The side hustle that celebrities love to do has collectively collapsed, and it is just a traffic game for businessmen

Author / Xiang Xiang

Operations / Biscuits

I can always listen to the sentence when I go to the mall: "Brother Xiaoming has invited you to dinner!" "In the future, it may be replaced by other magical slogans.

It is reported that the barbecue in the south of the Yangtze River was exposed to large-scale closures in Zhejiang and Beijing. Since the beginning of this year, the relevant companies have added two new pieces of information on the person subject to execution, with a total of more than 3.88 million yuan in the subject matter, and the legal representative Luo Yi has been restricted from high consumption.

Not only Brother Xiaoming's barbecue restaurant, in the first half of this year, a large number of celebrities participated in the restaurant announced the closure of the store, and recently, #明星最爱干的副业集体倒闭#的话题一度冲上热搜第一.

The collective reshuffle of star restaurants may be just a microcosm of the reshuffle of the catering industry, each industry has its own rules and rules, and there is such a sentence in the catering industry: the gods are sad in March and April. After the Spring Festival, the catering industry has to go through a few months of off-season.

The data shows that this year's catering market is particularly cruel: according to Qichacha data, the sales volume of catering-related enterprises in the first quarter of 2024 will reach 433,000, more than twice that of the same period last year.

But the collective ebb of celebrity catering is not entirely caused by the cold catering industry.

1. "Became popular all over the country overnight"

It is nothing new for big stars to do cross-border catering, due to the attribute of their own traffic, small entrepreneurial projects such as catering that need popular support are often the first choice of celebrities, which celebrity in the entertainment industry does not open two restaurants?

As early as the end of the last century, after the movie "See You or Leave" became popular, Feng Xiaogang and Ge You took advantage of the traffic to build a tea restaurant of the same name. In 2009, Zhao Wei, who straddles the film and television and capital circles, opened a 1,000-square-meter Lefu restaurant in Sanlitun, Beijing. In addition to these movies, Guo Degang has done Guo Jiacai in the cross talk class, and the host Meng Fei has made Meng Fei's noodles......

As an investment project, compared with other professional fields such as real estate and stock market, the threshold of the catering industry is relatively low, and the star effect can quickly transform exposure and attention into tangible benefits for catering brands, which seems to be a win-win project.

It's just that celebrities have different glamorous halos, and most celebrity restaurants often end up being full of negativity, chicken feathers, and hasty departures. And unlike the star restaurants of the early years, #明星最爱干的副业集体倒闭#话题中的主角, but with the spring breeze of short videos, they rushed into the star restaurants of the franchise track.

Due to the hundreds of restaurants at every turn, the closure of these star restaurants is also particularly loud. This has led to netizens who eat melons all year round to watch celebrity restaurants holding scripts of high-rise buildings, banqueting guests, and building collapses.

This farce generated by the inflated traffic of short videos began in 2020. Originally established in 2015, it was partnered by Chen He, host Zhu Zhen, and singer Ye Yiqian, the first Xianhezhuang hot pot. Five years after its establishment, the signboard of Xianhezhuang has rapidly expanded to more than 700 stores in less than two years, and it can really be said that it has opened all over the country overnight.

There are many similar stories, in November 2020, the roast Jiangnan barbecue restaurant was grandly opened in Taikoo Li, Chengdu, and Huang Xiaoming came to the scene to stand for the brand, and the official called Huang Xiaoming his brand official. But in the follow-up publicity, the roast Jiangnan barbecue intentionally or unintentionally shaped the image of Brother Xiaoming's "boss" - "The boss came to inspect the store and served the food in person.

It's just that most of it has been a chicken feather by now.

On January 3 and March 5 this year, Burning Jiangnan Company added 2 pieces of information on the person subject to execution, with a total amount of 3.8808 million yuan, and the information of the person subject to execution was due to "franchise contract disputes". Consumers' feelings are more obvious, and in Zhejiang, Beijing and other places, Burning Jiangnan has been exposed to large-scale store closures. Since the beginning of this year, the relevant companies have also added two new pieces of information on the person subject to execution, with a total of more than 3.88 million yuan, and the legal representative Luo Yi has been restricted from high consumption.

Brother Xiaoming is not the only headache, and Brother Xiaoming's barbecue restaurant was established at the same time, and the milk tea shop endorsed by Guan Xiaotong is naturally staying, and it has also been exposed that a large number of stores have been closed, and there are currently only about 10 stores left in the country.

Zheng Kai's investment and the Huofengxiang fresh hot pot on the platform have been caught in a storm such as plagiarism of store decoration and selling spoiled ingredients, and some franchisees have pulled banners to defend their rights, claiming that "Zheng Kai, the shopkeeper, cut leeks and fraud". According to the narrow door dining eye, Huo Fengxiang currently has 79 stores left in the country, which is far from more than 200 at its peak.

In March this year, the Hong Kong Internet celebrity restaurant "Big Slag Brother" founded by the 1994 Miss Hong Kong champion Tan Xiaohuan and her husband Cai Qiangrong was accused of owing a total of 1.3 million yuan in shop rent for five months from October last year to February this year, together with a monthly management fee of about 30,000 yuan, a total of about 1.5 million yuan. The data shows that the big scumbag will lose 3.783 million in 2022 and expand to 14 million in 2023.

In June last year, Hong Kong actor Wu Zhixiong Hall announced the opening of "Zhixiong Kitchen, Pinzhen Life", and for a while, stars from all walks of life came to help in the short video flower world, which was very lively. However, just one year later, Chi Hung Kitchen & Pinzhen Living, which has 5 stores, has announced the closure of its stores.

How lively it is when it opens, how lonely it is when it closes.

Second, the traffic game

Celebrities don't seem to have the ability to run a franchise business, but they are well aware of this law when they participate in this game.

In fact, in the whole fast-integrated franchise game, everyone is very clear about their positioning. The stars participating in the game are only responsible for brushing their faces at the front desk, and the real traders are professional franchise players who have seen the traffic dividends brought by short videos.

Xianhezhuang has become a popular franchise brand in the north and south of the country, not a pie in the sky, Chen He suddenly opened up the second pulse of the business, but Zhou Yang, chairman of Sichuan Zhishan Brand Management Co., Ltd., found Chen He and chose him as his first star model.

In the business route he planned, Chen He did not have to participate in the management of various branches of Xianhezhuang, but through the partnership with himself to open a brand management company, in which to hold shares, and did not participate in specific management matters, brush face, play popularity, dividends, make money, and other specific franchise matters are taken care of by this company. In other words, Xianhezhuang itself is Chen He's financial project, and even if the hot pot restaurant has problems in the future, he can easily quit.

In fact, the stars of the restaurant franchise also choose this way.

In November 2021, more than a year after the opening of Huo Fengxiang's "world's first store" in Ningbo, the "shopkeeper" Zheng Kai's shareholding company announced its withdrawal; In June of the following year, when Xianhezhuang was deeply questioned about "cutting leeks", the founder Chen He quietly withdrew from the ranks of shareholders.

In 2022, the milk tea brand Natural Stay was sued by the franchisee due to a franchise contract dispute, and Guan Xiaotong also became one of the defendants. However, whether it was natural milk tea or Guan Xiaotong, they both said that Guan Xiaotong was not the subject of the contract and did not participate in the company's operation and management.

backfired, even if he wanted to untie his interests as early as a few years ago, whether it was Xianhezhuang or Burning Jiangnan, they were still deeply tied to the star himself.

This is not the first time Zhou Yang has done this. Before Xianhezhuang, the brand he focused on operating was "Tan Duck Blood Hot Pot", and as for the routine of Tan Duck Blood Hot Pot, it was the origin of this series of star restaurants - first through short videos with celebrities from all walks of life, it became popular, and then through the name of Internet celebrity restaurants, it began to infiltrate and join all over the country, and opened more than 500 branches along the way.

Perhaps it was the story of "Tan Duck Blood Hot Pot" that moved Chen He.

Chen He is not Zhou Yang's only choice. For Zhou Yang, Chen He's case is undoubtedly a success, he just needs to keep looking for the next star and copy the story of Chen He and Xianhezhuang in batches.

Behind the celebrity catering businesses such as Guan Xiaotong, Huang Xiaoming, and Sun Yizhou, who opened stores in 2020, there is the shadow of Sichuan Zhishan. The routine of getting out of the circle is the same: the celebrity "boss" frequently goes to the store to brush his face, and then finds Internet celebrity Vs to do publicity, and then quickly joins to expand and earn franchise fees.

With the names of Xianhezhuang and Burning Jiangnan gradually withdrawing from the market, it is obvious that this game has gradually come to an end.

For Zhou Yang, who is good at joining games, it is obvious that this game is a success, quickly copying, promoting, and harvesting a successful model, and establishing one new business story after another, but unfortunately, this kind of story is short-lived. Although these hot pot restaurants and bubble tea shops have really existed, every food served to consumers has long been a traffic purchase price with a clear price.

This is a pure traffic business, and it can't be counted as a diet, so it can only end in a farce. And for those stars who have stepped into the river, it may not be a good thing to harvest only profits, consumers' memories may be far older than they imagined, and Xianhezhuang may be like "Love Apartment", which will accompany Chen He for a long time.

But time will still change everything, there will still be new stories to fill the image of stars, but star restaurants are no longer a good investment project.