Wenheyou fortune-telling

In Beijing, there is a queuing law circulating on the Internet: "If you want to sit in an online celebrity restaurant at night, you have to leave without breakfast."

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 has to wait in line for a whole day, or wait for three months to eat. 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 come, queuing becomes a will, which greatly increases the hardship of queuing.

At the beginning of August, the old official of Meiwa Hot Pot opened the first store in Beijing in Joy City, Chaoyang, Beijing, and lined up for another performance. As a catering enterprise established in 20 14, Gelaoguan has opened more than 60 branches all over the country. When being searched for food safety, many people in Beijing are still questioning, what store is this? As early as 20 19, Laoguan opened a shop in Tianjin to test the water. He came to Beijing until recently. Many people left messages on the official WeChat account and Weibo: "Come to Beijing! If you want to eat brother, 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 live in Beijing, it's hard to imagine "even if you don't touch convenience stores all the way, why don't you have more choices if you want to eat seriously?" When the trendy food in Little Red Book came to Beijing, people lined up enthusiastically, as if to announce to more lurking and waiting brands: "Don't wait, make money!"

This can not help but make people wonder. Does Beijing rely on "strength" to make foreign cuisine have no market, or does local catering really dare not go to Beijing to catch the exam?

Brother Guan is here, and it's gone all day.

/kloc-arrive at the store at 0: 30, and there are 300 tables in front.

On the third day of opening, on a Monday morning, Zhang Quanliang, who made a fortune by reselling the ranking number, came to the door of Da Yue early, waiting for the mall to open the door and was the first to rush in, expecting that there might be a long queue. He specially hired several helpers to change the number together, ready to make a fortune from it.

But there are some surprises today. When Zhang Quanliang, a middle-aged man in his forties, trotted to the front of the shop, many young people had turned several times on the S-shaped line. See in front of a huge queue, 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: "Don't you open 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 with thousands of comments: 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 eat it until around 10: 00 in the evening. As an authentic Beijing foodie, in his impression, "As long as it is a foreign dish, it is not normal not to queue up." Not long ago, a Shunde restaurant in Guangzhou opened near Peony Garden. At three or four o'clock in the afternoon, when Wang Jie took the number, it was full, and it would take four hours to serve. This time it was a working day. Wang Jie specially took a day off, got up at seven in the morning, drove halfway across Beijing, and drove all the way from west to east, just for a No.60 car.

Brother Lao Guan's Beijing store is not big, and it doesn't necessarily have 50 tables in total. Although there is a prescribed meal time of 2.5 hours, the frequency of turning tables is still slightly lower. It usually takes three hours to get past a dozen tables, which means 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 currently seated scalper in the evening rush hour was fried to 150 yuan.

The diners waiting in line at the gate of Laoguan. Figure/Fan Meng Yue

Beijing residents want to eat the hottest and most fashionable food, which is much harder than other places. Buying "admission tickets" out of their own pockets has become a last resort for many people.

Kaidong, a college student, is one of them. As a potential welfare group in Beijing, 20 19 began to work as a part-time foundry in Beijing's hot pot restaurant. "The price of each order depends on the ranking number and the fiery degree of the specific restaurant. Generally like an old official. You can have a meal in three hours, the lowest 80 yuan. " Considering that you can earn money through double insurance in the end, Kaidong often takes away the numbers of various brands. In his observation, the turnover speed 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, it is obviously a middle table for four, 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 crowd around him, 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 this is Beijing, online celebrity restaurants in other places can be popular for a while. "

On a food-related platform, many consumers give Ge Laoguan a low score because they can't queue up and scalpers are rampant. Figure/mobile phone screenshot

Beijing food can't get in or out.

Laoguange is not the only online celebrity store that Beijingers want to eat.

If you still remember the grand occasion of opening the first store of Xicha in Beijing at the end of 20 17, then my 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 reports 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 received 1299 people. Under the condition that each person is limited to 3 cups, an average of 4.33 cups are sold per minute.

Beijingers have been longing for tea for a long time. According to Xicha official website, the Guangdong tea brand founded in 20 12 was first launched in Guangdong cities such as Dongguan and Zhongshan, and settled in Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Nanning, Guangxi in 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 to drink succulent 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 Hot Pot, which is invested by nearly 100 million tomato capital, started from Henan, focusing on Sichuan-Chongqing hot pot suitable for northerners. Opened dozens of stores, 20 12 came out of Henan and entered Wuxi market for the first time. It was not until 20 18 that it entered Beijing, and a second Beijing branch was opened 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. Just can't drink modern China tea shop. Even the Sichuan-Chongqing hotpot 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 100 stores in China, are all "late" in Beijing. Even Jia, the owner of Youmian Village, who calculated through fortune-telling that "when you meet the sea, you will get rich when you meet Beijing", started from Beijing and expanded to the south. At present, Xibei Youmian Village has more stores in Shanghai than 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 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 opened three stores in Meizhou, with an average score of 4.6. As for the Beijing Cuisine Hu and Four Seasons Roast Duck, which foreign tourists must punch in, the former is mainly Guijie, while the latter has only opened 18 branch 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 on 20 1 1, the long queue in front of Huoshaoyun seems to be ancestral, and now it is at the door of the store regardless of sunrise or sunset. According to repo, the store of 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. 16: 30, and the number of the day was 17: 00; When the number of tables is two-thirds, the meal will be served. You should wait early, but not late. Perhaps this is the bottom spirit from the "top flow of Dai flavor".

"It's a pleasure to have friends coming from afar." Huoshaoyun is probably one of the few restaurants among online celebrities that started in Beijing. Since 20 18 entered the Shanghai market, it has opened three branches in succession, and each branch has reproduced the crazy queue in Beijing. However, the invincible team failed to stop its lonely footsteps: in 2020, Beijing Huoshaoyun Gulou Store closed, leaving only Jingguangqiao Store and Blue Harbor Store in a slightly different place to continue 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 an "online celebrity gourmet" waiting in line for more than ten hours. Narrow-door catering data shows that Quanjude currently has 90 stores in China and 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 customers' word of mouth, the "old brand" is not easy to use.

According to DT financial statistics, when searching for "gourmet desert" in Weibo, Beijing scored C with more than 800 reference faults. On Gaud's map, IKEA's 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", while Meizhou Dongpo and South Beauty, which are located in 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 List". 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 for exams 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 settle in new areas. Enterprise survey shows that in 20 19, Ge Laoguan has set up a Beijing catering branch with a registered capital of 1 10,000 yuan. However, the high operating cost makes it as strong as an old official, and it takes two years to "wait and see" before it can officially enter.

An official staff member of Brother I told the Daily Person 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 delivered by suppliers in Beijing, the rest of the meat is delivered to Beijing by Shanghai headquarters, and the cost of cold chain transportation is high. It is understood that it is more expensive for the Gelao people to keep each bullfrog in Beijing than in other areas, and it is more expensive than 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, hoping to settle in. And they can settle in the prime location of Chaoyang Joy City, thanks to the merger of the last restaurant.

According to the daily figures, the price of street shops on sale near Chaoyang Joy City is about 10 yuan/day, while in Chaoyang Joy City, where land is scarce, the annual rental rate remains above 98%, and it is hard to find a "pit", and the rent has increased year after year. If the cost of manpower, water and electricity is included, it is really difficult to guarantee profits without the preferential policies of shopping malls.

When Panwei 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, I just felt that the competition in Beijing was too great, and the old brand dishes 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. In a 400-square-meter direct store in Kashgar, Xinjiang, the turnover in 28 days exceeded 1 10,000. At the same time, they also narrowed 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, 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 2020 annual report of catering industry released by China Hotel Association, the average net profit rate of the surveyed enterprises 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 highest three costs. "Small profits but quick turnover" is the characteristic of the catering industry, but in Beijing, due to the sharp rise in land rent, procurement and labor costs, small profits have been compressed again.

Caijing magazine interviewed Qing Yong, the founder of Tomato Capital, Song, the investor of Wenheyou, and others on the issue of catering investment. Qing Yong mentioned that the annual mortality rate of the catering industry is around 30%. In 2020, the catering industry closed more than 3.5 million stores and opened more than 2.5 million new 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 Beijing, a city with high cost, large 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 in direct sales, franchising and joining, distribute benefits and improve operation level. "Chain brands need a combination of giant supply chains and standard store management levels. This line seems to have a low barrier to entry, but it is actually very high. " Song said in an interview. Gelaoguan and Banu beef omasum hotpot, high-quality restaurants that only allow direct sales and adopt a unified supplier and transportation chain, often can't beat Mala Tang, Lamian Noodles and Yunnan rice noodles, and are allowed to join, 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, with the third largest number of stores in China and 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, which is the first choice for optimization.

Online celebrity stores are hard to survive in Beijing, not to mention being an old brand that is "expensive and unpalatable" as a whole. In March of this year, Goubuli's store in Dashilan Street in Beijing 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 careful design of expansion strategy, support of low-cost cold chain logistics and heavy participation of capital, and fast food is far superior to high-end quality restaurants in these aspects. Therefore, Beijing has become the world of Shaxian snacks, Lanzhou Lamian Noodles and Shawn Mala Tang, 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 monolithic Beijing offices.

The saute spicy chicken in ginster Restaurant of Beijing Office in Bazhou, Xinjiang is considered as one of the most authentic saute spicy chicken in Beijing. Figure/public comment

References:

1. "Wan Zi Chang Wen: 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 last decade has a unique way of reading.

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 boss of the catering 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 dining eyes and enterprise surveys.

The article is original for everyday people, and the infringement will be investigated.