Crowds Return to Milk Tea and Coffee Shops One Month After COVID Policy Easing!

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The first short holiday after the official lifting of restrictions has passed! Did you spend your holiday lounging at home, or waiting in lines outside?!

The 2023 New Year's holiday coincided with the "recovery period" in various cities, as citizens emerged from their homes and life gradually returned to normal. Cities began to be reinvigorated with new energy! Beverage shops have slowly started to recover their previous business, with many brands重现ing the phenomenon of long queues from previous years, and some even experiencing situations of stores being overwhelmed with orders.

Recently, on social media platforms, many netizens have shared their "queuing journeys" during the New Year's holiday. Some mentioned spending four hours queuing for a day out, and then another two hours waiting for food... Others described streets and alleys packed with people, saying that if everyone weren't wearing masks, it wouldn't feel like we're still in a pandemic! The booming consumption in the food and beverage sector during the New Year's holiday has set a positive tone for the new year.

Indeed, during this holiday, those who went out probably spent half their time waiting in lines. Even those who didn't go out but wanted to order takeout and have a cup of milk tea had to queue. Around 1 PM on January 2nd, I tried to order a cup of milk tea through my phone, only to find that the ordering system reminded me that there were over 150 drinks ahead waiting to be made, which successfully discouraged me from ordering...

According to media reports, Liu Xinliang, the public relations director of Hushang Ayi, revealed: "On December 31st, the overall sales of all stores nationwide saw a significant increase compared to last week. The first day of the holiday saw a nearly 60% increase compared to regular days, with the store in North China showing the largest growth, where revenue more than quadrupled."

Last weekend, multiple cities entered the convergence point of "recovery + weekend + Christmas." A trending topic on Weibo reported that a shopping mall in Zhengzhou attracted 100,000 visitors in a single day, with the post garnering 200 million views to date. The news, upon publication, attracted widespread attention, leading many to wonder if this was the beginning of post-pandemic revenge consumption? Some merchants reported selling tens of thousands of sugar-coated hawthorns in a day, with long queues of customers forming. A certain tea beverage brand also mentioned that its two stores in the location both exceeded daily sales of over a thousand cups.

According to media reports from various regions about the recovery of the food and beverage industry, cities such as Guangzhou, Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai, and Zhengzhou all saw their customer traffic and revenue during the New Year's holiday recover to 60-80% of previous years' levels for the same period. Most stores are also experiencing continuous weekly growth, which has already given the industry hope, with everyone eagerly anticipating a complete recovery by spring next year, as well as the return to normal life and work rhythms.

In the week before the holiday, there were reports that the customer traffic at all Nayuki stores nationwide had already shown a significant recovery trend. Among them, regions such as North China, Central China, and Southwest China showed strong data growth, with store orders all increasing by over 35%. Taking North China as an example, order volume increased by 35.7% compared to the previous week. Among the top ten stores by sales volume, except for the MixC World store in Shijiazhuang, Hebei, the rest were all Beijing stores.

After three years of pandemic suppression, the recovery of the food and beverage industry naturally cannot be completely synchronized, and the road to revival will not happen overnight. While there are beverage shops with queues lasting several hours, there are also those forced to close early and return home for the New Year! Although we are still in a phase of "seemingly warm but still cold," the overall development trend is still moving in a positive direction. The "vibrant atmosphere" of cities is gradually returning...

Image source: Internet

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