Different discounts at different times, community side dishes stand to survive in the cracks
Reporter Zhang Qunchen
Nowadays, there are more and more people buying food online, which not only makes the emerging e-commerce business more and more prosperous, but also traditional supermarkets have launched door-to-door services.
This has caused the small shops that were originally opened in the community to lack advantages in price and cannot compare to supermarkets in variety.
Under heavy pressure, these small shops have tried their best to reduce costs, add value-added services, and play a family card... Faced with the squeeze of the online fresh food sales model, the community small shops have survived stubbornly.
Highlight 1 Discount at night to increase affinity
At 7 o'clock in the evening, even though it was dark and cold, there was still a constant flow of customers in a fresh food store next to Jingshui Street in Tongzhou District.
With the passage of time, the passenger flow in the small store has not decreased, but has increased, which is in sharp contrast with other nearby fresh food stores.
Observing carefully, it turned out that there was a notice posted at the gate of this store: starting at 7pm, the fresh products in the store will be sold at 10% off; 20% off at 7:30, 30% off at 8 o'clock... and so on. Free delivery until 11:30 in the evening.
When you walk into this fresh food store, you will find various kinds of vegetables on the shelves near the door. Eggs, milk and meat are placed on the shelves inside. Fruit and vegetable gift boxes with good quality are placed on the shelves in the middle of the store. on.
After 7:30 in the evening, the store opened a 20% discount shopping mode, and more and more community residents walked into the store. Within a short while, 6 customers were queuing to pay at the cashier.
A resident who was picking vegetables said: "At night, the vegetables in this store are still fresh, and the winter melon flesh is still full of moisture. Although the leaves of celery are a little bit ruffled, the stems are still very crisp. You can buy them at night. Cheap food, just to prepare for three meals tomorrow."
By 8pm, the discount in the store had changed to 30%. The uncles and aunts who were buying vegetables gradually disappeared, and there were not much vegetables left on the shelves. There were many staple foods such as biscuits and buns.
Mr. Cheng, who just got off work, carried the four buns and two bags of milk he had just bought and said: "When I come back from this point, the nearby bakery has nothing. I just bought a few buns for breakfast tomorrow. The community really needs them. In such a small store, whether it is an elderly person who is often at home or an office worker who is late from get off work, you can buy suitable products."
At 8:30 in the evening, the clerk gathered the only remaining goods on the middle shelf and began to disinfect the empty shelves.
At this time, there were only a few bundles of cabbage and cabbage left in the store, as well as a pile of dragon fruit and oranges.
Common ingredients such as tomatoes, cucumbers, cabbage, green onions, eggs, pork belly, etc. have long been sold out.
The staff in the store said: "Our store has been opened for more than half a month. There are two obvious peaks of passenger flow at around 10 am and after 7 pm every day. Grandpa and aunt who come to buy vegetables in the morning will buy tomatoes and cucumbers. When it’s time for home cooking, there will be some office workers who just got off work at night. They mainly buy staple foods such as noodles and steamed buns."
"Now online fresh food and community group buying are particularly popular, which has a big impact on community stores like ours. But our advantage is'fresh and visible', so we can once again attract customers through flexible discounts. Entering the store closes the relationship between us and our customers. One way of discounts can reduce costs and ensure that the daily inventory is cleared; secondly, it can increase the affinity of our store, which can be said to be the best of both worlds." The person in charge of the store said.
Highlight 2 Convenient market for value-added services
In August of this year, Riri Fresh Food Complex on Chaoyang Road opened.
It not only provides vegetables, fruits, meat and aquatic products, but also sells green plants and pet supplies, and even provides convenient services such as barber shops and tailor shops.
As soon as it opened, it attracted residents of three surrounding communities.
At 1 o'clock in the afternoon, Mr. Lin, who lives in Beijing's Xintiandi community, walked into the market and after buying fruits and vegetables, he went to the shop selling fresh meat.
"Is the cured meat ordered last time ready?" Mr. Lin asked.
"It's done, I'll get it for you." After speaking, the store handed the bacon hanging on the shelf to Mr. Lin.
The pork belly has long been marinated in the sauce to become maroon red, and there are spices such as pepper and pepper on it.
“I’m from Sichuan. I want to eat bacon from my hometown when I’m alone. Unfortunately, I don’t know how to cook it. Last time I came to buy meat, the boss said he could do it for me. I didn’t expect that the service items in the community vegetable market are already like this. Thoughtful. Although you can buy all kinds of food online, the taste of this hometown is still the best handmade." Mr. Lin said with satisfaction.
Daily Fresh can not only provide meat processing, but a tailor shop in the living area is also popular with nearby residents.
Aunt Liu, who lives in Ruixiang, touched the newly played quilt and said happily: “The newly opened fresh food store even has a cotton quilt service. There is no need to buy quilts in the future. Although the things bought online are pretty good, But some services are not available online, and it is more convenient and practical to open at home."
Some merchants in the market said that the rise of online grocery shopping has diverted the business of community vegetable shops, and the door-to-door delivery of supermarkets has caused the business of physical stores to decline.
In order to restore customer flow, merchants are working hard on value-added services.
The person in charge of the mall introduced: “In addition to services such as valet bacon and pop cotton, we have also introduced a convenient barber shop for 15 yuan to sell green plants and pet supplies. These little things are done by online fresh food stores. No, the needs of residents are very high. We will explore more models in the future."
Highlight 3 Fastest home delivery
"Two catties of tomatoes, two round eggplants, one catty of eggs, and two catties of apples." At 12:30 noon, Mr. Tao, who lives in Wanrun Scenic Area, Fengtai District, called the community vegetable shop to order.
In less than 15 minutes, the vegetable shop staff came to the door with fresh vegetables.
"This store has been open for more than a year. As long as you buy 30 yuan, they can deliver it to your door. Not only the dishes are fresh, the prices are affordable, and the speed is also fast." Mr. Tao said.
The staff of the vegetable shop said that the vegetables in the shop are purchased from the wholesale market every day.
"Every morning, we go to buy the goods, and we will put the vegetables on the shelves as soon as we come back around 5 o'clock, and open the door before 7 o'clock. Many elderly people in the community come in early to buy vegetables. Residents just want to buy vegetables. Fresh, you can't be sloppy on this point."
From the first day the restaurant opened, from 10 a.m. to 1 a.m., the restaurant has been insisting on delivering goods.
Now they have printed the WeChat QR code and payment QR code on their business cards to facilitate residents to pay directly after placing an order.
"We can deliver more than 20 times a day, and more on weekends."
The owner of the vegetable shop said frankly that the development of online fresh food and the emergence of community group buying have robbed a part of the passenger flow, and residents’ demand for door-to-door delivery is also increasing, so they have given full play to their advantages in the community. It can be delivered to your door as quickly as possible, faster than the "half an hour delivery" promised by some online fresh produce.
Experts say:
"When residents buy vegetables, one is fresh and the other is fast, so we still like to go to the vegetable shop downstairs to buy. Because the quality is visible in the vegetable market, the price is relatively cheap. Online fresh prices are still a bit more expensive "Many citizens said that whether it is a community vegetable station or a vegetable market, there are more and more types of goods, and services such as processing and short-distance distribution are also available, which are not available for online fresh brands.
China Food Industry Analyst Zhu Danpeng believes that the main channels for Chinese residents to buy fresh food are still offline stores such as vegetable markets and community vegetable stores.
Even in first-tier cities, the proportion of residents going to the vegetable market to buy fresh food still reaches 60%.
"The dishes are visible in kind, the prices are close to the people, and the service system is perfect... These are the unique characteristics of offline fresh food."
Zhu Danpeng believes that the larger scale of online fresh food will bring about a greater brand effect, and the cost performance may be higher.
However, offline fresh food stores can improve their own service system to attract more customers. In the future, they can develop their own brands or develop into online fresh food suppliers.
In the opinion of Zhu Wei, a member of the Expert Committee of the China Consumers Association, community vegetable stores cater to the characteristics of the fast-paced needs of people.
"For example, now I need two or three dishes. Most people will go downstairs to buy instead of waiting for an hour for delivery. Now more offline fresh food stores have begun to increase service types and launch short-time delivery Door-to-door and other services. Value-added service is not only a unique feature of offline fresh food stores, but it is also currently unattainable in online fresh food stores. Through these small, fast and flexible changes, offline fresh food stores can achieve customers The stickiness is getting higher and higher."