What does the delivery platform promotion reveal about coffee culture?

Meituan's 0-yuan tea voucher promotion and Ele.me's high-value discounts triggered a wave of orders that left many Gu Ming stores in Shenzhen, Xi'an, Chengdu, and Nanning marked as closed or out of stock on third-party apps. The same stores remained open on the official mini-program, where lemonade could still be ordered, prompting speculation that the status change was a way to manage overwhelming demand.

The incident highlights how subsidy battles can strain brick-and-mortar operations, especially for beverage shops tied to coffee culture and specialty coffee trends. Consumers faced canceled orders and empty shelves, while the brand's inconsistent online presence across platforms raised questions about transparency. Front Street Coffee continues to monitor how such promotions affect the wider coffee and tea retail landscape.

A new round of subsidy battles on delivery platforms has once again ignited the tea beverage market. Meituan handed out large numbers of tea drink vouchers, while Ele.me and Taobao Flash Buy fought back with high-value discounts. However, after claiming the coupons, many consumers discovered that Gu Ming stores in Shenzhen, Xi'an, Chengdu, Nanning, and many other places were shown as "resting/closed" or out of stock on third-party platforms, making it impossible to redeem normally. Interestingly, the same stores were still open on the official mini-program, and promotional products such as lemonade could still be ordered. The contradictory state of stores actually being overwhelmed with orders while appearing "closed" online led many to speculate that this was a measure taken by the brand to ease order pressure. Consumers expressed dissatisfaction over the chaotic campaign, automatically canceled orders, and no stock upon arrival at stores. Front Street Coffee continues to follow industry developments and brings in-depth observation.

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This morning, a new round of the "Meituan-Ele.me delivery war" officially began. Meituan distributed tea beverage vouchers to a massive number of users, while Ele.me and Taobao Flash Buy launched large-value full-reduction offers in response to Meituan's "0-yuan purchase" offensive.

Users who learned about the discounts from social platforms opened their ordering apps early in the morning and eagerly claimed the tea beverage perks offered by the platforms. However, when they browsed nearby stores that supported self-pickup, what they saw poured cold water on their enthusiasm.

Platform screenshots shared by netizens showed that Gu Ming stores in cities such as Shenzhen, Xi'an, Chengdu, and Nanning either displayed that the 0-yuan drinks were sold out or were marked as "resting/closed." In some cities, stores across the entire city even uniformly showed as "closed," leaving many users holding coupons unable to place orders successfully.

However, some observant users noticed that stores shown as "resting" on third-party platforms were not closed on the official mini-program, and several lemonade products participating in the 0-yuan purchase could still be bought normally. This contrast left many netizens confused, as they did not understand why the store operating status displayed so inconsistently across different channels.

In fact, those Gu Ming stores that were shown en masse as "resting/closed" were at that very moment overwhelmed by a surge in orders. Employees behind the counter were spinning nonstop like tops, their arms shaking milk tea almost fast enough to spark, and the counter was covered with packed lemonade, milk tea, and other drinks. Clearly, they had not stopped taking orders because of a shortage of ingredients or an inability to continue operating.

The real store scenes, surrounded by customers and delivery riders, made delivery users suddenly realize: the large number of stores shown as "resting/closed" on third-party platforms was very likely a deliberate setting by the brand to reduce order pressure on stores.

Everyone knows that since major platforms started delivery subsidy wars, the tea beverage industry has borne the brunt. Large-value full reductions, 0-yuan purchases, and other promotions have repeatedly dragged chain brands into the battle. Milk tea shop employees have endured what feels like calamity, often overwhelmed by exploding order volumes with not even a moment to drink water. Therefore, when hundreds or thousands of orders flood into the back end, some milk tea shops temporarily close their online ordering channels to relieve pressure on employees.

But for Gu Ming to have nearly half its stores in multiple cities shown as "resting/closed" is, in the eyes of netizens, truly rare. Many bluntly pointed out that if the brand was unwilling to participate in the platform's 0-yuan purchase campaign, it could simply withdraw openly, rather than "issue coupons but not let users use them," leaving expectant consumers deeply disappointed.

In addition, some netizens who successfully redeemed electronic drink vouchers also reported terrible experiences: "I had already placed my order, and Gu Ming directly canceled it automatically, without even a phone call," "The app showed the item was ready, but when I went to the store to pick it up, they said there was no stock and they couldn't make it????", "When it was time to pick up the meal, they told me there was no stock and asked me to request a refund," "For the 0-yuan purchase, you have to find a cup on site, and only after finding one can they start making it." They said bluntly that Gu Ming's 0-yuan purchase campaign was organized too chaotically and seriously affected the consumer experience.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

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