Grandparents' "Starbucks"
In the old toy store, many things are large.
It sells large playing cards, large checkers, a reading light with a magnifying glass, and even the font size on the shop's sign is twice as large as the sign next door.
After opening a toy store called "Play for the Elderly" in Tongzhou, Beijing, 41-year-old owner Song Delong opened a door to the world of old age.
Elderly people in the neighborhood often visit, and most of them live in Beijing with their children.
He suddenly became a listener, and some customers would pull him to chat for two or three hours.
He remembered the names of regular customers and their recent troubles.
A customer always drinks water from an enamel cup in the store, and over time, this cup becomes his exclusive.
A customer in his 60s kept muttering when he entered the amount at checkout.
Song Delong saw that the customer entered the payment amount as "123456", and that was her payment password.
Song Delong specially selected the trial operation on October 25, 2020, which is the Double Ninth Festival.
The first customer is a nearby 50-year-old resident who wants to buy a toy for the 88-year-old at home that is "no brainer".
In the past few months, an old man took the bus for more than an hour to buy the "rolling hoop" he used to play as a child, and many people came to buy toys for his elders. A young man came here to buy a birthday present for his 95-year-old grandpa .
However, some people just used to come here to sit down.
59-year-old Cao Haichen doesn't like to play anything, so he likes to sit down. "There are people here," he explained.
Before opening a toy store, Song Delong was engaged in advertising sales.
In addition to selling toys, he hopes that the store will become a "Starbucks for the elderly", a public space that is as iconic as a Starbucks coffee shop and where elderly people actively gather.
market
As early as 2010, Song Delong had the idea of opening a toy store for the elderly.
At that time, he found an advertiser for the elderly section of the TV station and found that the elderly products on the market were mostly health care products, medicines, and daily necessities, except for things to play.
At the end of 2019, Song Delong noticed a data released by the National Bureau of Statistics: The total population of mainland China is 1.4005 million, and the population of 60 years and over is 253.88 million, accounting for 18.1%.
He felt "can't wait any longer."
Before opening the store, Song Delong consulted many people, "Many people are optimistic about this matter."
He searched on the Internet and found that there have been old-age toy shops in other places, but there are only dozens of toys, and he increasingly feels that there is a market.
He did not find a manufacturer specializing in toys for the elderly in China, so he could only search the Internet for keywords such as "classical Chinese educational toys" and "toys used by the elderly" to find suitable products.
He bought more than 400 toys from more than 3,000 manufacturers, divided them into more than 20 kinds of "nostalgia", "puzzle" and "practical life", and placed 5 shelves.
Mr. Zheng, who lives near the West Fifth Ring Road in Beijing, drove a long time with his 89-year-old mother to buy toys.
Mr. Zheng said that his mother became irritable after staying at home for a long time, and he wanted to buy some toys for his mother to pass the time.
In order to find toys for the elderly, Mr. Zheng went to an elderly goods store, but there only sells daily necessities such as wheelchairs and crutches.
Another "Senior Life Museum" only sells shoes, hats, gold and skin care products.
He also went to several "elderly-care post" for consultation and learned that the goods were purchased from children's toy stores.
Until later, he found Song Delong's shop on the Internet.
A staff member of a nursing home in Guangdong was on a business trip in Beijing. When they saw the toy store mentioned in the news, they stopped by to purchase.
He bought 8 kinds of toys, including "memory chess" and "fishing chess" to test memory, and "key solution" that requires more brainstorming.
Although people often buy toys, Song Delong's rough statistics show that the average daily sales since opening is 20, and his income is only half of the rent.
There is not enough knowledge about toys for the elderly in China. Some passers-by think this is a mahjong hall or an activity center for the elderly, and they ask how to charge when they enter the door. Others think that the sales here are sex toys for elderly.
"The market needs to be cultivated." In order to promote the store, he organized the elderly from the nearby community to participate in the game competition, and contacted the social workers of Tongzhou District to co-organize it. In the end, 70 people participated. The project was divided into pots and indoor golf. The prize was to find the manufacturer. The sponsors include smart crutches, tickles, and large playing cards.
day
Before opening the store, Song Delong had decided not only to sell toys, but also to provide leisure for the elderly.
Free hot water and tea are always available in the shop. The elderly can play with toys, chess, billiards, and indoor golf.
For fear of the elderly falling, the floor tiles in the store are non-slip.
Among the regulars, someone will come to play for a while after picking up his grandson after school.
Some are idle and bored, coming three times a day.
Others come to play billiards, play for a while and then go home to look after their granddaughter.
The 85-year-old Fang Shuqin likes to play checkers for two to three hours.
She is from Jilin and was assigned to work in a paper mill in Jiamusi, Heilongjiang after graduating from university.
Her husband died of illness. After she retired, she came to Beijing in 1993 to help take care of her father who lived with her brother.
Later, the third daughter settled in Beijing, where she also took root.
She can't stay free. Before, every subway line in Beijing was opened, she had to take a ride to see which stations passed.
She also often goes to TV stations as viewers to "join the fun". She goes there at least once a week. The recording venues are all over Beijing. She travels all over Beijing by bus. The farthest is in Daxing. It used to take two hours by bus.
She even made friends from the audience, who often sent her vegetables and fruits.
In recent years, she often went abroad to play with her daughter, traveled to 10 countries, and saved photos taken at major scenic spots on her phone.
But from the year before last, she found that her legs and feet were getting worse and worse.
She used to hear people say "Legs grow old when you get old". She didn't understand. Now she has leg pain after standing for a while and tired after walking a few steps. She began to dare not take the bus alone, and the habit of going to the TV station as an audience stopped.
In 2018, my daughter and son-in-law accompanied their children to Spain to practice football, but they have not returned.
She lives alone in a house of 140 square meters.
The children paid her to hire a nanny for more than 4,000 yuan a month. She was too expensive and fired the nanny in half a month.
My daughter is looking for tenants online again, thinking about being a company with her.
The renter is a girl who goes out early every morning and arrives home late at night. Fang Shuqin sighs, "I can't see a companion."
A year later, the tenant also moved out.
She is bored most of the time.
Once, I chatted with a neighbor in the community and heard that the other party had a 20-year-old girl who had no target. She called her grandson in her 30s from Tianjin to let the two young people meet, but then nothing happened.
She went to Zhongshan Park to look for.
Before and after, she introduced no less than 10 objects to her grandson, and none of them succeeded.
After the toy store opened, she became a regular customer.
Cao Haichen used to live in Xianghe County, Langfang City, Hebei Province. He was an electrician. Later, he moved to Beijing with his son.
But he always felt that Beijing was not as good as Xianghe.
Xianghe’s community is a farmer’s market right outside the door, and it’s quiet. The house is close to the road, and the traffic does not stop at night.
He missed Xianghe: The community has an activity center for the elderly, where the elderly can play mahjong, chess, and table tennis.
Residents often visit each other.
Every festival, the property organizes activities, guessing lantern riddles on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, making rice dumplings during the Dragon Boat Festival, and organizing two free short-distance tours a year. Destinations include Miyun Reservoir, Badaling Great Wall, and Baiyangdian.
When he came to Beijing, Cao Haichen knew no one and had nowhere to go.
In order to pass the time, he went to take a stroll along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal after breakfast every day. It would take four or five hours after he walked. When he was tired, he would watch people go fishing and "see the excitement".
Cao Haichen also missed the rural life in the past, and people were close to each other. "You suppose that the couple has gone to work, and this child has a sick stomach. Don't worry, (someone) will send you to the hospital for you to see, and you will come back. It’s all natural to find a child again. To this place, there is no such kind of human touch." His ideal old life is to stay in the mountains, raise a few cows, go herding at dawn, and come back at night. ,"comfortable".
His son took him to travel abroad. He was not used to eating foreign food, and he always felt that nowhere could compare to his hometown.
He likes to swim. His son bought him a fitness card for 6,000 yuan. The gym is downstairs. He only went to the swimming pool twice. There were a group of men, women and children in the swimming pool.
He is also not used to the treadmill in the gym, "weirdly dull".
He would rather take a stroll by the canal.
child
Old people like to chat with Song Delong.
The things that I can't talk to with my children are all revealed here.
Cao Haichen came to Beijing to take care of his grandson, but his 37-year-old son has never wanted children.
He persuaded his son that raising children is too tiring.
Cao Haichen couldn't tell his son, so he could only be anxious, "Old people are willing to show the grave. At least you will leave a kid for generations to see the grave." He said in the toy store.
"When people come to Beijing, no one wants that to'see the grave'." 58-year-old Wang Shuying said.
Wang Shuying often brought her granddaughter to the store.
She is a native of Cangzhou, Hebei. She has been in Beijing since her granddaughter was born, and her granddaughter is almost 3 years old.
By chance, I saw a toy store opened here. She came to stroll around after dinner every day, sometimes playing with pots and handkerchiefs.
When there are many people, they play poker and checkers.
Many people have hired nanny. Wang Shuying did not let her children hire nanny. She takes care of the children, cooks, and cleans by herself. When it comes to taking care of her granddaughter, she is very proud, "My little granddaughter did not have any problems when she was more than two years old." .
Wang Shuying's wish is to have another grandson.
In her hometown, influenced by traditional concepts, the family that gave birth to a boy has a straight back in the village, and there is no boy "passing on from generation to generation." "You feel like you can't raise your head." The maternity leave and other benefits of the daughter-in-law's unit are very good, but the daughter-in-law does not. Yuansheng said that worrying about one child is tired enough, and raising two children is not enough energy.
The daughter-in-law also said that you will not be able to control the education of your children in the future.
She heard nothing to say.
Because of this, she secretly struggled for more than a year, "not happy every day."
She has a daughter in Baoding, and she persuaded her daughter to have a second child.
Nowadays, my daughter often tells her that she is tired with a child, and whenever she feels emotional, she complains to her. Once, she cried and said that she was "tired to death".
She didn't dare to persuade her daughter-in-law to have a second child—the daughter-in-law might also blame herself in the future.
Cao Haichen lowered his request, regardless of whether it was a grandson or granddaughter, he hoped that his son would give birth to one.
In the past, whether he was working as an electrician outside or at home, he always said one thing, but now that he is getting older and older, he has to accept his old age.
"Son's filial piety is filial piety, but now it doesn't count as if I say it myself. I say'occupy space'." He said.
Cao Haichen and his son live in the same building and often eat together.
The daughter-in-law has a light taste, and Cao Haichen is not used to it. He always likes to eat porridge with pickles, and the daughter-in-law always talks about unhealthy.
Cao Haichen bought pickled vegetable lumps, cut a small bowl, put it in the drawer, and secretly picked some while eating, or waited for them to finish eating.
He didn't want to have conflicts with his daughter-in-law because of this, because he was afraid that he would affect the relationship between the young couple.
There is always friction between two generations living together.
When her granddaughter was more than 5 months old, Wang Shuying used a small spoon to scrape apples for her granddaughter to taste.
The daughter-in-law thinks that the child is still young and should only be breastfed.
Wang Shuying doesn't fight, she has her own way—when the daughter-in-law is at home, listen to her daughter-in-law; if the daughter-in-law is not there, she will follow her own method.
era
Fang Shuqin felt that living alone was comfortable, but there was no one in front of him, and it was inconvenient in many places.
Once, she had no response when operating the washing machine at home. She wanted to ask her grandson for help, but did not find WeChat. She called her grandson. The grandson did not know the situation. She taught her to use WeChat to ask her Spanish daughter for help. She ordered 10 programs to get help. Find WeChat.
She used her mobile phone to talk to her daughter while facing the washing machine, and finally found that the drain valve was not open.
She felt that she couldn't keep up with the times.
Once when she was out, she saw a young girl wearing a beige coat and white pants, and she wanted to buy it too. After hearing the girl said that she bought it online, she was worried - she could not shop online.
The family didn't teach her how to pay with her mobile phone for fear of improper operation.
When shopping for food, some use mobile phones to pay for discounts. She was anxious, "You said I won't use it now. In the future, 90% of people will have mobile payments. What about the rest of us?"
In the mobile phone program, she only uses Toutiao and WeChat. She loves to watch international news and health WeChat official accounts. She wears 400-degree glasses and a magnifying glass when reading.
Once, Fang Shuqin saw a video teaching people shopping on her mobile phone, so she followed. She didn’t know how to repeat it after she learned it for a while. She wanted to ask someone if she could print the teaching content in text. She went to the bookstore to buy, "I forgot to read it today, and I remember it ten times."
In a paper on the “digital divide for the elderly,” Huang Chenxi, a professor at East China Normal University, pointed out that the decline in the ability of the elderly to control life related to information technology will cause new social exclusion and inequality.
For example, the elderly are more likely to become victims of online rumors and online fraud.
Fang Shuqin often receives calls from strangers.
A salesman called her to introduce a suburban nursing home. She took the other person's car and took a look at an apiary. Hundreds of elderly people were taken to a room and promoted royal jelly products.
The preacher said that a branch factory was built in Xinjiang, near the "Hetian Jade Development Zone," and then he took out a large jade cabbage, weighing less than 20,000 yuan.
Fang Shuqin swiped 5,000 yuan with his card, bought 4 boxes of royal jelly and a jade cabbage, and showed off to his neighbors upstairs and downstairs that he was making a lot of money today.
A few days later, she felt a little painful thinking about it-the monthly retirement salary was only 3350 yuan-and then asked for a return, and the money was returned as much.
She has successively received product manuals and radios from health care products companies, including the "perilla Chinese medicinal oil" known as glycated fat, the "specially developed" "Ejiao's first original Chinese medicine Dong'e Longevity Recipe", and Fang Shuqin bought 4 boxes of this nutritious meal for 4,000 yuan for the "Nuwa God Grass Compound Gynostemma Nutritious Meal" that can reverse and prevent fatal diseases. After drinking one box, the taste was not right, and the remaining 3 boxes were returned.
Song Delong has also encountered such a salesman.
The other party is a sales manager of a health care product company in Dalian. He wants to cooperate with him by renting a space in the store and giving lectures to the elderly regularly. It is best to put the name of the health care product on the shop sign.
Song Delong refused, saying that he was clearly positioned to sell toys for the elderly.
future
In the toy store, old people talk about the future-what if one day is bedridden and unable to walk?
Fang Shuqin looked for a nursing home for herself.
She received a leaflet from a nursing home in the supermarket and followed the other's car to see it. The first floor is a newly renovated house, and she can live for 5 years after paying 60,000 yuan.
She and her three daughters took turns asking for advice.
They felt that this matter was not very reliable and asked her not to be deceived.
Later, a friend showed her a video of another nursing home, watching old people singing and playing the accordion in it. She was envious, but when she thought that such nursing homes must pay a very high monthly fee, she didn't inquire again.
The 69-year-old Bai Guiyu doesn't dare to think about this problem. He has been unmarried and lives alone in the community opposite the toy store.
He bought a large deck of playing cards and a beaded handmade bag here.
He actually doesn't need toys. He just feels that it is not easy for the boss to open a store, and consumption is to show support.
Most of the time, Bai Guiyu "invented" at home.
According to him, he has designed models of aircraft engines and won awards.
He had designed special equipment for desert control, but due to insufficient financial resources, he gave up half of it.
He also invented a non-absorbent swimming suit and applied for a patent, but he could not sell it. He had to pay a patent maintenance fee and the patent was cancelled.
When Bai Guiyu was young, he repaired musical instruments at the Xinghai Piano Factory in Beijing. By mistake, he never found a suitable one.
Now that he is about 70 years old, he often watches an elderly blind date show on TV and finds that many old ladies have material demands when looking for someone. Some people say that they have to buy a suite for their son before proceeding.
Bai Guiyu feels that society is paying more and more attention to material things, and has no expectations of finding a target.
Having been unmarried all his life, Bai Guiyu feels a little regretful, "the bystander who pursues happiness, and pursues a happy life in the end." He wrote in his blog.
Occasionally some netizens call him "Dad", and he is "happy for a few days without knowing why".
But recalling these years, Bai Guiyu feels very fulfilling. There are seven or eight cameras at home, which record his daily life.
He has grown watermelons, winter melons, and gourds at home, and green vines have covered the balcony guardrails.
In the past few years, Bai Guiyu often answered questions on a question-and-answer website, mostly about electric power knowledge.
In 2010, there were 14 incidents of workers jumping off the building at the Foxconn factory. He felt very sad and wanted to do something to help others. He thought of answering questions online, "No matter what questions he asks, I use my knowledge to help him."
Over the past six years, Bai Guiyu has answered more than 22,000 questions and received many platform prizes, including nail clippers and USB flash drives.
Later, he couldn't find the login password and stopped answering the question.
Bai Guiyu is worried about what to do if he can't walk in the future.
Once, when he fell while taking a bath, his head hit the toilet seat and fainted. Later, the cold shower water awakened him.
After that, he designed an automatic alarm at the door of the bedroom. If he couldn't move, he would automatically call his loved ones as long as the bedroom was not open for 24 hours.
But after finishing the design, Bai Guiyu felt frustrated again, "This thing is something prepared for you after you die, aren't you bored?"
Bai Guiyu also installed the camera on the balcony, thinking that he would not be able to move in the future, and looked outside through the camera.
He was dissatisfied with buying many cameras before and after, because he could not see far enough and was not clear enough.
The cheapest camera is fifty or sixty yuan, and the most expensive one is seven or eight hundred yuan. The one recently bought can see the people upstairs 300 meters away from the window.
Fang Shuqin gave Bai Guiyu a trick: point the camera at the house and broadcast live to the outsiders about the situation in his house. "When I see that this old man hasn't moved today (I will come in and look for you)." Several old people laughed.
Bai Guiyu, who lives alone, pays more and more attention to maintaining the relationship between neighbors. He became friends with a computer repairer in the community. When the light bulb and computer at home failed, and the flower pot could not be moved, he asked the other person to help. In return, he often gave each other Daughter buys snacks to eat.
There are also elderly care institutions approaching Song Delong to discuss cooperation.
A “marketing director” who claimed to be a nursing home in Tianjin approached Song Delong to recommend customers and promised to earn 100,000 yuan a month.
This person said that the nursing home is very high-end, with advanced medical equipment, free physical examination, and blood exchange to make the elderly younger, a blood exchange fee of 100,000 yuan.
When Song Delong heard that he was going to fool the old man to exchange blood, he sent him away.
A well-known elderly care organization said that they are creating a "travel elderly care" model, hoping that Song Delong will introduce them to the past experience of the elderly, which can get a commission, but was rejected.
Song Delong put all his thoughts on finding toys.
He hasn't figured out the products that the elderly are interested in.
There is a smart walking stick in the store that can illuminate and listen to music. The old man can even call the police if he falls. He thought it would be a market, so he stood the poster at the door, but no one cared about it.
He also bought a palm-sized power bank that integrates hand warming, lighting, and playing small games, and no one bought it.
The in-store sales champion is a 35-yuan stretch flexible table tennis training device.
This toy does not take up space. A high-elastic flexible shaft is inserted on the metal base of the plate, and a ping pong ball is inserted on the top of the shaft.
Many elderly people buy it home and play with their grandchildren.
A customer discussed with Song Delong that there is table tennis at home, can it be done just by buying poles?
Many elderly people are reluctant to spend money, "he thinks how much you bid expensive."
Toys priced at 10 yuan are still bargaining.
In many cases, Song Delong needs to teach customers how to play.
He found that most customers want to buy toys that are "easy to play".
He introduced a more complicated toy to many people, but the old people gave up after playing for a while without success.
When Fang Shuqin first came to the store, he was new to everything. He learned to play "Nine Links" with his boss. He learned it on the first day and forgot on the second day.
Another customer suggested that two tables of mahjong should be set up. Song Delong said that mahjong is available everywhere, and playing for a long time is not good for the body.
Some objects that are not part of the toy store also appear in the store, such as teapots and old tapes.
Fang Shuqin brought the bracelets and earrings that he didn't use at home, and asked Song Delong to help sell them. "If no one buys it, just keep it here!" Bai Guiyu sent a few radio magazines, "Interested customers can look through it. ."
Song Delong hopes that his competitors will increase-more people will open toy shops for the elderly, and the entertainment needs of the elderly will receive more attention.
He plans to open an online shop to open up a larger market.
He thought about registering a video account to live chat with the elderly in the store, so that more people can pay attention to the lives of the elderly.
This year's Spring Festival, he intends to open business as usual. The flowers, birds and fish in the shop need to be taken care of. Some elderly people who have no children around can also go to the shop as usual.
China Youth Daily · China Youth Daily reporter Yin Haiyue and photo source: China Youth Daily