Recently, a Miniso store in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, was exposed to have multiple rats. Following this, the store issued an apology and temporarily closed for pest control.
Miniso is the largest chain brand of ice cream and tea drinks in China, founded in 1997 in Zhengzhou, Henan Province. The stores are spread across mainland China, particularly heavily concentrated in first and second-tier cities.
On September 30th, it was reported online that rats were running rampant in a Miniso store in Zhengzhou, with customers posting that the staff were even calling colleagues to come and watch.
Subsequently, the store in question issued an apology. The store owner stated that they carry out pest control procedures daily, have 24-hour monitoring of the kitchen area, and have placed rat traps in accordance with regulations. They admitted that the appearance of such a problem indicates a lapse in their work, leading to a negative consumer experience.
On October 1st, employees of the store stated that the rat issue had been resolved, mentioning that neighboring restaurants also exist, making it difficult to prevent rats from entering. They claimed that the company conducts monthly inspections of store cleanliness, which had been approved.
Currently, the store has been closed, and Miniso’s management has contacted a professional organization for comprehensive pest control and rectification to prevent similar incidents in the future.
Officials from the Zhengzhou Market Supervision Administration responded that if there are reports of rats in stores, they will dispatch staff for on-site inspections and take action if any violations are found.
This incident has sparked concerns on social media regarding food safety and management issues at Miniso.
Netizens remarked, “This is not the first time Miniso has faced food safety issues. Previously, multiple stores were found to have used expired ingredients, messy workstations, and staff not following proper procedures. These issues not only directly threaten consumer health but also erode the brand’s reputation built over the years.”
“Hygiene issues at Miniso are not new: using leftover lemons the next day, staff admitting to not daring to drink their own beverages, finding cockroaches and flies in milk tea… The low prices seem attractive, but every time an incident happens, they attribute it to ‘isolated cases.'”
“The behavior of the employees in this rat incident is not an isolated case but a reflection of long-standing hygiene management problems at some Miniso stores. A recent undercover visit at a store in Yichang, Hubei revealed that despite headquarters’ requirement to ‘discard freshly cut fruits at the end of the day,’ staff were hiding overnight lemons and orange slices under the workstation, and even repackaging them out of the surveillance blind spots… There were instances of employees using their feet to turn off the faucet of water dispensers and washing feet in water tanks, with the staff either calling it ‘fun’ or explained by the store as ’emergency handling,’ exposing the disregard for food safety regulations.”
“While Miniso has responded by closing and rectifying the concerned store and carrying out comprehensive pest control, the issues revealed in this incident extend beyond just one store’s management oversights. In recent years, Miniso has rapidly expanded through its low-price strategy, raising questions on whether there are issues with supervision not keeping up with the growing number of stores or standards being compromised. The statement of ‘monthly inspections and approval’ being at odds with the actual hygiene conditions of the stores raises doubts on whether their monitoring process is merely a formality.”