Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, February 17th, title: "Semi-finished New Year's Eve Dinner", "Online Canteen", "Star Kitchen"... Can the catering consumption welcome the "spring" and "the cow"?
Xinhua News Agency reporters Hu Xu, Xiong Lin, Chen Aiping, Ren Chao
This year, many "strike workers" responded to the call and chose to "Celebrate the New Year on the spot."
"Workers" are also "fans". No matter where you celebrate the New Year, you always have to eat and drink to have the taste of the New Year.
During the Spring Festival in previous years, the most popular restaurant was the lobby of each restaurant, but under the new trend of "Chinese New Year in situ", the "canteen" for this Spring Festival moved from offline to online.
From "one-person luxury set meal" to "small family reunion dinner", from "quick home cooking" to "semi-finished New Year's Eve dinner", the new features of Chinese New Year catering make the transformation of catering consumption more prominent, and the reform of catering enterprises is also taking advantage of the trend. The growth point is accelerating.
Restricted dine-in restaurants in catering stores seek changes
On the eve of the Spring Festival, epidemic prevention and control guidelines were issued in many places across the country, advocating to control the number of gatherings, and people's awareness of independent epidemic prevention and control has increased, and the traditional "group feast" and "New Year's Eve dinner" of catering stores are cold.
The reporter saw on the meal order calendars of many restaurants in Chengdu, Sichuan, although as early as last year’s National Day, some customers had booked family banquets on the 29th, 30th and the first few days of the first lunar month, but they were scheduled The period is not as intensive as in previous years, and orders for large-scale group banquets for enterprises and institutions have dropped particularly.
The lobby manager of a chain restaurant in Chengdu said that it was the peak season of the catering industry around the Spring Festival. In previous years, booking three or four hundred tables in a month can only be considered a basic level. When it is hot, there may not be vacant seats in two or three rounds. Hit "explosive".
But this year's situation is different. Not only the phone calls are slightly deserted, but many calls are unsubscribed.
“The cancellation of dine-in in stores is caused by objective reasons, but people’s demand for catering consumption during the Spring Festival is still strong,” said Yuan Xiaoran, secretary general of the Chengdu Catering Association. Since last year, catering companies have been constantly seeking innovations and changes to adapt. The need for normalization of epidemic prevention and control nowadays is not only a challenge but also an opportunity to celebrate the New Year on the spot.
During the interview, the reporter also found that in order to cope with the new trend of "Chinese New Year in situ", catering companies have come up with various tactics to deal with it, and have spent a lot of effort on dish innovation and dining styles.
"This year we are focusing on the first dishes for family banquets. Specially packaged and launched two kinds of'hard dishes', Buddha jumping over the wall and dry-roasted sea cucumbers, and all the dishes are prepared." said Xiong Jianghua, general manager of Chengdu Old House Hua Cui restaurant in the first year, customer Just select the dishes on the mobile phone, the restaurant will prepare them in advance and deliver them at the agreed time, and simply heat them up to serve the banquet.
According to Zhang Le, general manager of the Commercial Marketing Department of Greenland Hotel Tourism Group, on the basis of strict implementation of epidemic prevention and control measures, the hotel has launched a "star kitchen door-to-door" service, where professional chefs bring raw materials to consumers’ homes to make on-site delicacies. Guests are welcome.
The quantity and quality of online catering services have increased
Since the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, strengthening online services has become an important way for traditional catering companies to seek transformation and survive the Jedi. In this year’s Spring Festival catering consumption, many catering companies also rely on online innovations, and the range of catering companies that provide online services has increased. The greater the coming, the service quality has improved significantly.
It is understood that there are 78 catering companies in Shanghai this year, and 225 New Year’s Eve set meals in 2,274 stores support takeaway.
Catering brands such as Xibei, Meizhou Dongpo, Youth Commune, etc. have all launched New Year’s Eve dinner packages or Chinese New Year packages online.
More and more high-end hotels join the online "New Year's Eve dinner circle".
Data from the Fliggy platform shows that in the week before the Spring Festival, the number of bookings for hotel New Year's Eve dinners on the platform increased 4.2 times from the previous month.
In Guangdong, Guangzhou White Swan Hotel, Crowne Plaza Guangzhou City Centre, etc. have launched Cantonese-style Chinese New Year Poon Choi, so that “workers” can enjoy quality meals at home.
Some time-honored brands have also continued to expand their online business.
Gongdelin, a well-known vegetarian brand, has perfected the online dishes offered on platforms such as Meituan and Ele.me. During the Spring Festival, customers can enjoy the same taste as restaurants at home through take-out services.
While traditional catering companies are undergoing urgent transformation, major Internet platforms and retail companies continue to extend to more life consumption scenarios relying on their resource advantages, and jointly meet the various new catering needs brought by consumers for "Chinese New Year in situ".
On the major online ordering platforms, all kinds of fast-handed dishes and semi-finished annual dishes are sold very hotly.
In order to meet the needs of young people for light-weight and low-calorie meals, Hema Shanghai launched the "Small Family Reunion Meal", with reservations accounting for nearly 60% of its New Year's Eve set meals.
Meituan has also launched a "New Year's Eve dinner to home" service with merchants from all over the world, supporting various types of New Year's Eve dinner takeaways ranging from single meals, two-person meals to family dinners with less than 10 people.
New demand brings growth points to help industry reform
After the outbreak, the catering consumer market characterized by agglomeration and contact has been greatly affected, and the catering industry has become one of the most severely damaged and slowest recovering industries.
"But the catering itself is also an industry that has strong resilience and can continuously introduce new ones to adapt to changes." Yuan Xiaoran said that some catering companies that can continue to promote innovation and transformation are still expanding. Take Chengdu as an example. One month before the Spring Festival, Nantang and Yuebaiwei More than 100 new restaurants have been opened by chain restaurant companies such as Dayali and Dayali. This trend has become more prominent in the context of the continuous release of catering consumption energy during the Spring Festival, and has also injected new momentum into the development of the industry.
According to industry analysts, in recent years, two seemingly completely different business formats, catering and retail, have intersected, from Haidilao’s self-heating pot to KFC’s launch of "KAIFENGCAI", to Yang Guofu’s self-heating mala Tang...The retailing of catering has become the latest The business trend, and "Chinese New Year in situ" has accelerated this trend.
For example, "Chinese New Year in situ" has spawned consumption demand for "food for one person" in many cities.
According to data from the supermarket chain Superda RT-Mart, sales of Kaixiaozao hot pot under Uni-President surged 233% in Shanghai.
At the same time, RT-Mart’s self-developed heated instant fast-shounian dishes have increased weekly sales by more than 50% since it was launched in January.
According to data from Ele.me platform, the number of catering brands offering New Year’s Eve set meals online this year has increased by 164% compared to the same period last year, participating stores have surged by 260%, and the number of New Year’s Eve set meals provided has increased nearly three times year-on-year.
According to analysis by industry insiders, "New Year's on the spot" has strengthened the consumption scene and demand of catering to the home, forcing catering companies to set foot in the retail areas of fresh food, pre-made dishes, and packaged food.
In particular, leading companies with obvious supply chain and brand advantages have used online platforms to transform from a single dine-in to a "two-legged" walk in dine-in and retail, which is expected to form a new growth point in the catering industry.
The report of the China Hotel Association believes that although the new crown pneumonia epidemic has had a huge impact on the catering industry, it has also given birth to new bright spots. The business of food delivery, retail of food ingredients, and industrialization of finished products and semi-finished products has been expanded to varying degrees; community group buying + centralized distribution, central Kitchen + cold chain distribution, contactless services, etc. have also promoted a significant increase in the level of digitalization and intelligence in the entire industry.