丨This article was originally written by Xiao Chen Chashi
丨First published in Baijiahao: Xiao Chen Tea Affair
丨Author: Village Gu Chen
On the weekend, my best friend W came to call and asked us to help her move the goods.
It was a tea club, with a high-end decoration and a central location.
When we arrived, she was counting the bills with the clubhouse owner, and boxes of tea were piled up in the corner of the door.
It turned out that W had recharged a lot of money in this club, but she didn't expect the store to close soon after it opened, so she had to convert the recharged amount into tea and move home.
Village aunts Chen and Li Mahua are the porters she found.
Next to this shop, there are several tea shops – tea shops usually like to be clustered together.
If you look at it casually, there are almost no customers in the store. Compared with the luxurious and high-end decoration, the atmosphere in the store can only be described as bleak.
The rent of this street shop is not cheap, and if it continues to open like this, it is estimated that it will be closed soon.
The most terrifying thing is that W's other store two kilometers away was also charged tens of thousands of dollars.
However, two days ago, the customer service called her **, saying that the rent would expire at the end of the year, and it might not be renewed, and asked her to get tea.
You're not going to call us porters again, are you?
Belly scolding, I decided not to pick up her ** recently to take refuge.
In the past, every time I passed by this street, I was very curious, what did these clubs with high decoration and operating costs rely on to make money?
About more than ten years ago, someone revealed the answer, saying: "Some brands need high-standard clubs to make façades, especially near certain government affairs and business places, like a face project, and they have to keep losing money." ”
At that time, the tea enterprises of the southern Fujian faction were quite powerful, and brand chain stores were blooming everywhere.
According to them, it is not difficult to maintain a few stores, the key is to establish a good image and become famous, especially to break into certain circles and certain layers.
For some tea companies, it is a big mistake for their brand name to not reach these circles, and let some important people hear about it.
However, as the years have passed, things have long been different.
At a time when quality is better than storytelling, these tea companies that are good at face-saving projects are collapsing faster than anyone else.
Once, a couple ran a tea club in Fuzhou, and it is rumored that a certain dignitary supported them behind their backs, so their small life of selling tea was also smooth.
Later, the dignitaries were promoted and transferred elsewhere, and the couple did not hesitate to move the club overnight and open it near the office area of the dignitary, and continued to live a life of selling tea with plenty of food and clothing.
The end of the story, of course, will not be the perfect ending in a fairy tale.
As the dignitaries collapsed, the couple buried the store and themselves in the rubble.
Watching these tea clubs fall out one by one, some old tea clubs that have lived for more than ten years can't withstand this economic winter, and can only sigh, "This time is different from the past."
In today's economic environment, opportunistic business is completely unworkable.
In the competition, the fight is real and down-to-earth.
The other day, I met a friend I hadn't met for a long time.
He joined a branded rock tea shop three years ago, and it was difficult to see his dignity without leaving the store.
Who knew that he looked relaxed, and said that now he is light without a store.
It turned out that he also closed the rock tea shop he joined.
Compared with other franchise stores, the brand he joined does not have so many requirements, and because of the special location, the headquarters intends to use his store as a façade and image, support him to spend a lot of money on decoration, not to mention, but also share the monthly rent for him.
However, even with such a breath of hanging by the headquarters for blood transfusion, the burden of continuous loss of money still made him stressed, and he repeatedly suggested that the headquarters close the store.
The night the store closed last month, he was finally able to sleep soundly.
No matter how unwilling you are, you must stop your losses first.
Last year, a rock tea brand won a number of stores in a high-profile manner, which is bound to become a trend of encirclement and form a business district.
As a result, not a single store was opened, and after paying more than half a year's rent and liquidated damages, the lease was surrendered.
It is said that many directly-operated stores that have been open for several years are facing difficulties in survival, and for more than a year, they have been seriously consuming the funds they accumulated when rock tea was popular.
No matter how much wealth you have accumulated in the early years, you can't afford to lose it like this.
If the situation is not right, stop loss in time.
When it rains heavily, the greater the investment, the more high-end and expensive the tea club, the faster it will be poured out.
Some of the shops are still open, but they're just struggling to support themselves.
A discerning person can calculate the account at a glance, the tea club pays attention to the consumption of private rooms, of course, there must be matching private room services, which requires a certain number of tea making personnel, and labor expenses account for a significant proportion of the cost of each month.
A friend who runs a club told me, "For some reason, the little girls recruited now don't have any life pressure, which makes them seem to be unmotivated to develop their business, and they can be satisfied with their basic salary." I raise these people, but I don't create performance, how can I survive?”
How can we guess the thoughts of the post-00s?
The two "old men" were speechless for each other.
W said that a new wave of store closures will soon be ushered in in the tea circle.
This is a trend that can only be felt by people who often mix in the tea circle, such as "Spring River Plumbing Duck Prophet".
W night stargazing, said that the closure should be based on a certain scale, box consumption nature, club-like high-end tea business places.
Some of them are new stores that have just opened for a few months, and they see that the tea is so profitable, and they all rush in with all their might, and finally feel deceived, so they leave the market quickly.
Some of them are stores that have accumulated a lot of customers over the years, but with the withdrawal of shareholders or the retirement of powerful customers, the business has deteriorated.
Lack of speculation, improper tricks, and with the decline of the economy, these tea clubs are like big ships running on the sea, which have been dug into a hole and slowly sunk.
People who open stores are lamenting that money is hard to make, and those big customers who are willing to buy ** tea are facing financial difficulties.
In the early years, people who were complacent and reluctant to expand their territory were ridiculed, but in retrospect, they have not become wealthy, but at least they have been able to cope with the changes in the economic environment.
People who live for a long time are people who are powerful and down-to-earth, and rely on their own professional standards to fight for every business.
What can be easily washed off is certainly not coarse.
Since it is dross, why pity?
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Xiao Chen Tea Village Gu Chen, column writer, the original innovation of the tea industry ** "Xiao Chen Tea Affairs" chief writer, has published a white tea monograph "White Tea Tasting Notes", and has written more than 4,000 original articles from 2016 to 2020.