Text | Zhou Zihao Li Xiaoqu
Edit | Zhao Lei
Operation | Mi Yue
People living in Beijing seem to have long been used to this scene: a newly opened online celebrity restaurant needs to wait in line for a whole day or three months before eating. What is even more unacceptable to Beijingers 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 came, queuing became a will, which greatly increased the hardship of queuing.
At the beginning of August, the old official of Frog Hot Pot opened the first store in Beijing in Joy City, Chaoyang, Beijing, and the scene of queuing was staged again. As a catering enterprise established on 20 14, Gelao Pavilion has opened more than 60 branches all over the country. When it was hot searched for food safety, many Beijingers still questioned, what kind of store is this? As early as 20 19, Laoguan opened a shop in Tianjin to test the water. Until recently, he came to Beijing. Many people left messages on the official WeChat account and Weibo: "Come to Beijing! It is too difficult to eat in Tianjin! "
In addition to the difficulty of queuing, as the top stream of first-tier cities, Beijing is often ridiculed 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 convenience stores all the way, if you want to eat seriously, why don't you have more choices?" When the trendy food in Little Red Book came to Beijing, people lined up enthusiastically, as if to announce to more brands that were lurking and waiting: "Don't wait, there is money to make!"
This can not help but make people wonder. Is Beijing relying on "strength" to make foreign cuisine have no market, or is local catering really afraid to go to Beijing to catch the exam?
Brother Guan is here, and it's gone all day.
/kloc-arrive at the store at 0/0: 30, and there are 300 tables in front.
On the third day of opening, on a Monday morning, Zhang Quanliang, who has been hanging out in Beijing's major online celebrity restaurants all the year round and made a fortune by reselling ranking numbers, came to the gate of Dayue Shopping Mall early, waiting for the mall to open. He was the first to rush in. Because he expected 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 there are some surprises today. When Zhang Quanliang, a middle-aged man in his forties, walked quickly to the front of the store, many young people had lined up in several S-shaped lines. See the mighty crowd in front, Zhang Quanliang stupidly, have no reaction to come over.
"What money can you make from it?" 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, Xiaohongshu circulated a set of cheats about queuing up early, commenting on thousands of articles: going to the supermarket downstairs in Joy City, taking the freight elevator upstairs, rubbing the early elevator of 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, is visiting his brother for the second time. On the first day of business, he took the order at noon 12:00, and didn't finish it until around 10: 00 in the evening. As an authentic Beijing foodie, in his impression, "As long as it is foreign food, it is not normal not to queue up." Not long ago, a restaurant in Shunde, Guangzhou, opened near Peony Garden. When Wang Jie picked up the phone number at three or four o'clock in the afternoon, it was full and the service took four hours. This time it was a working day. Wang Jie specially took a day off, got up at 7: 00 in the morning, drove across half of Beijing, and drove all the way from west to east, just to take the No.60 exam.
Brother Lao Guan's Beijing store is not big, and it doesn't necessarily have 50 tables in total. Although the meal time is 2.5 hours, the frequency of turning tables is still slightly lower. Generally, it takes three hours after a dozen tables, which means that there is basically no hope of eating after sitting at the 200th table. As a result, Daipai and scalpers began to bid one after another, and the ticket price of a scalper currently seated at the table was fired to 150 yuan in the evening rush hour.
Diners queuing in front of the old official. Figure/model
For Beijing residents, it is much more difficult to eat the hottest and most fashionable food than in other places. Buying "admission tickets" out of their own pockets has become the last choice of many people.
Kaidong, a college student, is one of this generation. As a potential welfare group in Beijing, he began to work as a part-time meal substitute in popular restaurants in Beijing in 20 19. "The price of each order depends on the ranking figures and the fiery degree of the specific restaurant. They are usually like old officials. If you take the number for three hours, you can use the meal, the lowest 80 yuan. " Considering that you can earn money with double insurance in the end, Kaidong often accounts for the numbers of various watches. In his observation, the turnover rate of the big table will be faster than that of the small table.
At the same time, the merchant seems to be playing tricks: when there are few seats for three people, it is obviously the middle table for four people, and the clerk will arrange for two people to sit in first. "This is not a waste of resources? Deliberately let people wait outside? "
Looking at the crowds around, Kaidong felt in distress situation: "Do you think it can be delicious? I have tasted it in Hangzhou, and it tastes normal hot pot. It's really not worth waiting for seven hours. Thanks to Beijing, online celebrity restaurants in 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 line up and scalpers were rampant. Figure/mobile phone screenshot
Beijing food, you can't get in or out.
Brother Laoguan is not the only online celebrity store that Beijingers want to eat.
If you still remember the grand occasion of the opening of the first store of Xicha in Beijing at the end of 20 17, then the little brother's S-shaped team can only be regarded as a small scene. In a sense, the arrival of Xicha "fired the first shot in the queue history of Beijing Net Red Restaurant": according to the report at that time, the average queue time of Sanlitun Taiguli Store and Chaoyang Joy City Store exceeded 4 hours. Xicha Chaoyue Store opened 10 hour, and accumulated reception 1299 person-times. In the case that each person is limited to 3 cups, the average price is 4.33 cups per minute.
Beijingers have been longing for tea for a long time. Xicha official website shows that Xicha is a Guangdong tea brand founded on 20 12, which first spread in Guangdong cities such as Dongguan and Zhongshan, and then settled in Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Nanning, Guangxi on 20 15. After 20 17 settled in Hangzhou and Shanghai, Xicha decided to enter Beijing. In other words, in first-tier cities, Beijingers are the last people to drink juicy grapes, even later than some second-and third-tier cities.
Not only is drinking milk tea slower than others, but recently, the online celebrity hot pot restaurant Banu Maodu Hotpot 200 1 invested nearly1100 million yuan by Tomato Capital started from Henan, focusing on Sichuan-Chongqing hot pot suitable for northerners. After opening dozens of stores, 20 12 went out of Henan and entered the Wuxi market for the first time. It didn't enter Beijing until 20 18, and it didn't open the second Beijing branch until one year later. According to the review data of the US Mission, the two stores were selected into the 20 19 must-eat list, Beijing must-eat restaurant and Xidan hot pot Top2 respectively. It's just that you can't drink the modern China tea shop. Even the Sichuan-Chongqing hot pot opened by Zhengzhou people, Beijing people can't taste "fresh".
In the field of new Chinese dinner, super restaurant chain brands such as Grandma's, Green Tea and Jiumaojiu, which have more than 6,543.8+10,000 stores nationwide, are all "late" in Beijing. Even Jia, the owner of Youmian Village, who once calculated through fortune telling that "meeting the sea means meeting Beijing", started from Beijing and expanded to the south. At present, the number of stores in Shanghai Xibei Youmian Village has surpassed that in Beijing.
Not only are foreign online celebrity stores slow to enter, but it is also difficult for local catering brands in Beijing to go out. Meizhou Dongpo, a chain restaurant 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 public comment data, Dongpo of Meizhou has opened three stores in Meizhou, with an average score of 4.6 points. As for the Beijing cuisine Hu Ma Xiao and Four Seasons Fumin Roast Duck, which foreign tourists have to punch in, the former is mainly concentrated in Guijie, while the latter has only opened 65,438+08 branches in Beijing and has not yet developed to other places.
Another veritable "queuing king" in Beijing is Huo Shaoyun's Dai cuisine: since the opening of the first store on 20 1 1, the long queue in front of Huo Shaoyun seems to be ancestral, and now it is at the door of the store whether it is sunny or sunny. According to repo, a small red book store, 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. 16: 30, 17: 00 received the number of the day; When the number of tables is two-thirds, the food will be served, and you have to wait sooner or later. Perhaps this is the bottom spirit from the "top-flowing Dai flavor".
"It's a pleasure to have friends coming from afar." Huoshaoyun may be one of the few restaurants in "Internet Red Man" that started in Beijing. Since 20 18 entered the Shanghai market, it has even opened three branches, each of which reproduces the crazy queuing picture in Beijing. However, the invincible team failed to stop its lonely pace: in 2020, Beijing Huoshaoyun Gulou Store closed, leaving only Jingguangqiao Store and Blue Harbor Store in a slightly different place to continue business.
Quanjude may be 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 an "online celebrity cuisine" that has been queued for more than ten hours. According to the survey data of Narrow Door Catering, Quanjude currently has 90 stores in China, while there are 24 specialty stores in Beijing. The annual financial report shows that after 20 1 1 year, the store income of Quanjude 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 customer reputation, the "old brand" is not easy to use.
According to DT financial statistics, when searching for "gourmet desert" in Weibo, Beijing scored C for more than 800 reference faults. On the map of Gaode, IKEA restaurant was selected as the fifth place in the "Beijing Food Ranking". This is not surprising: Huguosi snacks and Yao Ji fried liver with regional characteristics are too "unique", and Meizhou Dongpo and South Beauty, which are oriented to the middle and high-end market, lack recognition. The most promising "potential stock" Hu Cannabis can't get out of Guijie Street, and people in four seasons can't get out of Hutong. Beijing specialty food, trapped in the Sixth Ring Road.
Ikea's catering ranks fifth in the "Beijing Food Ranking". Figure/vision china
Beijing is very noble, and online celebrity restaurants don'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 does 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, and second, the competition is too fierce. If Beijing people see more, they will always "like the new and hate the old".
Brother Lao Guan's main battlefield is in East China. Under normal circumstances, catering companies will set up separate branches for management when they enter the new area. Enterprise investigation shows that in 20 19, Ge Laoguan set up Beijing Catering Branch with a registered capital of 1 10,000 yuan. However, the high operating cost makes it as powerful as an old official, and it takes two years to "wait and see" before it can officially enter.
An official staff member told People of the Day 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 vegetables are distributed by suppliers in Beijing, the rest of the meat is distributed to Beijing by Shanghai headquarters, and the cost of cold chain transportation is high. It is understood that the cost for each bullfrog in Gelaoguan to go to Beijing is more expensive than that in other areas and more expensive than that in 2 yuan.
In addition, the cost of land rent is also an important reason to hinder online celebrity stores from entering Beijing. "The elder brother of the old customs was originally invited by Chaoyang Joy City. There are not many core business districts in Beijing, and good locations are at least eye-catching. " The above-mentioned staff said that after Ge Laoguan 20 19 opened a store in Tianjin, the response was good, which attracted the attention of the Beijing business circle and took the initiative to contact them and hoped to settle in. And they were able to settle in the prime location of Chaoyang Joy City, which also benefited from the withdrawal of the last restaurant.
According to the daily data, the price of street shops sold near Chaoyang Joy City is about 65,438+00 yuan/day, while in Chaoyang Joy City, where land is scarce, the annual rental rate remains above 98%, and a "pit" is hard to find, and rents have increased year after year. If you count the cost of manpower, water and electricity, it is really difficult to guarantee profits without the preferential policies of shopping malls.
When disc taste came to Beijing in 20 16, there were already 50 or 60 stores in China. Cuiwei took a 500-600-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 dishes of old brands could not compete with other powerful new restaurants in Beijing. By the end of 20 18, there were more than 130 stores nationwide, and more than 60 stores were added a year. Among the 400 square meters direct stores in Kashgar, Xinjiang, the turnover in 28 days exceeds 1 10,000. At the same time, they also narrowed the front line, closed their stores in Beijing and officially withdrew from the Beijing market.
Bai Mo, a catering brand planner, thinks that 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, the cost is low, and the consumption power of residents is not weak in recent years.
The lack of online celebrity stores in Beijing also reflects the plight of the catering industry itself. According to the Annual Report of Catering Industry in 2020 issued by China Hotel Association, the average net interest rate of the enterprises surveyed was only 10.46% in fiscal year 20 19, and the "three highs" problem of catering enterprises is still obvious: raw material procurement cost, labor cost and three expense costs are the three highest costs. "Small profits but quick turnover" is the characteristic of the catering industry, but in Beijing, due to the sharp increase in land rent, procurement and labor costs, the meager profits have been compressed again.
Caijing magazine interviewed Qing Yong, founder of Tomato Capital, Song Xiangqian, 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 30%. In 2020, the catering industry closed more than 3.5 million stores and opened more than 2.5 million stores. Song said that only 20% 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 means higher risks. If we can't satisfy the appetite of Beijing diners, we will inevitably encounter the "middle-aged crisis" of enterprises such as Xibei and Xiabu.
Xiabu Xiabu has changed from a one-person one-pot bar to an ordinary restaurant booth. Figure/public comment
For chain brands, "linking interests and locking management" is also the key to success. In addition to category selection, it is also necessary to design direct sales, franchising and joining in order to distribute benefits and improve operation level. "Chain brands need a combination of giant supply chain and standard store management level. This line seems to have a low entry threshold, but it is actually very high. " Song said in an interview. High-quality restaurants, such as Gelaoguan and Banu Maodu Hotpot, which only allow direct sales and adopt a unified supplier and transportation chain, often can't beat brands such as Mala Tang, Lamian Noodles and Yunnan Rice Noodle, which can reduce the purchase cost.
In recent years, there are not a few online celebrity stores that entered the Beijing market with high profile but eventually lost. In 2020, Jiumaojiu Northwest Cuisine, which ranks third in the number of stores in China and is listed in Hong Kong, announced its withdrawal from the Beijing and Tianjin markets. According to its official announcement, the brand needs to "reduce rent, raw materials and consumables costs and other operating expenses" due to the epidemic, while the passenger flow of stores in Beijing and Tianjin is generally small, so it has become the first choice for optimization.
It's hard for online celebrity stores to survive in Beijing, not to mention the old brand which is "expensive and unpalatable" as a whole. In March of this year, Goubuli's store in Dashilan Street in Beijing was officially closed. This store is Goubuli's last direct store in Beijing. The closure of this store means that this century-old brand has officially withdrawn from the Beijing market.
In order to survive in Beijing, high-quality restaurants need higher management wisdom, lower operating costs and stronger anti-risk ability, which means well-designed expansion strategy, low-cost cold chain logistics support and deep participation of capital, and snack fast food is far superior to high-end high-quality restaurants in these aspects. Therefore, Beijing has become the world of Shaxian snacks, Lanzhou Lamian Noodles and Shawn spicy food, rather than the battlefield of buddies and bureaucrats.
However, there is no need to "pity" the stomachs of Beijingers: online celebrity restaurants without running water and iron-clad Beijing offices.
The saute spicy chicken in Jinsite Restaurant of Beijing Office in Bazhou, Xinjiang is considered to be one of the most authentic saute spicy chickens in Beijing. Figure/public comment
References:
1. "Wan Zi Long Text: Five-year Data Insights into Catering Trends in China", which is the internal reference of catering business owners.
2. The catering investment craze: the best decade and the last decade has a unique interpretation.
3. "The catering stocks are ebbing, who is swimming naked?" , inside and out.
4. Top Ten "Food Deserts" in China, the first one is popular, DT Finance.
5. "On the first day of the opening of the Imperial Capital, line up at the gate of Starbucks! How far is Xicha from becoming a "giant"? " The owner of the restaurant company is an internal reference.
6. China Hotel Association's annual report on catering industry in 2020.
7. Quanjude 20 1 1~2020 Financial Report
Part of the data comes from narrow-door catering eyes and enterprise surveys.
The article is original for daily characters, and infringement will be investigated.