Economic Herald reporter Sun Ronan.
On a winter morning in Jinan, in the convenience store of the office floor merchant, the hurried "office workers" buy breakfast; The night is shrouded in cold, walking on the city streets, the lights of the restaurants downstairs of the apartment convey the atmosphere of the city's fireworks.
The consumption scene of these small street shops is no longer familiar to many "young people".
In the streets and business districts of the city, the merchants along the street bring together all kinds of commercial formats, which are covered by banks, convenience stores, restaurants, pharmacies, etc., and become a part of the urban consumption space by virtue of their proximity to office buildings and communities, and are also one of the important components of commercial real estate.
In recent years, as a series of changes have permeated all levels of commercial real estate, the impact naturally includes the bottom commercial state.
Xu Chuanming, deputy general manager of Shandong Hefu and president of Yihe Industrial Development Research Institute, said in an interview with the Economic Herald, "There are basically two kinds of bottom business, one is the bottom business of community support, and the other is the podium business like office buildings, which has changed a lot in recent years." ”
According to his observation, "in the process of change in the past few years, in fact, the ecology of supporting business has always been reshuffling rapidly and in large quantities, and has been dynamically changing. ”
The bottom merchant brings together all kinds of commercial formats Photo by Sun Ronan).Banks follow business
From the intersection of Luoyuan Street and Lishan Road in Jinan to the west, walking on both sides of the road, you can see all kinds of commercial formats everywhere, and there are banks, convenience stores, restaurants and so on every few steps along the bottom of the street.
At the Greentown Financial Center in Jinan, a bank branch is surrounded by a green fence, and the scaffolding in front of the lobby has been removed and staff are clearing the snow.
The sign at the front of the door has not yet hung the bank's logo and name, but the words "24-hour self-service banking" have been displayed.
The staff of the bank Sun Luonan, which is under renovation on Luoyuan Street in Jinan, told the Economic Herald reporter that "this bank has been renovated and has not yet opened."
The agglomeration of a large number of office buildings has made the presence of banks in the bottom business appear frequently.
One phenomenon that can be observed is that, unlike in previous years, banks have been "non-stop" in the deployment of business areas.
In Chaoshan Street, not far from Jinan Quancheng Square, there are a variety of shops on both sides of the road.
China Merchants Bank Jinan Chaoshan Street Branch located here, a few years ago in this old city in the bustling area of the quiet relocation, China Merchants Bank Chaoshan Street Branch renamed to Zhuanshan West Road Branch, and relocated to the eastern city of Jinan Zhuanshan West Road, the area is located in the new city of the prosperous area, not far from the MixC, the surrounding office buildings gathered, like such a hot area, is also becoming the bottom of the business concentration of the location.
This is also a microcosm of the adjustment of bank branches in recent years.
In the annual reports and semi-annual reports of some banks, the adjustment and optimization of the layout and construction of outlets are also mentioned.
The reporter of the Economic Herald noted that the 2023 semi-annual report of China Merchants Bank (600036) mentioned that "in terms of channels, the company continues to promote the construction and layout optimization of domestic branches. During the reporting period, 23 new business outlets were opened, 16 existing business outlets were relocated and optimized, and 97 outlets were renovated and renovated. ”
China Construction Bank (601939) said in its 2023 semi-annual report that it "intensified the withdrawal and relocation of inefficient and dense outlets in urban areas, and expanded the coverage of new urban planning areas and county-level outlets, with 4,238 county-level outlets at the end of June, accounting for nearly 30%." In the first half of the year, 93 business outlets were relocated and 13 new business outlets were established, of which 11 were newly established at the county level. ”
The Economic Herald reporter checked the administrative license approval of the Shandong Supervision Bureau of the State Financial Supervision and Administration and saw that the announcement of the change of business address of a number of bank branches also appeared in the ** from time to time.
For example, on November 3, the Postal Savings Bank of China Co., Ltd. *** Jinan Baihua Business Office was renamed as Postal Savings Bank of China Co., Ltd. *** Jinan Daqiao Road Business Office was approved, and the business address was No. 102, Comprehensive Building, No. 117, Daqiao Road, Licheng District, Jinan City.
On October 26, the name of China Merchants Bank Co., Ltd. Jinan Xingfu Street Sub-branch was changed to China Merchants Bank Co., Ltd. Jinan Xicheng Sub-branch was approved, and the business address was moved from the original location to Block A of Evergrande Yayuan Business Office, No. 887 Tai'an Road, Huaiyin District, Jinan City.
In addition, on October 31, the opening of Bank of Beijing Jinan Branch, the preparatory institution of Bank of Beijing Branch, was approved, and its business address is A117, A118 and Building 1601 (part) of Yinfeng Fortune Plaza, No. 1 Longao West Road, Lixia District, Jinan City, Shandong Province.
The new locations of these banks are also mostly "settled" in new urban areas, especially business districts, which have developed rapidly in recent years.
In other words, in addition to the traditional core blocks of the city, more and more commercial forms are gathering in the new business districts, and banks are also setting up new branches in these places.
In the past, especially in some office buildings or podiums along the main streets, banks were a major merchant, and once they were planned, their operations were relatively stable, and they were all high-quality merchants in the past. Xu Chuanming told the Economic Herald reporter, "Banks are generally hundreds of square meters, if it is a branch, it may have to take the second floor office, and its volume is relatively large." ”
However, in recent years, the physical branches of banks have shrunk and adjusted.
In recent years, with the development of online banking, electronic development has been very fast, especially in the face of residents' services, especially in the face of residents, not only business outlets, 24-hour self-service banking is now becoming less and less. Xu Chuanming said.
Optimizing the layout of branches has become the focus of banks.
In fact, these banks mainly follow the business customers, and there are some corporate businesses that need to be handled, such as office buildings that still maintain a certain number of banking institutions. Xu Chuanming told the Economic Herald reporter, "For example, there are two or three banks under an office building, and the enterprises in this office building will roughly put some bank accounts in it, which is more convenient." On the other hand, the institutions on the community side of the original residents may shrink more severely. ”
Banking and business are "shadowy", and the location of branches in key customer areas has become the direction of optimization and adjustment.
Xu Chuanming gave a typical example to the reporter of the Economic Herald, "For example, Shuntai Plaza, the headquarters of Shandong Iron and Steel is over there, and there is a circle of banks around the headquarters of Shandong Iron and Steel Group, and the banks whose names you can name are basically opened there." Large enterprises have hundreds of millions of funds flowing every year, binding such a big customer, and even saying that after the development of the customer of Shandong Iron and Steel, I have to open a branch for it under the building, and the business development is convenient, so the trend of following the business is obvious. ”
Experiential formats are the direction
In fact, the ecology of supporting business has been changing dynamically. Xu Chuanming told the Economic Herald reporter, "In recent years, some changes in the policy environment have also led to some changes in traditional bottom business." ”
In the process of reshuffling the bottom business state, some formats "exited".
In the past few years, if we pay close attention, we can see that the second floor of some community facilities is a very important format of education and training, and the first floor opens an entrance suitable for going upstairs, and the second or third floor is large-scale education and training after going up. With the change of policies in recent years, education and training have shrunk more seriously, which has also led to the loss of a major customer in the bottom business. Xu Chuanming said.
He also mentioned, "With the changes in the macro environment, the demographic structure has changed, and the number of newborns has declined, you will find that there are many baby and child stores that have been relatively few in recent years." ”
So, how to fill the commercial gap left by the "exit" of some business formats?
When it comes to bottom merchants, many people will first think of the "small and beautiful" convenience store format. In recent years, convenience stores have always been the outlet of retail business, frequently favored by capital, with the blessing of capital, convenience stores have expanded rapidly, and are favored by young people with their convenient and fast characteristics.
The Economic Herald reporter noticed that the "2022 China Urban Convenience Store Index" released by the China Chain Store & Franchise Association showed that the growth rate of the number of convenience stores in Jinan reached 833%, ranking second among the 39 cities surveyed.
In the latest 2023 China City Convenience Store Index, the growth rate of the number of convenience stores in Jinan is 154%。
Along with the bustle, today's convenience stores have experienced a period of rapid expansion, and there is also a trend of "cooling".
It can be seen from the "2023 China Urban Convenience Store Index" released by the China Chain Store & Franchise Association in September this year that the overall development of convenience stores in cities across the country remains stable, but high operating costs are still an urgent problem to be solved in the development of convenience stores in various cities.
The survey found that "rent and labor costs are still the biggest challenges facing the development of convenience stores." With the further development of convenience stores in various cities and the competition of other small store economies for physical store resources, the development of convenience stores in many cities is facing great challenges. ”
Convenience store is a branch of the new format, which is considered to be a hot area of investment recently, to a certain extent, it is a product of consumption upgrading, the increase of residents' income, and the improvement of consumption capacity. Xu Chuanming believes that for the development of convenience stores, "from a longitudinal point of view, it will definitely develop faster in the next ten years compared with the past ten years, which is a general trend." ”
However, in Xu Chuanming's view, "relying on convenience stores to make up for the next ecological adjustment of the business structure is not enough to cover all the increments." After all, convenience stores have several site selection requirements, which are basically based on dozens of square meters and are small formats; It also needs to be convenient, and it can't solve the problem of a large number of vacated second floors. ”
In addition to convenience stores, catering is also one of the most important basic business forms. "Catering is also a product of phased development, and after the income level increases, a large number of meals are started to be eaten. One of the problems faced by catering is that it has an upper limit, for example, three meals a day, at most a supper, it is difficult to stretch, and in recent years, there is a big trend of catering is prefabrication, after prefabrication, the development of the catering industry also needs to be observed. Xu Chuanming said.
In his view, these formats are not enough to fill the ecological space of the bottom business. "We still have to accept the new, and it depends more on the increase in consumption brought about by the income level of residents, as well as some new forms of business brought about by other social and technological developments. Xu Chuanming told the Economic Herald reporter.
Adapting to the ever-changing market environment, we are also looking for more new models for development.
The new development puts forward some new demands, for example, now from the first orientation, put forward a concept called 'complete community', a complete community should have a kindergarten, two to three nurseries, a care center for the elderly, etc. Xu Chuanming mentioned, "There are some community merchants who have introduced a new service-oriented business format such as a canteen for the elderly, and a service-oriented and experience-oriented business push. ”
In his opinion, "in the past, relying on the way of buying goods, spending money to buy physical things, now there is still an upper limit, and this kind of invisible experience of the service may slowly become more and more the main direction, these are also increments." ”
Under the new market situation, the bottom merchant has also become a major track for the transformation and upgrading of commercial real estate. The development of the bottom business, the future still has a large space for imagination.