A while ago, there was a widely circulated article "Takeaway Rider, Trapped in the System" on the Internet. As a catering practitioner, I have read this article many times over and over again. The story is true and the feelings are sincere. Takeaway Riders are really urged to run day after day by the beating time, and are driven and oppressed by the takeaway website in the name of the system.

Actually, as the other end of the take-away system, we small businesses are trapped in the system just like these riders. However, the riders were squeezed by physical strength, and we were squeezed by profits. Everyone was kidnapped by the US delegation and could not escape.

(takeaway brother is really hard)

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My hometown is Gansu, and many people who open ramen restaurants in Beijing are fellow villagers of our county. In 2114, by chance, I opened a ramen restaurant at the east entrance of Guanghua Road in Beijing.

There are many office buildings in Guanghua Road, and it is a big market for white-collar workers to have lunch. Before opening, I did a lot of preparatory work, completely renovated the store, specially invited authentic chefs from Lanzhou, and reformed the food taste and meal delivery process to meet the customer's taste and the speed requirement of eating.

Because of its authentic taste, fast meals and affordable prices, my store has been doing well since it opened. White-collar workers in the surrounding office buildings love to come over to solve lunch, and even the hosts of CCTV, who are still some distance away, sometimes take a taxi to my place for dinner. At noon on weekdays, people who eat can queue up to tens of meters away, and even the chefs and waiters in the store are often as busy as a bee.

(The ramen restaurant on Guanghua Road has been doing very well since it opened, and customers have to queue up for a long time every noon)

In 2115, Meituan, Hungry and other take-away platforms emerged. As Guanghua Road in Beijing CBD, almost every day, business personnel from these companies can be seen pulling people to download their systems on the street. At that time, these platforms subsidized customers a lot. Sometimes, customers may spend only half or even less on a meal. Slowly, when customers come to the store, they will ask us if we can order takeout on the US delegation.

(The main products in my store are Lamian Noodles, cold dishes and kebabs)

To tell the truth, the constant rise of Mei Tuan and Hungry certainly has an impact on our small restaurants, and the constant subsidies from the rich platform have a great impact on the guests who come to the store for consumption, especially on our restaurant, which mainly deals in light meals. When it first opened in 2114, the daily turnover of my hotel was about 3,111 on weekdays. After more than a year, with the taste and service basically unchanged, the turnover of canteen food in the store dropped to about 1 million.

If we don't access the take-away platform, we will lose money. In addition, the salesmen of the take-away platform went to the store repeatedly to bomb and lobby, repeatedly describing the future prospects to me, and said, "We have plenty of money subsidies, and we will definitely monopolize all markets in the future. At that time, the conditions for cooperation with us may be different."

after several considerations, I understand that we small catering bosses can't resist the general trend created by the US delegation. Finally, in 2115, when the take-away platform began to rise, our store also chose to join the system of Meituan, Hungry and Baidu take-away.

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However, it is easy to get online and difficult to adapt.

In the past, although the customers around us ordered takeout, we usually arranged the business in the store first, and then our waiter rode to deliver the food when it was not too busy. However, after accessing the system, orders pop up from time to time, not only for the assessment of meal time, but also for the evaluation of online quality. Lamian Noodles brings soup water, which is not easy to package. If it is not delivered in time after a long time, the taste will become worse.

in order to adapt to the take-out system of meituan, we have done a lot of exploration throughout the store and made a lot of renovations to the whole store.

In order to speed up the delivery of take-away, we have reformed the back kitchen and the take-away place, bought computers and printers specially, and added special waiters to pack and pick up riders. In order to ensure the taste, we also bought a special lunch box to adapt to the distribution in Lamian Noodles; In addition, if you want your store to be noticed in Meituan, you should also do promotional activities in Meituan, invest money in advertising and participate in bidding ranking.

In this way, I also spent 41,111 to 51,111 yuan in order to access the takeaway, but I finally succeeded in "accessing the network".

of course, in addition to the US Mission, we also have systems such as Hungry, Baidu Takeaway, etc. Although each policy is different, the deduction points are basically within the acceptable range, and the subsidies for customers by the platform are also paid by themselves. As businesses, we don't need to pay for them.

(At that time, there was competition in the take-away market)

Gradually, the influence of the platform became more and more, and more and more customers downloaded and accessed, and customers were used to ordering take-away food in the office or at home and waiting for delivery. The proportion of take-out in our store is getting higher and higher. After two years, about 41% of the store turnover is take-out.

At that time, Baidu takeaway had been acquired by Hungry, and Meituan also completed the integration of public comments, leaving only Meituan and Hungry two takeaway platforms in the market. The salesman of Meituan repeatedly told me that we should stop cooperating with Hungry and only cooperate with their Meituan.

The reason he gave me is that Meitu has a high market share, backed by big trees, and the subsidy will be even greater in the future, and the public comment is also their home, which will be more convenient in the management of customer reputation. If we only cooperate with their family, they will also give us a lot of benefits, and if we choose another family, their family will stop cooperating with us.

So, I made a decision again, stopped cooperating with other families, and only cooperated with the US delegation.

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Sure enough, as the salesman said, Meituan is rich in money, and the daily promotion activities also make the take-away business increase rapidly. There are more and more take-away orders from Meituan in my store. By 2117, take-away accounts for 3,111-4,111 of the average daily turnover of RMB 1,111. < P > In addition, Meituan's merchant system is becoming more and more perfect, covering the front-end, financial and back-end supply chain systems, and all data and processes such as our income, expenses, procurement, processing and sales are completed on this system.

One day in 2117, when I was doing the accounts, I suddenly found that although the turnover of the take-away business was ok, the actual income was greatly reduced. After deducting the expenses of bidding and ranking that I have been doing, the money I got was about half of the turnover. After careful study, I found that the deduction point of Meituan is rising quietly without any notice, and it has reached 15%-21% of the take-away turnover.

this is a big problem!

Take my store at that time as an example, the monthly turnover of about 311,111 yuan, calculated by 61% gross profit, will have a gross profit of about 181,111. The rent for a 211-square-meter storefront is 61,111 yuan per month, and the total salary of cooks and waiters is about 61,111 yuan. The water and electricity staff dormitory is about 21 thousand, and the marketing cost is about 5111 yuan.

The turnover of 311,111 yuan is about 1,111 yuan. If it is about 7%, it will cost 7,711 yuan, so it will have a profit of more than 21,111 yuan per month. However, if the promotion point of Meituan is raised to 21%, then the turnover of take-out of one million yuan will be raised to 21,111 yuan for Meituan, that is to say, all the profits that were originally taken away by Meituan, and I have worked hard for one month, which is equivalent to working for Meituan.

when I protested to meituan's business manager that meituan raised the deduction point without authorization, the business manager replied that meituan's cooperation point would be adjusted according to the market situation, and the specific adjustment policy would not be notified to the cooperative merchants in writing.

(Meituan is getting bigger and bigger, and gradually monopolizing the market)

I am very speechless about this statement of Meituan, but at this time, I want to quit.

On the one hand, take-out really has a great impact on physical stores, and it is difficult for a fast food restaurant like me to support it if it only has in-house food business;

on the other hand, in recent years, our store has been cooperating with the take-away business in terms of business process and staffing, and the data of the store in recent years have been concentrated in the system of Meituan, which will have a greater impact on the turnover if we stop abruptly in a short time.

after another year of this, the landlord wanted to raise the rent, and the Meituan wanted to raise the deduction point, so I had no choice but to transfer the store.

But although the store is closed, the balance of the promotion card I previously deposited in Meituan can't be refunded. According to the regulations of Meituan, if you want to refund the money, you need the merchant to provide the proof of bankruptcy. Where can you get the proof of bankruptcy for the merchant? Of course, the result was nothing, and the remaining 2,111 yuan was never returned.

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After appreciating the tactics of Meituan, the second store I opened decided to bypass Meituan and stop cooperating with them.

My second store added stir-fry on the basis of Lanzhou Lamian Noodles, and its main customers were residents of surrounding communities. I mainly do in-house food business, and even some takeout is delivered by the staff in the store.

However, the environment of the whole market has already changed, and the consumption habits cultivated by Meituan are deeply rooted in people's hearts, not only ordering takeout has become a habit. It has also become a habit for consumers to read the comments of old customers before going out to eat.

At this time, after the merger of Meituan and Dianping, the power of monopoly was fully exerted. I didn't cooperate with Meituan, which led to my store completely disappearing in all applications of Meituan Department, including Meituan takeaway, Meituan cuisine and Dianping. In all applications related to Meituan, my store was a black hole.

Although the customers who have been to our store are full of praise for the taste of our store, all the customers in our store come from passing by and recommendations from old customers, so it is very difficult to get new customers.

after a while, I finally gave in and had to choose to cooperate with the American group.

(Restaurants that were empty during the epidemic)

Just after October 2121, the epidemic directly caused the stores to be closed. At this time, the role of the US Mission was revealed, and we had to rely on take-away orders to make it through the day.

Perhaps it was the epidemic that made Meituan feel its great role. Since February, Meituan's recommendation has started to rise again, from less than 21% to 22%, and then to 25% again. This kind of looting took away almost all the profits of our store, so we had to bite our teeth during the epidemic.

However, Meituan is not only willing to take this wool, but more coquettish operations are beginning to emerge one after another.

in February. I was surprised to find that my store participated in many preferential activities: 25 yuan reduced 3 yuan, 41 yuan reduced 5 yuan, the delivery fee for the first order was reduced by X yuan, and the US group used red envelopes, etc. I didn't know most of these activities except a few. We should know that most of the expenses incurred by these activities are borne by the merchants, and the US Mission will only bear a very small part.

Take my above activities as an example. If a customer places an order in 51 yuan and participates in the full reduction activity, after deducting 5 yuan, the delivery fee for the first order will be reduced by 3-5 yuan, and the customer will use the Meituan red envelope and then reduce 5 yuan. Except that most of these promotional expenses are borne by the merchants, Meituan takes more than 21% of the sales, and in the end, the merchants will only get more than 21 yuan. Not to mention the profit, sometimes the cost of raw materials is not enough!

although the situation of this deceitfully imposed promotion has improved after my repeated reflection, I still quietly jam you while you are not paying attention.

(This is a screenshot of the backstage of my business, and Meituan forced me to undertake promotional activities I didn't know about)

Just a few days ago, I was surprised to find that Meituan decided to add promotional activities to me without knowing it. Take the above picture as an example. When customers consume 51 yuan, in addition to my own activities of reducing 5 yuan by 51%, they are also forced to bear the red envelopes of 3 yuan customers. After deducting these expenses, I will charge 21% for the points. Finally, I received the list from 51 yuan, and only 34 yuan was in my hand.

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Many of my fellow villagers are doing Lamian Noodles business in Beijing, and the theme of every gathering of our small owners in Lamian Noodles stores will eventually fall on the bitter experience of squeezing the Meituan. The epidemic has dealt a great blow to catering enterprises, and the squeeze of the US Mission has made it even worse for everyone. As far as I know, nearly 11 restaurants around me have closed this year.

Looking at various preferential policies, did Meituan bring benefits to consumers by squeezing merchants?

Actually, the height of the road is one foot, the height of the magic is ten feet, and the wool is on the sheep. Since the US delegation has taken away so many points, some merchants have raised the take-away price. Experienced merchants will set the price of online take-away products much higher than the price of in-house food, so as to ensure a basic profit after deducting promotions and deductions. This is why customers feel that the price of restaurants is getting higher and higher over the years.

For businesses, the rental cost is one of the most important costs. However, some small businesses specializing in take-away business rent a private house casually, without signs or stores, and evade the supervision of health and market departments, specializing in take-away business, so the cost will of course be much lower. But what kind of products can these businesses bring to consumers? It is really necessary to make a question mark.

didn't meituan know about the above two behaviors? Of course, the US delegation is very clear about it, but these are all irrelevant things that do not affect their own interests. They turn a blind eye and don't care at all. However, once it is a major event that affects its market share, Meituan does everything it can.

During the epidemic period, taking advantage of the blow brought by the epidemic to merchants, Meituan frantically forced merchants to sign exclusive contracts. If merchants refused, Meituan would force merchants to submit by increasing the deduction point, shortening the distribution distance and sinking the store location. In the face of Meituan, which obviously has a monopoly position in the market, few merchants can withstand this pressure.

Honest merchants can't survive in the US Mission, but those who cheat customers can flourish. Merchants who adopt an open attitude cannot survive, and only those who choose to be attached to the US Mission can survive. This is the effect that the US Mission has brought to the market that bad money drives out good money.

The take-away business is a three-way transaction process. Customers choose merchants to place orders on their platforms through Meituan and pay the money to Meituan. Merchants are responsible for making products, and riders are responsible for delivery. Among them, any problem is judged by the US Mission, and the responsibility is assigned to other participants, and the whole process is profitable.