Zhongxin Jingwei, February 10 (Yan Shuxin intern Hu Yi) "12.9 yuan a box of Meiji bear sandwich biscuits on the e-commerce platform, here for 4.9 yuan can be bought!" Recently, Xiao Hu in Beijing became obsessed with visiting the temporary food discount store.
Temporary food refers to food that enters the critical period of shelf life of goods, usually ranging from 15 days to half a year from the shelf life. In the past two years, a number of temporary food discount stores have emerged offline concentration, including chain brands such as good special sales and hi special purchases, which have won the hearts of many young consumers with the low-price strategy, and have expanded wildly under the blessing of capital.
However, some consumers complained that most of the goods in the good sale are not temporary, but the products of some unknown manufacturers. Some insiders pointed out in an interview that temporary food or just a drainage tool for "good sellers", and second- and third-line products with higher gross profits are its main projects.
The company plans to open 5,000 stores over three years
"The stuff here is really too cheap, it cost less than 30 yuan to buy a bunch of snacks, and many of the goods are not in the early stage, and it is still close to the production date." Xiao Hu was planted after a good sale, calling it "magical".
According to the information on the official website, Haote Was founded in February 2020, and is committed to integrating the resources of overproduction, allowing consumers to buy the world's big-name goods at the lowest price, "one end to solve the brand's inventory pressure, the other end to bring benefits to consumers". At present, hao special sale has covered more than ten cities such as Shanghai, Beijing, Nanjing, etc., with more than 250 stores, more than 30,000 products under management, and more than 1,000 cooperative brands.
Zhongxin Jingwei searched on the public comments and found that in The popular business districts of Beijing such as Xidan Joy City, Sanlitun, Wangjing, shuangjing, etc., good sales can be seen.
At about 4:30 p.m. on February 7, Zhongxin Jingwei saw in a good special store in Shuangjing R&F Plaza that the promotional slogan of "imported good things, 20% off the whole site" was particularly eye-catching, and at this time, many consumers had come to buy goods. Zhongxin Jingwei saw that here, most of the products are sold at a price of 50% lower than the in-store guidance price, including Starbucks coffee 6.5 yuan a can, Wujiang squeezed vegetables 1.7 yuan a pack, Wang Wang Xiao Xiao Crisp 2.4 yuan a pack, Xiaolongkan convenient hot pot 17.4 yuan a box ...
A good special store in Shuangjing R&F Plaza. Photo by Yan Shuxin
According to the staff of the store, haote has more than 100 stores in Beijing. However, Zhongxin Jingwei searched for "Beijing" on the official WeChat Mini Program of Haote Andre, and only 80 stores were retrieved.
Although there are some discrepancies in the numbers, it is undeniable that the good sale is accelerating its expansion. According to public reports, in December 2020, Haote sold its first store in Beijing Galaxy SOHO's sunken plaza. In this way, even under the influence of the epidemic, in more than a year, Haote Sold has opened at least 80 stores in Beijing.
It should be noted that Haote Sold mentioned on its official website that the total number of its stores will exceed 5,000 in the next three years, becoming the responsibility of China's offline discount stores.
The road to expansion under the blessing of capital
The crazy expansion of good sales is inseparable from the support of capital.
According to the Tianyancha APP, the company to which Haote sells is Shanghai Xinguo Technology Co., Ltd., which was established in September 2014. Since September 2019, Haote has completed 5 rounds of financing, and investors include Yunjiu Capital, GSR Venture Capital, Wuyuan Capital, Jiayuan Capital, etc. Among them, on June 1, 2020 and September 30, 2020, Haote sold completed the A round and A+ round of financing in just 4 months.
Good sale financing process. Source: Sky Eye Check APP screenshot
Zhongxin Jingwei noted that at present, Shanghai Xinguo Technology Co., Ltd. has invested in a total of 17 enterprises, of which 16 were established after November 2020, and 5 subsidiaries contain "Hao special sale" or "Hao Te Mai" in their names.
According to the report of the market research agency Head Leopard Research Institute, the domestic food industry is currently in the early stage of entrepreneurial explosion, and at the end of 2020, new players have entered the market one after another, with the help of capital. At present, the more discussed brands include online platform good food period and fire sale, offline store good sale and prosperity market. In the post-epidemic era, upstream merchants have backlogged inventory and sought temporary ways to clear their warehouses, and the food industry has thus entered a period of entrepreneurial outbreak.
Zhongxin Jingwei combed and found that most of the more well-known chain brands in the industry such as Xiaoxiang Life and Hi Special Purchase were established at the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021. According to the Tianyancha APP, Xiaoxiang Life was established in October 2020 and received tens of millions of yuan of angel round financing from Joy Capital and Angel Bay Venture Capital in April 2021; Hi Special Purchase was established in January 2021 and has completed two rounds of Pre-A financing, with investors including Gaorong Capital, Blueprint Venture Capital, angel investor Wang Gang, etc.
Not only that, but the Internet giants have also set their sights on this business. According to media reports, in January 2022, Suning's first discount supermarket was officially opened in Ma'anshan, and it made efforts to discount goods in the temporary period. Suning said that in 2022, Suning will take Ma'anshan as the main battlefield, synchronously develop the Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai markets, and plans to open 100 stores in 2022.
Earlier, Hema Fresh also opened fresh Ole shops in Shanghai and other places, and most of the goods in the store were fresh consumables such as vegetables, fruits, milk, cakes and flowers or temporary foods. In 2015 and 2018, Ali invested in good food twice.
According to the report released by the third-party research agency Ai Media Consulting, from the supply side, the total output value of China's snack industry in 2020 will exceed 3 trillion yuan, even if calculated by 1% inventory precipitation, the market size of the temporary food industry will exceed 30 billion yuan, and the potential of the temporary food market is huge.
Temporary food or just drainage tools
The high profitability of advent food may be an important reason for attracting many players to enter the game. A temporary chain brand investment report shows that compared with traditional channels, its comprehensive gross profit is within 20%, and the temporary discount can reach 50%.
Jiang Han, a senior researcher at Pangu Think Tank, told Zhongxin Jingwei that the temporary period also solved the dilemma of increasingly high customer acquisition costs. "In fact, the pro-term is the business of outlets, as long as it is low enough, there is enough supply, and the shelf design is fine, clean and organized, it can attract consumers."
In Jiang Han's view, a large number of niche but low-priced commodity groups will often bring consumers a strong impact, coupled with some low as 30% off, 10% off and other discount slogans, which can stimulate their desire to buy.
It should be noted that during the visit, Zhongxin Jingwei found that in the case of good special sales, the goods sold in its store are not limited to leisure snacks, but also include other products such as alcohol, skin care products, and daily necessities. Here, consumers can buy popular brands such as Starbucks, Daily Black Qiao, Yuanqi Forest, Zhou Black Duck, etc., but more choices may be in the same category, some second- and third-tier brands or unknown brands.
Some consumers also feel this way, "I feel that most of the well-known brand goods in the sale are those products or tastes that sell poorly in supermarkets, and some are products of unknown manufacturers that are already very cheap." Mr. Zhu, a Beijing consumer, said.
Zhongxin Jingwei randomly purchased 12 leisure snacks in two good special stores, and according to the definition criteria for the temporary food mentioned in the report of the Leopard Research Institute, it was found that these products were still some time away from the temporary period.
The staff of a store also said that the goods sold in the store are not in the temporary period, and said that the store will remove the temporary products in time.
Definition standards for temporary food. Source: Screenshot of the Head Leopard Institute report
However, on February 9, Zhongxin Jingwei called the official customer service of Haote and related investment personnel, and the other party said that Haote was a store that sold temporary food.
"For many merchants, the temporary food is more of a drainage tool, and the second- and third-line products with higher gross profit are their main projects, which not only earn the promotion fee of the manufacturer, but also obtain the profit brought by the price difference between the selling price and the purchase price of the merchant, plus the income brought by the temporary product, which can be described as 'one stone and three eagles'." Chinese food industry analyst Zhu Danpeng also said in an interview with Sino-Singapore Jingwei.
Can't buy real advent food in a temporary food discount store? Is the advent food really just a drainage tool? On February 8, Zhongxin Jingwei called the official customer service of haote in response to these problems, and its staff said that there would be special personnel contacting and replying later, but as of press time, Zhongxin Jingwei had not received its reply; on February 9, Zhongxin Jingwei called the good sale again, and a staff member said that he did not accept media interviews. (Zhongxin Jingwei APP)
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Editor-in-Charge: Wei Wei