People Waited for 8 Hours at Blue Bottle Coffee Shanghai Store

The other day I was in the office, and my colleague excitedly shared the news that Blue Bottle Coffee would be opening on the weekend. I was confused, not knowing who the Blue Bottle Coffee was.

Over the weekend, my WeChat subscription posts were bombarded by related articles of Blue Bottle Coffee. Some talked about its taste, and more were analyzing the reasons behind its overwhelming popularity in China.

Curious about the brand, I researched and decided to find out what made people wait in line for eight hours on its first day.

Blue Bottle Coffee’s Debut in Shanghai

The coffee store opened on February 25. Some people woke up at 6 am just to get a cup of Blue Bottle coffee, and on average, it took 3 hours for consumers to get in line and enter the store.

Scalpers took advantage of this chance, and some of them even ordered 60 bottles at a time, reselling each cup at 150 RMB, which was 4-5 times the original prices.

Blue Bottle Coffee’s Mini Program on WeChat also had a harvest time. Within less than one hour after launch, all of the brand’s coffee beans sold out.

About Blue Bottle Coffee

It is a coffee roaster and retailer headquartered in California, United States. In 2017, Nestlé acquired around 68% of Blue Bottle Coffee’s stake. By then, the brand had 40 stores worldwide. Five years later, its number of stores has been expanded to 100, and the Shanghai store is the first one that Blue Bottle Coffee opened in the mainland of China.

What Makes Blue Bottle Coffee A Big Hit Among Chinese Consumers?

Hu Jun (胡骏), CEO of Greater China from Blue Bottle Coffee told YiMagazine (第一财经) that it was easy to open a store, and Shanghai was the city that had new coffee stores open every day. But what made it hard were all infrastructure behind a store, such as the supply system, the IT system, the e-commerce system, and the training system. It was getting all these ready before opening was not easy.

Location

The Blue Bottle Coffee team had a very clear goal when selecting the location. The location needs to have the capability to bring the brand to a local market, and it needs to carry the Shanghai culture. The building of its Shanghai store was a flour mill, built in 1926 and refurnished in 2019. It combines the western and eastern cultures and reflects the construction style back in the Qing Dynasty. It is also located near the Suzhou River (苏州河), bringing beautiful views for customers.

Why Shanghai? If you have been to the city, you will notice how open it is. Either niche or common groups can find a place in the city.

Shanghai is also a huge coffee fan base. According to the Shanghai coffee consumption report in 2021 (上海咖啡消费指数), it is the city that has the most coffee stores in the world. Shanghai citizens love drinking coffee and trying out new flavors.

Shanghai is also many international students’ go-to city to seek job opportunities after graduation. For them, the name Blue Bottle Coffee is not strange, and they can help advocate its opening, just like my colleague did.

Localization  

If the brand just copies and pastes its menu from California, that won’t show much respect for Chinese consumers. As a result, at the Blue Bottle Coffee Shanghai store, consumers can have local snacks to match the coffee, such as mung bean pastry (绿豆糕) and mahua (麻花), a kind of fried dough food.

Since it is a historic building, Blue Bottle also has its sketch on the brand’s canvas and pasters. In the future, it is likely that the brand will collaborate with local brands to drive more attention in the China market.

Quality is the key

There is a saying that Blue Bottle Coffee is the Apple in the industry. Baristas are trained at least two months before they serve customers. In terms of coffee beans, the brand selects beans that have an SCA score over 84 (The Speciality Coffee Association created the score. Coffee scoring from 80-84.99 is graded very good, and coffee scoring from 85-89.99 is graded excellent, and 90-100 means the coffee is outstanding). Blue Bottle Coffee also has a strict rule that the coffee beans need to be used within 45 seconds after they are ground. On average, it takes 15 minutes for a barista to make a coffee.

Can Blue Bottle Coffee Continue Its Popularity in the China Market?

A food publication called Penguin Guide (企鹅吃喝指南) commented after visiting the store on its first day that “It feels like a ‘bug’ that we had to wait for all the drinks that we ordered to get ready before being served. ”

After tasting the coffee, Penguin Guide also felt that the quality was, without doubt, above the middle level in the chain specialty coffee market. Still, it’s not outstanding if you compare it to some of the local independent specialty coffee brands on top.  

The team also found out that the Shanghai store sells the highest price of Blue Bottle Coffee globally. The price is 35% – 40% higher than in Japan or South Korea. In terms of the coffee bean, mixed beans are sold at 138 RMB for 200 grams, while single beans are sold at 168-188 RMB for 200 grams. These prices are 2-3 times higher than the domestic market prices.

The number of coffee stores in China is booming, especially in Shanghai. But we still can’t conclude that Shanghai’s coffee has stepped into a saturated stage. With players such as %Arabica, Peet’s, and more local players such as Manner Coffee, M Stand, and Seesaw, it will be challenging for Blue Bottle Coffee to stand out neither in terms of its in-store decoration nor its taste.