Prefabricated "New Year's Eve Dinner" is popular in supermarkets.
Our reporter Guo Jingyuan
Coming earlier than the year is the New Year's Eve dinner.
In addition to the nearly full of New Year's Eve dinner reservations in major restaurants, semi-finished New Year's Eve prepared dishes have also become popular in retailers.
"New Year's Eve dinners are already available in supermarkets!" With less than a month before the Spring Festival, Han Chunsheng, a citizen of Chaoyang District, Beijing, walked into the Minzu Garden store of RT-Mart Supermarket near his home. The full range of New Year's Eve products on the shelves attracted He noticed that the products include several popular national cuisines such as local cuisine, Anhui cuisine, Huaiyang cuisine, Sichuan cuisine, cold dishes, hot dishes, soup pots, and desserts.
This year is the third year that RT-Mart has launched New Year dishes. The R&D team has started the research and development of New Year dishes since March 2021.
"Preparing the New Year's Eve dinner at home, the elders who cook the dishes are often the hardest and most busy. We have pre-processed all the parts that are labor-intensive and time-consuming, so that the elders can spend time preparing and cooking, and share a good New Year's Eve with their families. A big meal." Xu Bingchi, R&D engineer of RT-Mart cooked food, said that these convenient dishes only need to be microwaved and placed on a plate, and there is no need to cook the pot after eating, which can be said to completely liberate both hands.
It is convenient and hassle-free to enjoy a sumptuous meal, and make pre-made dishes for New Year's Eve popular in the market.
It is reported that at the end of December 2021, Hema Xiansheng, a new retail platform, has also started the reservation of annual dishes. C-ranked annual dishes such as Family Portrait, Buddha Jumping Over the Wall, and Seafood Celebrities can all be booked on Hema.
As the most important meal of the year, the Hema New Year vegetable market research results show that among the respondents aged 30 to 35, 50% of the respondents are responsible for preparing the New Year's Eve dinner by themselves or their loved ones, and another 50% % is still prepared by the parents.
Shanghai has the highest proportion of young people preparing the New Year's Eve dinner, at 52%.
Young people are taking over the dominance of the New Year's Eve dinner.
Not only that, but younger consumer groups are more receptive to prepared dishes.
The data shows that 82% of respondents aged 30 to 35 have a certain understanding of the "New Year's Vegetable Set", of which 65% are willing to try to buy pre-made New Year's dishes.
The Guangzhou-Shenzhen area has the highest proportion of respondents who are willing to try to buy pre-made annual dishes, at 58%, followed by Beijing area at 57%.
But at the same time, their needs for New Year dishes are also more specific and complex.
This year, Hema "customized" a full set of pre-made New Year dishes around these young people who have mastered the dominance of the New Year's Eve dinner.
It is worth noting that Hema also focused on investigating consumers’ concerns about pre-made New Year dishes.
Among them, 55% of the respondents have the biggest concern about the prefabricated New Year dishes, which is that "the ingredients are not fresh, and there are too many additives and preservatives"; and 25% of the respondents think that the prefabricated New Year dishes "there are not many localized products and lack of local characteristics." Vegetables”; some respondents worried that the pre-made annual dishes “did not match the picture and text”, and the gap between the seller’s show and the buyer’s show was too large.
As the people in charge of the New Year's Eve dinner are getting younger and younger, they are also influencing the development trend of the New Year's Eve market.
Hema found that because respondents prepared an average of 3.3 meals throughout the Spring Festival holiday, not just one New Year's Eve meal, the respondents had higher requirements for the convenience of pre-made New Year's dishes; 76% of the respondents had 80% of the respondents believe that the most important thing is to display the New Year's Eve dinner on social networks, which requires that the New Year's Eve dishes should not only be delicious, but also have a higher appearance.
To this end, Hema New Year dishes have been fully prepared in a targeted manner.
Ning Qiang, general manager of Hema 3R Commodity Purchasing and Marketing Center, introduced that while researching and developing New Year's vegetable products, in order to simplify the processing steps as much as possible, almost all New Year's vegetable products can be directly heated and served on the table.
In response to the high-value demand for new year dishes, the Hema R&D team has made great efforts from product development to outer packaging.
After reheating, the shape is comparable to the freshly fried squirrel fish and the hand-bundled braised pork. During the tasting process of the new year dishes, both the shape and the taste were highly praised.
Soup dishes such as Buddha Jumps over the Wall and Fish Maw Chicken will also be presented with very photogenic pots and pans to meet the needs of consumers to "dry" the New Year's Eve dinner.
While catering to preferences, it is also necessary to solve pain points.
In order to dispel consumers' concerns about the freshness of pre-made vegetables, all products of Hema New Year vegetables are processed and transported by cold chain, and no additional preservatives are added.
Zhang Qian, Purchasing Director of Hema 3R Commodity Purchasing and Marketing Center, said that prefabricated New Year dishes need better ingredients and craftsmanship to attract consumers.
The "Family Portrait" that has already been launched, this dish alone gathers high-quality ingredients from 6 regions, including Jingzhou fish cake, Qiandao Lake flower silver carp fish ball, and Huizhou knife plate incense. The price is 99 yuan, which is not cheap.
However, judging from Hema's experience in making pre-made dishes, consumers' demand for high-quality and low-cost pre-made dishes is far higher than the pursuit of low prices, especially for pre-made dishes.
"Pre-made New Year's dishes have always been a special presence in the pre-made vegetable market. Compared with ordinary pre-made dishes, consumers' needs for pre-made New Year dishes are more specific and complex. Seizing the needs and solving pain points is the key for pre-made New Year dishes to be seen by consumers. "Ning Qiang said.
Our reporter Guo Jingyuan