Editor's note:
Recently, Xuchang Fat Donglai has been repeatedly searched, attracting tourists from all over the country, and has been jokingly called a "6A" tourist attraction by netizens. In the past Qingming holiday, Fat Donglai ushered in another wave of shopping boom, and tourists from all over the country organized groups to "check in" Fat Donglai. During the holiday, Fat Donglai has 3 stores in Angel City, Times Square and Life Square, with an average daily traffic of more than 300,000 people. Not only that, but it also drove Xuchang's "food, housing, transportation, travel, shopping and entertainment" consumption in a variety of formats, which greatly promoted the prosperity and development of the local market. Elephant News launched a special report on "Yu Observation" "Decoding Fat Donglai", interpreting from different angles why Fat Donglai can rise against the trend when traditional supermarkets are constantly going downhill? What traffic "passwords" are hidden behind it? In this era of traffic, how does Xuchang catch this "pouring wealth and wealth", and how will Henan take advantage of the situation to "break the circle"?
Elephant News reporter Zhou Lan, Wang Lin, Wang Shaoqing
Last year, an 8-page "Investigation Report on Disputes between Customers and Employees" once again made Fat Donglai rush to the hot search. This is not the only time it has been on the hot search, and topics such as grievance awards, Spring Festival closures, generous employee benefits, and 10-day unhappy holidays have broken people's imagination of supermarkets again and again.
Nowadays, under the format of the dismal exit of large supermarkets such as New Century Department Store and Hualian Supermarket, why can Fat Donglai be "praised to the sky"? Why can Fat Donglai, which has taken root in third- and fourth-tier cities and has not carried out nationwide expansion, become the top in the industry?
What was Fat Donglai like 20 years ago?
Ms. Song is a native of Xuchang, and in her childhood memory, Fat Donglai is still another name - Wangyuelou Fat Shop.
According to public media reports, in 1995, Yu Donglai, the founder of Fat Donglai, had a debt of more than 300,000 yuan just a few years after starting business, and even went to a detention center. Later, I borrowed 10,000 yuan from my brother and bought a store of less than 40 square meters, that is, the Fat Store of Mochizuki Building.
In 1998, after a fire, Yu Donglai regrouped and officially changed the name of the Fat Shop in Wangyuelou to Fat Donglai, and it took only half a year for supply and sales to be on the right track.
In Ms. Song's memory, the Fat Shop of Wangyuelou has gradually been accepted and liked by Xuchang people by virtue of its good reputation for sincere hospitality, honest management, and quality assurance, and has occupied a place in the retail industry.
"I once bought a bracelet in Fat Donglai, and it was accidentally torn off after wearing it for about a year, and a few beads on the bracelet fell off, and I wanted to buy another one, but Fat Donglai helped me re-wear it for free, and made up a few beads. Although it is not particularly valuable, it is such a bracelet that made me a fan member of Fat Donglai. Ms. Song said.
Today, as a supermarket that is only open in third- and fourth-tier cities, whether it is product quality, employee treatment, or service details, Fat Donglai has achieved the ultimate.
How popular is the "best service supermarket".
It is said that offline supermarkets are difficult to do, but Fat Donglai supermarkets in Xuchang and Xinxiang, Henan Province, have a long queue at the door before they open at 9:30 in the morning. Many customers go to Xuchang in order to experience the "best service supermarket", and Ms. Wang from Zhumadian is one of them.
Ms. Wang told reporters that she took advantage of the day's holiday to take the high-speed train from Zhumadian to Xuchang in the morning, just to feel the service of Fat Donglai. She pointed to the 22-inch suitcase next to her, "I came with an empty suitcase, and it's full now." If you see a long queue somewhere, you can buy it, and you can't go wrong. ”
In Fat Donglai, customers like Ms. Wang abound, and it is their purchasing power that makes the sales revenue of this comprehensive retail enterprise exceed 10 billion yuan in 2023, which is called "the ceiling of the supermarket industry" by netizens.
Not only did the customers praise them, but the internal staff of Fat Donglai even bluntly said that "it seems to have fallen into a honey pot".
Ms. Bu, an employee who has worked in Fat Donglai for 18 years, told reporters that Fat Donglai's good treatment of customers is visible to the naked eye.
In the non-motorized parking lot at the entrance of Fat Donglai, you can park for free, and if you encounter problems with parking, Fat Donglai is "all-inclusive"; there are magnifying glasses on the shelves of Fat Donglai supermarket, which is convenient for the elderly with deterioration to see the ingredient list; in the self-operated area of Fat Donglai's clothing, there is a purchase price and selling price on the sign of each piece of clothing; even next to the shopping bags that are difficult to rub by hand, they are also equipped with hand wetters......
"Better for the staff. As she spoke, a smile appeared on Ms. Bu's face. She introduced that in addition to basic salary, performance and other salary income, Fat Donglai also has 40 days of paid leave every year, marriage and paternity leave, funeral leave and annual leave salary bonuses, and various subsidies are not included. Just a few days ago, the "unhappy holiday" set up once again appeared on the hot search on Weibo.
Some large supermarkets are gradually deserted, why is Fat Donglai a steady stream of customers
As Yu Donglai said, Fat Donglai is actually not a company, but a school.
In the Fat Donglai supermarket, eye-catching, "freedom and love" corporate culture cards can be seen everywhere, "every day that has never danced, is a disappointment of life", "love in Fat Donglai", "real products for sincerity", "return if you are not satisfied" and other similar slogans also abound.
The slogan is like that, and so is the business.
From Wang Hai, the first businessman in Chinese history, to create a precedent for commercial trade in Henan with "integrity" and "benevolence", to the myth of commercial retail, the word "business" in Henan is based on the word "integrity".
"Integrity itself is a business tradition in China for thousands of years, and fundamentally speaking, Fat Donglai is continuing this ancient tradition, and I think this is the key to his success. Zhou Yangmin, a professor at the Business School of Zhengzhou University, said frankly.
Compared with the overcrowded Fat Donglai supermarket, some large supermarkets such as Hualian Supermarket seem a little deserted, in recent years, many large supermarkets have withdrawn, which is not surprising in the view of Zhou Yangmin, a professor at the Business School of Zhengzhou University.
"A lot of supermarkets are not really a supermarket, but more like a real estate developer. According to Zhou Yangmin's analysis, the business model of supermarkets is mainly to maintain income through the rent of plug-in stores, and earn traffic by selling goods, so as to feed a large number of plug-in stores. Nowadays, these plug-in stores are not doing well and can't pay the rent, so this model can't continue.
Obviously, now these supermarkets are considering turning to maintaining supermarket operations through product spreads, which is simply not enough to pay for huge real estate costs, labor costs, operating costs, etc., and they are only closed.