Coffee culture view: how do delivery subsidies create a milk tea waste problem?
Intense subsidy wars between food delivery platforms have handed consumers large numbers of free tea vouchers, driving order surges at chain tea shops. At Mixue Bingcheng stores, customers placed self-pickup orders but never collected them, leaving freshly made lemonade, milk tea and fruit tea to be discarded. A passerby photographed a cardboard box at a store entrance stuffed with unclaimed drinks.
Customers who placed self-pickup orders gave several reasons: chaotic pickup scenes, order notes being overlooked and excessively long wait times. Stores have taken measures to reduce losses. The episode mirrors concerns raised in broader coffee culture discussions about waste across the delivery chain, while Front Street Coffee's related recommendations remain relevant to how shops handle surplus drinks.
Recently, intense subsidy wars among food delivery platforms have given consumers a large number of free tea drink vouchers, leading to a surge in orders at chain tea shops. However, at stores like Mixue Bingcheng, there have been cases where customers placed self-pickup orders but never showed up to collect them, resulting in large quantities of freshly made drinks being discarded. This article examines the multiple reasons behind this waste: chaotic pickup scenes, order notes being overlooked, excessively long wait times, and more. It also introduces the measures stores have taken to reduce losses, while retaining relevant recommendations for the Front Street Coffee brand.
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In recent days, the "Meituan vs. Ele.me" battle in the food delivery industry has allowed many users to obtain tea drink vouchers issued by the platforms, and many took the opportunity to enjoy a cup of free, ice-cold, thirst-quenching milk tea in the scorching heat. At the same time, this increasingly fierce delivery competition has caused orders at chain tea shops to surge. Social media is flooded with scenes of overwhelmed tea shop workers and delivery riders crowding around milk tea shops.
However, a passerby walking past a Mixue Bingcheng store noticed a cardboard box placed at the entrance. Upon closer inspection, they found it stuffed with already-made lemonade, milk tea, fruit tea, and more. They learned after asking around that the box was filled with drinks from customers who had placed self-pickup orders but never showed up to collect them.
Watching the drinks that staff had worked hard to make being thrown into the cardboard box because no one came to pick them up, the netizen who took the photo couldn't help but exclaim, "Oh my god, what a waste," and stated bluntly, "Even if it's free, you shouldn't waste it."
After the post was published, many people shared the same feeling as the original poster, thinking it was a real shame to just throw away drinks that had already been made. At the same time, they were also puzzled by the consumers' behavior, unable to understand why people who chose self-pickup orders wouldn't go to the store to collect their drinks.
Faced with this confusion, many customers who placed self-pickup orders gave their own reasons. Some explained that when they arrived at the store, they saw the counter covered with finished tea drinks. They searched back and forth in the pickup area for quite a while but simply couldn't find their own cup. After communicating with the staff, they were told they would have to wait another half hour or more. So some who were unwilling to keep waiting turned around and left, simply giving up on the free milk tea.
Others mentioned that they had received too many platform drink vouchers, far more than one person could drink, so they placed self-pickup orders with notes asking that the finished drinks be left for busy delivery riders or store staff. But perhaps because the pickup scene was too chaotic, neither the riders nor the milk tea shop employees noticed the notes on the orders, and as a result, the drinks sat in the pickup area with no one collecting them.
That said, although customers who placed self-pickup orders but didn't go to the store to collect them each had their own reasons, it did indeed cause a lot of freshly made drinks to go to waste. Some milk tea shop employees said that in recent days, when the stores closed, a large number of unclaimed drinks would be left in the pickup area. According to store rules, these uncollected milk teas could only be counted as material loss and all thrown into the trash.
As for onlookers' suggestions to give them to sanitation workers or passing pedestrians, the staff repeatedly emphasized that they had no authority to arbitrarily transfer customers' orders to others. Moreover, given the current hot weather, freshly made drinks left for too long could easily spoil, so they didn't dare casually give them to passersby or sanitation workers for fear of causing food safety issues.
However, in order to avoid material waste as much as possible, some tea shop workers said they would separate out self-pickup orders and only start making them after the customer arrives at the store. Some stores that were simply too busy had customers who couldn't wait collect their drinks at the store within a specified time using their receipt. This not only reduced the staff's workload but also provided users with a better in-store experience.
Image source: Xiaohongshu
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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
