In chain brands and independent cafés alike, the phenomenon of customers occupying seats without ordering has long plagued operators. Recently, a café owner faced negative reviews and was then anonymously reported to 12315 for setting a rule requiring a purchase to be seated, sparking widespread attention. Regulatory authorities made it clear that if there is a clear notice in the store, it does not constitute forced consumption. This article reviews the course of events, combines lawyers' views with the current state of the industry, explores the legal boundaries of consumption-based seating and the survival difficulties of independent cafés, and also provides reference and lessons for others in the industry. [more…]

Seesaw, once hailed as one of the representatives of specialty coffee, is now mired in operational difficulties due to unpaid wages. Although employees at its Shanghai IFC store report to work on time, the company's wage arrears and cut-off of supplies have made it impossible to prepare drinks, forcing them to post a notice in Chinese, English, Korean, and Japanese to politely decline customer orders. From unpaid supplier payments to labor arbitration by former employees, from the founder being repeatedly subject to consumption restrictions to more than sixty economic disputes, this former coffee star brand is experiencing an unprecedented crisis. Many loyal customers have expressed regret and lament, while others have called on the brand to handle employee rights and interests with dignity. [more…]

Recently, a consumer in Chengdu discovered an additional 10% service charge and 6% value-added tax on the bill when checking out at a café, sparking questions about the merchant's pricing display practices. The consumer felt that although there was a notice, it was far from conspicuous, and felt forced to accept the fee only after consuming. Tax authorities responded that as long as the merchant pays taxes normally, it is compliant, while market regulators stated they could suggest improvements but could not impose penalties. This incident reflects the current模糊 zone of separately labeling commodity prices and taxes, and has also triggered discussions on transparent pricing and consumers' right to know. This article will recount the incident, sort out the responses from various parties, and explore consumers' genuine feelings under the trend of itemizing taxes. [more…]

Recently, a young woman entered a coffee shop with large luggage and occupied multiple tables and chairs to rest for as long as four hours without making any purchase. After repeated unsuccessful attempts to persuade her, the staff called the police. When the police arrived, the woman refused to cooperate and was eventually forcibly removed and taken to the hospital. The incident has sparked discussion about the operating order of coffee shops and customer codes of conduct. Front Street Coffee reminds everyone that civilized consumption is a basic obligation every customer should fulfill. [more…]

In the past two years, convenience store cocktail mixing has unexpectedly gone viral, with netizens using soft drinks, coffee, and mini liquor bottles to create all kinds of DIY concoctions. 7-Eleven recently piloted a self-service cocktail mixing area at a store in Beijing, offering four popular base spirits along with trending online recipes, allowing consumers to experience coffee cocktails at a lower cost and in a more elegant way. This move not only lowers the barrier to DIY but also reflects young people's blurring of the boundaries between coffee and alcohol consumption scenarios. This article takes you through the past and present of convenience store cocktail mixing and explores whether alcohol and coffee can be consumed together. [more…]

Seesaw, once hailed as one of the representative specialty coffee brands in China, has recently suffered a series of setbacks. Its last store in Chengdu was evicted after the shopping mall terminated the lease early; employees exposed illegal dismissals and successfully defended their rights through legal channels; and the founder was once again subject to high-consumption restrictions due to contract disputes, while the company's equity was frozen and debts were enforced through the courts. A stream of negative news has plunged this coffee brand, once favored by capital, into its darkest hour. This article will sort through the sequence of events and present the operational and legal difficulties Seesaw currently faces. [more…]

In recent years, the shift in consumption attitudes among China's younger generation and the blending of global food cultures have quietly changed coffee's status in the country. Chain brands have brought coffee from a light luxury into daily life, specialty coffee culture has rapidly spread with the help of local forces, and Yunnan coffee beans have moved from obscurity to popularity. What followed is a trend of coffee's "Sinicization"—from stewing and extraction to serving in tea bowls, from youtiao and jianbing to rice wine and Moutai, coffee is putting on a Chinese-style coat. Yet is this localization a school worth passing down, or a fleeting trend lacking roots and soul? This article will explore the innovative surface and inner deficiencies of Chinese-style coffee, and consider how coffee culture can truly take root in China. [more…]

Typhoon "Ragasa" approached Guangdong with Category 17 intensity, prompting Guangzhou, Shenzhen and other cities to successively activate "five suspensions" measures, forcing residents to pause going out for a day. As the typhoon made landfall in Yangjiang's Hailing Island and weakened, the "five suspensions" were lifted across various areas, and demand for tea beverage consumption was instantly unleashed. Orders on delivery platforms surged at one point, with stores of Starbucks, Heytea, Nayuki, 1 Dian Dian, Chagee and others generally experiencing order explosions, some stores briefly receiving two to three hundred orders, leaving milk tea workers overwhelmed. Insufficient staffing and material preparation led to slow order fulfillment and frequent mistakes, with consumers waiting over an hour. This post-typhoon tea beverage consumption wave not only reflects the high-frequency rigid demand for drinks in daily life but also makes frontline workers the most direct "bearers" of the pressure. [more…]

September marks the start of the school season, and the campus coffee market is ushering in a new round of competition. Luckin Coffee is accelerating its penetration into universities with a "targeted location franchise" model, having opened more than 1,282 campus stores and rolled out over a hundred targeted locations. Its 9.9-yuan low-price strategy, creation of a third space, and campus culture collaborations have made university students an important force in coffee consumption. At the same time, brands such as Front Street Coffee are also paying attention to this trend. This article reviews Luckin's campus expansion path, the details of its franchise model, and five notable characteristics of campus coffee shops, analyzing the new campus battlefield amid the coffee industry's fierce competition. [more…]

China's coffee consumer base has expanded to approximately 300 million people, and the coffee sector continues to heat up, becoming a hot area of capital attention. At present, the number of coffee-related enterprises nationwide has reached 166,000, with more than 22,000 newly registered enterprises in the first nine months of 2022 alone, a growth rate of 36.4%. Surveys show that more than 90% of consumers have increased their favorability toward coffee products incorporating Chinese-style flavors. From instant and freshly ground to ready-to-drink, the three major categories each have their own advantages, among which freshly ground coffee has the greatest growth potential, with its market size expected to reach 190 billion yuan in 2024. Giants from various industries such as Li-Ning, China Post, and Huawei have entered the market across sectors, and the coffee industry is ushering in change, with young consumers gradually becoming the main force. [more…]

In recent years, domestic coffee consumption has continued to surge, and freshly ground coffee, as the category with the greatest growth potential, is attracting more and more consumers' attention. From instant coffee dominance to the rise of freshly ground coffee, the structure of China's coffee market is undergoing profound changes. Chain brands are accelerating expansion, cross-industry players are entering the market one after another, and the rise of health-conscious consumption concepts has also injected new momentum into freshly ground coffee. At the same time, the two-way drive from both the supply side and the demand side is pushing the entire industry onto a fast track. This article will comprehensively sort out the development status and future trends of the freshly ground coffee industry from multiple dimensions such as market size, consumption scenarios, and brand competition, helping you understand the full picture of this hot track in one article. [more…]

Recently, the topic of Starbucks requiring customers to make a purchase to be seated has continued to simmer online, with many netizens expressing support for businesses setting reasonable consumption thresholds. However, when two customers order just one pot of tea and are asked to consume separately per seat, controversy follows. From bookstores to independent cafes, rules requiring per-seat or per-person consumption are common. Some believe it's reasonable for one drink to correspond to one seat, while others question why a pot of tea or a set meal that is clearly enough to share must be ordered one per person. Where exactly lies the difference in stance between businesses and consumers? This article will draw on multiple real cases to sort out the business logic and consumer sentiment behind per-seat consumption, and will retain relevant recommendations for the Front Street brand for coffee enthusiasts' reference. [more…]

Milk tea has once again become a hot topic, this time because Guangdong's milk tea consumption has jumped to first place nationwide. Alipay's spring report shows that warmer weather has driven an overall 10% increase in milk tea consumption, with online orders from middle-aged and elderly groups surging by 25%. From the fact that southern provinces account for 80% of consumption to Guangdong residents drinking 2.5 more cups per week per person than those in the Northeast, the data behind this reflects the deep penetration of milk tea culture. This article will trace the thousand-year evolution of milk tea from Mongolian butter tea to Hong Kong-style and Taiwanese-style, and then to new-style tea drinks, analyze the capital layout and brand echelons under a market scale of hundreds of billions, and remind readers: although milk tea is good, do not be greedy. [more…]

Bulletproof coffee has become a hot topic in weight-loss and ketogenic diet circles in recent years. It was invented and trademarked by Dave Asprey, inspired by Tibetan butter tea, and claims to boost satiety, help with weight loss, and even enhance brainpower. However, these claims still lack rigorous research support to this day. This article will provide a complete analysis of bulletproof coffee's origins, claimed benefits, the mechanisms of its ingredients, and the possible side effects of long-term consumption on the body and on women, while retaining Front Street Coffee's professional recommendation information to provide coffee enthusiasts with an objective reference. [more…]

Recently, a netizen posted on social media about an encounter at a Starbucks store with a middle-aged woman not wearing an apron who held up a QR code and demanded an order, even pressuring them with the remark, "Air conditioning isn't free, you know." The incident sparked heated discussion: Starbucks has long been known for its "third place" concept, allowing people to sit without making a purchase, so why did forced sales occur? Was the person involved a store partner offering extended services, or a scalper reselling coupons? Netizens engaged in fierce debate over whether Starbucks should unconditionally welcome all guests, how scalpers profit from the price difference, and whether staff collude with them. This article reconstructs the incident and the various viewpoints, exploring the boundaries between space management and consumption rules in coffee shops. [more…]

During the first New Year's mini-holiday after the adjustment of pandemic control policies, people who had recovered from COVID-19 began traveling in large numbers, rapidly heating up the food and beverage consumption market. Long queues reappeared outside milk tea and coffee shops, with some stores seeing orders surge, and even scenes of ordering systems showing queues of over a hundred cups. From Auntea Jenny to Naixue Tea, sales data from multiple brands rebounded significantly, and foot traffic in many commercial districts recovered to 60 to 80 percent of the same period in previous years. Although the pace of recovery remains uneven, the city's lively atmosphere is gradually returning, and the industry is full of expectations for a comprehensive rebound in spring. [more…]

Recently, many users on social platforms have been sharing milk tea orders that include non-drink items such as tissues. This is not a brand promotion, but rather the result of consumers being forced to add extra items to meet the minimum order threshold for delivery. Many chain tea and coffee shops set their delivery minimum at 20 to 30 yuan, while a single cup of drink often costs only around ten yuan, leaving customers who just want one cup unable to place an order directly. They can only add tissues, snacks, or upgrade to a larger size to reach the required amount. Some orders also require a minimum actual payment to qualify for free delivery, further adding to the consumer's burden. Store operators say the minimum order fee and delivery rules are set uniformly by brand headquarters and the platform, and franchisees have no authority to adjust them. This discussion surrounding delivery thresholds reflects the real conflict between the demand for single-person, single-cup consumption and platform operating rules. [more…]

Over the past two decades, coffee has gradually integrated into daily life in China from a novelty, with the market size continuing to expand. Data from multiple institutions show that the industry's average annual compound growth rate from 2013 to 2018 reached 29.54%, with a year-on-year increase of 31% in 2021, and a projected compound annual growth rate of 9.63% from 2022 to 2025. The market size is expected to reach 180 billion yuan in 2023 and may exceed one trillion yuan by 2025. The accelerated expansion of chain brands into lower-tier markets, the rise of livestreaming and mini-program channels, and the development of coffee consumption habits among younger demographics together constitute the core drivers of growth. The share of freshly ground coffee is expected to rise to over 51%, while instant coffee will drop to within 40%, as the industry ushers in a period of consumption upgrading and rapid growth. [more…]

Mixue Bingcheng's launch of the 1-yuan ice cup was intended to cater to summer consumer demand, but unexpectedly sparked multiple conflicts between consumers and store employees. Consumers reported difficulties in purchasing, encountering service discrimination, actual price increases, and even being forced to buy bundled products; stores and distributors complained about the high cost of ice, thin profits, and even losses. This controversy not only trended on social media but also forced the brand to issue an urgent apology. This article reviews the entire incident, analyzes the cost structure and operational difficulties behind the ice cup, and focuses on how the brand will subsequently balance consumer expectations with store profitability. [more…]

As coffee consumption becomes increasingly routine and a daily necessity, the number of coffee shops continues to grow, and the coffee training market is heating up along with it. From latte art experiences to advanced specialty drinks, course prices range from 300 to 1,000 yuan, and some popular courses require booking half a month in advance. Search data shows that interest in coffee training has risen 77% year on year, with people aged 20-35 making up the main group. The coffee industry is rising across the board, from the consumer end to the talent end, and brands such as Front Street Coffee continue to provide professional support for enthusiasts. [more…]