Text | Wu Yu
Not long ago, China Quanjude Group, which is famous for its roast duck, disclosed its half-year results: in the first half of 20 19, its total operating income was 758 million yuan, down13.43% year-on-year; The total profit was 46 million yuan, down 58. 16% year-on-year, and the tragedy of jumping off the street caused public outcry.
This is not the first time that Quanjude has encountered a crisis of public opinion. Over the years, the performance of Quanjude has been defeated all the way. In the first half of the year, it just broke the news that the net profit in the first quarter fell by 70%.
Facing the overall situation, Quanjude calmly gave an explanation: the number of catering stores decreased, the operating income decreased, and the income of some upstream food industries decreased, resulting in a year-on-year decline in the company's operating performance.
But diners who are tired of Quanjude have already come to their own answers: strangely, Quanjude is not a street.
Stand firm and lose your reputation.
For tourists outside Beijing, Quanjude may be the first brand that comes to mind when it comes to "Beijing Roast Duck". But if you consult friends who work and live in Beijing, or even just ask taxi drivers, you are likely to get a disdainful look:
"Cheat tourists, eat? 」
People living in Beijing, because they have visited Quanjude on various occasions, can almost tell stories that open their eyes. To sum up, it is nothing more than high price and poor service, and I will regret it when I go.
Quanjude is by no means the only famous time-honored restaurant that caused bad reviews.
On May 24th this year, collector Ma Weidou described his experience of patronizing the famous time-honored restaurant "Dragon Copy Hand" on social networking sites:
Dragon wonton soup head office is located in Chunxi Road, the most prosperous section in Chengdu.
In today's cities in China, it is not uncommon to see such a discredited time-honored brand.
They are well known to outsiders and are recommended places in various local tourism publicity materials. The storefront decoration is antique, highlighting the "Chinese time-honored brand". However, the local word-of-mouth collapsed without exception, and the degree of terror was quite similar to that of Quanjude and Longchao.
For example, Goubuli steamed stuffed bun in Tianjin:
Yangzhou Fuchun Teahouse:
Shanghai Lao Banzhai Restaurant:
Without exception, these time-honored restaurants have become tourist franchise stores, and even opened stores in tourist areas. Because of its national reputation, even if the local popularity is exhausted, they can still have a huge tourist flow to support punch-in consumption.
In 20 14, some brokers estimated that the revenues of the three stores with the largest passenger flow in Beijing Quanjude-Heping Store, Qianmen Store and Wangfujing Store accounted for about 70% of the total revenue of Quanjude Group, and the profits of the three old stores accounted for more than 90% of Quanjude's net profit. These three stores are located in the most popular tourist areas in Beijing.
In the eyes of many people, the reason why the old brand can continue to cheat customers regardless of word of mouth is because the tourism consumption scene is a typical single game, and there is no need to consider repeat customers at all.
However, although a single event can partly explain the bad attitude of the time-honored brand, it ignores the other side of the fact: the elimination rate of the catering industry in China is very high, and the elimination rate of the catering industry near tourist streets and tourist spots is even higher.
Online celebrity restaurants in Nanluoguxiang are rarely more than 2 years old. According to the statistics of Wuxi Catering Industry Association 20 18, the elimination rate of Wuxi catering industry is above 30% every year, and some well-known food streets are 40% higher than the industry average.
The reason is not difficult to understand: in recent years, the soaring land rent has increasingly become a crisis facing the entire catering industry, and the facade land rent in tourist blocks is even higher, and the number of tourists is divided into off-season and peak season. On the whole, the operation difficulty is actually much higher than that of ordinary restaurants, and many established restaurants with good reputation will not choose to set foot in tourism and catering at all.
The old brands such as Quanjude and Longchaoshou are obviously different, and they can be found in almost any tourist-intensive place, even in airport stations.
Beijing South Railway Station Quanjude Branch and Chongqing Jiangbei Airport Longwonton soup branch
Why can time-honored brands adopt such a business form that obviously violates market rules and has a poor reputation? The scale effect of chain operation can only explain a small part. More importantly, they are time-honored brands with China characteristics and the darling of privileges and policies.
Unworthy "time-honored brand"
Today's so-called "Chinese time-honored brand" was first selected by the former Ministry of Internal Trade in 199 3. Subsequently, in 2006 and 20 10, the Ministry of Commerce issued new regulations, which were officially recognized twice. Later, provinces and cities also determined their own time-honored brands.
After the selection is successful, the Ministry of Commerce will uniformly issue the plaque of "China Time-honored Brand".
In 2006, the Ministry of Commerce issued the "Standards for the Recognition of Chinese Time-honored Brands (Trial)", which took "the brand was founded before 1956 (inclusive)" as one of the recognition conditions.
The brand was founded before 1956, and some enterprises passed on to 2006 and 20 10. How can such brands and enterprises exist?
If you know history, it is not difficult to think that these time-honored brands have survived to this day, not because they have stood the test of time in market competition and won the trust of consumers, but only because they are lucky in the journey of history.
Take the catering industry in Beijing as an example. There used to be many restaurants in old Beiping, but after 1949, a large number of restaurants closed down due to the movement against the three evils and socialist transformation. After the public-private partnership, snack vendors were reorganized into three large snack bars, namely, Nanlaishun, Long Fu Temple and Xisisi, or merged into major canteens, and restaurants and restaurants were also merged in large numbers, leaving only a few such as Quanjude, Fengzeyuan and Cuihualou. By the 1960 s, all of them were changed to state-owned enterprises.
According to the statistics of Japanese Puppet 1943, there are 607 restaurants in the city, 97 of which opened as early as the Qing Dynasty. Historical materials of old brands of Beijing catering industry in Beijing Archives (I).
1966, the wave of breaking the four old styles rose, the catering industry suffered another setback, and many shops closed down. Fortunately, we survived this step, because it finally extended the "enterprise inheritance" to a decade of catastrophe, and most of them could wait until1980s to set things right, restore organizational relations, restore their names and reopen their businesses. Of course, property rights are still state-owned.
Unfortunately, more shops closed down before, or were merged into other restaurants in public-private partnership and later transformation, which meant the collapse and complete demise of enterprise inheritance.
They also have a little chance, that is, they are famous enough to attract the attention of leaders. For example, Dongxing Building and Xinfeng Building, among the "Eight Buildings" in Beijing in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, closed down as early as1940s, but were forcibly "restored" by catering companies in various districts in the 1960s+0980s, becoming the so-called old Chinese brands.
Therefore, who dies, who lives, who can inherit it to this day, and who can evaluate the old brand, in the final analysis, it does not depend on the struggle of merchants, not on the big waves in the market, but on the historical journey and organizational decisions.
The so-called "century-old shops" of these time-honored brands are nothing more than taking advantage of the franchise monopoly in the planned economy era and the fact that state-owned restaurants will never close down.
Not only can it not be used to prove today's goodwill, but it can not even reflect historical facts.
For example, the old restaurant in Beiping is famous for its thoughtful service and high cost performance. Because the city's consumption system collapsed after the relocation of Beijing, the catering industry exceeded demand (see the previous article: Why Beijing snacks are unpalatable | Elephant Association), so we had to optimize our service in the market competition, leaving many beautiful words in the works of many literati, which is completely contrary to today's Beijing time-honored brands.
In the past, restaurants were privately operated by family, and the craftsmanship was passed down by the relationship between family and mentoring, and the business was taken care of by regular customers. After many years, it was changed to a state-run restaurant, and the rest was just the habit of a state-run canteen.
There is only one aspect, today's Chinese time-honored brands can still retain the business habits of that year, that is, they don't have to bear high rents.
During the Republic of China, except for a few areas such as Shanghai Concession, land prices were generally low, so many restaurants and shops were owned by themselves. Nowadays, most operators in the catering industry are unable to open stores, and the high land rent has become one of their biggest operating pressures.
But old brands obviously don't have this kind of worry. Nowadays, almost all the time-honored brands were restored by state-owned catering enterprises at all levels in the 1960s and 1980s. As early as the planned economy era, the ownership of shops was realized through government distribution.
Beijing Quanjude's three stores with the largest passenger flow-Heping Store, Qianmen Store and Wangfujing Store-are all owned by Quanjude, with a huge scale. Today, their value can reach tens of billions of yuan, far exceeding the total business of the whole group.
This privilege that other private catering enterprises simply can't imagine is its indomitable spirit.
Zombies supported by policies
The privileges enjoyed by time-honored brands are not unique to stores.
Although most of the old brands have undergone so-called restructuring, most of them are state-owned enterprises.
Most of the time-honored restaurants in Beijing belong to Quanjude, Cheap Square and Huatian Catering Group. The largest shareholder of Quanjude is Beijing BTG Group (state-owned), the absolute controller of the fair-price store is Chongyuan Investment Management Company under the Chongwen District State-owned Assets Administration Bureau, and Huatian Restaurant is fully controlled by Beijing Financial Street Capital Operation Center directly controlled by SASAC in Xicheng District.
Quanjude Group has old brands such as Quanjude, Fangshan Restaurant, Fengze Garden and Sichuan Hotel. Cheap Square owns old brands such as Cheap Square, Unique Place, Tianxingju and Jinfang 12, while Huatian Group owns old brands such as Hongbin Building, Barbecue Season, Barbecue Bay, Casserole House, Emei Restaurant, Liuquanju, Xilaishun, Yuhuatai and Huguo Temple Snacks.
As a state-owned enterprise, it has great natural advantages over ordinary private enterprises in financing investment, anti-risk ability and revenue pressure, and it also has much stronger confidence in the face of gray rent-seeking such as fire fighting and sanitation.
Of course, there are also some time-honored brands that are models of state-owned enterprise restructuring and state-owned assets withdrawal. For example, Chengdu Catering Company of Sichuan Province, which owns 23 time-honored brands, such as Long Wonton, Lai Tangyuan and Couples' Lung Slices, was transformed into a joint-stock cooperative enterprise with full shareholding in 2004.
However, they are still very different from ordinary private enterprises.
Since the Ministry of Commerce recognized Chinese time-honored brands in 2006, reviving traditional culture has gradually become a national policy, and supporting and expanding time-honored enterprises has become a political correctness from the central government to the local government, and many preferential subsidy policies have emerged one after another.
Taking the Opinions on Protecting and Promoting the Development of Time-honored Brands issued by the Ministry of Commerce, the National Development and Reform Commission and other ministries in 2008 as an example, it is not difficult to see how powerful the government's support policies are:
In 20 17, the Ministry of Commerce and other departments 16 reiterated these policies in the Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Reform, Innovation and Development of Time-honored Brands. Based on these policies, local time-honored brands have received various forms of subsidies and support.
For example, Wuhan, 20 1 1, announced the opening of a branch of an old-fashioned restaurant, which can give financial subsidies according to 30% of the actual investment of the project, with a maximum of 1 10,000 yuan for a single project. In 20 15, Wuxi announced that the old-fashioned enterprises that opened direct chain stores in the same year could receive 30% financial subsidy for rent and enjoy it for three consecutive years.
It is more common to open new stores for old brands in tourist blocks and airport stations, which greatly reduces rents. All kinds of time-honored brands in Chengdu have thus been able to occupy Jinli and Kuanzhai Lane. In 20 18, Suzhou cleaned up all the shops in Guanqian Street, and gave large subsidies to the old brands that could not afford the rent.
Such a large subsidy will naturally make the old brand look prosperous and crowded. Even if the food is fooled and the service is rough, there is no danger of bankruptcy. The relevant assessment requirements of governments at all levels have naturally been perfectly met.
But the price is to cut off the normal market feedback path, so that those old brands that have many problems in management and should have received market education, like zombies in jinyi, live in the spit of local citizens and tourists who regret spending once.
Gu Jiuru, the chef of Quanjude, once lamented to the media that due to the rigid internal personnel system, the salary level of elite technicians is far less than that of management, which leads to a serious brain drain and it is extremely difficult to recruit chefs. However, the attitude problem of waiters, which has repeatedly aroused public anger, often marks the overall decay of their internal personnel management. These problems have been exposed for more than ten years and have not been improved so far.
Ma, the head of another time-honored tourist restaurant, An Lao Sun Jia Restaurant, complained that the state-owned system suffered greatly: the endless opening of the business would make the normal operation as busy as a bee, and even the purchase of onions had to be reported layer by layer.
According to "China Catering Report 20 18" released by Meituan, the average life span of closed restaurants in recent two years is 508 days, which once again shows the fierce and cruel competition in the contemporary catering market and the absurdity of forcibly revitalizing old brands by policies.
If we want to promote the healthy development of the catering industry, it is obviously more meaningful to create a better environment for those contemporary enterprises recognized by the market and let them enjoy the convenience of borrowing and financing equally than to subsidize those discredited old brands.
If it is to inherit the food culture, the fact that the reputation of state-owned Quanjude and Cheap Square has long been surpassed by private directors and the welfare of the people of the Four Seasons shows that the excellent private catering that has been worked hard in the market is far more heritable than these old brands that started with privileges and policies.
It is the sorrow of traditional culture to let the repugnant and anti-market time-honored brands continue to rely on privileges and policies.