The lingering warmth of the weekend has barely faded, and on Monday morning office workers are still steeped in drowsiness, with a cup of coffee becoming essential to wake themselves up. Yet this morning, many early risers discovered that two lattes from Luckin Coffee on the Ele.me platform cost only 6 yuan, and this abnormally low price quickly ignited social networks. Some seized the chance to place orders, joyfully starting the new week, while others had just paid when their orders were unilaterally canceled. Luckin then urgently shut down its Ele.me stores and issued an apology, admitting it was caused by a configuration error by operations staff. This sudden price bug not only left some consumers with false hope, but also sparked discussion about who should pay for corporate mistakes. Was this blunder a mistake or marketing? And how should consumers view the cancellation of low-priced orders? This article will sort out the ins and outs of the incident and bring a professional perspective from Front Street Coffee. [more…]

Recently, news about "winning a cow in a milk tea bill lottery" has sparked heated discussions on social media. It is reported that the Ele.me food delivery platform selected a lucky user from the bills of a girl who had accumulated 140,000 yuan in spending and gave her a cow as a prize. This move is both a reward for high-frequency consumers and a clever tie-in with the related topic of milk tea and milk. This article compiles the event details and netizens' discussions, while also remembering to provide a professional communication channel for coffee lovers—follow the Coffee Workshop WeChat public account to get more coffee bean information, and add the Front Street Coffee personal WeChat (kaixinguoguo0925) to explore the world of specialty coffee beans. Whether you are a milk tea fan or a coffee enthusiast, you can find your own fun in it. [more…]

This morning, delivery orders for Starbucks and Luckin Coffee experienced widespread disruptions, with many consumers waiting in vain for riders to pick up their orders after placing them on Ele.me and the brands' official channels. It is understood that the problem stemmed from an anomaly in the rider information service database of SF Intra-city, the delivery partner for both brands, which prevented orders from being dispatched and recipient information from being displayed. Store employees were forced to act as customer service representatives, calling customers one by one to apologize and suggesting they pick up their orders in person, while multiple store locations on the Ele.me platform temporarily showed as "closed." As of press time, none of the three parties involved had issued a formal response, and online stores had gradually resumed accepting orders. [more…]

Recently, the food delivery competition between JD.com and Meituan has yet to subside, and Ele.me has now joined the fray with a large number of coupons and subsidies. While delivery users enjoy low-priced milk tea, staff at brands like Molly Tea are under unprecedented order pressure. Drinks that originally cost a dozen yuan per cup have seen their prices plummet to five or six yuan after platform subsidies, or even just a few cents, causing order volumes to instantly double or surge, with some stores handling as many as five or six hundred orders per day. Understaffing, material shortages, riders urging them on, and customer complaints have become the daily reality for these coffee and milk tea workers. This article will take you behind the scenes of this delivery subsidy frenzy to see the real working conditions and helplessness of frontline employees. [more…]

Luckin Coffee experienced abnormally low-priced orders on the Ele.me platform due to an operational configuration error. After a large number of users rushed to place orders, Luckin handled the situation by unilaterally canceling orders and temporarily suspending online operations. This move sparked strong dissatisfaction among consumers and also drew attention from the legal community: lawyers on one side argued that canceling paid orders was suspected of infringing on consumer rights; the other side pointed out that if it was a major misunderstanding, the contract could be revoked in accordance with the law. If there was intentional malicious marketing, it could also constitute fraud. In the end, Luckin promised to bear all losses and issue compensatory vouchers. This article sorts out the course of the incident, netizen feedback, and lawyers' views, so that coffee lovers can understand the full picture of this controversy. [more…]

A new round of subsidy battles on delivery platforms has once again ignited the tea beverage market, with Meituan handing out large numbers of tea drink vouchers, while Ele.me and Taobao Flash Sale fight back with hefty discounts. However, after claiming the vouchers, many consumers found that Goodme stores in Shenzhen, Xi'an, Chengdu, Nanning, and other places showed 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 products included in the promotion, such as lemonade, could still be ordered. The contradiction between stores actually being overwhelmed with orders and appearing "closed" online has led many to speculate that this is a measure taken by the brand to ease order pressure. Consumers have expressed dissatisfaction over the chaotic promotion, orders being automatically canceled, and no stock upon arrival at stores. Front Street Coffee continues to follow industry developments and brings in-depth observations. [more…]

Luckin Coffee's co-branded campaign with the popular IP Butterbear launched on September 30, introducing four themed cups and a Little Butter drink series that drew widespread attention from fans. However, after the campaign began, many consumers reported that orders placed through third-party platforms such as Ele.me did not come with the co-branded stickers, which was inconsistent with the official promotion's promise of "free with any 2 cups." Customer service responded that peripherals could only be obtained by ordering through the Luckin App or mini-program, prompting consumer questions about the lack of transparency in channel rules. The incident reflects the problem of inconsistent messaging in brands' multi-platform marketing and serves as a reminder that consumers should carefully confirm giveaway conditions before placing orders. [more…]

Recently, a dedicated section named "Coffee & Milk Tea" quietly appeared in the "Instant Delivery" area of the JD APP, promoting "9.9 yuan with free shipping," giving many consumers accustomed to ordering on Meituan and Ele.me a new option. This section not only gathers chain beverage brands such as Luckin, Cotti, Tims, and Chagee, but also includes fast-food merchants like Burger King and Yonghe King, with its category expanding from beverages to fast food. JD PLUS members can even treat friends to coffee for free. Behind this move is JD's continued intensification in the instant retail and food delivery market—from revealing its intention in 2022, to upgrading "JD Instant Delivery" in May this year, and then increasing its stake in Dada Group to 63.2% in September, JD is trying to use high-frequency, rigid-demand coffee and milk tea as an entry point, using subsidies to cultivate users' mindset of ordering food delivery on JD. Front Street Coffee notes that this instant delivery battle centered on "9.9 yuan" may have only just begun. [more…]

Recently, the new Chinese-style tea beverage brand Jasmine Naibai announced that it has secured nearly 100 million yuan in financing, led by Alibaba Local Life, with Xiangyang Capital serving as the exclusive financial advisor. This round of funding will be directed toward product research and development, brand building, supply chain upgrades, and team expansion, while further empowering franchise partners and continuously refining the lightweight model. Since its establishment in 2020, Jasmine Naibai has started with Jasmine Dragon Buds and focused on the floral fresh milk tea segment, launching series such as Gardenia, White Orchid, and Osmanthus. It now has 785 stores nationwide, with revenue growth of nearly 400%, and is expected to surpass 1,000 stores by the end of the year. The brand is also expanding overseas, opening its first stores in New York and Bangkok, promoting Eastern tea beverage culture to the world. [more…]

The pairing of coffee with Chinese-style breakfasts is rapidly expanding across the country. M Stand recently launched a coffee set featuring youtiao croissants and beef shaobing, a Shanghai jianbing guozi coffee shop once had people queuing for over an hour, and in Ningbo, Chaozhou, Kunming, Jingdezhen, Shantou, Guangzhou, and other places, combinations such as cifantuan, wumiguo, meigancai pork patty, youtiao with mochi, Chaoshan rice noodle rolls, and even beef offal rice with coffee have emerged. Data from Ele.me and Koubei Life Network in 2021 shows that the top two breakfast preferences of Shanghai residents are soy milk and coffee, and coffee has entered the ranks of the most popular breakfasts in multiple regions. This article reviews typical examples of this trend and retains relevant recommendations from Front Street Coffee for coffee enthusiasts' reference. [more…]

The arrival of the Start of Autumn solar term has once again sparked a consumer frenzy with the annual "first cup of milk tea in autumn" promotion. This year, driven by large-scale distribution of tea voucher and discount coupons on 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 surge is extreme pressure on store operations: receipt piles are mountainous, rider capacity is severely insufficient, delivery delays and wrong drink deliveries occur frequently, and customer complaints have surged. To ease the pressure, some stores of brands such as Starbucks, Luckin Coffee, Heytea, and Chagee have had to temporarily close or shut down delivery channels, leaving consumers unable to use the coupons they hold. This annual carnival, while bringing huge challenges to workers, has also exposed the fragility of the instant delivery system under extreme peaks. [more…]

Starbucks partnered with Ele.me to launch the "Special Delivery" "Fortune Bowl" holiday set. During the promotion, customers who order designated two-cup drinks or add 39.9 yuan can snap up the co-branded golden rice bowl. Although this food-grade stainless steel merchandise comes with an anti-scald bowl sleeve and heat-insulating bowl mat, the bottom is labeled "suitable temperature <45°C," creating a contrast with its original purpose of holding hot food and prompting netizens to joke that "for alms, you can only beg for iced Americanos." Since each store has only one in stock, the rush to buy created a tense atmosphere. Some people got one easily, while others encountered problems such as failed add-to-cart attempts, canceled orders, or even sudden price changes. Starbucks explained this as a system bug. [more…]

Coffee chain giant Starbucks has once again become the focus of public opinion, this time due to a Douyin platform promotion offering coupons for two Flat White coffees for 0.01 yuan. After grabbing the coupons, many consumers were told they could not be redeemed and the system automatically refunded them, sparking widespread dissatisfaction. Starbucks subsequently issued an apology, explaining that an internal test link had been mistakenly activated. However, the incident did not die down, as legal experts pointed out that the merchant's unilateral cancellation of the contract may constitute a breach. Meanwhile, Starbucks is accelerating expansion and adjusting its marketing strategy in the Chinese market, frequently launching promotional offers. This article reviews the course of the incident, the reactions of various parties, and Starbucks' recent moves. Front Street Coffee also continues to follow developments in the coffee industry. [more…]

In the scorching summer heat, ice cups have become a trendy way to cool down. Mixue seized the moment to launch its 1-yuan "Snow King Ice Cup," aiming to shake up the market with a low price—only to have it urgently pulled from stores in multiple locations the very next day. Consumers found that the actual price didn't match the promotion, that the ice cup turned into water by the time they got it, and that staff knew nothing about the product standards, while franchisees complained of razor-thin profits or even losing money. Behind this seemingly lively marketing campaign lie problems such as insufficient communication between the brand and its stores and an imbalance in cost accounting, reflecting the operational worries lurking beneath intensifying competition in the ice cup sector. [more…]

For contemporary office workers, coffee is a lifeline, but have you ever noticed which coffee shop you frequent most? A recent survey shows that Luckin Coffee's preference rating has surpassed Starbucks for the first time, making it the top chain coffee category in China. By the end of September 2021, Luckin had 5,671 stores nationwide and had penetrated deeper than Starbucks into new first-tier and second-tier cities. Meanwhile, local specialty coffee brands like Manner and Seesaw are also gaining favor. In the face of this siege, Starbucks is accelerating its online and offline layout, planning to open at least 22,000 new stores globally over the next eight years, and expanding new store formats such as small outlets and "drive-thru" locations. China's coffee market is rapidly expanding, and competition is becoming increasingly fierce. [more…]

At the start of 2023, the coffee market kicked off with a low-price strategy. CoCo都可, with over 2,200 stores nationwide, dropped its Americano to 3.9 yuan, Cotti Coffee launched promotions starting at 9.9 yuan, and Tiger Coffee, created by the core team of The Alley, also secured financing, entering the affordable segment with two price tiers of 10 yuan and 13 yuan, and plans to leverage its existing overseas agency network to prioritize expansion in Southeast Asia. Can Tiger Coffee become the Mixue Bingcheng of the coffee world? This article will analyze from perspectives including brand background, store model, product strategy, and market trends. [more…]

The integration of coffee brands with the convenience store format is accelerating. Recently, NOWWA Coffee announced a strategic partnership with Jianfu, the largest convenience store brand in Fujian, and the two parties will jointly operate stores through a co-management model, with the first batch of 150 partner stores already launched. This move not only helps NOWWA expand rapidly by leveraging the convenience store’s mature supply chain and low-cost operating advantages, but also adds a new category to the convenience store’s diversified operations. Against the backdrop of intensifying competition among brands such as Luckin and Cotti, NOWWA is exploring lower-tier markets through offline channel cooperation and plans to launch 500 co-managed stores in 2024 and 2,000 in 2025, covering the four provinces of Fujian, Jiangxi, Sichuan, and Jiangsu. [more…]

Nowadays Coffee recently announced the simultaneous opening of 120 stores. In addition to strengthening its presence in Guangzhou, the new stores also expanded into lower-tier markets in 10 cities including Nanchang, Jinhua, Huangshan, and Zhanjiang. This budget coffee brand, founded in Shanghai in 2019, is accelerating its penetration into the national market by relying on an asset-light model in which online delivery accounts for more than 75% of sales, as well as approachable pricing of around 15 yuan. As of July this year, its total number of stores ranked third among domestic coffee chains, with more than 1,700 stores nationwide covering over 100 cities. Against the backdrop of a coffee consumption market expected to reach a trillion-yuan scale by 2025, Nowadays Coffee's pace of expansion has drawn industry attention. [more…]

Order a takeaway coffee and what arrives is espresso, milk, and ice each in separate packaging, requiring you to assemble it yourself—this new format, known as "pocket coffee," is drawing attention on social platforms. Its emergence addresses takeaway pain points such as dissipating milk foam and loss of flavor, while also catering to young people's desire for participation and ritual. According to Deloitte data, the number of coffee shops in China has approached 110,000, with independent cafes accounting for as much as 87%, and takeaway has long become an important channel for their survival. Why has portioned coffee become popular? Can it balance flavor and experience? And what new problems might it bring? This article sorts through them one by one. [more…]

Recently, prices for multiple drinks on Luckin Coffee's mini-program suddenly dropped to 6.9 yuan, quickly trending on social media and sparking widespread attention. Consumers noticed price changes for popular items originally priced at 9.9 yuan, such as Americanos and Coconut Latte, with some new light milk tea and fruit coffee products also adjusted simultaneously. However, not all users could enjoy this discount; some only received limited-time redemption coupons. Luckin officially responded that this was a randomly distributed 6.9 yuan coupon activity for the Dragon Boat Festival and Children's Day, not a comprehensive price reduction. Meanwhile, the price war on delivery platforms is intensifying, with brands like Cotti having pushed coffee unit prices down to 3.9 yuan. Whether Luckin's move is a response to competition warrants in-depth discussion. [more…]