Turning around and leaving the cubicle, the company executives went to set up a stall

"From the second half of 2022, more and more young people are coming here to set up stalls."

Liu Xiande, the owner of "the world's first fried rice" on Sansi Road 8 years ago, witnessed the transformation from an ordinary road to a "net red block". At first, he saw the consumption potential of the many office buildings and office workers, and chose to set up stalls in the vicinity. Nowadays, his fried rice and fried noodles are quite popular among office white-collar workers.

On March 3, near 29:8 p.m., Peng Xinyi, who had finished his internship, ordered a fried rice here, "Their house has been on fire for many years, I only got off work at this point, and I really have to rely on small stalls to eat."

After frying this meal, Liu Xiande closed the stall on time, but more young bosses in the Sansi Road Night Market have just begun to stall.

"Our lighter casing is handmade, and each wood grain is unique." Big fish entertains the customers in front of the stall, skillfully selling the selling points of the product.

More than 3 months ago, she was still working in the operation of an e-commerce company. When it comes to the reasons for setting up stalls, Big Fish seems not so pleasant - at the end of 2022, due to the company's "cost reduction and efficiency increase", the leader of Big Fish was dismissed, and she was also "optimized".

However, the optimistic big fish sees this as "an opportunity to change the original way of life". In mid-March this year, she and her former colleague, Xiaoyu, who had been "lying at home for a year", made up their minds not to go to work anymore and came to the Sansi Road Night Market to set up a stall together.

Compared with the "helpless" choice of big fish and small fish stalls, Peng Yue, who used to be a marketing director of a mother and baby company, seems to have been "planning for a long time".

In November 2022, Peng Yue had the idea of starting a business. Her boyfriend Yu Liang, who has been a chef for more than 11 years, saw that the traffic of the Sansi Road Night Market was good, and wanted to come here to set up a stall to do catering "to see if they can succeed in starting a business."

On March 2023, 3, the "Fugui Scallion Oil Cake" stall with their wishes was officially opened, and the 1 yuan scallion oil cake can now sell an average of more than 10 a night.

Wu Shuang, 38, who worked in Guiyang for 11 years, was an executive at a property company before leaving. His reasons for leaving the office building to set up a stall were even more free, "suddenly I didn't want to work, I felt that I didn't have the freedom to work part-time."

In July 2022, he returned to his hometown of Chengdu. After more than 7 months of market research, in October 3, he co-opened a "Ter Demon Spicy Hot" with friends at the Sansi Road Night Market, "Ter Monster" is a Sichuanese, referring to the local specialty rabbit waist.

"I've always loved cooking and I'm confident in the taste of rabbit loins!" Different from a simple stall, "Ter" is a "big shop" with seats and tables in the night market, with an endless flow of customers, which seems to prove Wu Shuang's taste and judgment.

With an investment of nearly 20,000 yuan, setting up a stall is not as easy as imagined

"Nanchong special cool powder pot helmet, come and take a look!"

On March 3, near 29 p.m., Jiang Guo, wearing a blue tracksuit, shouted hard in front of the stall, 9-year-old him, with a youthful face. In fact, like his 24-year-old brother Long Chunyang, he has been a chef for many years.

"Open a shop and rent tens of thousands of yuan, don't pay a booth fee here, we'll set up a stall first!" At the beginning of this year, the two brothers returned to Sichuan from Guangdong, and like Wu Shuang, they also "didn't want to work for others", and after visiting the Sansi Road night market, they decided to set up a stall here.

Long Chunyang told the China Youth Daily reporter that in order to add a sense of fashion to traditional snacks, they prepared a set of foldable stoves, tables and chairs and decorations, and "it cost more than 5000,<> yuan to buy a set of 'camping style' equipment." He admits that the stall has been set up for less than a month, and the turnover is three or four hundred yuan when the business is bad, and five or six hundred yuan in good times. ”

"It's not as easy as we think, and we spend more than 14 hours a day." In October 2022, Liu Yuan, who failed to start a company, and his girlfriend set up a "Little Bear Burger" stall at the Sansi Road Night Market and started from scratch.

Combing through the daily routine since the stall, he felt more tired than in the company. They usually close their stalls at 12 p.m., wash the dishes, clean up the stove, and when they get home, it's already 1 o'clock at night, sleep until <> o'clock in the morning, and start the day's preparations.

This is a hurdle to overcome for Liu Yuan and his girlfriend, who has "social phobia", "In the first month, we did not dare to say hello to guests, and it was the guests who took the initiative to come and ask us."

After 6 months of crawling, "Little Bear Burger" has been successful in the night market. Liu Yuan modified an RV, upgraded the texture of the stall, and negotiated long-term raw material cooperation with suppliers, so that he could get high-quality ingredients at a lower price and a more fair price. Although physically and mentally tired, he is "very happy, happier than going to work".

Liu originally loved hamburgers, and after setting up a stall, he "researched" while eating, and has launched 10 different flavors of burgers, priced from 20-40 yuan, and can sell an average of about 80-100 per day, with such turnover, he and his girlfriend can support themselves. What makes them happy is that many customers have become friends because they eat delicious burgers, and "some children will dance with excitement after eating our burgers", which makes them feel more satisfied.

The small stall gave Liu a new strength, he wanted to run this stall as a business, and on weekends, "Little Bear Burger" would have two stalls at the same time, "and it must be continuously optimized to keep on fire."

At 9 o'clock in the evening, when the crowds were dense, the fat man in her 20s fried more than a dozen pieces of stinky tofu in the pot, and in order to make a different stinky tofu stall, she invested more than 1,7 yuan before and after.

At first, the old fat man drove a simple dark red small tricycle to sell stinky tofu, she felt that this was completely incompatible with the tone of the night market, and spent a lot of money to remake a retro-style stall, "My friend is designed, the name of this 'old fat man to make ou tofu' was chosen by him, and the shop sign was also designed by him for us."

The money invested in the old fat child's previous operation has not yet returned the cost, but she is still optimistic, "Now there are hundreds of yuan to sell stinky tofu every day, I want to do this well first, and then expand the category later." ”

In the long queue, the neon shop sign of "Old Fat Man Dou Ou Tofu" shone through the gap.

Even a "rich onion oil cake" should be made as a brand

At 10 p.m., the night market on Sanshilu Road still sounded shouting.

Big Fish is attracting offline customers in front of the stall, while Xiao Yu is "welcoming the new babies in the live broadcast room", and the online store "Dao Muyu Handmade Wood Workshop" run by them has been open for half a month and has sold more than 60 orders.

Live streaming is Big Fish's area of expertise. They spent a long time doing market research and began to sell handicrafts in the live broadcast room, so that the location of the two's stall was no longer limited to the Sanshilu Night Market.

"Did the live broadcast room issue coupons today?" Big fish skillfully opened the computer, from the links of several e-commerce platforms, at a glance found the e-commerce background that was live broadcasting, opened, issued coupons, and completed in one go, "We are now doing global e-commerce, and the whole platform integrates and sells goods." "Although it is only a small stall, Big Fish and Small Fish have integrated the concept of O2O (combination of online and offline) into the business.

A huge frying pan was brushed with a layer of cooking oil, and Yu Liang threw down a few doughs, and the splashing oil burned his fingers, which he used to. After waiting for a few minutes, the dough turns golden brown and becomes a "rich onion oil cake" with a tempting aroma.

"When I decided to set up a stall, I decided to make 'Fugui Scallion Oil Cake' a brand." Peng Yue and Yu Liang resigned in February this year, and they had done more than three months of market research before preparing to set up their stalls.

Peng Yue is responsible for marketing planning and brand marketing, and the "Fugui Scallion Oil Cake" account will be broadcast live regularly to attract online customers to experience offline. Yu Liang was responsible for the research and development of core products, and they remembered the scallion oil cake that they could often eat after school when they were children, so they spent half a month to replicate the taste of the year, "The ingredients and raw materials are of high quality, although the cost is higher, but the taste is better." ”

Without calculating labor costs, in less than 1 month of stalling, "Fugui Scallion Oil Cake" has paid back.

No one can succeed casually, even a small stall. Wu Shuang, who cut into the "subdivision track" of rabbit waist spicy hot, investigated more meticulously and arduously.

In July 2022, Wu Shuang started from a mobile cart selling cakes, he looked at the market situation of all night markets in Chengdu, and also inspected almost all shops selling rabbit waist, and after 7 months, he came to the conclusion that his rabbit waist can make money.

From a company executive who typed and wrote documents to a small stall owner wearing a rabbit waist skewer in his hand, Wu Shuang did not feel that there was any gap, nor did he care about the views of his family and friends on his resignation to sell spicy hot, "The work is your own, you can only have fun." ”

Now, Wu Shuang's one-night turnover is about 2000,4000 yuan, and if it is better, it can reach more than <>,<> yuan, and the income is much higher than when he used to work in the company. For the future, he is eager to try, "We are making a brand, and we are preparing to land a physical store in Chengdu in the future." ”

The clock pointed to 3 o'clock on March 30, and on the office floor, the lights in the cubicles were still on, and the figure flashed; Downstairs, the Sansi Road Night Market is still brightly lit and flowing.

These lights together illuminate the flowing Jinjiang River.

(At the request of interviewees, Big Fish, Little Fish, Liu Yuan, and Old Fat Er are nicknames)

Liu Yinheng, trainee reporter of China Youth Daily Source: China Youth Daily

2023-04-14 Version 05