The research team of this newspaper.
Recently, the research team of China Youth Daily went deep into cities and villages across the country, visiting all kinds of small shops from all walks of life. In each small shop, there are many young figures, they are full of youthful vitality, have wild ideas, and have the courage not to be afraid of failure;They are good at capturing the trend of the times, and they also know how to activate the trend elements in traditional culture, and have the ambition to operate a small shop for a hundred yearsThey are familiar with using the latest technology to attract the world's attention, and they can "highlight" themselves no matter where they are. This light illuminates itself and has become a little star that lights up China's economy.
30-year-old Tian Kaiyao has a unique "master dream" - to become a "master of Jinyun baked cakes".
Every day at 11 p.m., she will show up on time at the baked cake shop founded by her parents and start opening at night. In the late night kitchen, this petite girl rolled up her sleeves and prepared ingredients, mixed stuffing, mixed noodles, and scones - she was as skilled as a master.
In the past 10 years, my parents have opened a bakery from their hometown of Jinyun, Zhejiang Province to Hangzhou. Today, Tian Kaiyao hopes to make the small store a century-old store and open many branches.
She knows that the most important thing is to learn this traditional craft well and pass it on. She paid attention to the preferences of young people, changed the opening hours of the pancake shop to 24 hours, and became the "store manager" of the night shift herselfShe actively participated in various training and competitions in the making of biscuits, and obtained the certificate of "Senior Biscuit Master" issued by the Jinyun Biscuit Brand Building Leading Group and its office at a young age.
Recently, the research team of China Youth Daily went deep into cities and villages across the country, visiting all kinds of small shops from all walks of life. In each small shop, there are many young figures like Tian Kaiyao, who are full of youthful vitality, have wild ideas, and have the courage not to be afraid of failure;They are good at capturing the trend of the times, and they also know how to activate the trend elements in traditional culture, and have the ambition to operate a small shop for a hundred yearsThey are familiar with using the latest technology to attract the world's attention, and they can "highlight" themselves no matter where they are. This light illuminates itself and has become a little star that lights up China's economy.
Small shops hold up big dreams.
China Youth Daily found through a questionnaire survey that 509% of the small shop owners surveyed believe that opening a small shop is a good choice to start a business;43.8% of the small shop owners surveyed believe that they are more motivated to "work" for themselves.
For Gu Li, who was born in the 80s, a small shop is the starting point of a career and a turning point in her life. The year she decided to open the shop, her husband fell seriously ill and the family was in financial difficulties. She borrowed 20,000 yuan, rented a store of more than 20 square meters, bought a second-hand computer, and spent 2,000 yuan to buy a second-hand photocopier, and started a business.
At that time, no one in the family supported Gu Li, but she felt that she had endless energy every day during that time. She does everything herself, supporting a store by herself.
In 2015, Gu Li opened a copy shop near Yan'an University. The business has improved, and it has gradually gained the recognition of his family. In 2018, Gu Li founded the company and expanded its business of cultural and creative products, with an annual income of three or four million yuan. Soon, the company moved into the most upscale office building in town.
Gu Li did not stop, she wanted to be a century-old enterprise, and also planned to build a cultural and art museum.
And Liu Jia, the post-80s owner of the century-old wonton shop "Jinling Pujia Wonton", didn't want to open a small store too big.
Liu Jia's family has run this wonton shop for three generations. In 2020, the production technique of Jinling Pujia wonton was recognized as an intangible cultural heritage of Pukou District, Nanjing. "If I didn't make a bowl of ravioli, I wouldn't feel at ease. If we expand our operations, we may lose quality. Liu Jia said that she will continue to pass on the intangible cultural heritage craftsmanship and make it a golden sign of local cuisine.
Like them, for many small shop owners, opening a store is not only a means of making a living, but also supporting dreams big and small.
In May this year, Li Difei and his wife opened a bookstore of more than 20 square meters in Guilin, Guangxi. The bookstore is located in a neighborhood 10-minute walk from home, between small restaurants, small supermarkets and hardware stores, and is a clean place in the midst of fireworks. Li Difei said that many people like to stay at home after work to catch up on dramas, watch variety shows, and play games, but ignore the changes that are taking place around them and in the neighborhood. He hopes that the bookstore can bring a different "air" to everyone, "After tea and dinner, come to read, buy books, and chat about books".
The opening hours of this small shop are also "capricious", opening only 3 hours in the evening on weekdays, and only open all day on weekends to welcome readers. Despite this, it still has a lot of fans. Today, the bookstore has held nearly 10 book exchange meetings, movie viewing parties and other activities. "Seeing the bigger world through reading is something we love and want to try from the bottom of our hearts. Li Difei said.
* Small shop, be an innovator.
Xinjiang girl Wang Leilei's hometown is famous for "Shawan ** chicken", and her mother is the owner of the first batch of small shops in the local fried ** chicken. In 2013, Wang Leilei, who grew up smelling the delicious and spicy taste of ** chicken, returned to her hometown after graduating from Tianjin Polytechnic University.
In the store, Wang Leilei noticed that many customers would pack the remaining soup and take it away after eating ** chicken, go home to heat it up, and continue to mix noodles to eat. Some regular customers will ask directly: "Do you sell seasonings here?"”
Seizing the business opportunity, Wang Leilei immediately set out to develop the best chicken dry material. **Chicken seasoning needs to use a variety of seasonings such as chili pepper and Sichuan pepper, so she grinds these seasonings into powder, "Some customers will eat Sichuan pepper and big ingredients in chicken, which affects the taste and experience, and the powder package can solve this problem."
Later, some customers reported that they took the dry ingredients home and didn't know how much to put at a time. So, Wang Leilei developed a semi-solid seasoning package, "one package of ingredients can make a plate of chicken, just right".
In 2020, Wang Leilei's Dingjixiang Food Factory landed. The ** chicken seasoning produced by the assembly line can reach more than 400 packs a day, which is not only sold in the store, but also sold in e-commerce, and the price of each copy is less than 30 yuan. There are also many foreign customers who will ask her to buy seasoning packets, which makes Wang Leilei more confident, "to promote ** chicken as a lifelong career".
In Guilin, Guangxi, as well-known as Guilin's landscapes, there is also a local delicacy - Guilin rice noodles. However, there is a local saying that "Guilin rice noodles are difficult to get out of Guilin". "A bowl of authentic Guilin rice noodles uses fresh rice noodles, and there are many 'capillaries' on the surface of the noodles that can adsorb the brine into them. Qin Huiyue, president of the Guilin Rice Noodles Industry Association, said that if you want Guilin rice noodles to go out, you need to develop a method that is both quality and fresh.
Since 2010, Qin Huiyue has organized a team to achieve a technological breakthrough of "fresh rice noodles for 12 months" after 6 years of research and development. In 2018, the fresh rice noodles produced by the factory were supplied to Hunan, Guangdong and other places, and also exported to the United States, bringing the taste of hometown to local overseas Chinese and international students.
Empower small stores with digitalization.
It is no exaggeration to say that Ge Jianlong's small store was "taken away" by the rapid development of the e-commerce industry. His hometown is in the border town of Fuyuan in Heilongjiang Province, across the river from Russia. In 2015, with the boom of online shopping, Ge Jianlong decided to give up his work as a Russian translator for many years and return to his hometown to open a courier delivery office.
However, in the beginning, the income was "basically not profitable" after deducting various costs such as rent and labor. Ge Jianlong recalled that when he first started his business, he often had to face the dilemma of losing money.
The turning point came at the end of 2016. "During the 'Double 11' period, there were more than 800 express deliveries at outlets, far exceeding the usual 300 pieces. Ge Jianlong recalled that in 2017, there were more than 2,000 "Double 11".
With the rise of e-commerce live broadcast on platforms such as Kuaishou and Douyin, Ge Jianlong has opened a number of express supermarkets in Fuyuan. He recalled that on the day of "Double 11" in 2021, the total order volume of Zhongtong Express in Fuyuan exceeded 6,000.
Ren Yafeng, a young man from Cao County, Heze City, Shandong Province, took advantage of the live broadcast. A mobile phone, a computer, a few square meters of space ......In less than a year, he sold traditional clothing horse face skirts in the live broadcast room, and achieved the third place in sales on the whole network.
The horse-faced skirt is one of the main skirt styles of Han women in ancient China, and is named because it resembles the "horse face" structure of the city wall. Today, horse-faced skirts are becoming more and more popular among young women because of their bright colors and auspicious patterns.
In recent years, in this county, which is known as the "center of the universe", live broadcast e-commerce has become an important carrier for young people to return to their hometowns and promote economic development. Ren Yafeng is a young man who returned to his hometown earlier to start a business, he did a clothing business in Shanghai, and after returning to his hometown, he also experienced a period of confusion, slowly groping through live broadcasts, short **, etc., to increase the degree of popularity for the brand and expand sales.
This year, Ren Yafeng registered a trademark, established a company, opened 4 live broadcast rooms, and drove 70 local people to work.
According to the research report on the talent of the e-commerce industry in Cao County, more than 350,000 people in the county are engaged in the e-commerce industry, and a group of young e-commerce entrepreneurs born in the 90s have emerged.
In recent years, the rise of live streaming and Internet social platforms has given many small shop owners a stage to connect with the world.
The century-old wonton shop "Jinling Pujia Wonton" also opened an account on social platforms and issued ** coupons through the platform, attracting many food experts to visit the store. Liu Jia said: "In the past, the people who came to eat wontons were neighbors, but now there are customers who come from afar to check in. "In order to satisfy the tastes of more customers, the menu of the small shop is constantly changing.
Sha Chenglei, a young man born in the 90s who sells steamed buns through the short ** platform, has been in business in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province for 3 years and has opened 5 stores with his family. At the door of his shop, the sign of "Jiangning Pension (can be handled by the elderly over 75 years old)" is particularly eye-catching. This is a project that Sha Chenglei participated in in the early days of his business, and the local ** cooperated with the franchise brand to help improve the three meals a day for the elderly through fixed time, content, and low-cost meals**, with a total price of 2$5.
Although the profit of the project is very small, Sha Chenglei believes that it is of great significance, which can effectively help people in difficulty around him, and can also continue to gather more attention and traffic through regular customers.
After a long time, the reputation of the small store has improved, and the popularity has become more prosperous. Many people in the neighborhood would rather walk a few more steps to buy steamed buns from him.
Let the traditional culture have more youthful expression.
Zhang Yang, who speaks Northeast dialect, has been working in a Dongba paper mill in Lijiang, Yunnan Province for more than 10 years, and what attracted him to cross thousands of kilometers to take root here is the ancient Dongba paper.
Zhang Yang and several young people in the paper workshop thought about how to integrate Dongba paper and Dongba literature with the national style and national trend that are sought after by young people at present. They have innovatively designed dozens of stamps engraved with Dongba blessings, and provided customers with free stamp services in the store, attracting many young people to check in. Dongba Paper Mill also refers to the traditional binding method to make a variety of binding methods such as thread binding, scroll binding, butterfly binding, and disassembly and assembly of cultural and creative notebooks.
Today, Dongba Paper Mill has developed from a small workshop that only sells books and postcards to a chain store, which not only sells Dongba paper, postcards, notebooks, folding fans, lamps, hanging pictures and other goods, but also provides writing, seals and after-sales service, which is popular with many young customers.
In the pedestrian street of the ancient city of Hulunbuir in Inner Mongolia, there is also a small cultural and creative shop that young people often come to check in. The owner, Xu Weijing, is a native of Hulunbuir, "Don't look at me, there are only 30 square meters here, this is a small youth business incubator. Xu Weijing hired a design team of 14 people to be responsible for the research and development of cultural and creative products, and currently has more than 20 intellectual property rights and more than 1,000 cultural and creative products. In the tourist season, Xu Weijing's three small shops can earn more than 30,000 yuan a day.
She and her team visited a number of inheritors of intangible cultural heritage, and successively developed a series of themed cultural and creative products such as national unity and progress, red culture, green development, and intangible cultural heritage protection. Xu Weijing believes that only by driving young people to break through together and stimulating the enthusiasm of big guys can the road of entrepreneurship go further.
In the southeast and northwest, there are young people in small shops struggling.
Shi Mengmeng, a post-90s girl with a baby face, is the "northernmost cousin" on the live broadcast platform. At least 360 days a year, she will walk in the cities and villages of Daxinganling to take short photos**, and talk about her hometown while walking.
In the early morning of minus 50 degrees Celsius, she walked in the snow with a smile and broadcast the ice cream on her hair and eyelashes to netizens across the country. She opened a small mountain goods store in her live broadcast room, and the mountain goods in the Daxinganling area were sold all over the country through her small live broadcast room, and many local farmers had a stable income.
Optimistic, persistent, and responsible, like Shi Mengmeng, thousands of young people in small shops have the shining quality of young people in the new era.
In Fuyuan City, Heilongjiang Province, where the sunrise was the earliest in the motherland, Ge Jianlong got up almost every day to face the morning sun and go home with the sunset. From opening the first express delivery point in 2015 to now managing 11 express supermarkets, Ge Jianlong has spelled out his own express delivery territory, and his goal is to extend the express delivery business to foreign countries.
Yan Jiayi, a 25-year-old girl from Zhangye, Gansu Province, opened a stationery store in Wuqia County, Kizilsu Kirgiz Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang. After graduating from university in 2020, she did not stay in Shanghai, but signed up as a volunteer for the Western Plan to come to Xinjiang. She is optimistic about the development opportunities brought by the Belt and Road Initiative to Wucha, and believes that the vitality of the western cities of the motherland will be further unleashed, and it will also bring more opportunities to young people like her. She also hopes that the shop can get involved in more fields and let her youth take root in the westernmost part of China.
In Sansha City, the southernmost part of the motherland, Liang Meifeng, a post-90s generation, and her husband run a small supermarket. Liang Meifeng is one of the earliest individual industrial and commercial households on Yongxing Island in Sansha City. In the local area, Liang Meifeng is affectionately called "Xiao Liang" and "Little Sister" by everyone, and everyone who passes by will basically go to the store to chat with Liang Meifeng for a while.
"5672" is the total number of Liang Meifeng's WeChat friends, and the vast majority of them are her customers. Whenever an order is placed through WeChat in a small store, she provides island-wide delivery. "Riding a three-wheeled battery car to deliver on Woody Island, you can get back to the store in less than 10 minutes. Liang Meifeng said.
Although the supermarket is less than 50 square meters, it has a wide variety of goods, and many things are not found in other supermarkets on the island. Residents and merchants on the surrounding islands will also take a boat to Liang Meifeng's small shop to buy things.
When Liang Meifeng is not in the store, she doesn't even close the store, and regular customers come to pick up the goods by themselves, pay directly online, or leave the money in the store. So as she rides an electric scooter to deliver to residents on the island, she receives a small income on her mobile phone, which is the daily routine of a small shopkeeper in the southernmost tip of China.
*: China Youth Daily.