Recently, an employee certified as Dingdong Buy Vegetables (DDL.US) revealed on social media that Dingdong Buy Vegetables has opened a major layoff, and in terms of compensation, the company only gives N, and many employees are ready for arbitration. Dingdong buys vegetables and denies this, but a number of Dingdong grocery shopping employees told Caijing Technology that the layoffs are basically true.
In addition to the rumors of layoffs, some former employees broke the news to the financial network technology, dingdong to buy vegetables before the warehouse management is chaotic, there is a problem of expired, temporary goods concealment problems.
Some areas began to take a break, laying off 30% of employees in half a year
Dingdong buy vegetables for rumors, recently there are rumors that "Dingdong buy vegetables has opened a large layoff", "the core department of the maximum cut of 50%", "procurement of 50%, algorithm 30%, operation 30%, recruitment of 10% -20%", "forced to the front warehouse service station staff rest", etc., the news is untrue, there is no factual basis and rigorous data sources of malicious speculation.
Individual job changes are the company's normal organizational resource adjustment, and the recruitment needs of some positions are also released normally, and the business is currently operating normally. At the same time, there is no situation where employees are forced to take unpaid leave in front-line positions, and they will be reasonably adjusted according to the work situation of the site, especially the willingness and work intensity of employees.
However, some former employees of Dingdong Grocery Shopping believe that this response is not true.
Zhang Wei, a former employee in Ningbo, said that Dingdong buys vegetables from October to force front-line managers to improve the efficiency of front-end warehouse personnel, that is, in the case of no reduction in workload, reduce personnel scheduling, and reduce employee salaries through long-term rest. At the same time, some employees are discouraged. This part is directly included in the performance appraisal of service webmasters and regional supervisors.
"(Ningbo area) Dingdong grocery shopping normal working time is very long, front-line employees work 12 hours a day, do 26 days a month to get 2700 yuan basic salary (some personnel extra piece wages, some for performance wages)," Zhang Wei added, "In December, in order to control the effectiveness of people, began to increase the number of days of rest for employees, some employees took 10 days off that month, some employees were forced to schedule half a shift, and more employees needed to go to the store for free after taking a break." ”
Caijing Network Technology went to the Chaowai store in Chaoyang District, Beijing, where Dingdong bought vegetables, and found that the recruitment advertisement was posted outside the store, and the store manager said that there was no layoff, but stopped the recruitment of new commissioners, sorters and clerks, and only recruited delivery staff.
Zhang Wei said that the number of personnel (in Ningbo) decreased by 30% compared with July and August, and the proportion in other regions should be similar.
Li Na (Shenzhen area) is a probationary employee of Dingdong Grocery Who was laid off, and when she was dismissed, she suspected that it was her own problem. "When I heard that my colleagues around me were being fired one after another, I realized that it wasn't my own problem."
Former employees burst Dingdong to buy food warehouse in the front warehouse of expired, expired goods
In addition to layoffs, there are also former employees who broke the news to Caijing Technology that there are expired and temporary goods in the pre-warehouse of Dingdong to buy vegetables. The supervisor of Dingdong Grocery Shopping Headquarters will often choose to help conceal it after discovering this phenomenon during the spot check process.
Former employee Zhang Wei said, "Often the supervisor finds (temporary, expired goods), and will not report, unless you and the supervisor have a bad relationship, most of them are to help conceal." For example, 5 companies were found, and up to 2-3 were reported. ”
Some Dingdong grocery shopping employees revealed to Caijing Network Technology that Dingdong Grocery Shopping Headquarters sent a supervisor to check the front warehouse once a month to check whether there were expired and expired goods. If the headquarters finds that there are expired products in the front warehouse, the front warehouse will be punished, the performance will be withheld, and the promotion of three months will be cancelled, and the serious will directly dissuade the front warehouse webmaster.
"Ideally, there will be no expired or expired goods, but this situation cannot be avoided by Dingdong buying vegetables." Zhang Wei told Caijing Technology, "There are more than 2,000 SKUs in the front warehouse, each SKU corresponds to a different batch, and the number of each batch is also different." Many links are people working at a high intensity, and there are thousands of things on the shelves in one night, and it is inevitable that there will be no mistakes. ”
The picture shows: Dingdong buy vegetables Zhejiang pre-warehouse expired summary
Losses continue to expand, and the profitability of the front position is long
According to public information, Dingdong Grocery Shopping was established in May 2017, which is a pre-warehouse fresh e-commerce platform that provides users with fresh consumption services through the service mode of direct procurement in the place of origin, pre-warehouse distribution and fastest 29-minute delivery to home. At the end of June 2021, Dingdong Buy Vegetables was listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
After the listing, Dingdong has been burning money to expand the market. As of the end of the third quarter of this year, Dingdong Has 1375 front-end warehouses. Its performance expenses were RMB2.308 billion, an increase of 120.8% year-on-year and 36.3% sequentially, accounting for nearly 30% of the company's total operating costs and expenses in the same period.
The front warehouse has been controversial in the industry, and Hou Yi, CEO of Hema Xiansheng, even shouted that the front warehouse is a false proposition and is the model of To VC. To VC, also a game of drumming and flowers, has no profitability.
In the first three quarters of 2021, Dingdong's revenue was 3.802 billion yuan, 4.646 billion yuan and 6.189 billion yuan, respectively, while the net loss reached 1.385 billion yuan, 1.937 billion yuan and 2.011 billion yuan, respectively. In the first three quarters of 2021 alone, the loss was as high as 5.33 billion yuan, more than the net profit loss in the previous two years combined.
Zhang Wei said, "The more you sell, the more you lose." There is no scale effect, and the business model does not run through. The premise of profitability is either to make a high customer unit price; or to form a scale and make the cost low. Some time ago, the free delivery threshold was raised to make high customer unit prices. ”
Dingdong Grocery Shopping and Daily Fresh are both pre-positioned models, and both are currently in a state of loss. As for when the front-end position will be profitable, Zhang Wei said, "Only first-tier cities may be profitable, and the rest of the cities cannot do it." ”
Liang Changlin, the founder of Dingdong Buy Vegetables, said in a media interview on the day of the listing that it should not leave the scale to talk about profitability, and it is not difficult to make a profit, for example, Dingdong Buy Vegetables has reached a break-even point in Shanghai, as long as marketing expenses are reduced, the gross profit margin can be adjusted appropriately.
According to the financial report, as of September 30, 2021, Dingdong Grocery held cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments of 6.817 billion yuan. After going public at the end of June this year, Dingdong Has Never Received Financing. If the loss continues, the money on the book may not be able to support Dingdong to buy vegetables for a long time.
On January 13, Eastern Time, Dingdong bought vegetables at a closing price of $10.12 and a market value of $2.389 billion, and the stock price was already waist-cut compared with the $23.5 issue price at the time of listing.
(At the request of the interviewer, this article is a pseudonym)