On June 22nd, the search term “Manor Coffee’s founders have a combined net worth of RMB 7.2 billion and are listed on the 2024 Hurun World’s Richest People List.“” trended on the Chinese internet and was ranked the fourth most popular term in Baidu’s hot searches that day.
The search term comes from two incidents that occurred at a Manner Coffee store in Shanghai on June 17th and became a hot topic on the Chinese internet. In the first incident, a male employee Collided While talking to a customer in another location, a female staff member Poured Scattering coffee grounds on customers.
Manor Coffee quickly apologized after the two incidents, promising to improve staff training and service awareness, streamline store operations to reduce customer waiting times, and improve the health of baristas, but this still sparked a fierce debate online.
The majority of internet users were on the side of the staff, with some even sharing details about the harsh working conditions. One former barista said that each employee 500 cups He drank the entire cup of coffee in eight hours and didn’t have time to go to the bathroom. paid Terribly, only 4,000 Chinese Yuan (approximately $550) will be paid over the course of the two-month internship.
Manner Coffee first opened as a street food stall in Shanghai in 2015. expansion The company plans to significantly increase the number of stores in China to more than 1,000 by October 2023. The rapid growth coincides with a period when China’s coffee industry was dominated by giants such as Starbucks, Luckin and Coti. The brand has differentiated itself by targeting a younger demographic and has become known for its creamy flat whites, chic store designs and prices that are 30-40% cheaper than Western chains.
Unlike the first wave of debates, which focused on the good and bad behavior of baristas and customers, this trending search term places special emphasis on the wealth of Manor Coffee’s founder. The articles referenced in the search term are structured to make insinuations. Beginning The article details incidents at two Manor Coffee stores in Shanghai and quotes former baristas complaining about working conditions and low wages. The article concludes with the sentence, “The founder of Manor Coffee frequently appears on various billionaire lists.” The article is clearly aimed at implicit public outrage at the enormous wealth accumulated by the founders, by highlighting the contrast between their wealth and the poverty of their typical employees.
The income gap between top corporate executives and rank-and-file workers is not unique to China. study According to the Economic Policy Institute, U.S. CEOs will be paid 399 times more than average workers in 2021. What’s unique about the Manor Coffee case is that the trending title and the article itself are clearly government-approved, and have been featured on multiple major news sources, e.g. Xinhua News Agency, Sohuand Tencent Newsposted the exact same title and content on their own website. As a result, they managed to elicit public anger towards Manor Coffee’s founders, with comments posted on trending searches accusing them of being “capitalists who exploit the blood and sweat of workers.”
This again reflects Beijing’s prejudice and hostility towards the private sector, despite its pro-private sector rhetoric.
Meanwhile, Beijing is sending positive signals to boost the confidence of private businesses. Two State Council Executive Meetings will be held in 2024, one of which will be held in Beijing. February 2 And the other one is April 26The report focused on “further optimizing the business environment,” specifically building a “market-oriented, rule of law, and internationalized first-class business environment.” In the same year, China also Began Draft a private economy promotion law that codifies equal treatment of state-owned, private, and foreign companies while protecting the property rights of private entrepreneurs.
Meanwhile, the share of private sector investment in total business investment is Dropped Chinese government policies have consistently prioritized state control of the economy to the detriment of private enterprise, which will see the state sector fall from a peak of nearly 60% in 2014 to 50% by 2023. Since 2013, the state sector has expansionSince 2021, political scrutiny has been strengthened and restrictions on the private sector have been tightened. Justified This came under the banner of “shared prosperity,” a political slogan promoted by Beijing to strengthen social equality and economic fairness.
The allusions to trending search terms related to the Manor Coffee scandal are another example of how China’s support for the private sector is often lip service and sometimes contradictory.
