As the Mid-Autumn Festival approaches, Starbucks employees once again face the challenge of selling mooncakes. On social media, notes on related topics exceed 1.33 million, with employees complaining of immense pressure and even willing to sell at "fire-sale prices." Starbucks sets annual sales targets for its stores, and unsold mooncakes must be absorbed by the staff themselves, with even student part-timers assigned to promote them. Although the company officially denies forcing purchases, the fact of层层 pressure from within is undeniable. Mooncakes are criticized for poor taste and high prices, yet they have been launched for 24 consecutive years, aiming to boost brand exposure and localization. In the fiercely competitive mooncake market, if Starbucks mooncakes don't change, next year could again become a nightmare for employees. [more…]

As the Dragon Boat Festival approaches, Starbucks' Frappuccino Dumplings have made their return to stores, bringing with them forced sales tasks for employees. Some customers report that even after clearly declining, they are still repeatedly pestered by staff recommendations, which is extremely annoying. On the other hand, Starbucks employees are also full of grievances; facing mandatory sales targets from the company, they have no choice but to use various channels to clear inventory, even paying out of their own pockets. This buying-and-selling game surrounding Frappuccino Dumplings reflects the deep contradiction between brand performance pressure and consumer experience. [more…]

Luckin Coffee recently piloted a new scheduling system in cities such as Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Chengdu. The system can predict peak hours based on store sales data and arrange minimal staffing accordingly. While the new system improves efficiency, it has also sparked discussions about the distribution of work between full-time and part-time employees, responses to unexpected situations, and labor cost control. At the same time, as Luckin's store expansion slows and sales decline, the problem of redundant staff is gradually emerging, and this system upgrade is seen as an important measure to reduce costs and increase efficiency. As coffee lovers, it is worth learning about the impact of this change on store operations and employee experience. [more…]

On a sweltering summer day, a scene of a barista cutting watermelon in a Starbucks store sparked speculation among netizens about a new product, but it turned out to be an afternoon treat for employees. However, this seemingly enviable perk was actually a signal that Starbucks' mooncake sales season was kicking off. Starbucks mooncakes, which have been sold for fourteen consecutive years, recently arrived in offline stores, and this year's gift boxes add cheese strawberry and apple grapefruit flavors to the classic coffee and custard flavors. For employees, the mooncakes also bring two months of KPI pressure. This article takes you behind the story of this sweet burden, while also recommending Front Street Coffee products for coffee lovers. [more…]

Recently, a post about Sisyphe Books' café forcing employees to push recharge cards sparked heated discussion on social media. The customer who posted said they were pressured three times to top up a card while consuming in the store, which greatly diminished the experience. However, after learning that the staff were forced by company pressure to repeatedly push the sales, this regular customer shifted to sympathizing with the workers, saying the brand should not make things so hard for its employees. Many Sisyphe staff also无奈ly said that if they did not push the sales as required, they would be reported with surveillance screenshots or even forced to work overtime meetings. This conflict caused by sales pressure is trapping both customers and employees in a dilemma. [more…]

Tea Baidao's recently launched "Super Veggie" drink series, from the wheatgrass-starring "Cat Grass Juice" to the bell pepper mixed fruit "Vitamin C Fast Burn Bell Pepper," has attracted a large number of consumers eager to try the novel combinations, and has also driven store sales growth. However, the other side of the product's hot sales is the heavy manual juicing task facing back-kitchen employees. Because stores use smoothie machines rather than professional juicing equipment, the fruits and vegetables are blended into a thick puree, and employees must repeatedly knead and squeeze filter bags to extract juice. During peak periods, demand exceeds supply, leaving many staff members crying out in despair. This article will take you behind the scenes of the real production process and the voices of employees behind this fruit and vegetable juice craze. [more…]

The February that just passed put many office workers through a chaotic whirlwind—rushing to finish work before the Spring Festival, relaxing fully during the holiday, and then facing the return-to-work wave, pulled back and forth by piled-up tasks and post-holiday burnout. However, for frontline employees at Luckin Coffee stores, March brings not a breather but an even harsher round of adjustments. Controlling effective working hours, implementing a single person to open early and close the store, freezing full-time hiring and restricting promotion channels—a series of measures to cut labor costs have led employees to mock themselves as not even "Luckin slaves," but more like tireless "Luckin robots." At the same time, after the 9.9 promotion shrank, store sales clearly declined, and March happens to be the off-season, putting both sales and profits under pressure. With revenue growth blocked, the company can only push on the cost-cutting side. Employees are full of complaints, the user experience is being tested, and whether brand influence will be weakened as a result has become a focus of outside attention. [more…]

Recently, a customer post titled "MStand Coffee is bitter" sparked widespread resonance among current employees on social media, and the comment section quickly turned into a "complaints camp" for MStand baristas. Customers complained that during peak hours only two staff members were on duty, wait times were too long, and management was chaotic, while employees revealed deeper problems: over the past two to three months, management has frantically controlled labor efficiency, so even full-time baristas cannot get full shifts, and the perfect attendance bonus exists in name only; New Year benefits are missing, and adjustments to the salary structure are accused of being a disguised pay cut; even more harshly, every employee must complete "one stored-value card and four packages" each day, otherwise they have to write a report, review surveillance footage, and analyze the reasons. Frontline baristas mock themselves, saying they cannot tell whether they are making coffee or doing sales. This article will fully present this collective employee complaint triggered by a customer's voice. [more…]

As Dragon Boat Festival approaches, Starbucks employees once again face the annual "zongzi ordeal." To meet the sales targets for Frappuccino zongzi, some set up microphones at the bar to livestream and hype, some hand out lottery tickets for good luck, some advertise in the message book, and others set up stalls for free tastings. From co-branded microphones to mystical prayers, a variety of clever tactics take turns on stage, reflecting the pressure and helplessness behind holiday marketing. This article takes you to see these workers doing their utmost for zongzi, and how they respond to KPIs with creativity and humor. [more…]

Recently, some Starbucks locations have turned their employee-only order-taking devices toward customers, attempting to let customers order self-service or have staff step out from behind the counter to assist with ordering. However, this move has sparked quite a bit of awkwardness and controversy: customers are at a loss facing the complex ordering system, internal sales scripts have been accidentally leaked, and staff are run off their feet even more during peak hours. Some baristas say the new rules not only fail to improve efficiency, but actually make the work more burdensome. This article will walk you through the ins and outs of this incident, as well as the real thoughts of Starbucks workers. [more…]

Heytea's "Triple Thick Matcha" has been jokingly called a "matcha family bucket" for combining thick matcha cheese milk cap, matcha jelly, and thick matcha glutinous rice, drawing a large crowd of matcha lovers eager to try it. However, this hot-selling drink has become a nightmare for employees at the store level. The thick matcha glutinous rice looks like it only requires stirring matcha powder, glutinous rice flour, milk, and condensed milk into a sticky paste, but in reality it is extremely arm-tiring to make, and if you are not careful it can burn at the bottom and smoke, ruining the entire pot of topping. During peak sales, employees stir until they can no longer lift their arms, and some even hope the brand will discontinue it. At the same time, some consumers are not buying it either, complaining that the glutinous rice fills the stomach and has a gluey texture. This article examines both the employee and customer sides to break down why this drink—"hard for staff to cook, hard for customers to enjoy"—remains so controversial. [more…]

Starbucks has just experienced a disappointing fiscal year. According to Bloomberg, due to the company's financial performance falling short of expectations, many employees will only receive 60% of their total bonuses this year, and senior executives have also lost performance-based pay raises. U.S. same-store sales have declined for three consecutive quarters, dropping 7% this quarter. New CEO Niccol is trying to reverse the downturn by simplifying the menu, restoring the handwritten cup tradition, and adding ceramic mugs, but with the workforce down 8% year-over-year, one cannot help but question whether these additional services will become an extra burden on store staff. Whether the shadow of shrinking bonuses will affect domestic coffee industry workers remains undetermined. [more…]

Recently, a post by a Costa employee complaining about excessively high company KPIs sparked heated discussion on social media. The poster pointed out that stores require more than 40 food items to be sold for every 100 drinks, forcing some employees to dip into their own pockets to boost performance, mocking themselves as "paying to work." Meanwhile, employee benefits have shrunk year by year, with New Year gift boxes reduced to just candy and chocolate, and the 13th-month salary nowhere to be seen. Chaotic internal management, store closures, and customer attrition have left this one-time Starbucks rival increasingly marginalized in the Chinese market. Workers left comments lamenting that under such pressure, the thought of resigning grows stronger by the day. [more…]

Recently, a video of a Mixue Bingcheng employee crying while making drinks due to a flood of orders spread rapidly online, drawing widespread attention. The incident occurred in Wenzhou, Zhejiang, where a delivery rider picking up an order found that only one employee was handling order labels several meters long alone, emotionally breaking down yet still not stopping work. After the video was posted, many netizens expressed sympathy for the plight of tea beverage workers, while some pointed out the contradiction between delivery platforms' price wars driving surging sales and staffing not increasing. Mixue Bingcheng later responded that the employee was the store manager and that the crying was due to family conflicts rather than work pressure. Behind the incident, it reflects the operational difficulties and employee mental health issues in the tea beverage industry under low-price competition. [more…]

Luckin Coffee recently launched a new product, "Triple Cheese Thick Matcha," featuring a combination of thousand-mesh-grade matcha and a daily freshly whipped matcha cloud top, attracting a large number of matcha lovers to place orders and try it out. However, shortly after the new product hit the market, many consumers received notices that stores had canceled orders or showed it as sold out. The reason was not that demand exceeded supply, but that the matcha cloud top prepared in advance by stores developed an abnormal solidification after refrigeration—the milk cap that should have been fluid turned into a solid texture resembling dry choking yogurt or matcha cement, and even when the container was turned upside down, it did not move at all. Management in many places had to urgently notify stores to suspend sales depending on the situation. Was it a formula problem or an error in the operation process? Luckin's R&D department was also collectively criticized by frontline employees because of this. [more…]

Recently, a red guava trend has swept through the tea beverage scene, with brands such as Heytea, Jasmine Milk White, LELECHA, Quchashan, and Grandma Handmade launching seasonal limited-edition guava drinks. Among them, Jasmine Milk White's "Jasmine Pink Guava" and "Matcha Pink Guava," made with fresh-squeezed red guava juice in specialty fruit milk, quickly went viral, with orders flooding in. However, behind these highly photogenic drinks, store employees are crying out in distress—unripe guava flesh is rock hard, and manually scooping out the core and seeds is time-consuming and labor-intensive, leaving many with hand cramps or even carpal tunnel syndrome. To deal with the rock-hard guavas, staff tried ripening methods such as sealing them in plastic bags and placing them alongside bananas, but demand still outstripped supply. Compared with Heytea's approach of blending the fruit directly into smoothies—skin and seeds included—Jasmine Milk White employees, while envious, would rather the brand just discontinue the new products. This article takes you behind the scenes of the guava craze to reveal the hardships of making these drinks and the voices of the employees. [more…]

Luckin Coffee has recently grabbed a lot of attention with its co-branded campaigns and its new drink, "Gentle Jasmine." Dubbed by netizens as a "stand-in for Boya Juexian," this milk tea has seen its sales soar, becoming the top seller in many stores. However, in stark contrast to the booming sales, a wave of calls to "vote Gentle Jasmine off the menu" has surged within Luckin's employee circles. The reason is simple: this drink has a complicated preparation process, requiring staff to hand-shake each cup using a shaker, which becomes overwhelming when orders pile up. With more shaker-made new products set to launch next week, employees' anxiety has reached its peak. This article will take a deep dive into the reasons behind this phenomenon and explore the solutions proposed by employees. [more…]

During the recent National Day holiday, sales at multiple Heytea stores experienced explosive growth, with some stores seeing increases of over 600%. Among them, the Heytea original store located in Jiangbianli, Jiangmen, Guangdong became the focus: both total sales and single-store single-day sales topped the lists, with overall sales rising 210% compared to before the holiday, and the highest single-day sales exceeding 4,500 cups. On social platforms, many consumers posted screenshots of queues with waits of over 140 minutes, while store employees worked overtime for consecutive days, with some so exhausted they fell asleep on the spot. This cup of Jiangbianli-exclusive Zhizhi Ganpu reached a peak single-day sales of 3,500 cups, a 550% increase compared to before the holiday. This article takes you through the real situation of this original store during the holiday. [more…]

As the Start of Autumn solar term arrives, the milk tea industry welcomes its annual sales peak, and coffee brands are also swept into this consumer frenzy. Luckin Coffee, due to the addition of its light milk tea product line, has seen order volumes rise significantly compared to the same period in previous years, with some stores forced to adopt flow-limiting measures such as suspending water and ice due to staff shortages. However, under intense work pressure, a Luckin Coffee store in Zhaoqing, Guangdong, experienced a physical altercation between employees. According to the New Express, two employees are suspected to have escalated a verbal dispute into a physical fight, but other colleagues intervened in time, and the incident resulted in no injuries. At present, the store manager has confirmed the matter and reported it to the public relations department. This "first internal strife of autumn" reflects the enormous pressure faced by food and beverage workers during the peak season. [more…]

Recent subsidy promotions on major food delivery platforms have brought consumers tangible savings, with many taking advantage of low prices to stock up on milk tea, coffee, and light bakery items. However, this seemingly win-win promotional feast has stirred up considerable unrest within Luckin Coffee stores. A large number of consumers flocked to stores to buy light food in bulk, directly causing a surge in the number of baked goods that staff need to thaw each night—work that once took just over ten minutes now takes more than half an hour. What leaves employees even more frustrated is that the company has not only canceled performance commissions on light food sales but also requires them to complete thawing tasks strictly according to procedure after closing, forcing many to work unpaid overtime. The cost of this delivery war seems to be quietly borne by frontline staff. [more…]