What happened to the once thriving community canteen and now disappear?
The community cafeteria is on fire again.
At the end of October, a newly opened state-run community canteen in Shijiazhuang sparked heated discussions. According to reports, this"5 yuan to eat full, 9 yuan to eat well"Since opening in early October, the community cafeteria has served more than 20,000 customers and won the love of local residents.
At the beginning of November, "Nanfang*** immediately published the article "Controversial State-run Canteens: Benefiting the People or Competing with the People" that the community canteens in Shijiazhuang eagerly cut into, pointing out that the community canteens are still facing many problems, and the first batch of community canteens seems to have reversed the decline.
One stone stirs up a thousand waves. This incident quickly attracted other ** reports, and the former topic of community canteens became the focus of ** again.
At present, the situation of community canteens can be described as follows"Two Heavens"。On the one hand, some community canteens have closed down or are barely sustaining;On the other hand, new community canteens are constantly popping up on the market.
The community cafeteria is closed.
The author checked some public reports from the beginning of this year to November, and found that many ** visited and recorded the information about the closure and closure of community canteens.
In early January, Jiemian News reported the news that a community cafeteria in Shanghai's Putuo district was closed due to serious losses. The canteen has been open for more than a year, but it has ceased operations due to poor management and other reasons. In February, China News Weekly reported that community canteens in many places had closed due to poor management, insufficient customer flow, and the impact of the epidemic. In February, Banyuetan reported that the first batch of community canteens had to close due to operational difficulties. In February, Poster News found that some community cafeterias in Beijing had ceased operations. In August, Yicai** reported that community canteens in many places had operational difficulties and closed down one after another. In September, a Red Star News investigation found that there were more than 500 community canteens in Chengdu, some of which had been suspended. In November, the Xinmin Evening News reported that some community cafeterias in Shanghai had ceased their activities, and some had even posted them"Notice of closure"。
On social platforms such as Douyin, I have also seen many bloggers mention the closure of some community canteens around them. These sharing corroborate the report that some community canteens are indeed closed.
In addition, some community canteens, although still operating, face serious operational difficulties and can only rely on subsidies to barely survive.
In July, Shangguan News reported that while the vast majority of community canteens in Shanghai's Jing'an, Huangpu, Pudong and other urban districts are still operable, there are not many cases where they have made significant profits, and at best, they have made small profits.
Previously, ** reported that there is a community canteen in Chongqing called Yubaijia Huimin, which has been open for more than two years, but it is not profitable. Last year, the annual loss was about 170,000 yuan.
Hongguang Community Canteen, also located in Chongqing, opened in March this year, and has only made a profit of about 5,000 yuan in the first six months since it opened, and it also relies on subsidies to maintain its operation.
Pour on one side, hot on the other.
However, while some community canteens were closing, new ones were springing up.
Since the beginning of this year, a number of community canteens have emerged in Shanghai, Chengdu, Xi'an, Hangzhou, Shijiazhuang, Harbin and other places. Some community canteens have modern decorations, their own cafes and libraries, which have attracted more and more young people and become Internet celebrity restaurants.
For example, in November, Bright Food Group opened a store in Shanghai called"Bright City Kitchen"The community canteen has a fresh decoration, the average price is less than 20 yuan, and the cheapest dish is only 5 yuan, and there are pastries, snacks, coffee, supermarkets, etc., which are loved by many young people.
Why are community cafeterias constantly opening, but there is no shortage of large groups like Bright Food?
There are probably two main reasons for this.
The first is the market push. Community canteens offer good value for money and are in line with the current trends of reducing consumption, eating closer to home, and eating healthily.
For example, consumption is declining, consumers are living a careful life, and consumption is becoming more and more cost-effective.
The second is the promotion of policies. Relevant departments have introduced a series of policies to encourage the development of community canteens, and added various subsidies and exemption programs to attract entrepreneurs to enter this field.
This year, Kunming, Shanghai, Shijiazhuang and other places continue to introduce relevant policies to encourage the development of community canteens to meet the dining needs of relevant groups.
At present, most of the community canteens opened in various places are adopted"Market-oriented operation, first-class guidance, and the introduction of third-party management"mode. Third-party operators of community canteens are often entitled to certain political subsidies and rent reductions.
Taking Nanjing as an example, the meal aid can receive up to 150,000 yuan per year, and the kitchen can receive up to 250,000 yuan per year. In addition, the community also provides free venues, and some communities also enjoy water, electricity and gas discounts to help promote the situation.
Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province, on the construction of community canteens"A construction subsidy of 1,400 yuan per square meter will be given, of which 1,200 square meters will be subsidized by the municipal government and 200 yuan per square meter by the county"。
It is also with this support that many entrepreneurs still want to try community canteens even though they know that it will be difficult to make a profit.
Difficult economic accounts.
Why are a large number of community canteens still operating poorly or even closing down despite political support and subsidies?
In fact, there have always been a lot of problems with community canteens.
1) Profitability dilemma: It is difficult to make a profit because the profit is not enough to cover the operating costs.
The biggest advantage of a community canteen is:"Inexpensive", which also means that its profit margins are low and it is not a profitable business. The profit margin is low, but the operating costs of the community canteen are not low. Without the support of subsidies, many community canteens would struggle to recoup their costs with a small profit.
In a report published earlier this year, Banyuetan mentioned a community canteen in Baoding, Hebei Province, which has four chefs and a monthly labor cost of more than 20,000 yuan. The revenue was completely insufficient to cover the labor costs, and the canteen was eventually closed.
A report published in July by People** mentioned that a 300-square-meter community canteen had opened in Guang'an, Sichuan. The monthly labor cost of the store is 20,000 yuan, the rent is tens of thousands of yuan, and the water and electricity bills are more than 40,000 yuan per month. But the income is only about 20,000 yuan, and the loss is about 20,000 yuan per month.
2) Crowd dilemma: unclear positioning, difficulty in integrating crowds.
In addition to the cost factor, the lack of clear positioning of the crowd is also one of the reasons why community canteens are difficult to monetize.
It has always been difficult to determine what kind of customers the community canteen should be oriented to, and whether it is social or commercial.
Theoretically, a community canteen can serve all residents, but in practice, it is difficult for a single canteen to satisfy everyone's taste needs. Whether it is a community canteen or a social catering canteen, most of them can only meet the needs of some customers within their own capabilities, so as to achieve the purpose of stable profits, and then seek to cover more customer groups.
However, many community canteens have not thought through this, and have not cultivated their core customer base, the repurchase rate cannot be improved, and stable profitability has become a big problem.
3) Competition dilemma: consumption Xi has not yet been formed, and social catering is difficult"Grasp"。
Consumers have not yet developed the Xi and awareness of long-term consumption in community canteens. As a project to benefit the people, the community canteen has been promoted for a short time and has not yet been popularized nationwide, and many consumers have not yet developed the Xi of consuming in the canteen, which directly affects the stability of the profitability of the community canteen.
Second, many community canteens don't have a significant advantage over operating a wide variety of social meals in terms of taste and service.
The main advantage of community canteens is value for money, and when competing with other social catering services, the taste, service, and variety remain the same"Difficulty"。
Wait"development"of the community cafeteria.
In fact, community canteen activities have potential for development in terms of both social welfare and market demand. The problem that needs to be solved is how to improve the survival rate and bring it closer to the market.
Today, many canteens are actively exploring sustainable paths, including improving their profit models, opening up more customers, and optimizing their services.
Some community canteens have begun to extend more profitable businesses and look for new profit points according to the segmented needs of residents.
For example, according to the different banquet needs of residents in the jurisdiction, wedding banquets, birthday banquets, anniversary banquets, ** banquets, etc. Some community canteens have also tried to introduce coffee bars, bars and other formats, through"+ Classification"Increase profitability. Taking into account the special needs of some residents, especially homebound young people and elderly people living alone, some community canteens have also launched door-to-door meal delivery services.
It is worth mentioning that some community canteens have also begun to open some by opening"Cross-border"business, building the canteen into a comprehensive community service platform to improve the efficiency of space utilization. For example, health lectures and physical examinations are provided for the elderlywith"Three and a half hours of class"Combine to provide children with a place to learn and Xi and rest, and carry out various interest group activities;Carry out parent-child activities, provide equipment and guidance, etc.
While looking for more profit points, some community canteens are also constantly iterating products and services. For example, on the basis of the pursuit of cost performance, the style of dishes is no longer limited to homemade stir-fried dishes, but is richer and younger. Some canteens offer snacks such as spicy fragrant pot, fried chicken, and potato chipsSome cafeterias offer Japanese and Korean food, snacks, sweets, and more.
Some experts in the industry believe that despite the large number of challenges faced by community canteens, there is still potential for community canteens to grow through innovative models and diversified services.
And for now, the priority of the community canteen is:"development"。