High labor cost and expensive rent, two major pain points make the catering road narrower and narrower
Can unmanned hotpot restaurants go out of the new way of catering?
When you go to the store to eat hot pot, do you want the waiter to do everything, or do it yourself?
In Chengdu, a hot pot restaurant that has been in business for about half a year has tried an "unmanned" service model. There is no waiter to bring tea and water, take vegetables and oil dishes, and cook the base. Customers clear the table themselves.
It is understood that unmanned hotpot restaurants have appeared sporadically in some places, and this new model has attracted many young customers.
However, the unmanned operation mode still has challenges in terms of operation convenience and food safety assurance. What new breakthroughs will this unmanned hot pot restaurant in Chengdu have?
Two pain points make the traditional catering road narrower and narrower
The founder of this restaurant, Yang Liang, has been working hard in the catering industry for nearly 20 years. In the early days, he made Indian cakes in a hot pot restaurant for 8 years. In 2013, he started to work alone. He has made grilled fish, vegetables, barbecue, rice noodles, potatoes, etc. And so on, also opened a chef training institution.
In the beginning, he cooked by himself. Later, when more stores opened, Yang Liang was mainly responsible for the operation and management.
His hard work in the front line of the industry has given him a personal feeling for the pain points of the industry.
Looking back, he concluded two points: high labor costs and high rents.
Yang Liang's first self-employment project was Maocai.
He found a store of about 30 square meters, worked as a chef himself, and hired five or six waiters.
Because of its good taste and great customer flow, it also attracted many people to discuss cooperation.
Yang Liang said that in 2013, it was the trend of the Maocai industry, so the store expanded rapidly, and 10 chain stores were opened during the peak period.
In the era when there was no Internet food delivery platform, he believed that this business performance was already very good.
In 2018, Yang Liang expanded his business scope and set foot in night snacks such as crayfish and grilled fish.
During the World Cup, business was booming, and at most, 2,000 catties of crayfish were sold a day.
However, the contradiction of lack of manpower has become prominent.
In the more than a year since the supper restaurant opened, four chefs have changed, and the number of waiters has increased.
Some chefs asked for a salary increase because of family troubles, and left the job when the salary failed to meet the requirements.
Yang Liang felt that he was often led by the chef's nose. "When the business is good, you ask for a salary increase, but when the business is bad, you can't give him a salary reduction."
Changing chefs can make a big difference for a restaurant.
Yang Liang said that the taste of the traditional catering industry cannot be standardized. If the chef changes, the taste will change, customers will be lost, and consumption stickiness will be reduced.
His supper business was in a slump after the World Cup.
There are more than ten waiters in a year, and most of them are about 40 years old on average. It is difficult to recruit young waiters in their 20s.
Yang Liang said that in the eyes of young people, traditional dining is dirty and tiring, and it is not a good job.
At one point, he was worried: If these elderly people don't do catering services, who will do it in the future?
Not planning ahead, but imminent
After targeting the above-mentioned pain points in the catering industry, Yang Liang thought that if someone could solve the problems of manpower and rental costs, then the catering market would be bigger.
The pattern of unmanned stores began to enter his field of vision.
Starting the unmanned hotpot restaurant project, Yang Liang was not on impulse.
He said that making changes by himself is not about taking precautions. These dilemmas faced by the catering industry are already imminent problems.
Yang Liang believes that the central kitchens and vegetable cleaning factories in the catering industry chain are now very mature. If these resources are integrated in an intelligent form, it may be a new way out.
He inspected everywhere, went to Guangzhou to learn about software development, went to Chongqing and Xuzhou to inspect freezer manufacturers, and contacted the platform for payment interfaces.
After half a year, the operation system required by an unmanned hotpot restaurant has taken shape.
In September 2021, in an ordinary neighborhood in Jinniu District, Chengdu, Yang Liang's unmanned hot pot restaurant opened.
There are no waiters, there are 9 tables in the store, a row of freezers stands against the wall, and the innermost space is separated as a back kitchen for storing tableware.
From preparing the soup base in the pot to cleaning the tableware, everything needs to be done by the customer.
The freezer is opened after the customer scans the code, automatically identifies the dishes and the quantity taken out, and automatically deducts the payment on the mobile phone.
Customers need to go to the shelf to get the pot by themselves, scan the code to buy the bottom of the pot, and pour water to prepare the bottom of the pot.
According to the process design of the unmanned hotpot restaurant, customers need to take the bottom of the pot to the back kitchen to dump it, and put the dirty pots and bowls in the designated position, and it is best to clean the table top.
Some new customers are a little overwhelmed by these processes, but returning customers are well-versed.
Of course, the store is not completely "unmanned".
There will be a waiter working in the store from 17:00 to 22:00 every day, mainly responsible for the replenishment of dishes, cleaning and other work.
At other times, if there are not enough dishes or other emergencies, the background will issue a prompt to remind the service staff to come to the scene immediately.
Based on the intelligent operation mode, this unmanned hotpot restaurant has indeed saved a lot of labor costs, and the price of dishes is about 30% lower than that of traditional hotpot restaurants.
Yang Liang said frankly that at present, the profitability of this restaurant is stronger than that of traditional hotpot restaurants, and its operation is much easier than that of traditional ones.
In the past, for traditional catering, I had to go to the vegetable market early in the morning to buy vegetables, and when I came back, I had to wash and cut them. Now the vegetable factory can deliver them.
Yang Liang said that because of the mature industrial chain, the traditional industry of hot pot can also be standardized. For example, the weight of dishes distributed through the vegetable cleaning factory can be accurate to grams, and the code on the box can be traced to ensure food safety.
The hot pot base is also prepared, and the customer can tear open the packaging bag and pour it into the pot.
Yang Liang introduced that before opening the store, the team invested about 300,000 yuan to develop the system, and the investment cost of the first store was about 200,000 yuan.
But a senior catering person said to Yang Liang: Your idea is worth 5 million yuan.
"Unmanned" operation mode still has room for upgrade
The unmanned hotpot restaurant is not Yang Liang's first initiative.
Previously, unmanned hotpot restaurants have been explored in Chongqing, Heilongjiang and other places. Haidilao, a well-known catering brand, also tried a "smart restaurant" in 2018 that automates everything from waiting, ordering to serving.
However, a hot pot restaurant that opened in Chongqing in early 2021 has closed after about half a year of operation.
According to reports, the analysis of employees at that time was mainly about operation and site selection. Consumers complained that the operation was cumbersome, such as re-scanning the code every time the freezer was opened. One of the branches was located in a neighborhood with many elderly people, and customers who were willing to try it. less.
Yang Liang once went to the unmanned hot pot restaurant in Chongqing to experience it.
He analyzed that the main reason is that the taste is not competitive, and there are often problems with the equipment, such as not being able to open the cabinet door or arbitrarily deducting fees.
Yang Liang said that considering the lessons learned, the unmanned hotpot restaurant needs to be further upgraded in all aspects.
After all, it is in a state of "unmanned" operation. Yang Liang's unmanned hotpot restaurant also has some unexpected situations. For example, new customers are unfamiliar with the process and do not know how to pick up dishes. Some customers did not clear the table after leaving, and even forgot to turn off the induction cooker.
Yang Liang said that these problems will be solved by adding on-site prompts and guidelines and improving equipment intelligence.
For example, considering that customers may forget to turn off the induction cooker when they leave, they asked the manufacturer to specially modify the chip, and the induction cooker will automatically turn off after 10 minutes of continuous operation.
In addition, the air conditioner in the store is a human body induction type, and it will automatically turn on when a customer enters the store.
Lights can be controlled remotely to save energy.
After monitoring finds that a customer enters the store, a prompt will be pushed on the mobile phone of the management service personnel to facilitate understanding of the situation in the store.
Yang Liang said that they are thinking about dealing with more unexpected situations, such as adding payment methods such as credit card and face swiping for the elderly who do not have smartphones or customers who have forgotten their mobile phones.
In addition, he is also thinking from the perspective of operation, what to do if there are more stores in the future, "One store is easy to manage, what about 10 or 100?"
China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily reporter Wang Xinxin correspondent Wang Longhua Source: China Youth Daily
April 19, 2022 Version 07