The aura of a "century-old shop" is 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.

Wen | Wu Yu

Not long ago, Quanjude Group in China, which is famous for its roast duck, disclosed its half-year performance: in the first half of 219, its total operating income was 758 million yuan, down 13.43% year-on-year; The total profit was 46 million yuan, down 58.16% year-on-year, and the tragedy of jumping on the street caused public outcry.

this is not the first time that quanjude has encountered a crisis of public opinion. For many years, Quanjude's performance 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 7%.

In the face of the overall situation, Quanjude calmly explained: the number of receptions in catering stores decreased, and the operating income declined, which also led to the decrease in the income of some upstream food industries, resulting in a year-on-year decline in the company's operating performance.

But diners who are tired of Quanjude have already come up with their own answers: it's strange not to jump on the street just because of Quanjude's virtue.

standing firm and losing its reputation

For tourists outside Beijing, Quanjude may still be the brand that comes to mind at the first time when it comes to "Beijing Roast Duck". However, if you consult friends who work and live in Beijing, or even just ask taxi drivers, you will probably get a disdainful look: < P > "Why eat it if you cheat tourists?"

People living in Beijing can almost tell stories that have opened their eyes because they visited Quanjude on various occasions. To sum up, it's nothing more than high price and poor service, and I'll regret it when I go.

and quanjude is by no means the only famous old-fashioned restaurant that causes bad reviews.

On May 24th this year, collector Ma Weidou described his visit to the famous time-honored restaurant "Longwonton soup" in Chengdu on social networking sites:

Longwonton soup head store located in Chunxi Road, the most prosperous section of Chengdu

In cities all over China today, such time-honored brands are not uncommon.

They are well-known to outsiders, and they are recommended places in various local tourism publicity materials. The storefront decoration is antique, and the "time-honored Chinese brand" is highlighted. However, the local word of mouth has collapsed without exception, and the tragic situation is quite similar to that of Quanjude and Longchaoshou.

for example, Goubuli Steamed Bun in Tianjin:

Fuchun Tea House in Yangzhou:

Laobanzhai Restaurant in Shanghai:

These old-fashioned restaurants, all of which have a good reputation, have become tourist franchise stores, and even set up shops in tourist areas. Thanks to its nationwide reputation, even if the local popularity is exhausted, they can still have a huge tourist flow to support punch-in consumption.

in 214, some brokers estimated that the revenues of the three most visited stores in Beijing Quanjude-Heping Store, Qianmen Store and Wangfujing Store accounted for about 7% of the total revenue of Quanjude Group, and the profits of the three old stores accounted for more than 9% of Quanjude's net profit. The locations of these three stores are all in the most popular tourist areas in Beijing.

in the eyes of many people, the reason why time-honored brands can continue to cheat customers regardless of word of mouth is that the tourist consumption scene is a typical single game, and repeat customers are not considered at all.

However, although the single game can partially explain the bad attitude of the time-honored brand, it ignores the other side of the fact: the catering industry in China has a high elimination rate, and the elimination rate of the catering industry near tourist streets and tourist spots is even higher.

online celebrity restaurant in Nanluoguxiang rarely lasts more than 2 years. According to the statistics of Wuxi Catering Industry Association in 218, the annual elimination rate of Wuxi catering industry is above 3%, while some well-known food streets are higher than the industry average of 4%.

the reason is not difficult to understand: in recent years, the soaring land rent has become a crisis faced by the entire catering industry, and the facade land rent in tourist blocks is even more alarmingly high, and the number of tourists is divided into off-season and peak season. In summary, 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 tourist catering at all.

But 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.

quanjude store in Beijing south railway station and longchaoshou branch in Chongqing jiangbei airport

why can the old brands, with their bad reputation, adopt such a business form that obviously violates the market rules? The scale effect of chain operation can only explain a small part of it. More importantly, they are time-honored brands with China characteristics, and they are the darlings of privileges and policies.

A time-honored brand that is not worthy of the name

Today's so-called "Chinese time-honored brand" was first selected by the former Ministry of Internal Trade in 199 3. Subsequently, in 26 and 21, the Ministry of Commerce issued new regulations, which were officially recognized twice. Later, various provinces and cities also identified their own time-honored brands.

After the selection is successful, the plaque of "China Time-honored Brand" will be uniformly issued by the Ministry of Commerce.

In 26, the Ministry of Commerce issued the Accreditation Standard of "China Time-honored Brand (Trial)", which set "Brand was founded before 1956 (inclusive)" as one of the accreditation conditions.

the brand was founded before 1956, and there are business entities passed down to 26 and 21. How can such brands and enterprises exist?

if you know the history, it is not difficult to think that the reason why these time-honored brands can be passed down to this day is by no means that they have stood the test of time in the market competition and won the trust of consumers, but only because they are lucky in the historical journey.

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, Nanlaishun, Longfu Temple and Xisisi, or merged into major canteens, and restaurants and restaurants were also largely merged, leaving only a few such as Quanjude, Fengzeyuan and Cuihualou. By the 196 s, all of them were changed to state-owned enterprises.

according to the statistics of the Japanese puppet government in 1943, there were 67 restaurants in the whole city, and 97 of them opened as early as the Qing dynasty. Beijing Archives "Historical Materials of Time-honored Brands in Beijing Restaurant Industry" (partial)

In 1966, the trend of breaking the old four styles emerged, the catering industry suffered another setback, and many shops closed down. But we are lucky enough to have survived this step, because it has finally extended the "enterprise inheritance" to ten years of catastrophe, and most of them can wait until the 198s to set things right, regain 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 the public-private partnership and later transformation, which means that the enterprise inheritance collapsed and died completely.

They also have a slight chance, that is, they are famous enough to attract the attention of leaders. For example, Dongxing Building and Xinfeng Building in the "Eight Buildings" in Beijing at the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China closed down as early as the 194s, but they were forcibly "restored" by catering companies in various districts in the 198s, which became the so-called Chinese time-honored brands < P > Therefore, whoever dies, who lives, who can inherit the time-honored brands, in the final analysis, depends not on the struggle of merchants, but on the historical journey.

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't even reflect the historical facts.

For example, the old restaurants in Beiping were famous for their attentive service and high cost performance. Because the consumption system of the city disintegrated after the capital moved out, the catering industry was in excess of demand (see the previous article: Why do Beijing snacks taste bad | Elephant Association for details). In the market competition, they had to optimize their services, leaving many beautiful words in the writings of many literati, which is totally contrary to today's Beijing time-honored brands.

In the old days, restaurants were all family-owned and private, and the craftsmanship was passed down by the relationship between family and master and apprentice, and the business was taken care of by regular customers. After many years, they were changed to state-owned canteens, leaving only the habits of state-owned canteens.

Only in one respect can today's Chinese time-honored brands keep their business habits of the past, 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 stores were owned by themselves. Today, most operators in the catering industry are unable to set up stores, and the high land rent has become one of their biggest operating pressures.

but the time-honored brand obviously has no such worries. Today's time-honored brands were almost all resumed by state-owned catering companies at all levels in the 198s. As early as the planned economy era, the property rights of stores were realized by government allocation.

The three most visited stores in Beijing Quanjude, namely Heping Store, Qianmen Store and Wangfujing Store, are all owned by Quanjude, and their scale is huge. Today, their value can reach tens of billions of yuan, far exceeding the total business volume of the whole group.

this kind of privilege that other private catering enterprises can't imagine at all is its indomitable spirit.

Zombies supported by policies

The privileges enjoyed by time-honored brands are not unique to stores.

Although most of today's time-honored brands have undergone so-called restructuring, most of them are still state-owned enterprises.

Most time-honored restaurants in Beijing belong to Quanjude, Cheap Square and Huatian Catering Group. Quanjude's largest shareholder is Beijing BTG Group (state-owned), the absolute controller of Cheap Shop is Chongyuan Investment Management Company under the State-owned Assets Administration Bureau of Chongwen District, and Huatian Catering is fully controlled by Beijing Financial Street Capital Operation Center directly controlled by Xicheng District SASAC.

Quanjude Group owns old brands such as Quanjude, Fangshan Restaurant, Fengze Garden and Sichuan Hotel. Cheap Square owns 12 time-honored brands such as Cheap Square, Duyichu, Tianxingju and Jinfang, while Huatian Group owns time-honored brands such as Hongbin Building, Barbecue Season, Barbecue Bowl, Casserole House, Emei Restaurant, Liuquanju, Xilaishun, Yuhuatai and Huguosi Snacks

As state-owned enterprises, they are engaged in financing and investment, fighting risks and revenue pressure.

of course, there are also some time-honored brands that are models for the restructuring of state-owned enterprises and the withdrawal of state-owned assets. For example, Chengdu Catering Company of Sichuan Province, which owns 23 time-honored brands, such as Longwonton soup, Lai Tangyuan and Couples' Lung Tablets, was changed into a joint-stock cooperative enterprise with full shareholding in 24.

however, they are still very different from ordinary private enterprises.

since the Ministry of commerce recognized Chinese time-honored brands in 26, 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 come in an endless stream.

Taking the Opinions on Protecting and Promoting the Development of Time-honored Brands issued by the Ministry of Commerce and the National Development and Reform Commission in 28 as an example, it is not difficult to see how powerful the government's support policies are:

In 217, the Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Reform, Innovation and Development of Time-honored Brands issued by 16 departments including the Ministry of Commerce reiterated these policies. Based on these policies, local time-honored brands have been given various forms of subsidies and support.

For example, in Wuhan, it was announced in 211 that time-honored restaurants would open branches, and financial subsidies could be given according to 3% of the actual investment in the project, with a maximum of 1 million yuan for a single project. In 215, Wuxi announced that the old-fashioned enterprises that newly opened direct chain stores in that year could receive a financial subsidy of 3% of the rent and enjoy it for three consecutive years.

more commonly, it is to open new stores for time-honored brands in tourist blocks and airport stations, and greatly reduce rents. All kinds of time-honored brands in Chengdu were thus able to occupy Jinli and Kuanzhai Lane. In 218, Suzhou cleaned up all the shops in Guanqian Street and provided large subsidies for the old brands that could not afford the rent.

with such a large subsidy, the time-honored brand will naturally present a thriving and crowded scene. Even if the food is fooled and the service is rough, there is no danger of closure. The relevant assessment requirements of governments at all levels have naturally been perfectly met.

however, the price is to cut off the normal market feedback path, and let the old brands with many management problems, which should have been educated by the market, live like zombies in jinyi, and be spurned by local citizens and tourists who regret spending once.

Gu Jiuru, the head chef of Quanjude, once lamented to the media that due to the rigid internal personnel system, the salary level of elite technicians is far lower than that of management, resulting in 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 its internal personnel management. These problems, which have been exposed for more than ten years, have not yet seen any improvement.

Ma Mingyang, another time-honored tourist and the head of Lao Sunjia restaurant in Xi 'an, complained that the state-owned system was suffering greatly: the endless opening would make the normal operation too busy, and even the onion had to be bought layer by layer.