Xinhua News Agency, Lanzhou, April 23 - Question: "sub-tables meal" "small portion of food" - a new exploration prospects Fencan system of geometry?
Xinhua News Agency reporter Ren Yanxin
Since the outbreak of New Coronary Pneumonia, the meal-sharing mode has opened up a new style of diet. Catering companies all over the world seize market opportunities and move out one after another. The "one person eats" and "small dishes" and other models have attracted attention. What are the "blocking points" in the current implementation of the meal sharing system? How to solve the problems of traditional consumer dependence and increased restaurant costs? Recently, the reporter conducted a survey in Lanzhou City, Gansu Province.
"Join" and "Minute" on the Dining Table
Beef noodles occupy an important position in the daily diet of Lanzhou people. At lunch, customers lined up at the order place in Lanzhou's Zhang Guoren Beef Noodle House, and the store was set up as a single seat.
Last year, the store launched a large bowl of beef noodles that can be eaten by three or four people, becoming a "net red". Today, affected by the epidemic, there is no one interested in large bowls of beef noodles, and traditional small bowls of beef noodles are in high demand.
Ma Jun, manager of the Lanzhou Oriental Palace Halal Catering Group, said that the single-person single-bowl was originally the normal eating situation of beef noodles, but the table-based dining under the epidemic also brought new challenges to the beef noodle restaurant.
"We have 300 seats in our store, and now we can seat up to 50 people as required." He said that in order to reduce the waiting time for customers to queue up, the staff can only speed up the order, meal, and empty trays, and increase the turnover rate.
The reporter visited many Chinese restaurants in Lanzhou city and found that most of the restaurants are placed in the table space or in the same direction, and there are signs on the table for the use of public chopsticks. About 20% of the guests will take the initiative to share meals.
According to reports, there are currently three main forms of meal sharing: after-cooking, on-site waiters and diners using public chopsticks to pick out dishes, and after-kitchen and customer chopsticks are more common.
Relevant people believe that dining around the table is an important manifestation of Chinese catering culture. In the past, everyone tasted the same table of food together to consolidate family relations, exchange friendship and negotiate business. Nowadays, the epidemic affects everyone's life in a subtle way. The use of public chopsticks and the sharing of tables and meals are becoming the trend, and the traditional eating customs are also quietly changing.
The spring of "one person eating" "small dishes"?
The interviewed merchants said that there is a "blocking point" in the implementation of the meal sharing system: the epidemic caused the decline in the revenue of catering companies. The meal sharing system requires additional investment in human and material resources, which increases the cost burden. The market response and long-term development are unpredictable.
On one side is a table-sharing dinner in the traditional food culture, and on the other side is a healthy meal-sharing that reduces the risk of foodborne disease transmission. In this change facing the catering industry and consumers, many companies are catching up and actively cater to market needs.
——The “one person eats” hot pot is also very fragrant
At the peak of dining, in the Lanzhou Xiabu Xiabu Guofang department store, the reporter noticed that many accompanying customers took the initiative to choose the single-person single-pot dining area, but the previously popular four-person cauldron was neglected.
Dining customers said that single-person, single-pot is more hygienic, and everyone eats their own food, which does not affect talking and chatting together.
The manager Jiang Xu said that the number of customers who recently chose the single-person, single-pot dining area has increased by 50% over the past. Although this will increase the cost of the enterprise, it can be balanced through other links, such as introducing discount packages, voucher discounts to attract more customers, or expanding the single-person single-pot dining area to increase the number of dine-in.
"At present, all types of catering industry are facing a shrinking turnover. For us, whether it is a big pot or a small pot, it is better to have customers than no one wants." He said.
——The advanced way of "small dishes"
In a restaurant selling small bowl dishes at Wanhui International Plaza in Lanzhou City, the store advocated that Qingzheng was busy packing more than a dozen takeouts. According to him, the store opened last year and has been operating lukewarmly since then. "People generally think that 'small servings' are cheap and low-end, and it's okay to take a bite, but you rarely come here after a serious meal," he said.
In the past month, the conditions in the store have been better than he expected. Although the overall sales volume of the business district fell sharply, the in-store turnover decreased by 15%, but many customers favored his dishes with nutrition, sanitation, and moderate weight. The number of takeaway orders increased by 10%, and many repeat customers have won. .
A steamed vegetable restaurant across the street has recently launched a small single-served steamed meal set with an average price of not more than 25 yuan, which is very popular with nearby office workers and has a daily sales volume of nearly 50 copies.
Owner Liu Qianwei calculated an account: the cost of the set meal was higher than that of a single meal, but the sales volume doubled; the cost of takeout was higher than that of dine-in, but it saved 10% of manpower. So she reduced the restaurant's dine-in seats, increased the take-out and take-out ratios, eliminated the poorly sold dishes, selected ten kinds of meat and vegetables, and provided soups and snacks as a set meal.
She believes that "small dishes" can also be "small and refined", which is more in line with the current consumer demand for meal-sharing, hygiene and convenience, and will become a just-needed choice for white-collar workers in the future.
Catering industry may usher in a watershed
Recently, the World Federation of Chinese Restaurant Industry and the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade organized the drafting of a group standard for the "Chinese Food Service Standards for Public Dining, Public Chopsticks, and Double Chopsticks". The Shandong Provincial Department of Commerce took the lead in formulating and publishing the “Guidelines for Designing and Implementing a Meal Sharing System in the Catering Industry” across the country, and innovatively launched catering models such as “meal sharing spoons” and “meal sharing and self-collection”, which laid the foundation for the normal promotion of the meal sharing system.
Ma Ming, chairman of Lanzhou Mayoubu Catering Management Co., Ltd., said that the re-population of the meal-sharing system will force the catering service process to be reengineered. It is the key for enterprises to actively improve the level of refined services.
At present, many restaurants have adjusted and innovated in personnel training, job setting, tableware configuration, menu design, etc. Liu Hongbin, lobby manager of Guofang Department Store in Nongtang Xiaolan, Lanzhou, introduced that the store has added a job as a food clerk to prepare dishes with the back kitchen, adjust service schedules and line layout, and maximize the speed of serving.
In a Sichuan restaurant in Dunhuang Road, Lanzhou City, the store has set up a new incubator in the box, which can be used to place the divided meals to prevent the dishes from cooling and affecting the taste. After the customer orders, the waiter will take the initiative to hand towels and add tea, increase the service link before serving, and buy more time for the post-cooking meal.
Zhao Zhonglu, president of the Gansu Culinary Association, said that the meal sharing system is a new trend in catering consumption and will become a business opportunity. For the mass catering enterprises, whoever adjusts the strain first will seize the opportunity.