(Reporter He Yang) On January 27, a reporter from China Business Daily visited the second store opened in Beijing by the prefabricated vegetable brand "Bite of the Tongue Workshop" - the CBD headquarters apartment store.

A few days ago, this pre-made food brand created by Shenzhou Car Rental and Luckin Coffee founder Lu Zhengyao opened its first store in Changying, Beijing, and is actively expanding its market across the country.

Different from the first two brands, the expansion of Tongue Workshop has not been as rapid as expected, and the model of only franchise without direct sales has also raised doubts in the industry.

　　"The CBD headquarters apartment store just opened on January 24th. Since the store is surrounded by residential areas, most users choose to pick up the order on the mobile app. Free delivery is available for purchases of 59 yuan within 3 kilometers. At present, the store The main consumer groups are white-collar and family users aged 25-45, and the unit price is about 50 yuan." A staff member of the store told reporters.

　　The reporter walked into the store and found that there was no area for customers to choose independently. The freezers for displaying products were all located behind the ordering counter, and several staff members were busy picking and ordering goods.

　　Different from semi-finished supermarkets such as Guoquan Shihui and Rilakkuma, customers can intuitively see the ingredients, categories and prices after entering the store, and then buy and check out the goods themselves. All items in Tongue Tip Workshop need to be ordered from the official App. Customers do not have direct contact with products in the store.

The reporter noticed that occasionally when an older customer came into the store to buy a product, he wanted to buy the product with cash. At this time, the staff would remind the customer that the store only accepts online order payment, and guide the customer to operate step by step.

　　In terms of products, the store's popular products include dry-roasted large yellow croaker for 29.4 yuan, dry-pot fat sausage for 27.3 yuan, Sixi balls for 28 yuan, twice-cooked meat for 14.7 yuan, and boiled fish for 16.1 yuan.

The categories are roughly divided into six categories: pre-made dishes (meat dishes, soups), frozen food ingredients (you need to have your own side dishes and condiments), hot pot ingredients, frozen pastries, finished dishes, and condiments, with a total of more than 100 SKUs (stock keeping units). ).

As the Spring Festival in 2022 is approaching, the store has also launched a series of New Year's Eve dinner packages, selecting 6-10 combinations of meat and vegetables suitable for family banquets, with prices ranging from 218-399 yuan.

　　A reporter from China Business Daily saw that the store was covered with the striking slogan "everyone can be a chef easily", and emphasized that the advantages of Tongue Tip Workshop lie in its extremely frozen origin, extremely fast freshness, master craftsmanship, authentic taste, carefully selected brands, Rest assured.

　　However, the reporter noticed that many of the products sold by Tongue Workshop are entrusted to be processed by the foundry, and it does not have its own factory.

Most of the pre-made vegetable bags in the store require manual assembly by employees.

The packaging information shows that the fish fillets in many of its main dishes are from Zhaoqing Hengxing Aquatic Products, the pork liver pieces are from Shandong Longda and Laiyang Longrui, the Sixi Balls are from Beijing Jiaduole Foods, and the boiled fish seasonings are from Qingdao Sunrise.

　　Most products are assembled manually by employees

　　During the product purchase process, employees kept putting various side dishes into a brown paper bag. From the corner of the store where the back kitchen was exposed, the cartons, packaging bags and dishes of various products were piled up in a mess.

Not only that, some customers ordered frozen food products to be picked up, which were randomly stacked on the shelves or countertops at the checkout, without other fresh-keeping and heat preservation measures.

　　It is worth noting that some customers will pick up the goods half an hour or an hour after placing an order. At this time, various chilled ingredients are continuously thawed at natural temperature, and there is a risk of deterioration and breeding of bacteria.

In addition, many users who have consumed in Tongue Workshop said that the packaging of side dishes such as onion, ginger, garlic, bean sprouts, and peppers is too simple, all in plastic bags, and the menu lacks green leafy vegetables. The chain management ability is relatively lacking.

　　According to public information, Tongue Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Tongue Technology), the main company of Tongue Workshop, was established in August 2020, and the Tongue Workshop project was positioned as a "new generation of comprehensive meal solution provider".

According to Li Yingbo, the rotating CEO of Tongue Technology, Tongue Technology is positioned as a brand product company, and the current strategy is to empower all franchisees, so there will be no direct business.

He said that at present, more than 3,000 franchised stores have been signed, and the minimum franchise store is only 8 square meters.

Many of the team structures of Tongue Technology are members of the previous Shenzhou Car Rental and Ruixing Coffee teams. Lu Zhengyao is the chairman of the company's strategy committee, mainly responsible for business strategy decision-making, governance process and resource assistance.

　　Tongue Workshop Partner Program shows that its project investment amount starts from 30,000 yuan, the store area starts from 8 square meters, and the gross profit rate is 50% (at face price).

The subsidy for new stores is 30,000 yuan per store, and the limit for entrepreneurial loans is 500,000 yuan.

On the page, the forecast, product advantages, different store types, and preferential policies during the promotion period are also displayed.

　　Some analysts said that Lu Zhengyao and his team cut into the prefabricated food track and tried to reproduce a classic business case like Ruixing Coffee.

However, the catering supply chain is more complex than coffee, with higher product quality requirements, and lower consumption frequency and user stickiness. It is extremely difficult to create a "popular product".

　　It is worth noting that in the early stage of expansion, Ruixing Coffee mainly adopted the direct store model, and then opened a few franchises, but Tongue Tip Workshop has firmly chosen to only franchise rather than direct sales since its establishment. The risk of starting a business is shared with franchisees, and the company's product strategy is also prone to putting the cart before the horse, such as "focusing on marketing and ignoring quality", and there may be certain risks in subsequent quality control and management.