Henan Business Daily reporter Ma Qianhui Chief reporter Yang Guifang Text/Photo/Video
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Recently, the news of the strategic cooperation between "chopsticks and horse hot food" and "ZhongguLou" has burst the circle of friends.
Alibaba's fast food restaurant "Chopsticks Hot Food", which tested the water in Shanghai in 2018, came to Zhengzhou?
["Chopstick Horse Star Kitchen" is not Alibaba's "Chopstick Horse Hot Food"]
On June 1, a "good news" of "the successful signing of the strategic cooperation between chopsticks and horses and the Zhonggulou" spread in the WeChat circle.
It has been speculated that this is Not Ali's "chopstick horse hot food" stationed in Zhengzhou?
According to the address marked by the "good news", the financial reporter of the Ninth Avenue of Henan Commercial Daily came to the Central Department Store in Zhengzhou City.
On the first floor of the Central Department Store, there is a door of "Chopstick Horse Star Kitchen", which is very eye-catching. Delicacies such as Xinjiang fried rice noodles, Cantonese beef offal, and Korean-style fried chicken have been printed on the door. At the head of the door, there is no display of "chopstick horse hot food".
After the interview, it was found that the operation service provider of this food city that integrates various snacks is "Henan Chopsticks Horse Hot Food Catering Management Co., Ltd."
Han Yulong, head of Henan Chopsticks Hot Food Management Co., Ltd., denied the question of whether "Chopsticks Horse Hot Food" is the fast food restaurant that Alibaba once tested in Shanghai.
According to Han Yulong, the company name of "Chopstick Horse Star Kitchen" (Henan Chopstick Horse Hot Food Restaurant Management Co., Ltd.) is somewhat similar to the name of the fast food restaurant that Alibaba tested in Shanghai, "Chopstick Horse Hot Food". In the future, after the cooperation between "Chopstick Horse Star Kitchen" and "Zhonggu Lou", the name of the store will be changed to "Zhonggu Lou Chopstick Horse Star Kitchen".
Subsequently, the Henan Business Daily reporter was confirmed in Alibaba that "Chopstick Horse Star Kitchen" is indeed not the company's brand.
【Food City Changes Role, Develops Takeaway】
The chopsticks in Zhengzhou seem to be also pioneering a new model of catering operations – it is already obviously different from the traditional food city.
Walking into the Chopstick Horse Star Kitchen, you will find that this food city pays more attention to the takeaway business, and the "riders" in the food city can be seen everywhere.
According to Han Yulong, since the role of the traditional food city is the second landlord of the catering business, in order to facilitate the management of funds, most of the food cities do not have takeaway services, and they all use the mode of unified settlement of dine-in card charging or scanning two-dimensional code, and the turnover deduction point is deducted against the rent.
The "Chopstick Horse Star Kitchen" will move the food city from offline to online, and at the same time do takeaway operations for merchants, move the online food city into the office building to do white-collar food city group meals.
Han Yulong said: "Many white-collar workers have encountered a problem when ordering group meals - it is difficult to adjust, do not know which store to choose to order takeaway, everyone has their own orders, right? It is not convenient to settle reimbursement uniformly. This model of mine is aimed at this pain point. ”
In 2020, Han Yulong launched the WeChat Mini Program to test his own idea, and achieved a good result of 4,000 singles in the first month. From the background data, online group meal orders in the food city are recognized by consumers.
However, on paper, the initial profitability of the operation is not ideal.
"Our order was delivered from three copies, at that time we only had the ability to match food in the Food City of the East District, but the order was possible in Xinzheng Longhu, and the delivery cost of more than 30 kilometers was too high." Han Yulong said.
【Create a "front warehouse" in the group meal delivery industry】
How to reduce distribution costs?
Imitating the front warehouse model of "community group purchase", setting up a group leader in the food city to dock and distribute, and letting the food city blossom everywhere in Zhengzhou to reduce the delivery distance is the most direct way to solve the problem.
However, it is not easy to make the food city blossom quickly in Zhengzhou with its own efforts.
So there is the cooperation of "chopstick horse hot food" and "Middle Drum Tower".
In 2020, during the great reshuffle period of the catering industry by the new crown epidemic, Henan Zhonggulou Yunxing Kitchen Catering Management Co., Ltd. was established. According to Ms. Chen, the investment manager of ZhongguLou, after the epidemic, a large number of mom-and-pop shops closed, and the traditional food court did not have in-depth cooperation with the supply chain, did not have its own products, and could only be a second landlord, not empowering merchants. The Zhonggu Tower, on the outside, also looks like a food court, but unlike the traditional food court, the company's front-end store "dine-in + takeaway + new retail" model can incubate the brand, the mid-end joint procurement and co-matching, and the back-end has a central kitchen for product research and development.
Ms. Chen told the Henan Business Daily reporter: "We are also very optimistic about the new retail business that combines the food city with the delivery of group meals, we have always wanted to try this field before, we and the chopsticks star kitchen have the same goals and ideas, so we have launched cooperation, and when we solve the problem of unified meal standards, we will officially launch a new platform." ”
In one year, Zhonggulou has rapidly developed 13 food cities covering schools, shopping malls, office buildings and other areas, and Chopstick Horse Star Kitchen has also tested the food city group meal delivery business for nearly a year. Both sides before the cooperation are growing rapidly.
Han Yulong said: "Zhonggulou offline store operation is very strong, and we (Chopsticks Horse) have both food city stores, and at the same time have more experience in online operation, (the two sides) after the joint, the future plans to launch 50 group meal delivery food city, so that three kilometers of food, 46 minutes delivery." ”
[The background of the new model: the traditional food city can not radiate farther away from the guest floor, and there are many small group meals and scattered]
Mr. Li, who has been doing food city business in Zhoukou City, Henan Province for many years, believes that in Zhengzhou shopping malls, food cities with unified operation and unified cash register model are very rare, and this model is more presented in the prefecture. The quality of the food city business depends on the passenger flow of the mall, and a shopping mall with good passenger flow can achieve a win-win situation for the operator, small catering merchants and shopping malls.
In the city, the reason why the food city does not develop takeaway much is that, on the one hand, in order to facilitate management, priority is given to ensuring that customers in the store enjoy the service, because during the peak period of passenger flow, it is difficult to take into account takeaway and dine-in; on the other hand, if the food city is jointly operated with shopping malls, only offline can also drain the flow of shopping malls. At present, the pain point is that the traditional, unified operation of the food city model cannot radiate farther away from the guest layer.
Is it feasible to let the food city no longer be limited to being a "second landlord", truly participate in the promotion and operation, and let the white-collar workers in office buildings book group meals at any time during overtime or collective activities and have a rich category?
According to Li Shanqi, vice president of the Food and Safety Association, institutional catering enterprises are divided into two types: large-scale supply chain institutional meal delivery enterprises and contractors of canteens such as schools, office buildings, and hospitals. For large-scale group meal delivery enterprises, the services provided are hundreds of large-scale meal delivery, which need to be booked in advance.
Many years ago, there have been many small group meal delivery companies in the market, and they can solve the needs of small batch box lunch delivery for enterprises. However, the number of such enterprises is very large and scattered, and it is difficult to regulate.
"The combination of food courts and group meal delivery is very new and innovative. Food courts are generally located in densely populated areas of shopping malls, schools, and office buildings, which is convenient for supervision, and if it can be developed benignly, it is a good thing. Li Shanqi said.
(Editor: Liu Mengge, Lv Ruitian)