Starbucks was interviewed for using expired ingredients! The golden sign that injects the heart cannot withstand the unintentional squandering

Qianjiang Evening News Hourly News Commentator Chen Jiang

Starbucks and its brand founder Howard Schultz have a large number of fans in China, but the recent Starbucks incident is expected to shake this "cult of fans".

On December 13, two topics, "Starbucks uses expired ingredients for private ingredient labels" and "Starbucks frequently touches the red line of food safety", were on the hot search. The video of the undercover interview released by the media shows that the two stores of Starbucks Wuxi Changxing Building Store and Wuxi Zhenze Road Store continue to use the ingredients after expiration and are sold as a variety of best-selling drinks; the supervisor and the clerk tamper with the shelf life privately; the pastries that promise to "not stay overnight after opening" are secretly on the shelves the next day. Expired ingredients include chocolate liquor, matcha liquor, black tea liquor, cream, peach pulp, and cocoa shards, and a staggering range of ingredients.

Starbucks' "use of expired ingredients" incident immediately ignited public opinion. At noon that day, Starbucks China's official Weibo response said it was deeply shocked. On the same day, Starbucks was also interviewed by the Wuxi Municipal Market Supervision Bureau. On the evening of the 13th, Starbucks responded again, confirming the existence of violations, issuing an apology statement, saying that it had closed the stores involved and resolutely adopted a zero-tolerance attitude towards food safety issues.

From Burger King to Nesher's tea, tampering with shelf life and using expired ingredients, similar things have long been common in the catering industry. But Starbucks also has this kind of thing, which is somewhat surprising. You know, Starbucks has no franchise stores, and 5400 stores in more than 200 cities in China are directly operated stores. China is now Starbucks' fastest growing and largest overseas market. Some third- and fourth-tier cities regard the opening of Starbucks coffee shops as the fashion standard of urban development.

Howard Schultz, the founder of Starbucks, explained in his autobiography that the rule that makes Starbucks is to "inject the heart." On today's starbucks official website, its social responsibility still declares: the company has always taken the "humanistic spirit" as the starting point, and provided customers with high-quality coffee experience with tireless ingenuity. As a result, the company "develops and strictly implements Starbucks Gold Food Safety Standards based on the industry's highest standards."

In addition to the industry's highest standard gold standards, the company has also implemented a more advanced business model. It is reasonable to say that the directly operated stores are invested by the company itself, the store manager is directly assigned by the company, and all stores have a unified business strategy. This direct operation model management is more standardized than the franchise model, why is Starbucks' food safety still frequently problematic? At the end of the day, this is a reflection of the lack of higher attention to the interests of users. Once an enterprise cannot put the interests of customers in the first place, no matter how strict the management system and the high industry standards, it will eventually become a sloppy form.

Chinese customers like Starbucks because they like its own "Starbucks culture". Because of the cup of coffee that injects the heart, Starbucks has lit up the beautiful moments of countless customers, thus becoming the most popular coffee brand in China. The golden sign that injects the heart cannot withstand the inadvertent squandering. No matter how big the brand is, the bottom line of food safety cannot be touched, and Starbucks cannot stop apologizing. Or think about what made Starbucks remarkable in the first place. Injecting the heart is not a chicken soup for Starbucks, but a business strategy and original intention that must always be adhered to and steadily implemented.

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