In the past few days, the stall economy has frequently attracted attention: Zibo barbecue screen hot search list, Shenzhen will no longer completely ban "roadside stalls", Yiwu night supper stall couples' high income has been questioned...
Is the stall economy encouraged? Before Shenzhen, Beijing, Shanghai, Lanzhou and other places have issued new regulations for the management of "stalls" to expand consumption scenarios and increase residents' employment. In addition to loosening the restrictions of stalls in many places, many places have also taken the initiative to empower the stall economy. But the management difficulties that come with it have also become more prominent, for example, in recent days, Zibo's complaints are increasing due to the surge in tourism and the approach of the high school entrance examination.
In the past few days, reporters have visited many cities in the Pearl River Delta and found that traditional "roadside stalls" have derived new forms such as trunk markets and Internet celebrity night markets, and have also become new media to connect online and offline traffic; However, its development also faces many problems such as high degree of homogenization, and puts forward new requirements for urban management and grassroots governance. How to manage the stalls well in addition to encouraging development needs to be explored by all parties.
●Nanfang Daily reporter Xu Mian, Yang Qiong, Li Xin
Side A
Tourists come from online
The Internet celebrity market is very popular
At nightfall, outside Exit C of Keyun Road Metro Station in Tianhe District, Guangzhou, the net red night market is brightly lit. At 8 p.m., when the rush hour of local Internet companies arrives, many young people will choose to sit here for a while, listen to a singer sing, and order a drink.
"It starts at 6 p.m., and we are usually busy until 2 a.m." Xiaosi, the owner of the milk tea stall, is busy while still broadcasting his stall life. She works as an acting artist on weekdays, and whenever she has free time, she will come here to participate in the market and participate in activities with the "convoy".
"Convoy", i.e. mobile bazaar convoys. As the main operating organization of such online celebrity night markets, the "fleet" is usually young people with similar interests and love to socialize, who attract fans by operating accounts such as Douyin and Xiaohongshu, and then direct online traffic offline through market stalls.
"It wasn't us who found the mall, it was the mall that invited us over." Speaking of the reason for moving in the place, the team leader said.
The reporter found that there was a distance of nearly 100 meters between Exit C of Keyun Road Metro Station and the mall. During the day, the flow of people often passes by in a hurry, and the "aisle effect" is obvious. At night, after the flow of people leaves the station, they will stop at the night market, which increases the possibility of them entering the mall to spend.
This was also confirmed by the account of a citizen at the scene. He told reporters that he was busy with work on weekdays and had no consumption habits after work, but when he saw that there was a market here, he decided to shop a little and eat something before going home.
In the old Guangkou, street stallers are often called "walking ghosts". Nowadays, he has become an urban white-collar worker and goes to the street to be a "ghost", why? Many young people who set up stalls in the Internet celebrity night market told reporters that this is a side job, a kind of livelihood, and a trend.
The stall owner Xiao Li is 25 years old this year. During the day, Xiao Li was an operator of an Internet company on Keyun Road, and after work, he took a few young friends to run a "loop" business in the subway market. He calculated an account for the reporter, the booth only needs to pay 100 yuan to the property owner every day management fee, and then all the harvest is revenue, and the income can reach thousands of yuan on a holiday night.
Different from the Internet celebrity night market, although some traditional night markets are not as exquisite and trendy as the new night market, they are more standardized in management and often more affordable in price, so they are quite popular with locals.
In Bao'an District, Shenzhen, there is a Yantian Street that is more than 300 meters away. Every day before 4 p.m., it is a street where people and cars pass; From 4 p.m. to the wee hours of the morning, more than 180 snack and daily necessities stalls gather here. This is the largest and oldest legal night market old street in Shenzhen - Yantian Community Night Market Cultural Street (hereinafter referred to as "Yantian Night Market").
A closer look will also reveal that the stalls in Yantian Night Market are clearly numbered, and the floor of each stall is covered with dust cloths. Around 11:<> p.m., there are stall owners ready to close their stalls. They will take the initiative to clean the floor of the stall and then roll up the dust cloth and put it away.
Sun Hua, a "post-95" who is hometown in Anhui, grew up in Yantian Night. He came to Shenzhen with his family since he was a child, and has been renting a village in the city next to the night market for 18 years. When I was a child, I sat at the edge of the stall and watched my family busy, "Now that I'm older, I'm starting to help my family."
In Foshan Denghu West Street Night Market, stalls, markets, music and other elements gather, looking up to see the colorful light show, beside the river and evening breeze. Sun Qian, a citizen who lives nearby, told reporters that coming to the night market with her family after dinner is a "fixed program" every night, "It is really pleasant to come out for a walk, blow the wind, and buy some snacks to relieve your hunger."
Huang Yifan, a tourist from Shandong, told reporters, "I brushed the relevant posts on Xiaohongshu, and I wanted to come and see it with friends, but I didn't expect the atmosphere to be so good."
The reporter found that in addition to attracting aisle traffic in scenic spots, transportation hubs and traditional business areas, many Internet celebrity night markets rely on online traffic. On the Xiaohongshu platform, the topic of Guangzhou Night Market has more than 3,<> posts. Many tourists will now check the strategy online, and some people list the "top ten night markets" in their minds and check in one by one.
"The night economy has become an important symbol of Qiandeng Lake." Cao Limin, a member of the Party Working Committee of Foshan Nanhai Guicheng Subdistrict, said that in 2022, Guicheng proposed to build a central vitality area of Qiandeng Lake, and in August of the same year, Qiandeng Lake was approved as a national-level nighttime cultural and tourism consumption gathering area.
Data show that during this year's "May Day" holiday, the passenger flow of Denghu West Street increased by about 400% year-on-year, receiving about 10,<> citizens. Taking the night economy as the entry point, the gathering of people also effectively drives the overall consumption of the business district.
Side B
The problem of nuisance has reappeared
How to sustainably lead the discussion
In recent years, complaints against night markets have often arisen in various places.
In 2022, some citizens in Chancheng District of Foshan reported that every late night, there would be a phenomenon of merchants gathering and selling around Dongping Road Lovers Park, with people congested and noisy, barbecue stalls disturbing people, and diners throwing vomit everywhere... In this regard, the local Urban Management and Comprehensive Law Enforcement Bureau carried out rectification - from 9 o'clock every night to 3 a.m. the next day, according to the actual situation, according to the actual situation, Dongping Road and the river embankment at night random selling, occupation of the road, noise disturbance and other urban environmental order problems such as education and correction, stationed control and inspection and punishment.
Since the beginning of this year, such problems have continued. The neighborhood of Banqiao Village, Nancun Town, Panyu District, Guangzhou, recently reported that a large number of local mobile vendors occupy the road to operate, spontaneously forming a "food street", and sometimes even occupying parking spaces, resulting in local residents entering and leaving the village in traffic jams on holiday nights. "Originally, it was a two-lane carriageway, and it was difficult for an electric car to enter at night." Local neighbors say. In this regard, the director of the local village security committee said frankly that the problem of mobile vendors has been around for a long time, and the village has now reported the problem to the Nancun town government, and according to the requirements of the town government, the village committee is currently looking for suitable areas and plans to centralize the management of these vendors.
The development of the stall economy is also facing discussions on how to be sustainable.
The reporter learned that in order to facilitate stalls and life, most of the stall owners of Yantian Night Market in Bao'an District, Shenzhen live in urban villages near the night market, and their operations are closely related to the management of urban villages; In Beigang Village in Panyu, Guangzhou, stalls such as the temporary evacuation area for mobile traders are basically next to each other, or even "embedded" in urban villages.
Huang Gengzhi, associate professor at Sun Yat-sen University's School of Geographic Sciences and Planning, pointed out that urban villages not only provide cheap housing and low-threshold employment opportunities for migrants, but also are places where the economy of mobile street vendors gathers. With the development of the city, the gradual transformation of urban villages "will undoubtedly lead to the loss of business space for the vendors living here."
Not all traditional night markets are clustered near urban villages. In places such as Guangzhou's Tiyuxi business district and Dongshankou, setting up fixed and standardized mobile stalls in the center of the city will undoubtedly lead to problems such as high rents.
In fact, rents at Yantian Night Market have also risen year after year. "Ten years ago, it was 10 yuan a month, then it was 500,1000 yuan, and now it is 1500,<> yuan a month." Several stall owners said.
At present, more and more shopping malls and scenic spots are beginning to try the Internet celebrity night market, and as its location gets better and better, the rent is also rising. Some stall owners frankly said that they hope to introduce corresponding standards, including the hygiene, safety, price and positioning of the stalls, "the organizers should consider these issues, if everyone does the same products and services, it is involution and consumption."
Chen Zijian, the organizer of the Qulang Market, told reporters that as early as last year, he began to plan activities related to the trunk market. But building a successful internet celebrity night market is no easy task.
In Chen Zijian's view, the street stall has gone through four stages from a ghost stall in a broad sense to today's theme market: fixed vendors, mobile vendors, trunk markets, and composite brand marketing tailbox markets.
What is the difference between the Internet celebrity night market and the "ghost"? "Regular." Many stall owners repeatedly emphasize this answer. A stall owner who makes fried skewers told reporters that all stall owners who do catering need to apply for three certificates, and the team is responsible for the management of all stalls.
However, the reporter found that although most fleets require three certificates to open their doors, in practice, due to the large mobility of fleet stall owners, the weak relationship between the fleet and the stall owner is similar to that of the association, so that the protection of health, fire protection, product quality and other guarantees is often reduced to empty talk.
In Chen Zijian's view, this year's trunk market is particularly hot and even a little "flooded", "It seems that all shopping malls and scenic spots in Guangzhou are doing this overnight, which can be said to be blooming everywhere."
Homogenization is a question that tests all stall participants. "Counting up, there may be thousands of similar 'convoys' in Guangzhou today." A market organizer told reporters that the routine of the "convoy" is mostly similar, through the operation of Douyin, Xiaohongshu and other accounts, so that online traffic is imported offline, online customer acquisition, offline profit.
Many stall owners cannot innovate in products and planning, so they will choose to win traffic through eyeballs. For example, in Beijing's Beijing Road Pedestrian Street in Guangzhou, a tea stall invited several handsome guys to make a gimmick, and some people questioned whether it was too vulgar.
In Chen Zijian's view, the positioning and product taste of the market is a bottleneck that needs to be broken through, "We have previously planned pet activity markets, or coffee festivals, dessert festivals, 520 and other activities, testing the creative planning and execution capabilities of each market operator."
Planning/Coordinator: He Xuefeng Chen Hong
Expert opinion
The boom night economy tests the wisdom of grassroots governance
"At present, many of the mobile street vendors in cities are migrant populations." Huang Gengzhi, an associate professor at Sun Yat-sen University's School of Geographic Sciences and Planning who has studied mobile vendors for many years, said the influx of migrants into Guangdong cities shows the strong appeal of Guangdong as an economically powerhouse province, which reflects the inclusiveness of the city.
In Huang's view, the existence of mobile vendors has many meanings. At the economic level, mobile vendors help reduce the cost of living in cities because they sell cheaper goods; At the social level, the presence of mobile vendors provides low-threshold employment opportunities in cities and solves the employment problem of some groups that have difficulty obtaining work in the formal labor market.
"For urban spaces, mobile vendors create the pyrotechnics of urban life, provide a public space for social interaction, and increase the temperature and diversity of the city." Huang Gengzhi believes that mobile street vendors should not simply be regarded as backward and outdated economic activities, but if standardized, planned and created, they can also become the highlight of urban consumption space.
Yao Huasong, an associate professor at the School of Public Administration of Guangzhou University, also said, "A city must have tall shopping malls and high-end shopping malls, as well as civilian markets and stalls. Jagged and multimorphic and complementary to each other, it is more in line with people's consumption habits and can better reflect the characteristics of the city. ”
However, if the stall economy wants to grow "red", it must manage the mobile stalls. Mobile stall governance is also nothing new. In 2015, the Regulations of Guangdong Province on the Administration of Small Food Production and Processing Workshops and Food Vendors explicitly required that mobile vendors be included in the standardized management.
In recent years, many cities in Guangdong have regulated the management of business establishments such as "roadside stalls" and "night markets" to varying degrees. In 2008, Guangzhou took the lead in implementing the pilot temporary evacuation area for mobile traders in some areas, and reasonably guided the establishment of evacuation areas; In 2018, Dongguan formulated the Implementation Opinions on Strengthening Urban and Rural Environmental Sanitation Management, which clearly stipulates all kinds of illegal stall behavior; In 2020, the "Measures for the Management of Temporary Occupation of Road by the Urban Management and Comprehensive Law Enforcement Bureau of Chancheng District of Foshan City (Trial)" was issued... In May this year, the newly revised Shenzhen Special Economic Zone Regulations on the Management of City Appearance and Environmental Sanitation were voted and passed, which has aroused widespread concern - from September 5 this year, it will allow street offices to designate street vendors according to the principles of convenience for the masses, reasonable layout and orderly supervision.
The continuous development of the Internet celebrity night market, another form of stall economy, has also received much attention.
At the 5 Provincial Culture and Tourism Industry Work Conference held on May 17 this year, the Department of Culture and Tourism of Guangdong Province announced the list of 2023 "Cantonese New Trends" Guangdong cultural tourism consumption new business formats, including many new consumption scenes with night market color, such as Guangzhou Pearl River Pajiang Beer Cultural and Creative Art Zone and Shenzhen OCT Sanzhou Tian Tail Box Night Market Project. It can be seen that in addition to "control", relevant departments are also exploring the characteristics of such new consumption scenarios.
In addition, some regions are also trying to use Internet platforms to increase the digital management of street stalls. At the end of April this year, the "Nanhai Night Economy" handheld service pilot was launched, and citizens only need to enter the "Nanhai Night Economy" module through the "Foshan Nanhai Pass Plus" WeChat mini program, they can learn more booth information with one click, apply online to become a stall owner, and also check various booth information, business content and business status in the area in real time on their mobile phones.
Constrained by the overall management policies and governance goals of the city, to operate the stall economy well and develop the night economy, it is also necessary to form a harmonious and win-win relationship between grassroots urban management, residents and street vendors, and achieve mutual understanding and support between all parties. To this end, city managers need to pour more wisdom into achieving this.