The Road to "Internet Celebrity" in Vegetable Markets: How to Transform Traditional Farmers' Markets?

The road to "Internet celebrity" in the vegetable market

Ouyang Jingwen, reporter of Farmer's Daily and China Rural Net

Behind the continuous emergence of "Internet celebrity" vegetable markets is the difficult transformation of traditional farmers' markets.

"Checking in to the Internet celebrity vegetable market" and "wearing in the vegetable market" have now become popular search terms on social media. There is even a special "vegetable market enthusiast" group on social media Douban, where more than 15,<> "fireworks guests" gather to share the novel ingredients and innovative decoration arrangements photographed in the "Internet celebrity" vegetable markets around the country.

The fireworks in the world are the most soothing to the hearts of mortals. The vegetable market is one of the most fireworks and human places in the city, and its existence meets the needs of the "vegetable basket" of the general public, and is related to the livelihood of countless vegetable vendors and farmers.

The wet market here refers to the farmers' market in the residential area. Although the times are developing and new forms of purchase and sale are constantly emerging, farmers' markets are still the main channel for residents to buy fresh agricultural products. According to the research and estimation of the National Federation of Urban Agricultural Trade Centers, the total transaction volume of the national farmers' market accounts for about 57% of the fresh retail market share. According to the analysis of the National Federation of Urban Farmers' Trade Centers, farmers' markets will occupy more than 50% of the market share for a long time.

However, it should not be ignored that there are also many farmers' markets that are not as popular as before due to a combination of reasons such as their own poor management, urban development needs, and changes in consumer demand. Data shows that in 2021, 36% of farmers' markets had empty stalls or had an empty stall rate of more than 10%.

In the face of the increasingly fierce competition from offline convenience vegetable stores, fruit and vegetable supermarkets, online e-commerce platforms, and community group buying, has the "Internet celebrity" vegetable market found a long-term way to break the situation? In Hangzhou, a city where "Internet celebrity" experts gather across the country, perhaps the most typical and complex appearance of the "Internet celebrity" vegetable market can be observed.

Vegetable market hot pot

"Little girl, what are you looking for in the market?"

"I'm here to eat hot pot. ”

"Xiao Chen, hurry up, your business is here!"

As soon as one foot reached into the gate of the Zhengyuan Farmers' Market in Gongshu District, Hangzhou, he almost collided with Mao Meiqing. Mao Meiqing has been a tailor in the vegetable market for 15 years, and the stall is opposite the hot pot in the newly opened vegetable market not long ago, both at the entrance. In recent months, there have been a lot of new customers with unfamiliar faces, and she is enthusiastic about "part-time" and "welcome".

The hot pot restaurant is small in size, with a total of 13 tables, most of which are placed in the public space of the vegetable market, and the stalls full of fruits and vegetables are piled up. The store only provides beef, other shabu-shabu needs to be brought or purchased at other vegetable vendors' stalls, and the chef helps wash and cut it for free, and the service focuses on "fresh and freshly made, freshly made and sold". There is no middleman to make the difference, and it can also ensure the freshness of the ingredients, "affordable, interesting, and full of experience", the comments given by netizens after checking in made this hot pot restaurant quickly out of the circle in the vegetable market.

"On weekends, we can turn over more than 150 tables a day. The people who came were all young people under the age of 40, and there were quite a lot of repeat customers. Chen Jiayuan, the store manager, said that there have been many media reports recently, and stall owners have become more particular about cleanliness and hygiene. "At first, many stall owners thought that our business would definitely not be able to continue, but now many stall owners, including Aunt Mao, have recharged their members with me, and also introduced regular customers and friends to patronize. ”

Opening a hot pot restaurant in the vegetable market looks novel, but it is actually a lot of money. Chen Jiayuan said that in ordinary hot pot restaurants, the profit of vegetables may be higher than that of meat, and some of the baby cabbage can be sold for more than ten or even twenty or thirty yuan a piece. And in the vegetable market, a whole baby cabbage is less than two yuan. "Buy and do", while benefiting consumers, the store saves inventory and loss, and can also drive the income of vegetable vendors, and the atmosphere of the vegetable market is also better.

"The wet market is reminiscent of childhood and hometown. Many of the young customers are 'Hangpiao', and there will definitely be a sense of familiarity when they re-enter the wet market. The stall owners here are generally older, and the children are not around, and sometimes it is very touching to see the stall owners as if they were picking vegetables for their own children. The owner, Chen Leifei, has been engaged in the catering industry for nearly 20 years and has always wanted to convey a "steaming" concept of life, and in her eyes, the vegetable market is the best landing scene.

Chen Leifei introduced that this is a branch in the vegetable market, and the price of beef is no different from other branches outside the farmers' market, taking the "civilian" route. Due to the relatively low rent in the wet market, it is currently able to maintain a slight surplus. The reporter ordered a two-person package, including a hanging dragon, snowflake beef and beef balls, pot bottom and small ingredients, a total of 79 yuan. Baby cabbage and oyster mushrooms are bought in the vegetable market, totaling 5.8 yuan.

The stall owner is Du Hongmei, 39 years old, who has been in the market for 10 years. "All vegetables can be weighed, and if you can't eat them, you can cut them into small pieces and sell them. As soon as she saw an unfamiliar face, she took the initiative to sell it. Hot pot dishes can bring her an additional income of 200-300 yuan per day. Since the opening of the hot pot restaurant, her closing hours have also been extended, sometimes until eight or nine o'clock in the evening.

At one o'clock in the afternoon, it was a relatively free time, but Du Hongmei was busy all the time. "Your order should be processed as soon as possible. The voice prompts for online orders are one after another, and she has to grab the side dishes. In recent years, Zhengyuan Farmers' Market has introduced online platforms such as Sunshine Vegetable Market, Vegetable Warehouse and Vegetable Duocang to achieve online and offline linkage and increase the income of street vendors through multiple channels.

80% of the vegetables in the stall come from the 10 acres of land rented by Du Hongmei and her husband on the outskirts of the city, and in winter they are mainly greens, radish, cauliflower, celery, lettuce, etc., and in summer there are more varieties. From planting to harvesting, and then transporting to the market to sell, the couple has packaged. When an old customer comes, he says, "I want you to grow your own home." ”

Du Hongmei said that there were many repeat customers, but the overall business began to deteriorate in 2017. At that time, the wave of "new retail" emphasizing the integration of online and offline was setting off from Hangzhou and rapidly spreading to the whole country. "The flow of people in the wet market is not as good as before, and we have to rely on online to make up for it. In the past, my husband and I were too busy, and there were 900 or 2000 people around a stall to buy groceries. The cost of planting has also increased year by year, and the land rent has risen from <> yuan per mu ten years ago to <>,<> yuan per mu now. ”

According to a sample survey report by the Hangzhou Farmers' Market Industry Association, in 2021, the average vacancy rate of local farmers' markets rose to 13.61%, and the vacancy rate of individual markets even reached 70%, and nearly one-third of the markets were in a state of loss. "The business of many wet markets has been declining in recent years, and the decline in customer flow, the withdrawal of merchants, and the difficulty of operation are common problems in some wet markets. Zhang Hongtu, president of the Hangzhou Farmers' Market Industry Association, said bluntly that how to increase popularity and attract more repeat customers through transformation and upgrading is a difficult problem in front of all aspects.

"The relationship between vegetable vendors and farmers' markets is between fish and water, and in recent years, vegetable markets have explored many transformation methods, and vegetable market hot pot is one of the innovations. It attracted more young people to come and stir up the water. He introduced that since 2020, Zhejiang Province has started to facilitate the transformation of farmers' markets into facilitation, intelligence, humanization, specialization and standardization. After the renovation, the farmers' market has become safer, cleaner and more orderly, so the catering format with higher environmental requirements can be successfully settled.

Zhang Hongtu revealed that the vegetable market hot pot is in contact with other farmers' markets in the city to settle in. Because of the increase in young customers, the Zhengyuan Farmers' Market will also consider adding new categories such as nut snacks and trinkets in the future.

"The First Generation of Internet Celebrities"

The Red Slate Farmers' Market in Gongshu District can be regarded as the "first generation of Internet celebrities", and the transformation was completed in 2019. It was designed by 9 internationally renowned designers, including senior engineers who designed the G20 summit venue, as well as celebrities who built model rooms for high-end brands. With the simple Japanese decoration style, it quickly attracted many young people to check in as soon as it appeared. Netizens said, "I walked in with the heart of buying leeks and took 100 selfies and walked out!"

"I'm also curious why it's been more than 4 years and so many media outlets are going to interview us. The owner, Ali, said as he made coffee. He has given many interviews, and he has declined many of them. "It's all those questions over and over again, nothing new. Ali said that the trend of punching in and the popularity of "Internet celebrities" have passed, and business has been very stable in the past two years, and almost all of the customers who come offline are regular customers.

Because he had checked the relevant reports on the Internet in advance and guessed the concerns of the shopkeeper, the reporter did not contact him in advance, but chose to try his luck directly. After coming to the store, the reporter glanced down at the menu and ordered the store's signature "vegetable market American", and looked up just in time to bump into several Zhejiang Communication University students with cameras filming their homework, and Ali was very willing to help the young students.

Li grew up in Jiangxi, and after graduating, he came to work in a café in Hangzhou. Like all baristas, the "post-90s" Ali also dreams of having her own coffee shop. Because I knew that the overall style of the redstone slab farmers' market would change dramatically in the upgrading and renovation, and it would not seem out of place for the existence of the coffee shop, I germinated the idea of making coffee in the vegetable market.

Of course, the important reason is that the rent is cost-effective. "After calculating the cost, I just had enough money on hand to open a vegetable market. Ali said that the rent of a store of about 5 square meters is only more than <>,<> yuan a year, and the rent of opening a store outside the market is two or three times that of this one.

Cut two or three slices of cucumbers, put them in ice water, about two or three minutes, and a cup of "vegetable market American" is ready. Take a sip, and a faint cucumber fragrance comes from the tip of the tongue. "These cucumbers are freshly bought in the vegetable market, and they are very fresh. "But a cucumber is cut into pieces and used in several cups of coffee," which doesn't drive much sales to vendors. Ali said.

Coffee shops in wet markets may bring more young people into the market, but they may not necessarily buy more groceries. "Young people come more on weekends, but as a generation that grew up with the internet, they prefer to buy groceries online. "The same goes for coffee. In Ali's orders, online orders have to account for half.

"'Internet celebrity' is not 'Internet celebrity', it is true that it can increase the income of the stall owners in the market. Ali believes that in order to keep the market fresh and attractive, it needs a dedicated operation team to plan events, but its own ability is limited, and at most it can think of ways for its own stores. In the past two years, Ali has also felt the pressure of competition, "A rough count, four years ago there were only 5 coffee shops around, and now there are 50 to say less." Ali only opened an official account on social media Xiaohongshu a few months ago, "I was too busy before, and it was still the old concept that independent coffee shops just present every cup of coffee, and I didn't think about how to monetize traffic in the past." ”

The momentary popularity on the Internet did not reverse the overall downward trend of the wet market's business. Manager Shi Mulin said bluntly: "'Internet celebrity' is called by outsiders, and for the people who sell vegetables, the operating income cannot be increased, and any 'red' is useless." Shi Mulin has been in the market for more than 30 years, from a small fruit stall owner to become the largest fruit shop owner in the market, 13 years ago he took over the management of the vegetable market, the market has a deep feeling, since he took over the stall rent has not risen much for more than ten years. But in order to reduce costs, the number of employees in his fruit shop has been reduced from six to three.

Shi Mulin introduced that in order to increase popularity, the vegetable market has also tried subsidy activities in the past, such as preparing a limited number of welfare dishes for one yuan and a box of welfare eggs for one yuan and a pound. "The popularity of the money-burning subsidy is high, but the consumption has not increased much. A lot of people just come when it's time to 'gather wool'. The doors open at 7 a.m. and there are queues at 5 a.m. The people who really want to spend don't enjoy much of the benefits. In order to increase revenue, Shi Mulin's fruit store was launched on the online platform a few years ago, and now online orders account for 30% of the total.

In addition to the question of who will buy the groceries, who will sell the groceries is also a problem. "In a big city like Hangzhou, a hard-working couple gets up early every day and is greedy for darkness, almost all year round, and sometimes they don't go back during the Spring Festival, so if they can't even earn 10,<> yuan all year round, how can they support their family, it's better to go back to their hometown, or go to deliver takeaways, and they may earn more. Shi Mulin said that in the past four years, the beef and poultry egg stalls next to the vegetable market coffee shop have changed owners.

Recalling the renovation five years ago, Shi Mulin said that the ideas of those designers were very good, referring to the experience of many foreign markets, but some of them were not very practical and too advanced. A lot of eye-catching designs have been changed back one after another. For example, some tables are designed to be too high, which is not suitable for the height of Chinese consumers; the fully enclosed glass cover designed for pork stalls has also been removed, because consumers are accustomed to seeing and touching meat; some aquatic products are very beautiful but consume electricity; and in order to create a romantic atmosphere like a small bar, the lights of the fruit store were designed too dim at first, and spotlights were installed at the back to make the fruits look more colorful and delicious.

Regarding the future, Shi Mulin said that he would insist on making high-quality fruits and concentrate on maintaining old customers. As for the vegetable market, he said that he didn't think too much about it, and there will be no more renovation in the short term.

Decoration and soul

At three o'clock in the afternoon, many food stalls in the Caihe Farmers' Market in Shangcheng District, Hangzhou were already crowded. Oily duner, fish balls, spring rolls, scallion stew, bald braised duck, fat crispy fish, Fuyang Lao beef...... Rather than simply selling vegetables, it is more famous for its time-honored snacks. These authentic delicacies used to be found on the streets of Hangzhou, but with the development of the city, they are gradually difficult to find. But at the Caihe Farmers' Market, you can still buy it all in one stop.

"Who would have thought of eating all-you-can-eat food in the vegetable market?", "Go to the 'old foundation' (Jiangsu and Zhejiang dialect, meaning in the past) vegetable market to cook rice", "Challenge how many kinds of things can you buy in Caihe for 100 yuan"...... On social media, the Caihe Farmers' Market is frequently out of the circle due to its abundant ingredients and affordable prices, and after its renovation at the end of 2020, it has often rushed to local hot searches.

Chen Suyun, manager of the Caihe Farmers' Market, said that the peak flow of people is before 9 a.m. and from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. every day. On weekends and holidays, there are people from other places who come by car, and they are as crowded as visiting temple fairs. In order to cope with the traffic flow, special personnel are also arranged to direct parking and pick-up and drop-off passengers.

Young people who came for the food were amazed by the "big and complete" of the place. At the 174 stalls, in addition to all kinds of snacks and fresh melons and fruits, hardware and building materials, repaired clothes, key distribution, clothing stores, flowers and plants are all available. As one of the oldest farmers' markets in Hangzhou, Caihe Farmers' Market is one of the few remaining steel shed markets in Hangzhou, and it still retains its original business appearance intact after renovation.

"Old Hangzhou people know that when you come here, you don't need to go to other places to buy them. Whether it's a big meal at home, or a daily household need, you can buy everything here if you can't buy it all in the small market. Chen Suyun, who came to the market 12 years ago, recalled that before becoming an "Internet celebrity", the Caihe Farmers' Market was the largest and most lively farmers' market in the surrounding area.

The Caihe Farmers' Market originated from the "Road Market" in the Furong community 37 years ago. Originally, its management belonged to the Caihe Street Office, and within 1 km of the surrounding area, there were old residential areas such as Qingxu Community and Nanxiaobu Community. The steady flow of customers brought by the old community has kept the turnover rate of stall owners here low. "Almost all of our stallholders here have been doing this for decades. Many time-honored snack bars have no branches, and there is only one for more than 30 years, and now the second and third generations have taken over. Chen Suyun said.

However, Chen Suyun also admitted frankly that the popularity brought by "Internet celebrities" did not bring the Caihe Farmers' Market back to its heyday. Since the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, with the increase of small vegetable shops in the surrounding communities and the development of fresh e-commerce, the original customer flow of Caihe Agricultural Market has been slightly affected. Compared to three years ago, the number of passengers is about 2000,1 fewer than a day, and the overall weekend traffic can still be maintained at about <>,<> people a day, but if it is not renovated, the rate of passenger loss may be accelerated.

At the end of 2020, Caihe Farmers' Market was officially handed over to Hangzhou Yihong Market Group Co., Ltd. for unified operation and management. Wu Gang, chairman of the company, introduced that the transformation retains the original fireworks to the greatest extent, aggregates the snacks that were originally scattered in the market, and sets the snack street at the entrance of the market, so that the food characteristics of the market are more prominent; services such as fair scales.

"To create an 'Internet celebrity' market, three points depend on decoration, and seven points depend on heritage. If the 'Internet celebrity' market only relies on young people to come in and make a card and take a photo, it will definitely not last long. The real 'influencer' market is not how many 'influencers' can attract to take pictures, but that every stall owner or merchant in the market has the strength to be an 'influencer'. Wu Gang said that those time-honored merchants who have passed the test of time and have been passed on by the people are the soul of the Caihe Farmers' Market.

Wu Gang, who has participated in the transformation and operation of many farmers' markets, said that as a city rich in "Internet celebrities" in the country, Hangzhou has seen many "Internet celebrity" vegetable markets emerge in recent years, and many markets have their own IP, and even designed cultural and creative products and peripheral products. Doing differentiated co-branding, holding book fairs and concerts, opening pop-up stores, and inviting "Internet celebrity" influencers to check in are all common marketing activities. But if these are just temporary gimmicks, it will easily wither.

Considering the operating costs, these marketing activities are generally concentrated in six months to one year after opening. Relying on marketing highlights to focus on a lot of coverage on social media can create a flurry. But after 2-3 years of opening, if you want to maintain the heat, you must have stable and powerful merchants like those in the Caihe Farmers' Market. Wu Gang said that the principles that must be adhered to in the successful transformation and upgrading are: "'out of the circle' among the young people≠ let the elderly group 'be in the circle'; let the environment look good≠ let the price of vegetables rise; let more people check in≠ let the number of people buy vegetables decrease." ”

"The wet market is a place to do business, but also an extension of home. The stall owners are not only guarding the goods here, but also the customers who buy them here, but their small days. Wu Gang hopes that after the renovation of the old market, the evaluation he will receive is: "I can taste the taste of my childhood again! The price of vegetables in the new market makes me 'really fragrant'! My friends envy the delicious vegetable market in front of my house! It is a daily routine for my family to visit the market on weekends." ”

The future is also a return

The narrow passages of the vegetable market, the damp ground, and the shouting sound of one after another, mixed with the taste of mountains, rivers, and lakes, constitute a fragment of daily life for generations. In the eyes of enthusiasts in the vegetable market, watching raw chickens and live ducks, fresh and fresh melons and vegetables, and red peppers is a kind of "joy of life". Netizen Tangerine, the founder of the watercress vegetable market enthusiast group, said that the fun of visiting vegetable markets in different regions is to find ingredients that have not been touched before and feel the customs of each place.

However, for more consumers, the wet market is a purchase channel, far from being an "Internet celebrity" place that must be checked in. It is also an indisputable fact that many vegetable markets that have been renovated and upgraded and have a new look are lonely again after a period of excitement. In the face of the three-sided attack of community shops, supermarkets and e-commerce, the vegetable market that does not want to disappear must continue to seek innovation and change.

In fact, the farmers' market was born at the right time, and its birth and popularity are the products of market demand. In 1985, after the "unified purchase system for major agricultural products such as grain" was officially abolished, the farmers' market appeared in the dictionary as a new term, and it quickly popped up across the country.

"In the past, there were few shopping malls, and the traditional farmers' market was a 'hodgepodge', like an all-encompassing market, where residents would sell whatever they needed. If you buy vegetables here, you can take them home with you stir-fried there, and you can buy them in daily groceries. Zhang Hongtu recalled that the farmers' markets he loved to visit when he was a child had food, drink and fun, and later, with the progress of the times, urban development and specialization, many businesses moved away from the farmers' markets and existed in the city in a new form.

Even compared with offline community convenience vegetable stores and online fresh e-commerce, the price advantage of farmers' markets is not obvious, Zhang Hongtu still believes that farmers' markets cannot be replaced, because they not only provide a living space for traveling merchants and hawkers, but also bring diversified and multi-level choices to urban residents. Compared with offline convenience food stores, farmers' markets have stricter quality and safety monitoring and traceability standards; compared with online platforms, farmers' markets can see and touch the goods, have unique social attributes and experience, and each stall owner can communicate with customers one-on-one services; unlike the "sense of poverty" that is common in shopping malls, visiting farmers' markets can always give people a "sense of satisfaction".

"The future of farmers' markets is endless. If you want to jump out of the farmer's market to see the farmer's market, although everyone still likes to call it a vegetable market, it is by no means more than selling vegetables. In the future, the farmers' market should conform to the current diversified needs, return to the original comprehensive format, and create a small complex integrating science and technology, culture, sightseeing, tourism and leisure. Zhang Hongtu believes that the farmers' market has its own convenient attributes, has a superior location in the community, and the rent is generally lower than that of the shopping mall, and the embedded public service facilities in the community are organically combined with the development and construction of the farmers' market, or will become an effective reference for the transformation and upgrading of the farmers' market. For example, farmers' markets can be appropriately incorporated into service facilities such as elderly care and childcare, party and mass services, community canteens, barber shops, libraries, chess and card rooms, charging, convenience stores, breakfast shops, repairing clothes, and matching keys in combination with their own conditions, so as to jointly create a "quarter-hour convenient life circle".

Regardless of whether it is an "Internet celebrity" or not, the true love that can be missed by the hearts of vegetable market lovers is always popular. It speaks for affordable and affordable prices, and it welcomes the elderly who pursue the ultimate cost performance and are accustomed to bargaining and selecting, and also embraces the young strivers who are diligent and thrifty and work hard in the city. It is a hub for local residents to gather and also to attract visitors. It can evoke childhood memories and can also place the heart of wandering in a foreign land.