Why is Luckin Coffee so cheap? Are more expensive coffee beans always better?

Is Coffee Really Meant to Be Expensive?

"Can such cheap coffee be drinkable?" "If coffee is sold so cheaply, how good can the bean quality be?" For a long time, the label attached to coffee has invariably been "expensive." Whether in the era when coffee wasn't yet popular in China, or in modern times when it has become an everyday beverage, before local coffee chains emerged, expensive coffee was considered perfectly normal.

It wasn't until the emergence of local Chinese coffee chains that coffee prices in China began to change. With the expansion of domestic coffee chains, more and more coffee shops opened, and prices became increasingly cheaper. The average price of a regular cup of coffee dropped to just over ten yuan, and with various brand promotions, consumers could enjoy a freshly ground cup of coffee for less than ten yuan - something consumers found unexpected in recent years.

In this era of material abundance, coffee is certainly no longer a rare, high-end imported product. A cup of coffee for around ten yuan is actually very reasonable. However, society's long-term perception of coffee consumption has been led astray, largely influenced by the prices of earlier coffee brands that entered China. When these brands first came to China, many set their prices based on those in European and American countries at the time. While these prices might have been ordinary for Western countries with high per capita income, when converted to Chinese yuan, they appeared extremely expensive for developing China.

These foreign coffee brands deserve credit for introducing freshly ground coffee to Chinese people. As a result, for many years, whenever coffee was mentioned, it was associated with expensive prices. Even those who had never tried it knew that coffee wasn't something ordinary people could consume regularly. Therefore, coffee consumers were often those with higher incomes seeking to enhance their image, which is why coffee was typically found only in large cities.

Making Coffee Accessible to Everyone

Excluding high-income individuals, the average income of ordinary people is only a few thousand yuan. With already high living costs, how many people would willingly spend dozens of yuan on a cup of coffee? If coffee pricing had not been brought back to a level that ordinary people consider reasonable, coffee could not have rapidly developed and become popular in China.

For something to truly develop rapidly, it must be accessible to more consumers - it cannot rely solely on high-income individuals from first- and second-tier cities to grow the coffee market. Therefore, to develop the coffee industry in China, it's essential to cater to ordinary consumers, and lowering coffee prices is the most effective approach.

Most consumption habits spread from economically developed regions to relatively less developed areas. When a group of urban workers develops a coffee-drinking habit, they influence people in other places to consume coffee when they move there for development. The purpose of affordable pricing is to ensure that people in all regions feel that coffee is a beverage for daily consumption.

Quality and Value in Affordable Coffee

"Can such cheap coffee really be drinkable?" Why not? As ordinary consumers, most people drink coffee simply to refresh themselves or satisfy their cravings - few truly pursue coffee flavor nuances. As long as the coffee is freshly ground and prepared, with acceptable quality and taste, and the price isn't expensive, that's sufficient. How many people who drink milk tea actually concern themselves with what type of tea leaves are used as the base?

Everyone should consume according to their actual circumstances - not everyone needs to follow the trend of pursuing high-priced brands or a high-quality lifestyle. Expensive things aren't necessarily good, and cheap things aren't necessarily bad. What matters most is that consumers feel they're getting "value for money."

Nowadays, coffee cultivation improves year by year, and the quality of coffee beans that reach consumers is rarely truly poor. Basically, they're of ordinary or decent quality, and the cost isn't very high. Therefore, a cup of coffee for around ten yuan is perfectly normal. The same logic applies to coffee beans - don't assume that merchants are necessarily cheating you just because they sell at low prices.

Image source: Internet

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