Haidilao has always attracted countless people to dine with its considerate service and delicious hot pot. After the epidemic, Haidilao stores across the country opened one after another, but everyone found that the price had increased a lot, and the portions were also suspected of shrinking. After a few days of fermentation, Haidilao also apologized for the price increase. And promised to lower the price, details are as follows. Haidilao price increase incident

“The per capita price is 22, half potato slices are 13 yuan, a full potato is 1.5 yuan, self-service condiments are 10 yuan per person... Not only is the quantity less, but the price has also gone up. "Many netizens complained on Weibo. In response, Haidilao once publicly responded that the total price increase would be around 6%, and that different stores and cities have differentiated pricing plans. Apology message

However, due to the increasing downward pressure on the macro economy, people are forced to reduce optional consumer spending, and consumers are less tolerant of price increases. Many netizens found it difficult to accept Haidilao's price increase. Therefore, Haidilao publicly apologized on Weibo yesterday afternoon. After being released, the apology letter quickly became a trending topic on Weibo. Haidilao officials said that pricing will return to the standards before the shutdown on January 26 with immediate effect. Reasons for the price increase of Haidilao

On the one hand, after so many years of development, the catering industry is relatively unregulated, with fierce competition, high elimination rate, and low entry barriers.

On the other hand, after the price increase of Haidilao, there were no reports of interviews with relevant departments. The last time Haidilao was interviewed was reported in 2017, when it was required to make rectifications due to hygiene issues.

Third, the epidemic has not yet been completely resolved and production has not yet fully resumed. Both the government and the private sector have certain psychological expectations for price increases, which are not completely unacceptable.

"You have the freedom to increase the price, and I have the freedom not to." This view is still acceptable to most people, much more so than masks.

In general, although Haidilao’s price increase has caused heated discussions, there has been no one-sided opposition on the Internet, and the public opinion environment of Haidilao is not considered negative. Development Status

Judging from the 2019 annual report released by Haidilao last month, there are two negative signals worth noting. Haidilao's turnover rate and same-store sales growth both declined. The turnover rate fell from 5.0 times/day in 2018 to 4.8 times/day. The same-store sales growth rate in first- and second-tier cities fell from 4.3% to -1.9%. However, the unit price per customer in first- and second-tier cities still maintains a slow growth.

Taken together, Haidilao’s expansion in first- and second-tier cities has reached a bottleneck. A single customer consumes more than before, but passenger flow is declining. In order to maintain growth, Haidilao must actively adopt a sinking strategy. Haidilao has also done this before. In 2019, Haidilao opened 302 restaurants in total, with 77 new restaurants in third-tier and lower-tier cities. Impact of the epidemic

The sudden epidemic hit Haidilao's sinking strategy. In order to maintain its hematopoietic ability as much as possible, Haidilao began to rapidly shrink its front line. Today, when the epidemic prevention and control situation is still severe, rapid expansion will not only fail to increase income, but will also increase costs, because store rent, food ingredients, employee wages, interest, etc. are all rigid expenses.

It is difficult to obtain incremental revenue, so Haidilao starts from the existing stock. The price increase also shows that Haidilao's management is very confident in its brand.