Earlier this year, China Post announced it was moving into the coffee business. Makes sense, right? Actually, it does. Well now it does anyway, as the experience of students in one Nanjing university, under lockdown on account of COVID, is proving.
When China Post’s move went public in June of this year, it attracted the derision of many. Some more cynical observers remarked, “Will it take them as long to make a coffee as it does for them to send a letter?”.
But letters are now a thing of the past. Now of course, it’s all about couriers. And that means people need places where they can pick up their deliveries. That’s where China Post comes in.
And for students who have in the past few days been returned to locked-down-campus life, throwing coffee into the mix suddenly makes a lot of sense.
China Post’s first coffee shop is to be found on campus at Nanjing’s Southeast University (NJSEU). In the colour of wood and postal green, and with design aesthetics mimicking the corrugated edges of stamps (nice, right?), Post Coffee has succeeded in creating a quiet and leisurely haunt for students.
Reporters for the Yangtze Evening News who visited recently found therein a relatively elegant atmosphere, hardly the stuff of the China Post of old.
Post Coffee has in fact become an integral part of a new way of life on campus. It’s a place to send letters, of course, if one would ever want to, but it’s also a place to pick up deliveries and a coffee shop in which to relax with friends.
“Now, because of the epidemic, we don’t go out of school very much and our life circle is relatively small. It’s great to have such a coffee shop in the post office”, a student surnamed Chen said to reporters. “When you are free, bring a book and order a cup of coffee, which is a good afternoon.”
Students might also be tempted to buy (and perhaps send) some of the NJSEU-themed postcards which are available, or the Nanjing cultural products that have been independently designed by students.
China Post has not also forgotten the recent 120th anniversary of NJSEU, issuing a set of commemorative stamps which are on prominent display in Post Coffee.
According to Wang Xin, a deputy manager in the Nanjing Post marketing department, Post Coffee is is expected to be opening more outlets in other Nanjing universities after their success at NJSEU.