In Beijing, there is a queuing law circulating on the Internet: "If you want to sit at a online celebrity restaurant at night, you have to go without breakfast."
Wen | Zhou Zihao Li Xiaoqu
Editor | Zhao Lei
Operation | Yuemi
People living in Beijing seem to have long been used to this sight: a newly opened online celebrity restaurant will either wait in line for a whole day or eat after three months. What makes it even more difficult for Beijing people to accept is why many online celebrity brands have been popular in other places for a long time and opened many stores, but they always come to Beijing very late. But when they come, queuing has become a willingness, which has greatly increased the hardship of queuing.
At the beginning of August, Brother Laoguan opened the first store in Beijing in Joy City, Chaoyang, Beijing, and the queue was once again staged. As a catering enterprise established in 214, Gelaoguan has opened more than 6 branches all over the country. When it was hotly searched for food safety, many people in Beijing also asked, What store is this? As early as 219, Ge Laoguan opened a store in Tianjin to test the water, and only recently did he come to Beijing. Many people left messages in WeChat official account and Weibo: "Come to Beijing quickly! It's too difficult to eat in Tianjin if you want to eat the elder brother! "
In addition to the difficulty in queuing, Beijing, as the top stream in first-tier cities, is often teased by netizens as a "gourmet desert". After many southerners come to Beijing to live, it is hard to imagine, "Even if you don't touch a convenience store all the way, why don't you have more choices if you want to have a serious meal?" When the trendy food in the little red book came to Beijing, people lined up passionately, as if to declare to more brands lurking and waiting: "Don't wait and make money!"
This makes people puzzled. Is it because of Beijing's "strength" that there is no market for foreign food, or is it because local restaurants are really afraid to go to Beijing to catch the exam?
the elder brother has come, and he hasn't been here all day.
He arrived at the store at 1: 3, and there are 3 tables in front.
On the third day of its opening, on a Monday morning, Zhang Quanliang, who made a fortune by reselling the ranking number, arrived outside the gate of Joy City early, waiting for the mall to open and be the first to rush in. Expecting that there might be a long queue, he specially hired several helpers to exchange numbers together, ready to make a big profit from it.
but something unexpected happened today. When Zhang Quanliang, a middle-aged man in his forties, trotted to the front of the store, many young people had already made several turns in an S-shaped line. See in front of a vast queue, Zhang Quanliang at that time stupidly, have no reaction to come over.
"What else can you earn?" Knocking on his head, he didn't understand where he lost: "Didn't you open the door at ten o'clock?" Where on earth did they jump up? "
Less than two days after its opening, Little Red Book has circulated a set of cheats about getting up early and queuing with thousands of comments: going to the supermarket downstairs in Joy City, taking the freight elevator upstairs, rubbing the morning class elevator in the counseling institution, and taking the stairs from the underground garage ... Even if the door of the mall is closed, about two or three hundred people climb up through various channels.
Wang Jie, who lives in Haidian District, has come to see the elder brother for the second time. He took the order at 12: noon on the first day of opening and didn't eat it until around 1: pm. As an authentic foodie in Beijing, in his impression, "As long as it is food from other places, it is not normal to not queue up." Not long ago, a Guangzhou Shunde restaurant opened near the Peony Garden. When Wang Jie picked up the number at three or four o'clock in the afternoon, it was full, and it took four hours to serve. This time, when it was a working day, Wang Jie specially took a day off, got up at 7: in the morning and drove across half of Beijing, driving all the way from the west to the east, only to get a No.6.
Brother Laoguan's Beijing store is not big, and there are not necessarily fifty tables together. Although there is a prescribed meal time of 2.5 hours, the frequency of turning tables is still slightly lower. Generally, it takes three hours to pass a dozen tables, which means that there is basically no hope of eating after taking the 2th table. As a result, Daipai and scalpers started to bid on the ground one after another, and a ticket price of scalper was fried to 15 yuan in the evening rush hour.
Diners waiting in line at the gate of Brother Laoguan. Figure/Fan Mengyue
It is much more difficult for Beijing citizens to eat the hottest and most fashionable food than in other places. Buying a "admission ticket" from their own pockets has become a last resort for many people.
Kaidong, a college student, is a member of the generation. He is a potential welfare group in Beijing. In 219, he began to work part-time as a substitute for hot restaurants in Beijing. "The price of each order depends on the ranking number and the fiery degree of the specific restaurant. Generally, it is like the old official. If you take the number for three hours, you can use the meal, and the minimum is 8 yuan." Considering that the money can be earned by double insurance in the end, Kaidong often takes all the numbers of various table types. In his observation, the turnover rate of the big table will be faster than that of the small table.
At the same time, the merchants seem to be playing tricks: when there are few seats for three people, it is obviously a middle table for four people, and the clerk will arrange two people to sit in first. "Isn't this a waste of resources? Let people wait outside on purpose? "
Looking at the crowds around him, Kaidong felt dumbfounding: "Do you think it can be delicious? I have tasted it in Hangzhou, and the taste is normal hot pot. It is really not worth waiting for 7 hours. Thanks to this is Beijing, online celebrity restaurants from other places can be popular for a while. "
On a food-related platform, many consumers gave Ge Laoguan a low score because they couldn't get in line and scalpers were rampant. Figure/mobile phone screenshot
Beijing cuisine, if you can't get in, you can't go out
It's not just the elder brother and the official who want to eat in online celebrity.
If you still remember the grand occasion of the opening of the first store of Xicha in Beijing at the end of 217, then the S-shaped team of the elder brother and the official can only be regarded as a small scene. In a sense, the arrival of Xicha "started the first shot in the queuing history of Beijing Net Red Restaurant": According to the reports at that time, the average queuing time of Sanlitun Taiguli Store and Chaoyang Joy City Store exceeded 4 hours. Xicha Chaoyue Store opened for 1 hours and has received 1299 people. Under the condition that each person is limited to buy 3 cups, it sells an average of 4.33 cups per minute.
People in Beijing have been craving tea for a long time. According to Xicha official website, a brand of Guangdong tea, which was founded in 212, was first launched in Guangdong cities such as Dongguan and Zhongshan, and then settled in Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Nanning, Guangxi in 215. After entering Hangzhou and Shanghai in 217, Xicha decided to enter Beijing. In other words, in first-tier cities, Beijing people are the last to drink succulent grapes, even later than some second-and third-tier cities.
Not only is drinking milk tea half a beat slower than others, the online celebrity hotpot restaurant Banu beef omasum hotpot, which recently received nearly 1 million yuan investment from tomato capital, started in Henan in 21, focusing on Sichuan-Chongqing hotpot suitable for northerners' tastes. After opening dozens of stores, it came out of Henan in 212 and first entered Wuxi market. It didn't enter Beijing until 218, and only opened a second Beijing branch a year later. According to the review data of the US Mission, the two stores were selected into the 219 must-eat list, Beijing must-eat restaurant and Xidan hot pot Top2 respectively. It's just that you can't drink Modern China Tea Shop. Even the Sichuan-Chongqing hot pot opened by Zhengzhou people can't taste "fresh" in Beijing.
In the field of new Chinese dinner, super restaurant chain brands such as Grandma's, Green Tea and Jiumaojiu, which have more than 1 stores nationwide, are all "late" in Beijing. Even Jia Guolong, the owner of Xibei Youmian Village, who calculated by fortune-telling that "when you meet the sea, you will make a fortune when you meet Beijing", expanded to the south after starting in Beijing. At present, the number of stores in Xibei Youmian Village in Shanghai has surpassed that in Beijing.
Not only are foreign online celebrity stores slow to move in, but it is also difficult for local catering brands in Beijing to go out. Meizhou Dongpo, a restaurant chain brand founded in Beijing, currently has about 62 stores in China, 45 in Beijing, only 2 in Shanghai, and none in Shenzhen and Guangzhou. According to the public comment data, Dongpo of Meizhou has opened 3 stores in Meizhou, with an average score of 4.6. While foreign tourists must punch in, Hu Ma Xiao, a Beijing delicacy, and Four Seasons Minfu Roast Duck, the former focuses on Guijie, while the latter has only opened 18 branches in Beijing, and has not yet developed to other places.
Another veritable "queuing king" in Beijing is Huoshaoyun Dai cuisine: since the opening of the first store in 211, the long queue in front of Huoshaoyun seems to be ancestral, and it appears in front of the store at sunrise, rain or shine. According to repo, a shop in Xiaohongshu, it is normal to queue for more than 2 hours on weekdays in Huoshaoyun, and it is not unusual to queue for 4 or 5 hours on holidays. At 16: 3, the number was released, and at 17: , the number was received; When the number of tables is 2/3, the meal will be served, and you have to wait early or late. Perhaps this is the bottom spirit from the "top flow of Dai flavor".
"If friends come from afar, they should eat huoshaoyun first." Huoshaoyun is probably one of the few restaurants in online celebrity that started in Beijing. Since it entered the Shanghai market in 218, it has opened three branches in succession, each of which reproduces the crazy queuing picture in Beijing. However, the invincible team failed to stop its lonely pace: in 22, Beijing Huoshaoyun Gulou Store closed, leaving only Jingguangqiao Store and Blue Harbor Store, which were slightly off-site, to continue their business.
Quanjude is probably one of the few "going out" Beijing cuisines, but this restaurant leader, which was successfully listed more than ten years ago, has not yet become the "online celebrity Cuisine" waiting in line for more than ten hours. Narrow-door dining data shows that Quanjude currently has 9 stores in China, and Beijing has 24 exclusive stores. Annual financial reports show that after 211, Quanjude's store revenue has been declining year by year, and brand innovation has always been the bottleneck of development. In Shanghai, the public comment rating of Quanjude Tianmu West Road Store is only 4.1-in the face of customers' word of mouth, the "old brand" is not working well.
according to DT's financial statistics, when searching for "gourmet desert" in Weibo, Beijing scored C with more than 8 reference faults. On the map of Gaode, the restaurant of IKEA was once selected as the fifth place in the "Beijing Food Ranking". This is not surprising: Huguosi snacks and Yaoji fried liver with regional characteristics are too "unique", and Meizhou Dongpo and South Beauty, which are aimed at the middle and high-end market, lack identification. The most promising "potential stock" Hu Cannabis can't get out of Guijie Street, and the four seasons people can't get out of Hutong. Beijing specialty food, trapped in the Sixth Ring Road.
IKEA's catering ranks fifth in the "Beijing Food List". Figure/vision china
Beijing is very noble, but online celebrity restaurant doesn't deserve it
Beijing and online celebrity restaurants are doomed to lose some fate. Whether it's waiting in line for a day or scalpers grabbing the number, the initial popularity will not necessarily bring profits: catering enterprises that go to Beijing to take the exam can be called cautious and cautious. First, the cost of opening a store in Beijing is too high, second, the competition is too fierce, and the people in Beijing have seen more, and they will always "like the new and hate the old".
Elder Brother's main battlefield is in East China. Under normal circumstances, catering companies will set up separate branches for management when they settle in new areas. According to the enterprise investigation, in 219, Ge Laoguan had established Beijing Catering Branch with a registered capital of 1 million yuan. However, the high operating costs make it as strong as an old official, and it takes two years to "wait and see" before it officially enters.
A staff member of Ge Laoguan told the daily personage that the high operating cost in Beijing is one of the main reasons for the company's delay in going north. In terms of raw materials, except for vegetables, which are distributed by suppliers in Beijing, the rest of the meat is distributed into Beijing by Shanghai headquarters, and the cold chain transportation cost is high. It is understood that the cost of each bullfrog in Gelaoguan going to Beijing is more expensive than that in other regions, which is more expensive than that in 2 yuan.
in addition, the cost of land rent is also an important reason that prevents online celebrity stores from entering Beijing. "Brother Lao Guan was originally invited by Chaoyang Joy City to settle in. There are not many core business districts in Beijing, and the good location is at least eye-catching." The above-mentioned staff said that after Ge Laoguan opened a store in Tianjin in 219, the response was good, which attracted the attention of the Beijing business circle and took the initiative to contact them to settle in. And they can settle in the prime location of Chaoyang Joy City, which is also due to the withdrawal of the last restaurant.
According to daily figures, the price of street shops sold in the vicinity of Chaoyang Joy City is about 1 yuan//day, while in Chaoyang Joy City, which is full of land, the annual rental rate remains above 98%, and it is hard to find a "pit", and the rent has increased year after year. If you count the cost of manpower, water and electricity, without the preferential policies of shopping malls, it is really difficult to guarantee profits.
when disc taste went to Beijing for development in 216, there were already 5 or 6 stores in China at that time. Dish taste took a five-or six-hundred-square-meter store in Beijing and started the business of the first store. However, just after opening, I felt that the competition in Beijing was too great, and the older brand of dishes could not compete with the other powerful new restaurants in Beijing. By the end of 218, the number of national stores with dish flavor had exceeded 13, and more than 6 stores were added a year. In the 4-square-meter direct store in Kashgar, Xinjiang, the turnover exceeded 1 million in 28 days. At the same time, they also shrank their front lines, closed their stores in Beijing and officially withdrew from the Beijing market.
According to Bai Mo, the catering brand planner, the effect of opening stores in third-and fourth-tier cities is not necessarily worse than that in Beijing, because the rent there is low and the cost is low, and the consumption power of residents is not weak in recent years.
The lack of online red shops in Beijing also reflects the plight of the catering industry itself. According to the Annual Report of Catering Industry in 22 published by China Hotel Association, in fiscal year 219, the average net profit rate of the surveyed enterprises was only 1.46%, and the "three highs" of catering enterprises were still obvious: raw material purchase cost, labor cost and three expense costs were the three highest costs. "Small profits but quick turnover" is the characteristic of the catering industry, but in Beijing, due to the substantial increase in land rent, purchase and labor costs, the small profits have been compressed again.
Caijing magazine interviewed Qing Yong, the founder of Tomato Capital, Song Xiangqian, an investor of Wenheyou, and others on the issue of catering investment. Qing Yong mentioned that the annual mortality rate of the catering industry is about 3%. In 22, the catering industry closed more than 3.5 million stores and opened more than 2.5 million new ones. Song Xiangqian said that only 2% people in the catering industry make money. In such a market with high entry rate and high elimination rate, entering a city with high cost, high population mobility and fast pace of life in Beijing means higher risks. If you can't satisfy the appetite of Beijing diners, it will inevitably be like Xibei.