Introduction:During the National Day holiday, Heytea’s founding store in Jiangmen, Guangdong, saw a single-day sales volume of over 4,500 cups, with wait times exceeding two hours becoming a hot topic. This article delves into the key factors behind the explosive popularity of this pioneer tea shop — including the impact of holiday events, the 550% sales growth of the regionally limited drink “Zhizhi Ganpu,” and the real-life challenges faced by frontline staff amid the surge in orders, offering insight into the operational hurdles behind high-demand stores.

In the recently concluded National Day golden week, tea beverage brand Heytea saw a significant increase in sales across multiple locations nationwide, with some popular stores even achieving growth rates exceeding 600%. Among them, Heytea’s founding store in Jiangbinli, Jiangmen, Guangdong, stood out the most, not only securing the top spot in both national single-store and overall sales but also recording a remarkable 210% increase in total sales compared to pre-holiday levels, with a single-day peak of over 4,500 cups sold.

On social platforms, many customers who queued up shared experiences of waiting over 140 minutes, while store staff, exhausted from days of intense work, were seen dozing off inside the shop. In particular, the Jiangbinli-limited “Zhizhi Ganpu” drink saw daily sales as high as 3,500 cups during the holiday, a staggering 550% increase from pre-holiday figures, making it the undisputed sales star.

With the end of the National Day holiday, regular office workers returned to their jobs, but for frontline staff in the tea beverage industry, it meant a brief chance to catch their breath. However, before that, they had just gone through an unprecedented battle against a flood of orders.

According to official data, Heytea stores located in major tourist attractions and city core commercial areas across the country experienced sales peaks during the holiday, with multiple outlets in first-tier and new first-tier cities seeing growth rates surpassing 600%. Examples include the LAB store in Guangzhou’s Tianhuan Plaza, the Shijiazhuang Mixc store, the Shenzhen Yifang City store, and the Chengdu Mixc PINK store, all of which ranked among the top ten in national sales.

During this National Day, Heytea also collaborated with local cultural and tourism departments in various regions to launch the “Heyyou Guangdong” themed campaign, featuring limited-edition merchandise and photo stickers, successfully attracting a large number of tourists to make purchases. Bolstered by both the campaign and the holiday, Guangzhou became the city with the highest Heytea sales nationwide, with several of its stores also ranking in the top five on the sales chart.

Notably, Jiangmen — the birthplace of the Heytea brand — has its founding store in Jiangbinli, which has long been a must-visit attraction for travelers to the area. During this year’s National Day holiday, this historically significant store once again became the center of attention, not only topping national sales overall but also setting a new single-day sales record. Compared to pre-holiday levels, sales grew by a full 210%, with a single-day peak surpassing 4,500 cups.

From discussions on social media, this wave of enthusiasm was not only reflected in the numbers but could also be felt in the posts shared by consumers and staff, highlighting the intensity of the scene. Many netizens from Guangdong posted on Xiaohongshu about “waiting in line for over 140 minutes” or “not even trying for the 900th cup,” expressing not only amazement at the long queues but also sympathy for the staff, commenting things like “just starting the shift and facing hundreds of drinks to prepare is really tough.”

Additionally, a staff member who identified themselves as a “Heytea founding store workhorse” posted continuously throughout the holiday, giving an authentic account of how this tucked-away founding store climbed its way to the top of the sales charts. According to their description, by just before 10 a.m., there was already a long queue outside the store, stretching into the middle of the road, while back-of-house staff worked for over 13 hours straight, focusing on producing the holiday bestseller “Zhizhi Ganpu.”

Due to the explosive increase in orders, not only were the staff stretched thin, but the system also experienced malfunctions. The store’s original ordering system would automatically trigger a protective mechanism when order volume exceeded 1,000 cups, causing the mini-program to briefly shut down and the pickup screen to enter a loop of repeatedly turning on and off. Even after the busy peak had passed, the exhausted staff were so tired that they ended up taking short naps on-site, frankly admitting, “We finally made it through.”

It is understood that although the store had prepared additional staff and sufficient ingredients in advance, the overwhelming popularity of the limited drink “Zhizhi Ganpu,” coupled with the influx of out-of-town tourists drawn by the holiday events, still posed immense challenges to the store’s supply chain and manpower. This Jiangbinli-limited drink reached a single-day sales peak of 3,500 cups during the holiday, a 550% surge from pre-holiday levels, becoming a crucial pillar of the overall sales performance.

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.