At 9:30 a.m., the 53-degree Feitian Moutai wine priced at 1499 yuan will be grabbed on the website.
Department managers were still gushing at the meeting, and the one-meter-long whiteboard was full of grand plans for the new year. Zhang Chen in the audience turned off the three alarm clocks at 9:25, 9:28 and 9:29 respectively, quietly waiting for the moment when the time came.
Zhang Chen didn't listen to a word of what the manager said. He stared at the clock on the screen of the mobile phone, and in order not to affect the network speed, Zhang Chen closed all the background programs of the mobile phone, just waiting for the moment to come.
9:30。 As soon as you click in, the page already says "This field has been robbed". Although it was expected, Zhang Chen was inevitably a little disappointed. "There are five more rushes today, and there are still opportunities." Zhang Chen comforted himself, "Anyway, I haven't lost anything, if I grab it, I can earn more than 1,000 yuan." ”
"2.4 million people grabbed dozens of bottles of Maotai,
Do you think I can grab it?"
It seems that everyone around them is grabbing Maotai.
Zhang Chen joined the army of grabbing Moutai in the second half of 2020. At that time, it was the "618" promotion day of major e-commerce companies, and through the way of "fighting for hand speed", it was possible to snap up 500 ml and 53 degrees of Feitian Moutai wine at the original price of 1499 yuan.
What does 1499 yuan of Moutai mean? This means that if you change hands, you can increase the price by 800-1000. In the "618" rush to Moutai melee, Zhang Chen was lucky to grab a bottle of Moutai at the original price. This successful experience also gave him the illusion: Maotai is not very difficult to grab.
Unfortunately, luck only happened once. In the subsequent "Double 11", "Double 12" and other activities, good luck did not care for Zhang Chen again.
Robbing Maotai has become the seasoning in Zhang Chen's life. Suning, Youpin, Yanxuan, JD.com, Gome, Tmall... Zhang Chen has a schedule that records the time when various shopping platforms grab Maotai. From 9:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., set 2-3 alarm clocks to remind you before each rush.
"It feels like scraping a lottery ticket and participating in a lucky draw, exciting and happy. Not only am I robbing, but my colleagues around me are also grabbing. ”
Zhang Chen's salary deduction insurance is about 6,000 yuan, according to the purchase price of Moutai in the WeChat group of 2450, if you grab a bottle, you can earn more than 1,000 yuan, which is much more cost-effective than going to work.
"Don't delay anything, grab it when you get to the point, earn it if you can grab it, and don't lose if you can't grab it."
The "group" that Zhang Chen refers to refers to the rush-to-buy Moutai group he joined. There are scalpers and dealers in the group, but more are young people like Zhang Chen, who hold the mentality of "grabbing and making money".
Compared with Zhang Chen, Zhao Xue's hand seemed to be a little better. As an early group of people who "entered the game", Zhao Xue began to snap up Moutai in 2017, and he has snapped up about 10 bottles of Moutai from major platforms. The most recent success was in December 2020.
"It's hard to grab, there's no technical content, it's the speed of the fight."
When Zhao Xue recalled the rush to buy experience, he could not say any operable "successful experience", and the biggest feeling was that Moutai was becoming more and more difficult to grab.
"There are more and more people grabbing, and I personally think that the most difficult and largest number of people is the first seven days of this year, and the number of people who have booked reservations on the website has reached more than 2.4 million." The amount of goods released on the website is not displayed each time, and that time I heard the scalper say that there were about 40 bottles of Maotai. ”
Zhao Xue asked rhetorically,
"Grab dozens of bottles of Maotai with 2.4 million people, do you think I might be able to grab it?"
Where there is the original price of Maotai, there is a surging crowd.
Approaching the "consumption golden season" of the Spring Festival, grabbing Moutai has become white-hot on major platforms. On December 28, 2020, Suning Tesco joined hands with Moutai to launch Moutai Super Brand Day. Less than an hour after the opening of the reservation, more than 660,000 people have made reservations to grab Moutai, and the page shows that a single appointment has exceeded 1.3 million; in the same period, JD.com shows that the number of people who have made reservations has exceeded 1.5 million.
Statistics from e-commerce platforms also confirm this. According to Suning Tesco's 2020 "Double 11" Wukong List, Moutai temporarily ranks first in liquor brand sales, brand sales second, and 53 degrees Feitian Moutai ranks first in commodity sales.
Moutai "myth of making riches" is heard more and seen less
The myth of making a fortune is circulating in various Maotai groups.
The original price of a bottle of 53 degrees 500 ml Feitian Moutai was 1499 yuan, but the purchase price through channels such as wine merchants and tobacco hotels was often more than 2500 yuan, and the unit price on the e-commerce platform basically exceeded 2800 yuan. The huge difference between the original price and the actual market price brings a reverie operation space.
Zhang Xiaomeng clearly told reporters that he grabbed Maotai in order to "earn the difference." As a senior "scalper", Zhang Xiaomeng, 29 years old this year, once fried sneakers and sold blind boxes, and now devotes her energy to snapping up Maotai.
"The sneaker market has not been very good since the previous year. The blind box has also passed, and now it is the hottest to grab Maotai. Zhang Xiaomeng considers herself a "non-professional scalper", because every time she enters the market is relatively late, in this Moutai rush to buy war, she is at best a "pick-up party", not a scalper.
"It's definitely not okay to grab it on my own, I'm mainly buying."
Zhang Xiaomeng said that he set up a "Moutai acquisition group" on WeChat, and in about two weeks, more than 400 people joined one after another, and at most more than 180 people joined in one day. Most of the group is not very understanding of the market, purely rely on personal robbery of "retail investors", Zhang Xiaomeng usually sends some rushed "wire reports" in the group, that is, the rush to buy, the acquisition of group members snapped up Moutai and then re-sold, earning the difference in the middle.
In addition to WeChat groups, QQ, Tiger Punch, Salted Fish and other platforms are filled with a large number of wine collectors. Several Moutai liquor groups joined by the reporter have people who have long-term acquisition of Feitian Moutai, and the price is basically above 2400 yuan / bottle.
"There are more people who are bustling, and there are really fewer people who can grab it." I can earn an average difference of about 300 a bottle of Maotai, but my group is too small to make much money, that is, everyone exchanges experience. ”
Zhang Xiaomeng said that he knew several "big yellow cattle", who held several large groups of thousands of people in their hands and could net tens of thousands of yuan a month.
"I heard that some people made more than 100,000 yuan a month, but I didn't make so much money around me, most of them were small fights."
Zhang Xiaomeng clearly remembers several legends of Moutai making riches, and these mythical legends have been circulated among the "Mao Mao Party", but they have heard more and seen less.
There are also legal risks behind the myth of wealth creation. According to public reports, in a law enforcement exercise by the Guizhou Market Supervision Bureau in January 2020, a key crackdown was placed on the "scalpers" who "fried, bought and sold" Moutai liquor in Guiyang City, filing 3 cases and seizing 333 bottles of Moutai liquor.
Even if you are not a member of the "scalper", but as an ordinary "Mao Mao Party", the gap between the rush price of Moutai wine and the market price is enough to make many people excited.
Zhang Ting is engaged in the foreign trade export industry, the company belongs to the "micro" enterprises in small and micro enterprises, there is no stable customer, are relying on Zhang Ting and colleagues to find new customers every month. After the outbreak of the epidemic, the company's business almost pressed the pause button. There is a lot of time to go to work to touch fish, but there are few opportunities to make money, after working to brush posts and find business opportunities to grab Moutai, grabbing Moutai has become an important part of Zhang Ting's life.
The first time I grabbed Moutai was in July 2020, and Zhang Ting, who was lucky to burst the watch, grabbed two bottles a day. After posting the page of the successful purchase in the group, someone immediately added her WeChat, and finally changed hands at the price of 2480 bottles, earning nearly 2000 yuan in one lump sum.
"It's worth most of my month's salary."
Zhang Ting said that during the epidemic period, the company has no business, she only takes more than 3,000 basic wages, every month is tight, the electric car has been riding for 5 years, and the battery has been repaired twice and is not willing to change.
"Every day at 9 o'clock, I start to prepare to grab Maotai and then see if there is any new information in the group."
Zhang Ting said that in the various Moutai exchange groups that Zhang Ting joined, although most of them are young people, almost no one talks about life and love, and making money is the most important theme word.
"Did you grab it today?" "Is the price good today?" "Why did it fall ten pieces again?" The group discussed Moutai rush purchases, discussed stocks and funds, and also discussed their respective side businesses. Grabbing Moutai is an important way to "make a little money". Zhang Ting did not hide her envy for the side business of the group friends, and also regarded robbing Moutai as her important side business.
With the money earned by robbing Maotai, Zhang Ting has changed to a new electric car, "3199 yuan, 65km endurance, no longer have to carry the battery up and down the stairs every day to charge." Zhang Ting grabbed a total of 4 bottles of the original price of Maotai, sold 2 bottles, and there were still 2 bottles left to wait for the price to rise and then change hands, "To be able to grab it again, I sold a mobile phone." ”
Hidden risk of grabbing Moutai plug-in
Posts that robbed Maotai are in full swing on forums such as Zhihu and Douban. The most discussed is "no seconds", "robbed more than a dozen times did not grab". Many people asked, "What are the tricks of snapping up?" Just went in and didn't have a second. ”
In order to grab the original price of Maotai, many people began to hope for "plug-in". As a programmer, Wang Gang used scripts to successfully grab 2 bottles of Maotai in August 2020. The program of grabbing Moutai is not difficult, the principle is to simulate the frequency of clicks of people. But soon, more and more people use "plug-ins", and various platforms have begun to launch counterattacks, and "plug-ins" do not work.
"Plug-ins" also hide risks. The Anhui Provincial Public Security Department's Economic Investigation Corps once issued a public reminder: when consumers make online purchases, they should choose legal and regular websites, and as far as possible do not use unofficial plug-in software such as flash killers. The police said that through the "online shopping spike" auction, the user must enter the bank account and password in advance, and then use the spike to pay after the success of the spike. It is precisely by taking advantage of this feature that the criminals will bundle the second killer on the "Alipay hijacking Trojan", or directly disguise the Trojan program as a second killer, with "free spike, rapid spike" and other promotional content, tempting users to click to download the installation package bound by the virus Trojan, causing netizens to be poisoned by the computer, and then being implanted with remote control and online banking number theft virus, which eventually leads to the leakage of bank card information and the theft of funds in the card by criminals.
The software can not be used, "physical plug-in" has become the choice of many people. The reporter searched for "grabbing the Moutai artifact" on the shopping website, and various "like simulators" appeared, and even fascia guns. This device, which was originally used to relax muscles, was simulated as a quick-click keyboard with a finger. To this end, Tmall Supermarket issued the "Statement on The Use of Fascia Guns to Grab Moutai on the Internet" on January 14: Tmall Supermarket believes that this method is unreliable and there is a possibility of physical injury, and hopes that consumers will shop rationally.
In addition, the scalper of "stealing on behalf of" also came into being. The so-called "robbery" must use the client's own account, and during the robbery period, this account and password must be handed over to the "scalper". During this period, "Scalper" can view all the information of the account, including the recipient's name, address, contact information and other privacy information, in addition, some platform accounts also have stored value and points redemption functions.
"Don't believe it, he can grab you."
In the group of robbers of Maotai that the reporter joined, some friends said that they handed over the account password to the "scalper", but found nothing.
"If the 'scalper' can grab it himself, why should he grab it for you?"
"Moutai is not good to grab" has become the consensus of various groups of People who grab Moutai group, and even some group friends said that grabbing Moutai is like winning the lottery, and the most important thing to grab Moutai is luck.
"You can't expect this to get rich, tens of millions of people to do things together, why do you get rich?"
After running with the group again and again, many group friends said so.
The "Mao Mao Party" was swept away by the platform
Behind the "rush to Moutai fever", the direct sales strategy of Guizhou Moutai wine is an important promoter. This makes it possible for ordinary people to buy the original price of Moutai.
Some media publicly reported that before 2019, Moutai Group relied on special dealers to sell Feitian Moutai, the wholesale price was less than 1000 yuan for them, and the unified pricing of 1499 yuan was enough to make dealers earn 500 yuan per bottle, but it really reached the hands of consumers, and a bottle of Feitian Moutai once reached 3500 yuan.
In 2018, Moutai issued the "Requirements for the Management of the Current Moutai Liquor Market Order", proposing to strictly investigate the responsibility of defaulting distributors and crack down on spot hoarding, price gouging, tying up goods, and speculating on orders. At the Moutai liquor distributors conference that year, the senior management of Moutai Group publicly stated, "Moutai Liquor will focus on expanding direct sales channels and promoting marketing flattening." ”
The data can more intuitively show the determination of Moutai reform: from the 2018 annual report of Moutai in Guizhou, it can be seen that in the entire 2018, Moutai wine distributors decreased by 437.
On November 18, 2020, at the Guizhou Moutai Wine 2020 Direct Sales Channel Merchant Symposium, Guizhou Moutai threw out heavy news: in the fourth quarter of 2020, the direct sales channel plans to sell 4160 tons of Feitian Moutai wine.
What is the concept of 4160 tons of Feitian Moutai? Some insiders have calculated that the corresponding quantity of 2124 bottles per ton of Feitian Moutai is 8.8358 million bottles, accounting for one-eighth of its total market volume in the whole year, which is 1.57 times the amount of 2019. Gao Weidong, chairman of Moutai Group, once made it clear at the conference that it is necessary to open up the "last kilometer" between Moutai and consumers through direct sales channels.
In addition to the concentration of volume, the most interesting thing is the guideline of "stabilizing prices and stabilizing the market". In 2019-2020, various direct sales channels have successively appeared on the stage, and dozens of offline stores, supermarkets, and online e-commerce have joined, including e-commerce platforms such as Tmall Supermarket, Suning Tesco, JD.com, netease Yanxuan, as well as enterprises in the fields of supermarkets, state-owned enterprises, and tobacco chains.
At the same time that the "Mao Mao Party" snapped up the original price of Maotai on the direct sales platform, they also became "wool" and were harvested by the direct selling platform again and again.
"I paid another 188 yuan for tuition." Xiao Cong told reporters that if he wants to buy Moutai online, almost all major e-commerce companies require membership. The more niche e-commerce platforms there are, the higher the membership fee tends to be. The recharge membership fee is called "paying tuition fees" by the "Mao Mao Party". Reservation, lottery, purchase restriction are basic operations, before buying Moutai in Jingdong, you need Jingdong plus annual card membership, and now Jingdong has canceled the membership restrictions, and the probability of grabbing Moutai has become lower; buy in Suning, you need Suning super annual card members; buy in Gome, need Gome nine nine members annual card ...
"Compared with the thousands of troops online, the winning rate of offline purchases is actually a little higher, but those who can reach the threshold of offline purchases are not bad at grabbing the little money of Maotai."
In Xiao Cong's view, the offline shopping mall rushes to buy Moutai, and the threshold is higher. In addition to becoming a member, there are also point requirements, and buying a bottle of Moutai is not as simple as imagined.
For example, Hongqi, CR Vanguard, etc. must have points. In CR Vanguard, the point system is the basic entry threshold, and the balance of points in the member account must be required to be no less than 5000 points, so that it can be purchased at a price of 1499 yuan after deducting the points after winning the lottery, and at the same time, during the event registration period, you need to save at least 300 points to participate in the registration. This means that CR Vanguard not only requires a certain amount of consumption before for the consumer group that buys Moutai, but also needs to have consumption during the event to buy, which actually increases the purchase threshold amount of consumers in disguise.
The reporter's inquiry found that in order to correspond to the point rules of the supermarket, there have been websites selling points on the Internet. On a website, the price of 5,000 points of CR Vanguard ranges from 35-65 yuan, and some stores show monthly sales of 1,000+, and the number of reviews has reached nearly 9,000. Click on the buyer reviews, many of which are displayed for "Spike Moutai".
"The threshold of the website is too much, if you want to win a higher rate, you have to recharge the membership, and before you can make money, you will spend money first."
Xiao Cong recharged the members of 3 websites, and the membership card spent nearly 500 yuan, but at present, a bottle of Maotai has not been grabbed. "Moutai didn't get it, and he was beaten with wool."
It's the consumer, but it's also the victim
In fact, many people who rob Moutai do not drink Moutai.
The younger generation has invested great enthusiasm in grabbing Moutai online. According to the "6·18" consumption data previously released by Tmall Supermarket, among the Moutai liquor consumers, the post-90s in the 18-30 age range accounted for 59%, and female consumers accounted for 30% of the Moutai liquor purchase population, up 12% year-on-year.
In several Moutai exchange groups that the reporter joined, the data showed that more than 65% of the members were post-90s and post-00s.
Zhang Chen did not drink Maotai and was not even used to drinking liquor. He told reporters that he once tasted Maotai at a dinner table, "I can't say what it tastes like, but I know that it is Maotai, and it is estimated that it will cost dozens of yuan." "Before grabbing a bottle of Maotai, Zhang Chen gave it to his father in the New Year. Dad was not willing to drink, saying that he was going to wait for Zhang Chen to get married, and then take it out to "drink with your husband." ”
Among the 10 post-90s who participated in the robbery of Maotai randomly interviewed by the reporter, 5 said they "did not drink liquor", two said they were "reluctant to drink", and only 3 said that if they grabbed it, they would taste it with family and friends.
The more than ten bottles of Maotai that Zhao Xue snatched were not sold, but kept for themselves to drink or given to their families.
"Moutai is to put it bluntly, it is wine made of grain, in the final analysis, do you not have to drink it?"
In Zhao Xue's view, Moutai should not be hyped up to the current heat,
"Since the price is 1499 yuan, it means that it is only worth this market price."
As a veteran enthusiast of Moutai, the 38-year-old Minghai has been collecting Moutai since 20 years ago. He clearly remembers that the price of a bottle of Maotai at that time was only 200-400 yuan.
"It's almost every year, and the people who paid attention to Moutai before are all people in the circle, such as those who love wine, at least those who can drink." Since the second half of last year, it seems that the whole people are robbing Moutai and they are speculating on Moutai as a financial product. "Minghai stores a box of Maotai every year, and the daughter saves a little more wine in the year she was born. I don't care what the price of Moutai is, because storing wine is a kind of witness and meaning for himself,
"These Moutai will not be sold, and they will be kept as memories."
Also a consumer of Moutai, Guo Jun of the "post-60s" just bought 40 boxes of Moutai at a price of 3150 per bottle before the Spring Festival, mainly to reward the company's customers.
"I am a consumer of Moutai and a victim of Moutai." Guo Jun said that all along, Moutai wine has its own aura, banquets and other occasions if you drink Maotai, it is equivalent to improving the "gold content" of the meal, in his view, "human feelings" and "face" are the most core factors that promote the price of Moutai has been rising. "The purchase of Moutai has become a huge expense for the daily reception of the company, and from this point of view, we are the victims of Moutai."
At a dinner party on the tenth night of the new year of this year, Guo Jun brought three bottles of Maotai, and when several people on the dinner bureau drank too much, "even the best wine should be drunk less, and it is uncomfortable to drink too much."
(At the request of the interviewees, some of the characters in the article are pseudonyms.) ）
Source: Qilu Evening News Qilu one-point reporter Guo Chunyu
Source: Qilu Evening News