Cover review| Starbucks was exposed to the use of expired ingredients, how did the industry's quality control benchmark be broken?

Jiang Jingjing

The reporter recently found that undercover investigations in two Starbucks stores in Wuxi City found that some stores frequently touched the red line of food safety: ingredients continue to be used after expiration, and a variety of best-selling drinks are sold; supervisors and clerks "teach by example" to tamper with the shelf life, and some ingredients are artificially "extended" for a week; pastries that promise to "stay overnight after opening" are secretly on the shelves the next day. In addition, Starbucks wipes items such as coffee machines and bar counters with trash can wipes. In this regard, Starbucks posted that it was highly concerned, and it had closed these two stores for the first time and immediately launched an in-depth investigation." (Beijing News)

Mixing rags and using expired ingredients, which are commonplace in the food and health field, are now also associated with Starbucks. Glossy brand myths, accelerated bankruptcy.

The quality control of chain catering has always been a "world problem". The main reason for its complexity comes from two aspects: first, the "brand side" and "operator" brought about by the diversification of the equity structure, which is particularly fully reflected in the so-called franchise stores, joint venture stores and other models; second, it is the "contradiction" of standardized management and performance appraisal incentives within a single store. Again...", many times forcing employees to go astray and go astray. It is worth noting that Starbucks is basically a direct operation model, so its thunderstorm accidents are more based on the latter logic.

As we all know, big-name chain restaurants have a set of perfect quality control processes inside, and the "operation manuals" that employees have to learn are thick stacks. Under the framework of partitioning, classification, and differentiation, quantification, timing, and precision, the possibility of individuals making mistakes due to inertia and arbitrariness is effectively reduced. The other side of the coin is that this extremely strict assessment mechanism not only focuses on the "food safety" dimension, but also has many requirements for cost indicators such as "reducing surplus goods" and "reducing wear and tear" - non-standard meal preparation should be deducted, and "loss" is too large to reduce wages. In the continuous practice of temptation, grassroots employees assess risks and benefits, and naturally have their own small calculations.

Standardized management, but also high-pressure management. But the actual problem is that store employees have a common demand for "income maximization" and lack a firm consensus on "maintaining food hygiene and safety". This has led to a direct consequence, that is, it is easy for store staff to collude to take the "crooked door" to control costs and protect revenues, rather than forming effective internal supervision and mutual supervision to strengthen quality control. For example, in these two Starbucks stores in Wuxi, the supervisors and clerks will even share many "unspoken rules" by "words and deeds", which can be described as a collective launch and a complication.

Nai Xue's tea, fat brothers meat crab pot, McDonald's and even the latest accident of Starbucks, a series of big-name chain restaurants lost, in the final analysis, it is still the relevant enterprises in food safety lack of sincerity, determination and investment. The vast majority of stores do not have a "detached interest" commissioner responsible for supervising food hygiene and food safety, coupled with the flight inspection and daily spot checks of the main store are in the form of form and insufficient coverage, which will inevitably lead to the formation of a "black box" inside the single store. The crux of the matter is obvious, and the response is self-evident. Symptomatic medicine should not be a difficult task.