Curtain or prologue?
Text/Wu Heming
Editor/Fan Tingting
I remember visiting the Cyber City in Zhongguancun, Beijing, more than a decade ago.
In November, it had just snowed in Sijiu City, and it was the time to melt the ice, and the streets after the snow, in addition to the smell of a large ice ballast, there was also an ear of Xicheng Kyo pieces.
Under the overpass is a mobile phone film, and the entrance of the Cyber City hangs a windshield curtain made of army green coat cotton, and after opening it, it is a different scene, and the sales in front of each stall are doing their best to sell, "Save the machine?" "Buy a computer?" ”......
As long as my eyes stay at the stall for half a second, the clerk will even pull me into the store with their hands — they always try to pull every raw face they see into their store.
Whether it is the Wensan Digital Block in Hangzhou's West Lake District, 600 kilometers away, Guangbutun in Wuchang, Wuhan, or Huaqiangbei in Shenzhen's Futian District, 2,100 kilometers away, it is also such a lively scene. At that time, if there was nothing to do on the weekend, people around would go to the Cyber City to hang out, and some people would even take a two-hour bus to help their roommates, friends, and girlfriends save the machine, because there were not many people who would save the machine, and according to personal needs, saving a host with the highest cost performance was also a great social skill now.
At that time, the Cyber City was crowded, no less than any shopping mall in the city center. However, at that time, there were many gods, how lonely they fell when they fell on the altar, and the offline 3C stalls relied on old customers to make money, and they were no longer friendly to newcomers. They are no longer clinging to the most noodle stalls in the Cyber City, but instead find another way to survive in the space squeezed out of the line.
"I have acquaintances in Cyber City"
I know Lao Xiao, it is a very fortuitous opportunity, he came to Bainaohui at the hottest time of the offline cyber city, and he has been working for 15 years.
Old Xiao is 40 years old, and he did not have many employment options at that time. Old Xiao has good grades, just graduated from the mobile company to work, in the surrounding relatives and friends can also be regarded as a decent job.
Saying that it is working in a mobile company, in fact, at the beginning of the store to sell mobile phones, at that time, the most lively Yan'an Road in Hangzhou, there were telephone world, Di Xintong, mobile and Unicom's big store was opened opposite Wulin Yintai, lao Xiao was selling mobile phones there.
Every day before going to work, look at the price changes in the supply chain, adjust the selling price of mobile phones and computers, and then use domestic parts to piece together a machine, using MTK chips and keyboard screens produced in Shenzhen - a "big screen, big speaker, small keyboard" domestic mobile phone was born, such a mobile phone many people will buy.
After selling for two or three years, Lao Xiao met a ticket acquaintance, thinking that it was better to do it himself, and rented a stall with three counters on Bainaohui, which was 15 years and did not move anywhere. It was also that year that a sentence of "It's a phone" from Jobs, a beautiful country on the other side of the ocean, opened the prelude to Apple's trillion market value.
At that time, the supply chain price of digital products was not transparent, the seller was limited to offline, consumers did not dare to buy 3C products online, so Lao Xiao sold a mobile phone, can earn 300-400 yuan, some of the "noble" popular models, can earn 1000 yuan, a Nokia N97, often tens of thousands of yuan, I am at this time through the acquaintance to know the old Xiao - there are acquaintances can be less "slaughtered" a little. Compared with ripping off customers, buying digital products is more worried about buying refurbished machines or OEM counterfeit machines, "have knowledge", is a reason for most people to buy with confidence, because from the appearance, it is difficult to find the inside of the machine.
A counter rents 8,000 yuan per month, three counters are twenty-four thousand, according to the different rents of stall locations, each stall occupies at least 3 counters, more than ten, all in the golden position of the elevator entrance. Lao Xiao's stall is in a corner of the second floor of Bainaohui, even so, he can sell one or two million a year, "I have also seen shopkeepers who earn 5 million a year", some people can make a fortune selling apples, "a machine to earn a thousand is a common thing."
The national bank machine has no profit, more is the so-called "parallel goods" machine, which lasted for several years, holding an apple, which has become synonymous with "rich" and "fashionable".
Around 2012, on the one hand, Xiaomi and other domestic machines were launched at low prices, impacting the offline market; on the other hand, the rise of Tmall, Jingdong and other platforms, the lively Cyber City, instantly deserted, the official flagship store endorsed by the platform, transparent and unified, even almost the same as the Cyber City, consumers are more willing to buy online, acquaintance introduction has become a platform endorsement, the price advantage is weakened, most people are more willing to spend a little more money to buy an official guarantee.
The foundation on which the Cyber City depends is gone.
Most of the shopkeepers who made money in cyber city turned to the four seasons of green clothing or other industries in those years, and "the famous flashmen in these years came out of us."
In recent years, as the supply chain becomes more and more transparent, the price of new machines is gradually approaching, in the off-season, the profit of a new machine may be less than 50 yuan, and the profit margin of a mobile phone of 10,000 yuan is not as high as a mobile phone of 1,000 yuan.
Enigmatic second-hand and official swaps
It is difficult to find the figure of the film brother at the gate of the Cyber City, but Old Xiao has never left the stall, floating and sinking for many years, he has his own jungle philosophy.
Seeing Lao Xiao again every year is when the apple is new - the official website is difficult to determine, the scalper increases the price, and the old Xiao can give me a fair price. I have to get the old mobile phone in his hand, and then go to replace it, of course, but also to increase the price, which is the most likely time of year for merchants to earn new machine money, and it is also the most active time in the second-hand mobile phone market.
New machines are monopolized by more transparent channels, but 3C Digital also has a huge "aftermarket" that has not been completely Internetized.
The reason why the second mobile phone can make money is the same as the original, there are user needs, and the "supply chain is not transparent". It is not that most merchants are so-called "profiteers", but that there are many links in the entire recycling process. Suppose that the second-hand market price of a mobile phone is 2,000 yuan, but the merchant finds that the camera function is not normal when recycling, the merchant will reduce the recovery price according to the cost of replacing the camera, and in the later maintenance, it is found that only a small part needs to be repaired to solve, then the merchant can earn the difference in it. After the recovery of the mobile phone, can be repaired with a small cost to complete the sale of the whole machine, can not be repaired, it is disassembled and sold, "sometimes the price of mobile phone components after disassembly, higher than the whole machine sale", because it is an official accessory.
The other is a more complex process of online recycling, because of operating costs, the recovery price of the large platform is generally low, small businesses use high recycling prices to attract individual sellers, etc. After receiving the machine, they point out various problems, sometimes cutting off 3/4 of the price, many individual sellers are worried about the machine being replaced after the machine is replaced, and some are troublesome, they will be sold, in the "love recycling" function of the idle fish app, there are many such merchants, consuming the patience of consumers and the trust of the platform, " But there are still a lot of people who will pick up leaks on idle fish."
In addition to the replacement of the second mobile phone, the official replacement machine is another type that consumers are willing to pay for in recent years, especially the official replacement machine within one month of the release of the new machine, "because the components are used to assemble the new machine, so the official will hardly be repaired, the whole machine will be replaced", and the price of the official replacement machine is generally low, and it has become a popular incense for consumers, "In each authorized store of Apple, there will be a certain number of official replacement places."
Apple users in the authorized store maintenance, has reached the standard can replace the machine, the account manager will inform the machine can be repaired, and they will be the store official replacement share at a price of about 300 yuan each sold to the familiar Cyber City merchants, "encountered unfamiliar with Apple rules of the user, generally will choose to accept", if the user strongly requires the replacement, the authorized store will sell an official replacement quota to the user at the same price, "he still has nothing to lose", This is also the reason why many stores will have batch official replacement machines. Again, the information is poor.
Where to turn over
Nowadays, the digital city gate is deserted, and the rent of Lao Xiao's shop has dropped from 8,000 yuan per counter per month to 80,000 yuan a year, and the usual retail households are only enough for weekday shops and family expenses.
But as the year draws to a close, most merchants in the Cyber City are still busy shipping. During the New Year is usually the time of price increase, in the off-season, the old Shaw can pay for the goods in batches, and there is also a certain account period and insurance mechanism, if the market is lowered when paying the final payment, you can pay according to the market price. During the New Year period, Lao Xiao should pay the purchase price in one go, and the price reduction after the year should also be borne by itself, and the general merchant will transfer this part of the price to the consumer to bear, "When the consumer is happy in the New Year, the rise will also be bought", which is the reason why the machine will increase the price and run out of stock a few years ago, because the merchant does not dare to enter too much inventory.
In addition to individual customers, before the New Year, there will also be old customers who have accumulated over the years to place orders, such as purchasing year-end prizes for the annual meeting, like Lao Xiao, because it is a local, there will also be government procurement such as police recorders, cameras and other digital products, which can earn five or six hundred thousand per year.
There are not many old customers, and businesses without new customers have begun to camp online to solve their own new problems. However, the merchants who are accustomed to offline business do not know how to promote the ranking of Taobao stores, and idle fish has become their new choice, Changyi, who opened a store in Hangzhou Yigao Cyber City in 2010, is such a business, she has seen the prosperity of the Cyber City, and Yigao has now entered the process of demolition, which is also considered to be seeing it rise from the skyscraper and seeing it feast guests.
"Now many customers still like online shopping, feel cheap, but also like the same city transaction", in addition to wanting to put aside the time of express logistics, get the machine faster offline, enjoy the joy of rushing to the new machine, but also because they still feel that the online store with the same city offline store is more reliable - the monk can not run the temple, and if there is a problem, they can quickly find them. Changyi has half of the customers from the same city of idle fish, she also warmly welcomes every customer from the internet, wants to develop into an old customer, the future may have the opportunity to purchase in bulk, perhaps there is no idle fish, she can only go back to her hometown in Anhui to work.
Users sell second-hand in idle fish, but also in idle fish shopping for second-hand, "wife does not let", "lick the dog" and "girlfriend do not like" once called idle fish on the hilarious commodity label. This road also gives many digital merchants who have just entered the game more space to play, and this rare space needs to be maintained by the merchants themselves.
Old Xiao on the same floor of the merchants, 80% stationed in idle fish and Taobao, "now want to find individual buyers in idle fish, the price is suitable for the machine, almost impossible", because many individual sellers are reluctant to sell high-priced mobile phones at low prices, and the so-called "company annual meeting prizes" are also mostly merchants, "only some unpopular, digital products such as printers exist in individual sellers", selling mobile phones, computers, more than 80% are merchants.
Now a new generation of consumers, rarely go to the digital city to swing, if you want to see what is fresh toys, short videos, grass or buy shops, has been able to solve most of the needs, walking in the digital city, sporadic retail customers will bargain with the clerk at the counter, the same grinding price, the joy of this bargaining, but also a moment back to the door of a few years ago.
Old Xiao did not intend to leave the Cyber City, just wanted to guard his stall, because the outside had changed, he did not know what to do out, for the mortgage and his two children, he did not dare to give up a stable income. More "old Xiao" also guard their own acres and three points of land, there is no ambition to become bigger and stronger, but also because the outside has changed, most people do not have the talent of marketing, nor the vigor of new young people, dare to invest more costs and energy online, but honestly do business, they do the most cutting-edge 3C, but it is always difficult to be forward.
The small merchants in the mall will choose to huddle together for warmth, use the same supply chain, use the same supply system, supply their old customers, help each other, help other merchants sell their inventory to reduce their respective pressures, everyone tacitly does not touch their own old customers, with anti-inward roll, maintaining the balance of all stall bosses and the self-esteem of standing and making money at the last point. They don't know when they will be able to survive such an offline digital winter.
Old Xiao began to use better service to maintain customers, with flash delivery machines, 24-hour service are simple service upgrades, more consumers will pay more costs when choosing maintenance and selling machines, let the merchants come to the door to replace batteries, recycle old machines, which is also out of the information gap, with better service to earn a higher premium.
Nowadays, Yigao, which is across the street from Bainaohui, is undergoing renovation, and the government hopes to introduce more catering and fashionable commercial forms on the first floor of the mall, re-gather popularity, and also bring crowds to the 3C store upstairs. And that may be another story.
*In order to protect the privacy of respondents, the names in this article are pseudonyms
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