Shanghai Blue Bottle Coffee Temporarily Suspends Operations?!

Shanghai Blue Bottle Coffee Temporarily Suspends Operations

According to an official statement from Blue Bottle Coffee, to cooperate with epidemic prevention and control measures, the Blue Bottle Coffee Yutong store in Shanghai will temporarily suspend operations. The company has not yet provided a specific timeline for when the store will resume business, and a reopening date will be announced separately.

According to the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission's report, from 0:00 to 24:00 on March 19, Shanghai reported 17 new locally confirmed COVID-19 cases and 492 asymptomatic infections. Among these, 6 confirmed cases had previously been classified as asymptomatic infections, while 9 confirmed cases and 232 asymptomatic infections were discovered during quarantine control, with the remaining cases identified through screening of related at-risk populations.

As of the time of writing, from 0:00 to 17:00 on March 20, Shanghai added 22 new locally confirmed cases and 494 asymptomatic infections, plus 5 imported cases from abroad.

Blue Bottle Coffee's China Debut

The Blue Bottle Coffee Yutong store in Shanghai is the brand's first location in mainland China. Because the brand has always focused on serving freshly roasted coffee, Blue Bottle has earned recognition from many coffee enthusiasts elsewhere. Within coffee circles, Blue Bottle Coffee is often regarded as a textbook example in the specialty coffee field.

As Blue Bottle's popularity grew while its entry into the mainland market was long delayed, local customers had long been filled with curiosity and anticipation. So when Blue Bottle announced its entry into the mainland market and confirmed the location of its first store, many people prepared to sprint over on opening day.

Opening Day Frenzy

On the first day the Blue Bottle Coffee Shanghai Yutong store officially opened to the public, the spectacular scene of people lining up to visit was shared in real time across social media by netizens. Many customers who arrived late that day reported waiting nearly 7 hours to enter the store, then waiting another 45 minutes from ordering to pickup. Even without being there in person, one could feel the crowd just from those descriptions.

While some netizens happily but wearily shared their experiences, others frowned with concern about whether such queuing was safe. In many photos shared by netizens, it was clear that some people in line lacked epidemic prevention awareness, with masks not worn properly and people standing quite close together.

To ease overcrowding inside the store, Blue Bottle organized entry in batches, allowing 8 to 10 people at a time. Even those who entered, however, did not leave immediately after getting their orders, so both inside and outside the store, the crowd grew quickly and shrank slowly.

Adapting to Rising Case Numbers

As the initial excitement subsided, the number of visitors three days after opening dropped noticeably, though queuing was still required to make a purchase. Shanghai's epidemic situation showed an upward trend starting in March. By March 17, from 0:00 to 24:00, the number of confirmed cases reached as high as 57, but that number did not deter people from queuing for Blue Bottle Coffee. Many netizens joked: "During this epidemic period, besides those lining up for nucleic acid testing, this is probably where the most people are queuing."

Recently, Blue Bottle Coffee also implemented related epidemic prevention measures: orders could only be placed remotely, with pickup outside the store and no entry allowed. Even so, netizens were still willing to wait in line for over an hour. As Shanghai's daily number of confirmed cases remained high, and to better cooperate with epidemic prevention and control work, Blue Bottle officially announced at 9 PM last night that it would suspend operations, with the reopening date to be announced separately. Blue Bottle's current suspension may therefore last longer than 48 hours.

Worsening Epidemic Situation

Recently, the epidemic situation has become increasingly severe. According to the National Health Commission's report, from 0:00 to 24:00 on March 19, 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities, plus the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, reported 1,737 new confirmed cases. Among these, 81 were imported cases from abroad and 1,656 were local cases.

In the face of the epidemic, health matters far more than drinking coffee. Everyone should cooperate well with epidemic prevention work and avoid gathering in groups.

Image sources: Blue Bottle Coffee official, Internet, Xiaohongshu

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