The chain beverage industry has been having a lot of trouble lately. First of all, the former employees of Xicha broke the news that the company did not issue year-end bonuses and large-scale layoffs at the end of the year, and then Naixue's tea released a performance forecast for continued losses. Just yesterday, Michelle Ice City and Starbucks were on the hot search because of "bad news". Do you dare to drink this drink?
Mi Xue Ice City was exposed again
According to media reports, yesterday morning, some netizens who claimed to be employees of Michelle Ice City posted multiple videos in a row, saying that cockroaches appeared in the production area of the Michelle Ice City store. The "netizen" also said that the boss let the use of milk tea powder that had been bitten by rats, and the labels for meals that were done wrong or could not be sold would be torn off and resold.
Michelle Ice City immediately responded that the video publisher was a part-time employee who had left a store in Henan, and the company was still verifying the authenticity of the video.
Below the above video, some netizens left a message saying, "The boss in The previous Honey Snow Ice City also told us to continue to cook tea overnight the next day, and the milk powder was bitten by the rat and continued to use." Later, he resigned and said that we did not catch mice, milk powder was bitten to deduct our money, milk powder or continue to use. At the same time, other netizens who claimed to be former employees said that their stores also had the situation that rats had bitten raw materials to continue to be used.
In December last year, a Shenzhen consumer posted on social platforms that he drank cockroaches in the drinks of Michelle Ice City. In September last year, a consumer in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, bought a drink in Mixue Ice City, took off the plastic bag and found a worm floating in the bottle.
Earlier, a store in Fuzhou, a mixue ice city, was reported that there were moldy lemons in the warehouse, and the syrup and dairy products were not sealed and stored, and they were directly stored at room temperature without refrigeration. The Yong'an Street store in Zhengzhou, The Daguanyuan store in Jinan, and the Mahu Commercial Street store in Wuhan have also been exposed to food safety problems such as tampering with the expiration of Kaifeng ingredients and using semi-finished products of overnight tea soup milk syrup.
Although the inability to control the quality of franchisees is a common problem of all milk tea chain stores today, only from the perspective of food hygiene, Michelle Ice City can be said to be the most complained brand at present.
In the past 2021, many head brands have been interviewed and punished by the regulatory authorities. Mi Xue Ice City, Tea Beauty, Nai Xue's Tea, Yi He Tang, etc. have successively apologized publicly, and apologies in the hot search seem to have become the "standard" of the head brand. According to the "21st Century New Domestic Goods and Tide Brands - 2021 New Tea Drink List", referring to the number of tea stores that have been punished/reported/exposed, the number of user complaints, and the number of lawsuits (defendants), in 2021, Mi xue ice city has the largest number of complaints, CoCo can be second, and Nai Xue's tea, tea Baidao, and Yihetang rank 3rd to 5th respectively.
Michelle Ice City currently has more than 20,000 stores and has expanded by about 10,000 stores in the past year. Although the headquarters of Michelle Ice City said that the company's review of franchisees is very strict, there is often a situation of "one store is difficult to find"; however, from the actual landing point of view, the market still buried a lot of hidden dangers in the process of rapid expansion of the number of stores.
Some insiders said that after a large number of open franchisees in Michelle Ice City will inevitably lead to too many franchisees, follow-up product quality and service can not be effectively controlled, operation and service levels will become uneven, not conducive to the maintenance of brand reputation; there is also the problem of regional protection, some areas of a snack street even have two or three Honey Snow Ice City, may buy Honey Snow Ice City milk tea people are more, but a store can earn profits invisibly also diluted.
All in all, although there are many stores in Michelle Ice City, whether each store can make money is invisible to the outside world. If you only blindly continue to expand on the road of opening stores, but ignore to protect the competitiveness of franchisees in a certain area, even if Mi xue ice city is about to be listed, it is difficult to say that there will be a good development prospect.
Starbucks is on the hot search again
If the "dirty mess" of Michelle Ice City is mainly caused by the management loopholes that the rapid growth of enterprises cannot take care of; then Starbucks is on the hot search because of the "expulsion" of the police on duty, which is even more difficult for consumers to accept.
Also yesterday, several screenshots of public security personnel on duty in the Ciqikou Ancient Town Scenic Area of Shapingba, Chongqing, were suspected of being expelled from eating at the entrance of the scenic Starbucks.
The screenshot content shows: "Today's duty next to the Ciqikou Visitor Center (opposite the original scenic entrance Chongqing Tuocha) Starbucks door to eat, Starbucks employees saw us half eaten, said can you change places to eat?" You will affect our brand image in this way. I don't know what level of public security can be worthy of this tall Starbucks."
After the incident, according to a Starbucks insider who did not want to be named, "Chongqing has clearly not allowed a voice, and the only way to interview is starbucks headquarters, and only Starbucks China can speak." ”
On February 14, Starbucks' official customer service responded that the incident was being actively investigated internally. However, a large number of netizens have also made bad comments for the Starbucks stores involved. Some netizens even left angry messages: "What temperament is worthy of eating at your door?" A cheap coffee who gives you a sense of superiority. "If you're an 'office guy' carrying a Mac Pro, it's probably okay to sit empty-handed for a day."
Some people believe that although it is unlikely that there will be regulations within Starbucks to drive away unconsupplied people, this incident should be a personal act of the waiter. However, under the direct operation system, the behavior of Starbucks waiters is equivalent to the behavior of Starbucks, which reflects the lack of Service Level and the weak service awareness of Starbucks to a certain extent. In addition, judging from the speed of corporate reaction, this incident has not received enough attention from Starbucks. As of press time, Starbucks only apologized for the "communication misunderstanding."
In fact, compared with the police eating at the door of Starbucks, Starbucks's recent frequent food safety violations have affected the brand image more.
Just last week, the topic of Starbucks being fined millions for using expired ingredients in two stores in Wuxi was also on the hot search. According to reports, Shanghai Starbucks Coffee Operation Co., Ltd. Wuxi Zhenze Road Store and Wuxi Changxing Building Store were confiscated by the Wuxi Xinwu District Market Supervision and Administration Bureau and fined more than 690,000 yuan and 670,000 yuan respectively for "using expired food raw materials and operating expired food by tampering, replacing and tearing up the shelf life labels of the concocted food ingredients"; "wiping the towels on the food contact surface failed to achieve special use".
At the end of last year, the website of the Shenzhen Municipal Market Supervision and Administration Bureau announced that due to the failure of the Yantian Yihaicheng No. 2 branch of Starbucks Coffee (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. to clean up food (Taiwanese mooncakes) that exceeded the shelf life in time, the Yantian Supervision Bureau of the Shenzhen Municipal Market Supervision and Administration Bureau decided to impose a warning on the branch.
It is difficult to say whether the frequent negatives of Starbucks are caused by its own arrogance, or whether the management is really wrong. But at least, for the increasingly popular domestic coffee brands, Starbucks has provided a good opportunity to publicize this time - smart coffee shops have been busy delivering coffee to the people's police.
The reality is that there are many chain beverage brands that are expanding rapidly. After all, for unicorns who have not yet been listed, telling stories through scale and obtaining further financing is always the best means to promote listing; but for enterprises that earn franchise and supply chain link fees, as long as there are "leeks" willing to take over, there is naturally no reason to put down the angle of expansion.
However, it is important to face that the coffee and new tea industry is no longer as hot as it was before the epidemic, and both investors and consumers are beginning to pay more and more attention to emerging areas such as roasting and Chinese noodles. Therefore, in the context of the new industry, slowing down the pace of expansion and operating as many stores as possible is what a company that focuses on long-term and benign growth should do. If it is not growing in a benign growth environment, the best fate of some domestic new tea chains may only be the success of listing cash-out and then rapidly disappearing; as for the foreign brands that are high above, it is not impossible to end up being acquired by domestic capital.
In recent years, have there been fewer such cases?