Popular fresh food for New Year’s Eve dinner, best-selling take-away New Year dishes
Looking at consumption momentum from the catering market (Economic Focus)
core reading
Bookings for New Year's Eve dinners are hot, and catering supply is actively adapting to market demand; fresh food is selling well, and work to ensure people's livelihood commodities is solidly advanced; take-out New Year dishes and other items are popular, and the trend of innovation and upgrading is obvious... The Spring Festival is approaching, and catering consumption is showing a diversified trend, which continues to stimulate consumption kinetic energy.
In 2023, national catering revenue will exceed 5.2 trillion yuan, a record high. As the Spring Festival of the Year of the Dragon approaches, the operating conditions of the catering industry are improving, and reservations for New Year’s Eve dinners are booming. People's family dining tables are bustling with activity, and "rice bags", "vegetable baskets" and "fruit plates" are in sufficient supply and at stable prices. As the economy continues to recover, it is expected that the consumption vitality on the tip of the tongue will continue to be released in 2024.
Bookings for New Year’s Eve dinners are booming, and supply and demand for public catering are booming
"Are all the private rooms for the New Year's Eve dinner full?" Recently, Jiang Long, a citizen of Zhengzhou, Henan, called to make a reservation at a restaurant near his community and found that all the private rooms for the New Year's Eve dinner were fully booked. "My child said that he most wanted to eat hot pot during the New Year. If I couldn't book a private room, I would choose the lobby." Jiang Long went to a nearby hot pot restaurant to choose his favorite location, and finally made a reservation for the New Year's Eve dinner.
Not only is the New Year’s Eve dinner popular, but the popularity of New Year’s Eve lunch is also rising. "It's not easy to reserve a private room for the New Year's Eve dinner, and the price is a bit higher." Zhang Xiaorong, a Shanghai resident, booked a private room that can accommodate 16 people at noon on New Year's Eve. "Our family decided to eat out together at noon and go home to make dumplings in the evening."
During the Spring Festival holiday, catering consumption increased, and reservations for New Year's Eve dinners in various places were hot. All seats in some restaurants were booked a week or two before New Year's Eve. In Shanghai, if you want to book New Year's Eve dinner at time-honored restaurants such as Green Wave Gallery, Dexing Hall, and Xinghualou, you can only try your luck and "miss out"; in Hubei, statistics from the Wuhan Catering Association show that as of the end of January, on New Year's Eve, Nearly 95% of lunch and dinner reservations have been made.
The strong demand for mass catering is an important driving force for the booming catering market. Cost-effective, high-quality and affordable mass catering meets the needs of consumers and provides convenient and comfortable dining options. At the same time, on the supply side, the majority of catering companies are actively adapting to market demand, enriching supply categories, improving service levels, deepening the development of specialty catering, and achieving "two-way travel" with consumers.
Enrich supply to meet different consumer needs. The Jiangsu Nanjing Catering Chamber of Commerce and others held a New Year's Eve dinner promotion event called "Happy Reunion Year New Delicious Experience". More than 40 brand catering companies launched more than 300 kinds of dine-in and take-out packages for the New Year's Eve dinner.
Improve services and improve consumer experience. During the Spring Festival holiday, Haidilao stores in different regions will launch distinctive services: in the Yunnan-Guizhou region, service staff will wear local costumes to serve customers; in Harbin, Heilongjiang, service staff will put on large flowered jackets and perform a "two-person noodle show"; In Nanjing, Jiangsu, many stores will provide clay figurine making services that are very popular among children.
Hong Tao, director of the Institute of Business Economics at Beijing Technology and Business University, believes that my country's festival consumption accounts for a high proportion of consumption. It is recommended that all localities focus on stimulating potential consumption during the Spring Festival holiday, and while continuing to increase traditional consumption, strive to cultivate new consumption and develop services. consumption and expand holiday consumption.
Fresh food is popular, price stability and quality continue to be promoted
"I just bought a lot of fresh meat, and I plan to stew it in the next two days to prepare for the New Year's Eve dinner." Wu Tong, a citizen of Gao'an City, Yichun, Jiangxi, was shopping at the Phoenix Mall Farmers Market. "Business was good a year ago. The meat we imported was sold out almost every day, and there was no inventory." The quarantine sheet taken out by Zhang Xiangyou, the person in charge of the butcher shop, showed that the daily purchase volume recently reached 800 kilograms.
At the vegetable weighing centers in Gao'an City and Wanjia Supermarket, customers lined up in long queues early in the morning. “The prices haven’t changed much, and the vegetables we buy are also very fresh,” said citizen Wang Yunfeng. Chen Jieping, the person in charge of the supermarket, said: "Vegetables are necessities of life, and prices cannot be increased randomly before the holidays."
According to Cheng Guanghua, a law enforcement officer of the Gao'an Municipal Market Supervision Bureau, he visited three farmers' markets and more than 10 large supermarkets before the festival, focusing on checking the prices and service charges of vegetables, meat, eggs, grains, oils, seafood and other daily necessities. At present, The price is stable and the market supply is sufficient.
The offline market continues to heat up, and online orders have increased significantly. "It's so convenient to buy New Year's goods online. I recently bought mackerel from my hometown in Shandong online and eat mackerel dumplings on New Year's Eve." Xu Qiang, a citizen of Hegang, Heilongjiang, said.
Taobao Tmall data shows that since January 17, the sales of meat and aquatic products have increased significantly compared with the same period last year. Northern cold-water fish are selling well across the board. "Southerners prefer northern fish" has become a major consumer trend. Shandong Bayu, Jilin Cha The dry lake fathead fish and other fish are quite popular.
As the traditional peak consumption season, fresh food is very popular during the Spring Festival holiday, and its price and quality have also attracted widespread attention. The State Administration for Market Regulation has deployed the work of stabilizing prices and ensuring quality of important people's livelihood commodities, and established four major supervision lists focusing on holiday consumption hot spots: food, industrial products, daily services, and drugs.
The relevant person in charge of the State Administration for Market Regulation said that during the Spring Festival holiday, regulatory authorities in various regions should pay close attention to key areas of people's livelihood consumption such as "rice bags", "vegetable baskets", "fruit plates" and "stoves", focusing on rice, noodles, rape, meat and eggs, and New Year's Eve dinners that are concentrated during the festival. Bookings, culture and entertainment, hotel accommodation, transportation and logistics, as well as the increased demand for medicines and energy brought about by cold weather, conduct online and offline price monitoring, tracking, analysis and judgment to effectively provide a good consumption environment. At the same time, local market supervision departments must strictly control food safety. Strictly tighten the local management responsibilities and corporate main responsibilities for food safety, accurately prevent and control risks, resolutely put an end to the sale of expired, spoiled, counterfeit and shoddy food, and strictly prevent the occurrence of regional and systemic food safety problems, so that people can eat with confidence and Peace of mind and comfort.
There are many types of fast food and semi-finished products, and the trend of innovation and upgrading is obvious.
In addition to the two more traditional forms of New Year’s Eve dinner, eating out and cooking at home, purchasing semi-finished products and packing New Year’s Eve dinner have also become new choices for many people.
“When I ate at this restaurant with my friends, I thought it tasted good. When I saw that the store was recommending takeaway New Year dishes, I bought one. There are many varieties of hot and cold dishes, a combination of meat and vegetables, and solid ingredients. They also came with a free heating plate. The soup pot for the main dish is convenient and affordable," said Meng Ya, a Beijing resident.
In recent years, many time-honored restaurants have taken away New Year dishes that are getting better and better in taste and in more varieties. Complex dishes such as squirrel mandarin fish, juicy beef patties, and sweet and sour pork ribs can now basically restore their taste by simply heating them, meeting consumers' needs to save time and worry. In addition to purchasing these take-out New Year's Eve meal packages through in-store, phone reservations, etc., they can often also be booked through online channels, which is very convenient.
A wide variety of convenient snacks and dried fruits are also indispensable on the Spring Festival table. In Huizhou, Guangdong, nearly a hundred specialty stalls selling New Year's goods on one street are booming. "We specialize in dried fruits, dry goods, organic grains, health tea and other products. Our sales have been very good recently. We fully stock up on goods every day and look forward to continued growth in sales." said Peng Kai, Operations Director of Huizhou Shanzhen Youpin Industrial Co., Ltd.
"New Year's gift boxes, which mainly include cooked food, candies and pastries, are very popular in large supermarkets such as Centenary Yili Store and Jingkelong." Chang Xiao, head of the marketing department of Beijing Yili Food Co., Ltd., said, "This will continue in the future. Explore the cultural value of traditional food and further help release consumption vitality through Chinese pastries."
Taobao Tmall data also shows that since January 17, the sales of Chinese pastries have increased by 15% compared with the same period last year. Categories such as flower cakes, egg yolk cakes, peach cakes, and twists are very popular; consumers are more inclined to buy Chinese pastries. The transaction value and order growth rate of pastries are higher than those of Western pastries.
During the Spring Festival holiday, some consumers will also buy fast-food products such as snail noodles, quick-frozen dumplings, quick-frozen glutinous rice balls, and snacks. The "Research Report on China's Convenience and Fast Food Industry" released by iResearch shows that convenience and fast food products meet the needs of consumers pursuing a convenient and efficient lifestyle. As the pace of life accelerates, consumers are more inclined to choose convenient and fast dietary solutions. The relevant person in charge of Baicaowei believes that the trend of younger consumers and segmentation has put forward higher quality and healthier requirements for snacks. Delicious and healthy snacks will usher in greater market opportunities.
Industry experts analyze that there are currently many types of fast food and semi-finished products, and the trend of innovation and upgrading is obvious. As consumer demands continue to escalate, the industry will continue to develop in a healthy, diversified and quality direction in the future. (People's Daily)