ChaYanYueSe Responds to Queue Controversy: 'Not Marketing Hype!' But Sina Finance Offers Counter-Argument

Yesterday, the opening of two ChaYanYueSe stores in Nanjing shut down subway station entrances under the weight of queues, with drinks selling out just 5 minutes after opening and swarms of scalpers reselling at steep markups. The situation got so out of hand that special police were called in to keep order, setting social media ablaze.

Many netizens suspected the frenzy was manufactured — hired queuers and arranged proxy purchases for hype. Others pleaded: during a pandemic, don't create trouble for the ordinary citizens of Nanjing and for public resources.

People's Daily Online also weighed in, noting that milk tea is just a beverage. Brand promotion and social media may inevitably tempt consumers to "check in," but the products shouldn't be so deified. Paying a 200-yuan proxy-purchase fee for a single cup of milk tea is rather excessive.

ChaYanYueSe's Response

ChaYanYueSe said little on opening day, but adjusted its business hours and planned the next day's queuing route to avoid another subway-entrance jam.

The following morning, the brand posted an explanation of the previous day's events, expressing regret that one small cup of milk tea had generated so much unnecessary discussion and thrown Nanjing into turmoil. In response to the scalping, it announced purchase limits to "resist proxy purchases and reselling."

On the accusations of hired queuers and proxy purchases, ChaYanYueSe said it doesn't know when "queuing = marketing hype" became an irreversible proposition. Netizens' speculation is understandable, it added — and the company doesn't demand that everyone fully believe its innocence.

As for the police being called in, ChaYanYueSe thanked the district government, commerce bureau, public security special police, market supervision administration, and other government departments, along with the shopping mall, for helping maintain order. Such assistance, the company argued, is itself proof of innocence — after all, courting public attention isn't their style, nor would they dare.

Media Investigation

Just 2 hours after the official post, Sina Finance published a piece titled "Unveiling ChaYanYueSe's Proxy Purchases as a Premeditated 'False Prosperity'." The article reported that on August 19th, a part-time posting appeared in a Nanjing recruitment group — a milk tea shop hiring 50 people to queue and fill out the venue, located at Baijia Lake in Jiangning. Another posting sought 20 people to queue on August 18th, requiring at least 3 days of work, at Xinjiekou.

The recruiters confirmed the information: both milk tea shops hiring queue-fillers were ChaYanYueSe. The article also cited video showing that at the two Nanjing stores, 5 minutes after the 9 AM opening, staff announced that all tea products were sold out and told card-top-up customers to simply scan the QR code to recharge. Yet around 11 AM, Jiangning Public Security reported that many people were still queuing at Jingfeng Shopping Mall and advised the public not to come queue that day.

Worse, when everything sold out, the brand neither halted the queue nor told waiting customers the drinks were gone — while actively encouraging card recharges. Sina Finance noted that ChaYanYueSe, an internet-famous new-tea brand that initially opened stores only in Hunan province, has seen crowds and scalpers at every new-city opening, and concluded this was premeditated "false prosperity."

Analysis and Reflection

Whether the queues reflect genuine popularity or marketing hype is, for now, beside the point. With COVID-19 not yet well controlled, no beverage is worth gambling your health over — however delicious, that kind of crowding and queuing isn't worthwhile.

Are all the queues at brand openings full of hired people? Not necessarily — but it can't be ruled out. For an internet-famous tea brand, "mystery" plus merchant marketing plus media amplification inevitably breeds an "I must try it" mentality.

The brand's years-long cultivation of a Chinese classical aesthetic and local culture has steadily won over new-generation consumers. Add the herd effect — one person says it's good, a group agrees, and conformity pressures more and more people to believe it — and such popularity is entirely normal.

But when everything sold out and the merchant failed to control the crowd in time — disrupting other citizens' access to public transportation and public order until police and special police had to step in — the root cause was the merchant's own unreasonable arrangements.

And are purchase limits really an effective way to curb proxy buying and reselling? When Blue Bottle Coffee opened its first Shanghai store this year, limits were in place from the very first cup — yet scalping persisted, and if anything the frenzy over "scalped goods" only grew.

With the pandemic evolving, everyone should weigh not just the cost of time and money, but the cost to health as well. In the end, visit stores rationally, and consume rationally.

Image source: Internet, Weibo

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

No queue required: the best coffee is the one you brew at home. FrontStreet Coffee suggests starting with an approachable, crowd-pleasing bean. The Ethiopia Sidamo Huakui natural — with its strawberry, passion fruit, and honeyed tropical-fruit aromatics — has won over drinkers who thought they didn't like coffee at all.

For a gentler everyday cup, FrontStreet's washed Ethiopia Guji cooperative lot offers jasmine florals, lemon brightness, and berry notes, while the Brazil Cerrado Red Bourbon rounds things out with soft acidity, sweet nut and cocoa flavors, and a silky body that works beautifully black or with milk. Skip the scalpers — these are worth trying without the hype.