来源 | 雪豹财经(ID:xuebaocaijingshe)
Author | Gao Yue
Header image source | The official public account of Xijia self-service small hot pot
All-you-can-eat affordable self-service small hot pot is sweeping large and small shopping malls in first- and second-tier cities, impacting other catering formats with high customer flow and high net profit margins.
In the past, the label of the buffet was high-end, expensive, and petty bourgeoisie, but now, the most important keywords of the buffet are cheap and all-you-can-eat.
Rent, manpower and ingredients are the three mountains of buffet cost. By saving costs, even a 30 yuan affordable self-service can still make money.
At 7 p.m. on weekdays, in a Wanda Plaza in Beijing's Chaoyang District, the most lively restaurant is the 40-yuan hot pot self-service farm. People are next to each other at the turntable, and diners hold their tongs to select dishes from their plates. Nearby Sichuan, Thai and grilled fish restaurants are buzzing with the sounds of diners, but they still can't beat the boiling heat of the small hot pot.
At the same time, Feng Xiaopang in another shopping mall turned around the small hot pot, and there was already a long queue at the door, and he had to wait for twenty or thirty minutes before entering the store. In this shop, three colored plates are filled with different ingredients, and the prices are 3 yuan, 6 yuan and 9 yuan.
"I don't care if there is a Michelin taste, I only care about whether there is a price for wool." The cheap and all-you-can-eat cheap and all-you-can-eat small hot pot is becoming one of the most popular "poor ghost packages" at the moment as the "Honey Snow Ice City in the hot pot world".
All-you-can-eat and take the mall by storm
Walking into the dining areas of Beijing's large and small shopping malls, it's hard not to be attracted by the ubiquitous cheap small hot pot restaurants.
The signboard of "dopamine color matching", open stores, large glass windows, and large promotional advertisements hanging in the most conspicuous places of the mall - "33 yuan unlimited eating", "eating to the wall" and "XX unlimited", no matter how far away, you can notice it at first sight.
This is undoubtedly one of the hottest catering models at the moment. Every time the meal is served, diners rush in, and the highest concentration is white-collar workers who have just gotten off work.
Huaxi (pseudonym) uses affordable small hot pot as a daily "indulgent meal". After a day of work, she didn't want to order takeout, and she didn't want to spend too much money on dinner, so a cheap small hot pot became the best choice. You can eat for more than 40 yuan, "it is the gospel of vegetable lovers".
In-store dining scene
Source: Nongxiaoguo's official account
There are also many diners who come to eat with their families. After retiring, Lao Xu took on the task of accompanying his grandson to extracurricular classes, taking taekwondo and painting classes on the third floor of the mall, and always going up to the next floor to solve dinner. As soon as the turntable in the small hot pot restaurant turns, the grandson's gaze will be sucked away. Several times, even if they had already eaten, the grandson had to drag Lao Xu to eat again.
A group of affordable small hot pots are sweeping the malls at an alarming speed, and many of the malls are pasted with small hot pot brand logos on the fences to be opened. They beat out their competitors and quickly planted new spots. In the past three weeks, Nongxiaoguo has opened 11 new stores in a row, each of which is in a bustling business district.
Nowadays, there is a well-known affordable self-service small hot pot brand in almost all parts of the country: Xi'an's Chuanshiduo rotary hot pot, Henan's Wei Spicy small hot pot, Wenzhou's Shangbaiwei rotary small hot pot, and Harbin's Su Xiaobei rotary small hot pot.
"In essence, it is still the survival of the fittest, and the impact of affordable small hot pot on shopping malls is the fastest food format." Wen Zhihong, founder of Hejun chain and consumer catering expert, told Snow Leopard Finance Agency.
The cheap little hot pot that conquers the city is crazy about absorbing money.
On the first day of opening of a store in Shanghai, the daily turnover reached 23,000 yuan. A shopkeeper revealed that his store's daily turnover is about 6,000 yuan, the gross profit margin is more than 60%, and the net profit margin can reach 20% when the customer flow is large.
In Wen Zhihong's view: "The net profit can reach this standard, which means that the store is in a very good state." ”
According to the data of Narrow Door Restaurant, as of now, there are more than 110 stores in Nongxiaoguo, more than 800 small hot pot stores in Wai Spicy Hot Pot, and nearly 100 stores in Chuanshiduo and Su Xiaobei Rotary Small Hot Pot.
Source: The official public account of the spicy skewer small hot pot
Even the county has sprung up a number of mom-and-pop shops that make affordable self-service small hot pots. The owner, Wang Fuqiang (not his real name), opened a small hot pot restaurant in a county town in southern China, initially in a self-service model and later changed to pay by the lot.
When business is good, it is often still open at 12 o'clock at night, but only he and his wife work in shifts, and Wang Fuqiang sometimes complains, "I wish I could go home early."
From high-end to affordable
More than ten years ago, no one could have predicted that thirty or forty yuan for buffet would become the norm.
Buffets used to be synonymous with high-end, and were often labeled as expensive, petty bourgeoisie, etc. The first time Huaxi ate a buffet was a casual meal after the high school entrance examination, about 150 yuan per person, in a cafeteria lunch in a second-tier city, several classes were chartered together.
Hua Xi told the Snow Leopard Finance Agency that at that time, the steak and lobster in the buffet could only choose one of the two, and each diner received it according to the number plate. If you want to eat salmon, spicy crayfish, lamb chops and other "hot goods", you must always keep an eye on the movement of the dining table, every time you just restock, a group of people will rush up with plates and rush to grab them.
At this buffet, Huaxi became the person who had eaten Häagen-Dazs and had the most fashionable "social currency" at that time.
Buffets were once seen as synonymous with high-end and expensive.
After 2000, the 238 yuan money leopard shaped a generation's impression of the buffet. Almost at the same time, a series of high-end self-service catering brands with a per capita price of 100~200 yuan appeared, covering barbecue, hot pot, seafood, Japanese food and other categories, and the per capita price of a few high-end buffets would reach three or four hundred yuan.
But the high prices didn't dissuade diners, and almost every cafeteria lined up every day. There is a high-end seafood buffet in the core business district of Huaxi's hometown, which occupies half an area of the mall, and she can see a long queue in front of the door almost every time she passes.
Source: Kuanshi multi-turn small hot pot Weibo
But in recent years, in the era of "poor ghost set meals", everything from shabu-shabu and afternoon tea to vegetarian food and noodles can be buffeted. The high-end label of yesteryear has been torn off, and the key word in its place is parity.
The per capita price of spicy small hot pot is below 30 yuan, and brands such as Nong Xiao Guo and Xijia self-service small hot pot are between 30~50 yuan, and there are frequent preferential activities to hit the price to 30 yuan.
The four-star Jianguo Hotel located in Beijing's Guomao CBD can enjoy a noodle buffet for 28 or 58 yuan, as well as an exclusive noodle sandwich service from waiters. Wumart supermarket in Zhongguancun, Beijing, has opened a cafeteria, where you can taste more than 60 kinds of freshly fried dishes for 19.9 yuan, with the slogan "carbohydrate freedom, unlimited eating".
People who are keen to stay in shape can choose a light food buffet, spend 25.8 yuan to get a glass bowl, all kinds of meat, vegetables and fruits, "as much as you can and how much you can earn". Those with a sweet tooth can find happiness in Manji desserts, a self-service set meal of 8 yuan for lunch, which can achieve 20 kinds of desserts.
Nowadays, Huaxi and friends choose a buffet, a very important criterion is: the price must be double digits.
According to Red Meal Big Data, as of July 2024, the number of stores with an average per capita consumption of buffets of 80 yuan or less in the country accounts for 52.6%.
It's good to fill your stomach
Many people's evaluation of affordable small hot pot is: breaking the values of food. They are curious, why can merchants still make money selling such cheap buffets?
The secret is hidden in the cost.
The buffet has three mountains of cost: personnel, rent, and ingredients. There are only three employees in a small hot pot restaurant randomly visited by Snow Leopard Finance Club, one is a cashier, one is doing simple cleaning, and one is in the back kitchen. There are several large pots of boiled soup base next to the kitchen staff, and they only need to serve the soup according to the customer's order. The work content is planned to be simple, repetitive, and highly standardized, with as little manpower as possible