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How many Sha Xian snacks are there in China?
As an important distribution center for commodities in northwest Fujian since ancient times, Shaxian has had increasing exchanges with the outside world since the Ming and Qing dynasties. As a result, the variety of Shaxian snacks has been enriched over the centuries, and has become part of the cultural rituals of this small city in central Fujian. Passed down from generation to generation, the craft of making snacks has become a lifestyle and cultural instinct that Shaxian people enjoy.

To this day, there are more than 240 kinds of Shaxian snacks a**** passed down, and more than 60 kinds are currently available on the market. By the end of 2019, there were 88,000 Sha Xian snacks across the country, absorbing more than 60,000 local Sha Xian people to go out and operate catering, while driving more than 60,000 people in neighboring areas to start their own businesses, with a revenue of more than RMB 10 billion.

However, why is Shaxian a snack? Why is snacks Shaxian? Shaxian snacks facing challenges and the road ahead? We traveled to Shaxian twice, interviewed local government officials, snack owners, industry experts, in their narratives, the answer gradually emerged.

Shaxian why snacks?

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the experience of developing township enterprises in southern Jiangsu Province became the object of national emulation. In order to solve the employment problem of a large number of surplus agricultural labor, Shaxian also learnt from the experience of the advanced regions and implemented the policy of "local industrialization".

However, management and market problems made Shaxian's newly established township enterprises uncompetitive and struggling, and around 1997, with state-owned enterprises incurring massive losses and non-agricultural jobs shrinking rapidly, employment, poverty alleviation, and stabilization became important challenges for the government.

The scarcity of resources and the pressure of employment forced some Shaxian people to start making a living abroad in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Some people who were good at making snacks, such as farmers in Xiamao and Langkou, began to make money by making snacks in some cities around Shaxian. The barriers to entry in the snack food industry are not high, and a family can start a stall by investing a few hundred dollars. If you invest more, you can rent a decent storefront for a few thousand dollars. This kind of small-scale operation of a store because of its small investment, low risk, become the main way of operation of the future Shaxian snacks.

Shaxian snacks in the spontaneous growth of the period, the scale and radiation is still very limited, the financial crisis caused by the collapse of the Shaxian folk standard will be the first expansion of the direct cause of Shaxian snacks.

At that time, loan-sharking was very prevalent, and about 60% of the households in the county were involved in various kinds of folk standard, and the participation rate of rural standard was as high as about 85%. In the middle of the same year, the risk has been accumulated for a long time in Sha County private loan-sharking capital chain rupture, a large number of debt due to the collapse of the standard will be owed to the head of the congregation and the congregation in order to avoid the debt to escape to the outside world to look for a way out. Most of these debt-ridden, desperate runaways had little skill and began making and running snacks around the countryside with the support of fellow townspeople who passed them on.

The early owners of Shaxian snacks who left the country coincided with a period of rapid urbanization and industrialization along the southeast coast. The constant influx of laborers into big cities created a huge consumer market while injecting vitality into the cities. The inexpensive, wide variety of Sha Xian snacks just meet the fast-paced life and work of the middle- and low-income people's favorite. "One dollar into the store, two dollars to eat, five dollars to eat good" positioning to fill the gap in low consumption, and quickly hit the brand, to break out of a rich road.

Sha Xian people saw the snack industry and the snack market's huge potential, after a firm footing, many small business owners began to teach others in the community to run the snack technology and experience. The relationship network between friends and relatives and between neighbors has become an important platform for information exchange, experience sharing and resource complementation among snack owners.

Snacks why Shaxian?

The rapid expansion of Sha Xian snacks in the mid-1990s on the food and beverage market fame is not high, Chengdu snacks, Yangzhou snacks, and even Fuzhou snacks, southern Fujian snacks are much higher than the popularity of Sha Xian snacks. The reason why Sha Xian snacks can later rise to the top, stand out, the traditional craft and cultural advantages into industrial advantages, and then become a household brand in the snack category, and the Sha County government has long been the implementation of industrial policies to support the development of the snack industry is closely related.

Snacks industry in the mid-1990s into the main leaders of the Shaxian government line of sight.

At this time, the Shaxian government was looking for ways to solve the "three rural problems". Agricultural production in Sha County can solve the problem of subsistence, but not "well-off". At the same time, most of the young people are not highly educated, lack of skills, and do not want to farm but also can not find a way to get rich. In this case, the development of less input, low skill requirements, the market outside, the demand for snacks industry seems to be a correct option.

But the development of the snack industry in Shaxian, which has taken root in the outside world, has not been smooth sailing. Store hygiene conditions are not ideal; operators for Sha Xian snacks process mastery is not in place, the variety is relatively single; out of the business is unfamiliar with the place, can not successfully apply for a variety of licenses, often become the focus of the rectification of the object, etc., are on the development of the snack bar has caused difficulties. Moreover, the market has begun to appear fake Shaxian snacks, outsiders see Shaxian snacks to make money have followed suit, some snack bar quality, technology is not passable, but the impact of Shaxian snacks reputation.

That is to say, the technical level is not high, low competitiveness, management of loose and disorderly problems if not solved, Sha Xian snacks may be sidelined by other brands, in the catering industry competition is gradually marginalized.

According to the situation at that time, if you want to change the face of the industry and promote snacks as an industry, you can't do it quickly by relying on the snack owners themselves, and the orderly development of the industry is difficult to achieve by relying only on the power of self-organization and self-restraint of the private sector, and it is necessary for the government to intervene as a manager and a service provider, and to introduce a new mechanism of governance and industry norms.

1997 became a watershed in the history of Sha Xian snack development. After the reform, Shaxian snacks were no longer a spontaneous entrepreneurial phenomenon consisting of random incidents of going out to run snacks, but became a government-led, all-volunteer industry.

May 13, 1997, Sha County held a special meeting on the development of snack food industry will be positioned as a pillar of the tertiary industry, is to help the rural surplus labor force and urban laid-off workers to transfer employment to promote the main ways to increase incomes. 1998 onwards, Sha County snack food has been included in the Sha County, the Ninth to the thirteenth Five-Year Plan for National Economic Development, the government will be issued every year, the development of snack food in Sha County, the work of opinions, indicating the annual goal of industrial development. Each year, the government issues opinions on the development of Shaxian snacks, indicating the annual goal of industrial development and specific measures to promote it.

Along with the institutional reform, the institutional reform was also in full swing. 1997, the Leading Group for the Development of Shaxian Snack Industry was set up, and the county party committee, the county government, the commissions and offices, and the main townships all sent their main leaders to participate in the work of the group.

In order to enhance the production and service level, standardize the order of the industry, in July 1997 Shaxian set up "Shaxian snacks Association", as the Shaxian snack industry management of social organizations. Two years later, Shaxian snack industry development center was established, is responsible for personnel engaged in Shaxian snack industry training, technical advice, guidance services and skills competitions, out of the exhibition and other work.

In order to strengthen the implementation of the policy, the townships appointed a full-time staff to grasp the snack food development work, snack food industry development work is included in the county, the townships of the two civilization construction assessment objectives, through a variety of inspections and evaluations and rewards and penalties to pay close attention to the implementation of the measures.

The focus of the initial industrial policy is to concentrate on the orderly development of the market. To this end, Shaxian implemented the development strategy of "one township, one city, one team". A township is responsible for the development of a Shaxian snack team, locking a destination city to increase the market share of Shaxian snacks.

In order to grow and manage the team out of business, the county government allows the cadres to retain their salaries and positions, and to leave their positions for two years to go out and run the Shaxian snacks, and these cadres need to take up the responsibility of coordinating and managing the owners of the Shaxian snacks in their cities.

Under the encouragement of this policy, the number of people going out to run snacks in townships doubled in two years or more. After that, some townships introduced a more vigorous "one with three" policy, arranging for each member of the party committee to contact three branches, each branch to contact three members of the party, the party members who have experience in the business of each person to drive three people to go out to the development of snacks.

Efficient mobilization and strong incentives became an important driving force for the industry to scale up during this period. In addition, the Sha County government also through financial subsidies and other ways to solve the lack of uniform standards for the production process of snacks in Sha County and snack owners loan difficulties and other issues.

Challenges facing Shaxian snacks

As of the end of 2019, there were more than 88,000 Shaxian snack stores in the country***, but no more than 30,000 of them were operated by Shaxians, and fewer than 10,000 famous and standardized stores were certified by Shaxian Snacks Trade Association. The large number of informal snack stores poses an important challenge to the enhancement of the reputation of Shaxian Snacks as a brand. The wide geographical distribution of restaurants counterfeiting Shaxian snacks and the predominantly individual, small-business character of these restaurants have also increased the cost and difficulty of judicial rights defense.

The Shaxian Snacks Association has spared no effort in promoting the standardization of Shaxian snacks over the past two decades, and has strengthened the constraints on snack stores through a series of ways, such as logo design, personnel training, product specifications, and raw material supply. However, a large number of small business owners do not have a strong desire to promote store upgrading, and the traditional husband and wife store model is still the main mode of operation for most Shaxian snacks. These small owners are very sensitive to the standardization of cost increases, if the corresponding investment can not get immediate economic benefits, many small owners are not willing to risk participating in this seemingly significant cause.

In contrast, a greater concern is that, with a large number of second-generation owners to take over, cultural identity and attachment to their hometowns with the generational turnover of the owners of the Shaxian snack business has become gradually diluted. This makes the connection between the decentralized Shaxian snack stores and the parent body that nurtured the Shaxian snack culture - Shaxian - become looser, which will make the competitiveness of the industry empowered by a collective brand such as Shaxian snacks greatly reduced.

One of the big differences between Shaxian snacks and other collective or regional brands is that the industry is in fact no longer materially dependent on Shaxian. Unlike wine, tea and other regional brands, Shaxian is not the only place of origin of the raw materials of Shaxian snacks. Shaxian snacks brand, can not monopolize some kind of scarce natural resources or important raw materials to form a strong control over the whole industry, and many links in the industry chain in the process of the game, it is difficult to obtain an overwhelming advantage.

In addition, compared with these regional brands, the production and consumption of Shaxian snacks take place in the field, and the distribution is very wide and scattered, it is difficult to complete the supervision and guidance of a large number of scattered small stores at a low cost, and it is also difficult to rely on the developed production system and supporting system to closely integrate the distribution of such scattered snack stores, the industry integration and management is very difficult.

In response to these difficulties facing industrial upgrading, Shaxian is also constantly trying to explore new development models. Due to the fact that a large number of small business owners do not perceive the urgency of industrial upgrading sufficiently and react cautiously to the various standardization initiatives launched by the Shaxian Association, the Shaxian Snacks Group has changed its strategy, hoping to show small business owners the huge dividends that industrial upgrading can unleash through the construction of a chain of standardized Shaxian Snacks stores.

Shaxian Snacks Group has introduced a "three-in-one" management system of head office, subsidiaries and terminal stores. Over the past three years, 23 Shaxian Snacks Group catering subsidiaries have been set up across the country, developing a chain of nearly 3,000 standard Shaxian Snacks stores.

Among them, as the intermediate force of this system, Shaxian Snacks Group's catering subsidiaries have been operating with remarkable results. Snack owners with a certain degree of economic strength to the subsidiary *** with the shareholding, to join the chain stores to provide standardized services, including uniform store signage, uniform tables and chairs tableware, uniform procurement of food materials, uniform distribution, and uniform service norms.

In addition, in order to support the construction of Shaxian snack standard store, to promote the industry's overall operational efficiency and product quality, Shaxian construction of snack industrial park, attracting dozens of for Shaxian snack store to provide the main raw materials or semi-finished products of the enterprise. Standardized production has made it possible to guarantee the quality of some large single products, and has made these snack industry-related industries an important force in pulling Shaxian's GDP growth.

In order to further enrich the cultural connotation of the collective brand of snacks in Shaxian, and at the same time pull the growth of the local tertiary industry. Shaxian will start from 1997 Shaxian Snacks Tourism and Culture Festival to further upgrade, through the snacks on the stage, cultural promotion, economic and trade opera, Shaxian will be further developed into a "paradise for foodies".

The new development strategy can make a series of related industries to form a chain and closed loop, synergistic, to a large extent, still depends on a large number of Shaxian snack store business level and economic benefits can be on the next level. The construction of standardization and the promotion of chain management is just catching up with the catering industry to continuously improve the overall level, and the cultivation of new competitive advantages lies in the ability to effectively grasp the operating pain points of each store as well as the sales situation.

We see that the leaders in charge of Sha Xian Snacks have recognized the importance of operational data to the development of the industry, and the analysis and mining of this operational information can effectively help single stores sort out their business strategies, understand regional consumer preferences, and help single stores reduce purchasing costs and improve profitability. At the same time, microdata at a higher level can help the Sha Xian snack industry optimize the layout of regional central kitchens, logistics centers and other core facilities.

But the real difficulty in ****sharing and integrating operational data lies in whether decentralized snack owners are motivated to join this new system. Therefore, the design of an effective governance structure and the introduction of new investment and benefit ****sharing mechanisms will be the key to whether Shaxian Snacks can work wonders again in the new market and technological environment.