Consumers are the direct beneficiaries of "side dishes"-the logic of benefiting is very simple, that is, spending almost the same money, eating more diverse dishes and getting a better consumption experience. In addition, there is another link that people don't pay much attention to, that is, because there are few choices, the total amount easily exceeds the actual demand. Although leftovers can be packed and taken away (eaten in the lobby) or stored (taken out), leftovers are more likely to be thrown away in the end; Ordering "small portions of vegetables" is not easy to overdo, which is conducive to saving food. Consumers are God, so that consumers can directly benefit in a visible and calculated way. In this regard, "small portions of vegetables" is a successful model innovation.
For catering enterprises, providing a "small portion" first means an increase in responsibility and cost. The Anti-Food Waste Law promulgated on April 29 this year stipulates that catering service operators should make food according to standards and norms, reasonably determine the quantity and weight, provide snacks and other different specifications, and must not induce or mislead consumers to order too much. In order to fulfill the responsibility of providing snacks, catering enterprises should actively explore and innovate in food design, food selection, reasonable pricing, publicity and marketing, and thus increase the actual cost of production, management and service. This is the requirement for catering enterprises to implement anti-food waste laws and regulations, and it is also the need to advocate saving food fashion and fulfilling corporate social responsibility.
In this process, on the whole, catering enterprises are also the beneficiaries of "side dishes"-the logic of benefiting is also very simple, that is, the efforts of enterprises are conducive to improving the quality of catering consumption and expanding the scale of catering, and the profits from the innovation of "side dishes" mode will sooner or later exceed the increased costs. According to the data of Meituan, since the beginning of this year, users have actively searched for keywords such as "half dish", "side dish" and "set meal for one person" for nearly 44 1 10,000 times, up 52.5% year-on-year. Although the "small portion of food" is small, the "cake" of the catering industry has become bigger. Just like "small profits but quick turnover", "small shares and quick turnover" can produce the effect of increasing income and reducing expenditure.
In addition to catering enterprises, the catering take-out platform is also an important subject of "small dishes" model innovation. The Anti-Food Waste Law stipulates that the food and beverage take-out platform should prompt consumers to order food in a significant way. Catering service operators who provide services through the catering take-out platform shall provide consumers with information such as food weight, specifications or suggested consumption quantity on the platform page. Therefore, the catering take-out platform should make use of advanced technologies such as Internet, big data and artificial intelligence, give full play to the characteristics and advantages of platform economy, provide services and convenience for catering businesses to sell "side dishes" and consumers to buy "side dishes", and become a guide and supervisor for catering enterprises and consumers to participate in the "side dishes" mode. After doing these jobs well, the catering take-away platform will also be the beneficiary of "side dishes".
The "side dishes" that came into being and quickly became popular vividly explained the "great truth" of cherishing and saving food and opposing food waste. It is expected that consumers, catering enterprises and catering take-out platforms will actively participate in the innovation of "small portion dishes" mode, which can provide more useful practices and experiences for all sectors of society, food enterprises, functional departments, internet platforms and other parties to jointly perform their duties of anti-food waste, continuously strengthen the consumer culture atmosphere of "being ashamed of waste and proud of saving" and promote civilized, healthy, rational and green consumption of the whole society.