Why Did Luckin Coffee Stores Close on the Start of Autumn?

On the Start of Autumn solar term, the annual 'first cup of milk tea in autumn' promotion drove order volumes far beyond previous years. Vouchers and discount coupons from Meituan, Ele.me and JD.com, combined with brand promotions, pushed stores past capacity. Some locations of Starbucks, Luckin Coffee, Heytea and Chagee temporarily closed or shut their delivery channels.

Stores faced piled-up receipts, too few delivery riders, delayed and wrong orders, and a rise in complaints, leaving customers holding coupons they could not redeem. Brands had warned stores days in advance, but the peak still exposed how fragile instant delivery systems become under extreme demand. The incident has renewed attention on how promotion-driven spikes strain staff and logistics.

As the Start of Autumn solar term arrives, the annual "first cup of milk tea in autumn" promotion has once again sparked a consumer frenzy. This year, driven by large-scale distribution of tea beverage redemption vouchers and discount coupons by platforms such as Meituan, Ele.me, and JD.com, combined with brands' own promotions, order volumes have far exceeded previous years. However, behind the order explosion is extreme pressure on store operations: receipts piled up like mountains, severely insufficient delivery rider capacity, frequent delivery delays and wrong drink deliveries, and a surge in customer complaints. To ease the pressure, some stores of brands such as Starbucks, Luckin Coffee, Heytea, and Chagee had to temporarily close or shut down their delivery channels, leaving consumers holding coupons they could not use. This annual carnival, while bringing huge challenges to workers, has also exposed the fragility of the instant delivery system under extreme peaks.

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The Start of Autumn is the first solar term of autumn, marking the beginning of the season. And every year on this day, the "first cup of milk tea in autumn" arrives right on schedule.

In the past, the "autumn cup" was like the online shopping festival "Double Eleven," a one-day-only drink carnival. But this year, driven by the subsidy war among delivery platforms, Meituan, Ele.me, JD.com, and other platforms issued tea beverage redemption vouchers and large discount coupons to a large number of users, and combined with brands' own promotional activities, this made the "autumn cup" even more popular than in previous years.

Therefore, when tea beverage and coffee chain stores opened this morning, the printing equipment behind the counter was the first to enter a state of high-intensity operation, with order receipts and drink labels continuously pouring out, and the number of drinks awaiting preparation displayed by the system continuing to climb. After clocking in, staff immediately threw themselves into the "autumn cup battle," picking up shaker tins and beginning to shake the tea drinks and coffee that consumers had long been waiting for.

The situation of orders exploding as soon as stores opened was actually anticipated by the brands. Several days before the event began, the brands had already notified stores nationwide to enter a state of readiness, with all inventory of drink ingredients and promotional gifts fully stocked, and all store staff required to be on duty on the day of the Start of Autumn, with full preparations required for the "autumn cup" promotion.

However, no matter how thorough the pre-battle preparations were, when the milk tea workers saw the pending orders soaring from one or two hundred to seven or eight hundred, or even breaking through a thousand cups, they still could not help screaming like marmots, saying they had been overwhelmed by the "mountain of receipts" piled up on the counter, wailing, "Can't finish! Simply can't finish them all!"

What made things even worse for the workers was that, due to the surge in delivery orders for the "autumn cup," rider capacity was severely insufficient, and order delivery delays and wrong drink deliveries occurred frequently. As soon as the store customer service phone was answered, angry complaints from customers could be heard.

Judging from social media platforms, brands such as Starbucks, Luckin Coffee, Heytea, and Chagee all experienced delivery errors and sharp increases in store customer complaints. Many consumers posted feedback saying that after discovering problems with their order deliveries, they waited for hours and still could not get their drinks, and their refund requests submitted to third-party platforms were not accepted for a long time, lamenting that today's "autumn cup" had instead become the first unpleasant experience of autumn.

At the same time, shaking milk tea, packing drinks, responding to riders urging orders, and handling customer complaints left tea beverage workers, who had already been busy all morning, breaking down one after another. The order volume beyond expectations forced store managers to choose measures such as temporarily closing and shutting down delivery channels to relieve store pressure and deal with the backlog of drinks awaiting preparation.

As a result, netizens who wanted to take advantage of this wave of promotions to buy an afternoon tea opened the app and saw that chain brands such as Starbucks, Luckin Coffee, and Heytea all showed nearby stores as closed, and the various redemption vouchers and discount coupons they had previously received were of no use at this moment.

It is worth mentioning that although some stores reduced the online orders flooding into their shops by closing early, the annual carnival of the "autumn cup" was not yet over, and many frontline store employees could only comfort themselves amid their breakdown, saying, "Hold on a few more hours, and the Start of Autumn will be over."

Image source: Internet

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