?

A zero-yuan purchase promotion on delivery platforms sent a wave of orders to Luckin Coffee stores across Chengdu. Some locations reported hundreds to more than a thousand drinks queued within an hour, with pickup waits of two to three hours. After the event, staff found many drinks left unclaimed on the counter, ice melted.

The rush came from platform subsidy campaigns that also pulled in chains like Mixue Bingcheng. The waste added pressure on store workers. Some suggested making drinks only when customers arrive, but Luckin employees said that is hard to run in practice during such volume. The debate touches a wider coffee culture question about impulse orders driven by free vouchers.

The subsidy war ignited by food delivery platforms has dragged chain brands like Luckin Coffee and Mixue Bingcheng into the fray. A Luckin store in Chengdu was recently overwhelmed by a flood of orders due to a "zero-yuan purchase" promotion, with some stores receiving over a thousand drinks to prepare within an hour. However, after the event ended, staff found numerous drinks left unclaimed on the counter, their ice long melted. Impulse orders driven by consumers' "freebie-hunting" mentality not only caused food waste but also added to the burden on store workers. In response, some suggested switching to make-on-demand upon store arrival, but Luckin employees said this would be difficult to implement in practice. This article walks you through the full story of this order surge and the various perspectives.

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Recently, the "three-way battle" in the food delivery sector has intensified, with a number of chain tea and coffee brands like Luckin Coffee and Mixue Bingcheng being swept up in various promotional subsidy campaigns launched by platforms. Just the day before, all Luckin stores in Chengdu were hit by a concentrated wave of "zero-yuan purchase orders" from a large number of users, causing varying degrees of order surges at each store.

Judging from user feedback on various social platforms, as soon as Luckin stores opened yesterday, consumers who had received redemption vouchers rushed to place orders, snapping up the free coffee they wanted. At many stores, receipt printers seemed to malfunction, spitting out order after order continuously, with system notification sounds ringing one after another, urging staff to speed up drink preparation.

According to front-line Luckin employees, driven by the delivery platform's "zero-yuan purchase event," most stores in Chengdu received hundreds to thousands of orders that day. Some staff said that within less than an hour of starting to accept orders, their store had over a thousand drinks queued for preparation, and customer wait times for pickup were stretched to two or three hours.

However, after ending this high-intensity "delivery battle," Luckin employees began cleaning up the messy counter and found a large number of drinks left unclaimed on the surface. Seeing these coffees with ice long melted into water and no one coming for them, some staff could only call customers one by one to notify them to pick up their orders. If customers said they didn't want to pick up, staff would need to process a refund as requested and then pour all the already-made drinks down the drain.

The scene of "abandoned coffees all over the table" was witnessed by onlookers and sparked much lament. Some pointed out that after the zero-yuan purchase event launched, many users, driven by the mentality of "why not take advantage of a freebie," placed several orders at once, but due to practical reasons such as long wait times, forgetting to pick up, or simply being unable to drink it all, these made coffees ultimately became "waste."

In the view of many netizens, such consumer behavior not only wastes food and increases ingredient loss for stores but also consumes manpower and adds too much extra burden on front-line employees. They believe that users who receive free redemption vouchers from platforms should place orders based on their actual needs, rather than making impulse purchases to hunt freebies, thereby causing resource waste.

In addition, some netizens suggested that Luckin perhaps should adjust store drink preparation procedures during platform promotional events, such as starting to make drinks only after customers arrive at the store. This way, customers picking up in-store can enjoy freshly made drinks with the best taste, and stores can avoid the situation of unclaimed orders.

However, regarding this seemingly win-win suggestion, Luckin employees could only shake their heads helplessly, saying this preparation method is difficult to implement. Staff explained that every Luckin order has a specified preparation time limit. If changed to making drinks after customers arrive, it would cause problems like chaotic order preparation sequences, which would instead drag down their work efficiency, and it would also be hard for stores to maintain high levels in various metrics tied to customer experience.

Furthermore, customers who choose in-store pickup mostly expect to grab their drinks directly upon arrival and are reluctant to wait longer, while staff cannot predict exactly when customers will arrive. Therefore, in the view of most Luckin employees, preparing all orders in sequence and placing them on the counter for customers to pick up themselves is the more efficient preparation method.

As for those "abandoned coffees" left on the counter at closing time, although Luckin employees also feel it's a pity to throw them directly into the trash, for food safety considerations, they can only destroy them as required by the brand.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

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