Wang Xing never expected that it was not Ele.me that defeated Meituan, but the pre-made dishes that flooded the takeaway restaurants.
How far has the pre-made dish been flooded these days?
Fast food chains such as Shin Kung Fu and Yoshinoya openly admit that the set meals they sell are all pre-made dishes, and Xibei, which has an average of 100 yuan per capita, also has 85% of the dishes pre-made dishes, and the on-site kitchen is only responsible for heating.
This is not the case for brand stores, not to mention the takeaway restaurants that are tucked away in the corners.
According to a survey by Beijing Daily, 91% of consumers mind takeaway made with pre-made dishes.
A Meituan barbecue restaurant, except for the signature grilled chicken wings, the other skewers are all pre-made.
Every time an order is placed, the boss can put the lamb skewers sent by the factory on the stove and bake them. Even barbecue, which is the least likely to make pre-made dishes, sells pre-made lamb skewers, and how many takeaways are fresh on Meituan?
The society's doubts about pre-made dishes may have affected Meituan's business.
According to the financial report, the daily order volume of Meituan Takeaway has decreased by 3.38 million orders recently. More and more users are giving up on takeout for fear of eating pre-made dishes.
This chill also spread to the capital market, and Meituan's share price plummeted from a high of 460 yuan to 102 yuan.
Image source: 36 Krypton
In the face of the crisis, Wang Xing's "prescription" was to decentralize power. Meituan Takeaway abolished the "direct sales department" of the headquarters and established an independent "urban business department" in each city. In this way, he is close to the local market and has a hand-to-hand fight with Ele.me and Douyin.
But how to solve the problem of prefabricated dishes? Wang Xing did not say a word.
In fact, Meituan's solution to the problem of pre-made dishes is very simple - just add "pre-made" labels to takeaway restaurants or dishes that use pre-made dishes, so as to ensure that consumers have the right to know, buy what they want to eat, and change what they don't want to eat.
Why is Wang Xing reluctant to do such a simple action?
The most likely reason is that Meituan and pre-made dishes are too deeply tied, and one is prosperous and the other is lost.
Wang Xing does not have the courage to "turn the knife inward", mainly due to two considerations:
The first point is that there are too many pre-made dishes on Meituan, and the tail is too big. Some media estimates that at least 70% of Meituan's takeaways are pre-made dishes. If you rush to label it as "pre-made", it will lead to the loss of a large number of users.
When there is no label, consumers only suspect that they are eating pre-made dishes, but they do not have a real hammer. With the addition of a label, it is equivalent to "surrender". You must know that nearly half of the people are unable to accept pre-made dishes, and Wang Xing cannot afford to lose this part of the users.
The second point is the cost reason. Most takeaway restaurant owners are forced to use pre-made dishes in desperation. Because they have Meituan, shop rent, labor, raw materials, four mountains on their heads.
In particular, Meituan's commission is becoming more and more outrageous. The owner of a snail noodle shop complained: "When a customer comes to the store to eat, he pays 20 yuan, and I earn 20 yuan; he wants to place an order with Meituan, pay 25 yuan, I earn 10 yuan, and 60% of the money is taken away by Meituan.
There is no way in the store, so I can only use the pre-made snail noodle soup dumplings to make soup, otherwise I will work for Meituanbai.
It is impossible for Meituan not to know about the plight of these takeaway restaurants. But for the sake of the company's interests and beautiful financial reports, they had to acquiesce to the existence of pre-made dishes, and even encouraged takeaway restaurants to use pre-made dishes.
Only in this way can takeaway restaurants survive and Meituan take a cut.
To sum up the above two reasons, whether it is the loss of users or the exit of takeaway restaurants, it will be a disaster for an intermediary platform like Meituan. Therefore, Wang Xing will not ask for trouble for himself, and takes the initiative to add standards to the prefabricated dishes.
That's only a bitter user, take two more bites of preservatives.
Image source: Ming Dynasty 1566
Pre-made dishes are like a sharp sword hanging over Meituan's head, and you don't know when it will fall.
This year's 315 trough meat incident is a good warning.
There is an illegal prefabricated food manufacturer who uses trough meat with carcinogenic risk to make prefabricated dishes to reduce costs and shoddy.
The pork belly is made at 260 yuan/box, while the slotted meat is only 200 yuan/box. After 315 was exposed, Brother Xiao Yang and Dongfang Selection, who had sold trough meat, were immediately pushed to the forefront, and public opinion was condemned.
We can't help but ask: Haven't Meituan's takeaway restaurants ever sold trough meat?
If you don't face up to the problem of prefabricated dishes, this time bomb has always been in Wang Xing's hands. It is very likely that at some point in the future, it will cause an even bigger storm.
In this round of decentralization reform, Wang Xing promoted a group of new executives, and he said that he has full patience with these new people, and when they grow up, they will provoke Meituan's pillars.
But we don't know how long Wang Xing's patience with pre-made dishes is?
Author: 9527