"This past Christmas Eve, it was the Snow King, and not Saint Nick, who came to town when the world's biggest restaurant chain, Mixue (pronounced Me-shway), introduced its first two New York locations with a parade of caped snowmen - Mixue's mascot - marching through K-town and Times Square where billboards flashed the chain's frosty icon and his ice-cream-cone staff."
"Four young women visiting from New Hampshire during the tail end of winter break seemed to be more content. The leader of the group described herself as a boba fan with an agenda for her New York trip. Heytea, visited earlier that day, had been a hit, but the quad was leaving Mixue underwhelmed since the fruit teas they'd come to try had mostly sold out."
Mixue launched two New York locations with a Snow King parade and Times Square billboards, signaling a high-profile entry. The brand uses loss-leading, competition-undercutting pricing that helped grow the franchise to over 50,000 global locations. Visitors reacted unevenly: one Brooklyn resident expressed disappointment and curiosity, while a group of college visitors were underwhelmed after fruit teas sold out and settled for simpler drinks. Questions arose about how Mixue's extreme affordability—$1.19 soft serve and $2 lemonade—will fare amid Manhattan's high rents, thin margins, and established tea trends like cheese foam and ube milk. A small Hell's Kitchen shop showed many items sold out during ordering.
Read at Grub Street
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]