Southern regions have recently been hit by continuous heavy rain, with severe waterlogging on roads in cities like Changsha and Wuhan, making travel difficult for residents and causing significant disruption to street-side shops. In such weather, a cup of coffee is a small comfort that keeps office workers energized and going, yet many customers who chose to pick up their orders at Luckin Coffee stores found that the paper takeaway bags were extremely flimsy in the rain, with the coffee spilling into the rain before they could even take a sip. Complaints and grievances about torn paper bags have been flooding social media, with consumers calling on the brand to improve its packaging, while store staff are equally miserable. This article examines the reasons behind this phenomenon and the voices from all sides. [more…]

Recently, the buzz around the "Ne Zha 2" collaboration swept through the coffee world, and Cotti Coffee seized the moment to launch themed limited-edition drinks and merchandise, drawing a large crowd of consumers to its stores. Yet just three days into the campaign, some locations saw delivery riders swarming the pickup area, merchandise running out, and staff so swamped they could barely catch their breath. The reason: JD Instant Delivery rolled out hefty subsidies the same day, letting users get takeaway coffee for just a few yuan—or even barely over one yuan—causing order volumes to explode instantly. Caught between collaboration fans and deal-hunters, Cotti stores were severely understaffed, and production efficiency couldn't keep up with demand. Customers waited one to two hours only to leave empty-handed, and negative reviews and complaints poured in. Why did this seemingly lively marketing tie-in turn into a nightmare for frontline employees? Front Street Coffee walks you through the whole story. [more…]

As people return to work after the holiday, coffee chains are rolling out merchandise to grab office workers' attention. Manner is releasing its popular ceramic cup in new colors as a limited edition, while Mstand has taken a different approach with a lunchbox jokingly dubbed the "cattle and horse trough," bundled with a new coffee-flavored latte as a limited two-cup set. However, once the actual product arrived, consumers found the lunchbox riddled with scratches, rough edges on the clasps, too small a capacity, and no indication on the material that it was microwave-safe, sparking widespread complaints. From looks to practicality, this piece of merchandise seems to have failed to meet the expectations of people who bring their own lunch. [more…]

Sitting by the window in a café, sipping coffee while watching the scenery outside, is a cozy image cherished by many. Blue Bottle Coffee's Shinagawa branch, with its entire north-facing glass curtain wall, offers a panoramic view of the surging crowds of commuters at Shinagawa Station, yet it unexpectedly went viral as a "corporate slave observation café." A large number of tourists come specifically to photograph the black torrent of suited commuters outside the window, sparking discontent and complaints from the photographed office workers. The shop subsequently posted a rare notice, asking customers not to photograph the commuter scene below. This "no outdoor photography" reminder not only failed to quell the enthusiasm for checking in but instead stirred up even more curiosity. This article will take you through the unique situation of this store and the controversies and amusing anecdotes surrounding it. [more…]

Manner has long been known for its "bring your own cup and get 5 yuan off" policy and for frequently giving away stylish cups. The stainless steel straw cup launched last November sparked controversy because it could only be obtained by purchasing a 75-yuan set meal. After more than half a year, the official announcement on the last day of August revealed an additional silver model, officially launching on September 2, with stock increased to 60,000, and the threshold relaxed to receiving one free with the purchase of two iced coffees through delivery channels. The high aesthetic appeal and low barrier made cup collectors eager, with many people preemptively monitoring mini-programs or delivery platforms for price changes, ready to order promptly and wait for delivery. However, less than 12 hours after the campaign launched, complaints began appearing on social media: after rinsing the new cup with clean water, paint peeled off the outer side of the lid, as if the silver coating had been scratched, instantly blemishing the originally striking new cup. Some netizens checked the packaging information and found that the cup body and straw are made of metal, while the lid is PP polypropylene plastic with an outer coating, which easily peels off when exposed to water or light scraping. [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…]

Manner Coffee has won the favor of many consumers with its high cost-performance and thoughtful service. Bringing your own cup and ordering ahead via the mini-program have become daily choices for many office workers. However, recently, complaints about slow order fulfillment at Manner stores have been increasing. The completion times shown in the mini-program are severely inconsistent with actual wait times, and waits of twenty minutes or even an hour during peak hours are common. What dissatisfies consumers even more is that some stores are staffed by only one employee, who is overwhelmed when orders surge, causing customers and delivery riders to be stranded for long periods. Some netizens left bad reviews due to slow order fulfillment, but received a reply from the store saying that "the employee involved has been seriously dealt with," sparking widespread controversy. This article will sort out the course of the incident, netizens' views, and the actual situation of Manner employees, and explore how the brand can balance efficiency and employee care amid rapid expansion. [more…]

A chain coffee shop in Guangzhou, store by .jpg, located on the 41st floor of an office building, quickly went viral on social media because customers can take photos with Canton Tower up close. The average spending is low and no reservation is required—just register at the front desk and you can go upstairs to take photos—attracting a large number of young people to come and check in. However, the resulting elevator congestion and occupied public areas have made office workers in the building miserable. The property management subsequently limited the number of daily tickets and removed the lounge chairs and tables. How will this high-altitude coffee craze ultimately end? [more…]

Luckin Coffee is about to launch a new product, "Big Watermelon Raw Coconut Cold Brew," across its stores nationwide on April 7. However, even before this product officially goes on sale, it has already triggered widespread complaints among staff. The reason is that its coffee liquid needs to be manually steeped for as long as 18 minutes, and the production process is cumbersome with many quality-control details, putting even more pressure on already busy frontline employees. What troubles them even more is that a single packet of coffee powder can produce only 4.5 cups of the finished product, yet stores are not allowed to stop selling it. Once orders surge, they can only negotiate with customers to wait. This article compiles frontline employees' genuine feedback and operational details, presenting the "worker's dilemma" behind this new product. [more…]

After winter sets in, many office workers are unwilling to brave the cold wind to visit Manner stores, and instead turn to delivery platforms to place orders—only to get stuck on the minimum order threshold. Manner drinks are mostly priced between 15 and 25 yuan, while delivery minimums are generally above 30 yuan, making it impossible to order just one cup. Consumers are forced to add bread or bottled water to reach the minimum, and during peak hours some stores even raise the minimum order to 80 or even 100 yuan, with delivery fees also drawing widespread complaints. Some regular customers believe the high threshold can ease pressure on staff, but more consumers are calling on the brand to add more staff or simply cancel its delivery channel, so that neither customers nor employees are left struggling—one to make up the minimum, the other overwhelmed by a flood of orders. [more…]

Recently, Starbucks has frequently trended on social media due to its "pay-to-sit" policy, sparking intense discussions among netizens. At the same time, Starbucks has been continuously active in distributing coupons and offering discounts in live-streaming rooms, with the price of a single beverage even dropping below 20 yuan, in sharp contrast to its earlier stance of "having no intention of participating in a price war." To balance revenue and expenditure, Starbucks is also controlling labor costs internally, with some office-building stores choosing to close and suspend operations on holidays. Although the brand has pulled out all the stops to attract customers, consumers' complaints that it is "overpriced and bad-tasting" remain undiminished. Front Street Coffee has observed that in China's increasingly cutthroat coffee market, it is becoming harder and harder for Starbucks to maintain its high posture. [more…]

In an era where remote work is increasingly common, more and more people are choosing to treat cafes as their second office. For just a few hundred yen spent on a cup of coffee, they can stay in the shop for hours or even longer. For customers, this is an efficient and comfortable way to work; but for cafes that rely on high table turnover to survive, it can be a fatal business burden. Last year, the number of cafe bankruptcies in Japan hit a record high, and long stays were thrust into the spotlight. Time limits, fewer power outlets, customer dissatisfaction... operators are caught in a dilemma. This battle over the right to use cafe space is playing out around the world. [more…]

With its positioning as affordable specialty coffee, Manner Coffee has surpassed a thousand stores nationwide while also attracting a large number of "coffee-brained" office workers who bring their own cups. However, recently some netizens complained that after a friend helped buy coffee with a bring-your-own cup, the label on the cup could not be completely peeled off, sparking widespread resonance. Similar experiences are not uncommon on social platforms. Some question whether baristas "deliberately" attach the labels, while others believe it is an oversight during peak hours, and some stores use easy-peel stickers as a base layer. This small controversy over labels reflects consumers' attention to baristas' attention to detail in service. For coffee enthusiasts pursuing quality, a good cup of coffee is not only about taste, but also about the warmth and care in the experience. [more…]

A single lemon seed in a cup of iced fresh lemonade actually prompted a market regulation inspection? Recently, a netizen in Hefei, Anhui, captured footage of a Mixue Ice Cream & Tea store being inspected by market regulation staff, triggered by a consumer complaint that the drink tasted bitter and had lemon seeds left in the cup. The incident sparked widespread discussion online, with some finding the complaint absurd and others believing a consumer would not make such a fuss over a mere lemon seed. The Mixue store responded that freshly cut lemon slices containing seeds is normal and that their presence in the drink was not due to employee misconduct. Market regulation staff confirmed they had inspected the store and made clear that the lemon seed issue does not involve food safety. This seemingly trivial customer complaint reflects the various bizarre complaints the tea beverage industry faces daily and has also sparked discussion about standardized procedures for freshly cut fruit drinks. [more…]

Recently, the news of a fresh master's graduate choosing to join Luckin as a part-time barista has sparked widespread discussion online. Supporters believe that no occupation is superior or inferior, and that young people should try more things; opponents feel that this is a waste of a diploma. In fact, as the number of graduate students in universities surpasses that of undergraduates, under the dual pressure of degree devaluation and economic downturn, more and more highly educated young people are turning their attention to light physical service industries such as coffee and tea drinks. They either want to escape the high-pressure, hyper-competitive office environment, or use it as a transitional job. However, is the real experience behind the bar counter of chain brands as relaxed and comfortable as imagined? This article deeply explores the multiple motivations and real dilemmas behind this phenomenon. [more…]

Recently, a Weibo post about a Luckin Coffee store in Hangzhou where an employee and a customer threw coffee at each other has sparked widespread discussion. According to the blogger, the dispute seemingly began when a customer, dissatisfied with the drink preparation, demanded an apology, and after emotions escalated, both parties resorted to throwing coffee. Although there is no complete video of the incident, it reflects the tension between service standards and customer expectations at chain coffee brands. Luckin employees revealed that the company does not have a mandatory "remake if unsatisfied" policy, but when faced with requests such as taste dissatisfaction, staff often find themselves in a dilemma: refusing may lead to negative reviews and complaints, while yielding may encourage unreasonable demands. The strict internal feedback and assessment mechanism further multiplies the pressure on frontline employees. This article will reconstruct the sequence of events and explore how to balance service standards and employee circumstances in the coffee industry. [more…]

The five-day May Day holiday has always been a peak time for travel. Rather than queueing for ages outside popular coffee shops, many efficiency-minded coffee lovers choose to go to coffee festivals instead, tasting all the signature drinks from various vendors in one go. According to social media, Shanghai—a city jokingly dubbed "Coffee City"—held six coffee festivals across different districts during the May Day holiday, an astonishingly high density. Yet behind the explosion in the number of coffee festivals, problems such as uneven event quality, an overload of creative coffee, inflated prices, and scarce free tastings have also drawn frequent complaints. This article walks you through the buzz and controversy of Shanghai's May Day coffee festivals, and explores the shift of coffee festivals from "industry networking conventions" to "specialty beverage tech conventions." [more…]

Originating in Toronto, Canada, Tims has always accompanied its loyal customers with warm freshly brewed coffee and is hailed as Canadians' national coffee. Recently, however, multiple consumers have reported serious quality issues with its takeaway cups for hot drinks: after being filled with hot coffee, the cups collapse, their seams split, and in some cases the bottoms even fall off, causing coffee to leak out and nearly scalding some people. So far, 20 consumers have provided photographic evidence. Tims officially responded that it is investigating the matter with its suppliers, has apologized to affected customers, and has promised to improve the takeaway cups to ensure they meet usage standards. This article will walk you through the details of the incident. [more…]

At the end of July, Luckin Coffee introduced a new closing procedure called "full scan" within its store system, requiring employees to scan and log every item with an expiration date label in the store one by one fifteen minutes before closing, and repeat the process again on the next morning shift. This move sparked a flood of complaints from frontline employees on social media—already tight staffing was further squeezed, unpaid overtime hours continued to lengthen, and the new system frequently suffered recognition failures and abnormal error reports during scanning, turning this digital initiative aimed at managing shelf-life control into what employees see as a burdensome "white elephant" feature that only adds extra work. This article is compiled from Coffee Workshop and takes you through the specific operational process and the real voices of employees behind this controversy. [more…]

A Starbucks customer was shocked and concerned about food safety after discovering multiple yellow raised bumps, suspected to be pustules, on the surface of the beef slices in a sandwich she ordered through a third-party platform. She immediately contacted the store to demand an explanation and a refund, and filed a complaint with 12345. Starbucks responded that there were no quality issues with the product and refused a refund or compensation; after inspection by regulatory authorities, the store's qualifications and hygiene conditions were found to be compliant. Ultimately, because the order came from a third-party platform, the platform refunded the order amount. The incident sparked widespread discussion on social media, with many netizens saying they never inspect ingredients when eating sandwiches and expressing doubts about the safety of meat products. So, is it actually normal for yellow granules to appear on the surface of cooked beef? Currently, opinions online vary, and there is no definitive conclusion. [more…]