Immediately comment | Starbucks "big overturn", don't throw the pot to individual stores

The Paper's special commentator Yu Yu

Don't check and don't know, the secret visit is frightened. Recently, a media reporter in Wuxi city two Starbucks stores undercover investigation found that the store frequently touched the red line of food safety: ingredients continue to be used after expiration, made into a variety of best-selling drinks sold; supervisors, clerks "words and deeds" to tamper with the shelf life, some ingredients were artificially "extended" for a week; promised "after opening the night" of the pastry, secretly on the shelves the next day.

Starbucks China responded today: We are deeply shocked by the food safety issues involved in the report, "we have closed these two stores at the first time, and immediately launched an in-depth investigation." ”

Judging from the information disclosed by the reporter and the pictures exposed at the scene, the problems of the two Starbucks stores can be described as shocking. Although similar food safety scandals are not news in the context of frequent explosions in the beverage industry, the same thing happened to Starbucks and is full of "human" factors, which still surprises many people.

You know, Starbucks is different from other beverage companies, Starbucks does not have franchise stores, and more than 5,000 stores in China are directly operated stores. It is reasonable to say that the management of the direct operation model is much more standardized than the franchise model, why does Starbucks still not manage its own food safety?

In addition, Starbucks has always advertised itself, "based on the highest standards in the industry, to develop and strictly implement Starbucks gold food safety standards." However, from the reporter's investigation, the so-called "gold standard" is nothing more than gold and jade, defeated in it, from managers to employees are insensitive to food safety, managers even take the initiative to violate the law, take the lead in tampering with the shelf life, serious lack of professional ethics and at least respect for consumer health.

Starbucks's use of expired ingredients is probably no accident. It should be known that although Starbucks implements a more advanced business model, it also has a strict assessment of the turnover and profit margin of the store. In this case, if food safety standards are not implemented to the letter and expired ingredients are scrapped in a timely manner, it will greatly affect the performance of stores. Driven by interests, some stores are naturally desperate.

The failure of Starbucks' internal supervision model has made the store more fearless. The report mentioned that every half a month, the superior management department of the store will go to the store to inspect, but under the eyes of the inspectors, the clerk will easily dispose of the expired ingredients, or quickly replace them with new shelf life labels, and in the end, the inspectors will find small problems that are innocuous.

It can be seen that for the problem of media exposure, Starbucks must not just throw the pot to individual stores, but need to reflect on its own internal control mechanism and corporate culture. As a multinational enterprise, you can't just think about expanding and maximizing benefits, but you need to constantly examine the shortcomings exposed in enterprise management.

Facts have proved that the direct operation model is not a panacea, and without the backing of a strict internal control mechanism, it will still bring many hidden dangers. The so-called "gold standard" can not only be written on paper as a slogan for propaganda, but must be implemented in every operating process, leaving no room for opportunism.

Of course, in addition to improving self-governance of enterprises, the regulatory authorities should also be vigilant about the continuous explosion of thunder in the coffee and tea industry. Compared with other catering enterprises, the food management and on-site production process of the beverage industry are much more complicated, and it is difficult to keep the bottom line of food safety by relying only on the self-discipline of enterprises.

Therefore, it is still necessary for the relevant departments to come up with more methods, make more refinements in regulatory rules, and continuously innovate in regulatory means, so as to force enterprises to strictly abide by the law and achieve the purpose of respecting food safety by making them respect the law.

Responsible editor: Wang Lei Photo editor: Zhang Tongze

Proofreader: Zhang Liangliang