"There's a one-day store manager here too?" This May Day holiday, one-day store managers could be seen everywhere—milk tea shops, clothing stores, and even in Huawei experience stores with a strong tech focus, where good-looking "store managers" were on duty.

Posts like "Who is this handsome store clerk at Hefei Huawei?" and "I bumped into a one-day store manager and I'm happy again" flooded social platforms such as Xiaohongshu, Weibo, and Douyin, with commenters asking "Will the handsome guy still be here tomorrow?" Many netizens also joked: "With looks like that, I've just got to spend some money."

As offline stores' "commercial warfare" has reached the stage of using attractive men and women to "lure" consumers, the one-day store manager is being replicated over and over.

Whether celebrities and influencers, good-looking KOLs, or anime COSERs, whenever they appear at offline stores for one-day store manager events, they attract many fans or passersby to take photos and check in, which then get shared on social platforms like Xiaohongshu, bringing wider "breakout" exposure.

However, as one-day store manager events have become widespread, different voices have begun to emerge. Stores are packed with fans coming to check in, and for passersby like Xiaoxing who are indifferent to influencers and celebrities, "it's a bit annoying. If they want to hold an event, they can find a dedicated new venue. These aren't professional staff, and it really affects the experience of ordinary consumers."

Indeed, for these one-day store managers who have not received professional store training, experiencing the role of one-day store manager is less about working to serve consumers and more about "working" with their looks.

Behind the one-day store manager events, it is in fact still the same old formula of influencer check-ins and the attention economy. As more and more brands and influencers rush into the one-day store manager model, and consumers' attitudes shift from initial curiosity to taking it for granted and even feeling somewhat averse, where should this business go from here?

Celebrities? Influencers? Who is the real "sales champion" among one-day store managers?

"Face to face with your favorite celebrity" was the biggest selling point when one-day store managers first emerged.

Originating in Japan's fashion circle, the one-day store manager model initially mainly took the form of brands inviting celebrity endorsers to become "temporary store managers." Celebrities would personally serve fans in-store to create traffic spikes, directly converting fan economy into brand product sales.

Thanks to the flourishing Japanese anime and film industries, this model was later replicated in the ACG (anime, comic, and games) circle. Brands would invite Cosers, voice actors, and others for cross-industry appearances, allowing fans to encounter "2D characters" in the 3D world, attracting fans' attention, photo check-ins, and in-store spending by "breaking the dimensional wall."