Catering is no longer just the home of adults, and "home alone" has become a major trend in catering consumption.
At the beginning of the new year, the catering giant Jiumaojiu Group has made frequent moves: "Lai Meili Grilled Fish with Rattan Pepper" has been renamed "Lai Meili Sour Soup Grilled Fish", launched a new brand "Shan's Mountain Sour Soup Hot Pot" brand, and opened Taier Sauerkraut Fish, Shan's Shanwai franchise business and cooperative business, and the country's first children's restaurant officially opened.
Children's meals are undoubtedly another potential track in the current catering industry, and the opening of Jiumaojiu Children's Restaurant means that it has further increased its layout on the track.
What are the characteristics of this children's experience store? What is the potential of the children's meal track?
Jiumaojiu's first children's experience store is located on the first floor of Four Seasons World, Haizhu District, Guangzhou, which was renovated and upgraded from the original Jiumaojiu site. Red Dining Network came to the restaurant at about half past five on a weekday afternoon, only half an hour after the opening of the Jiumaojiu Children's Restaurant. At that time, most of the restaurants in the shopping mall had only sporadic diners, and the attendance rate of the Jiumaojiu Children's Experience Store was about 60%.
The restaurant covers an area of about 300 square meters, and is equipped with two-seater, four-person tables, six-person round tables and two private rooms, which can accommodate more than 150 people at the same time.
A staff member of the restaurant told Red Meal Network that this children's restaurant is the first children's experience store in Jiumaojiu in the country, and it will open at the end of January 2024, during which time the queue starts at almost half past six every day.
Judging from the dining crowd, except for a small number of consumers, they are couples or couples.
In addition to the second and third friends, most of them are parents with their children, and almost every table with children will order a children's meal.
In terms of dining scenes, Red Meal Network looked through the small program of Jiumaojiu Children's Experience Store and found that the children** provided in the store are only for dine-in consumption, and orders cannot be placed for self-pickup and takeaway, while regular products do not have this restriction.
Red Meal Network also found that the Jiumaojiu Children's Experience Store has resumed the tea seat fee, and when scanning the code to order, the tea seat fee is charged per person by default and cannot be canceled. The tea table fee for individual guests in the lobby is 3 yuan, and the tea table fee for private rooms is 5 yuan. A clerk said that starting from November 2023, all Jiumaojiu stores across the country have resumed the collection of tea table fees, and in children's experience stores, children under the age of 6 are exempt from tea table fees.
At around 7 o'clock in the evening, at the entrance of the Jiumaojiu Children's Experience Store, there were already many parents with their children waiting in line.
Second, children's meals are more abundant, and the consumer reputation is mixed
Since the main target customer group is children, this store has made certain adjustments to children's preferences and needs in different aspects such as vision, store layout, environment, decoration style, product structure, and service experience.
1.The functional partition is skewed towards children
The red restaurant network visited and found that the decoration style of the store is mainly tomato red, and the tomato elements are clearly visible in the door, game area, soft decoration, service staff's uniforms, small cross bags and small dolls worn on the overalls. In addition, including the color of the tables, chairs and benches, the kettle, etc., almost all of them are red as the main color, with the color of the log, and the decoration style is mainly cute and warm.
In terms of functional partitions, the functional partitions of the store are also inclined to the needs of children, and a game area is set up at the entrance of the store, with free popcorn and capsule toy machines; A handwashing area is set up on the right side of the entrance, and a handwashing station is suitable for the height of children. The store also opened a mother and baby room, which is convenient for parents to solve the needs of diaper change and feeding during the meal.
2.With more than 60 product SKUs, children's meals are more abundant and more expensive
In terms of product structure, the children's experience store is more diverse and rich. In other stores of Jiumaojiu, there are only two children**, and the children's experience store has 8 children**, including beef beef macaroni**, beef beef cheese**, shrimp and shrimp ravioli**, beef cow burger**, deep-sea cod**, tomato skewers**, tomato shrimp and shrimp** and tomato fish and fish**. Staple food, snacks, fruits, and drinks are included, and stickers are also presented. After eating, children play with stickers on the side, and parents can also free their hands to eat a good meal to some extent.
Jiumaojiu also set up a "nutrition reveal" entrance on the mini program to popularize the nutritional content of the main ingredients of children's meals, such as the nutritional value and allergic characteristics of tomato, shrimp and shrimp**.
However, there are more choices to choose from, and while the ingredients are more diverse and rich, the pricing has also increased. The children*** in other Jiumao Jiu stores are 29 yuan per serving, while the children** in the children's experience store have a minimum of 29 yuan, and the **range is between 29-39 yuan.
In addition to children's **, the product structure also includes the signature hard dishes for **, delicious pots, flavored hot dishes, snacks and drinks, dumplings and pastries, rice, wine, etc., with a total of about 60 SKUs, most of the dishes are copied from the series of products on sale in the original store of Jiumao, and the surprise of adults in the store is not strong.
After the red meal network sat down, I placed an order for a "Niu Niu Bao Bao**" children**. Contains a mini beef burger, two corn on the cob, a small serving of fries, 4 cherry tomatoes and a bottle of low-sugar Yakinodo, which is a slightly smaller portion. Then I added a bowl of crab roe Wensi tofu soup and a small crispy pork with honey mustard to eat my fill. The final payment totaled 60$9.
On the right side of the red meal network is a mother and daughter, the two ordered a tomato skewer **, a mellow braised pork, 2 cranberry cheese cakes, and half a bowl of rice, and the amount was 97$5. On the left is a young couple who ordered three hot dishes and a bowl of noodles, and finally spent more than 140 yuan.
3.The launch of the birthday party is scheduled, and consumer reviews are mixed
Like the hot pot, the Jiumaojiu Children's Experience Store also has a specific happy time every day, and the style of the dance is happy and cute.
In the hot pot factory, many people describe eating hot pot in the hot pot restaurant, and the atmosphere of the staff suddenly dancing is a little "awkward", but in the children's experience store, the dancing atmosphere seems to be more harmonious. Many children will also participate in seeing the staff dancing.
Different from the traditional Jiumaojiu store, this children's experience store has also launched a customized "Tomato Birthday Party" service, and it is expected that more themed activities will be launched after the party.
For the upgraded Jiumaojiu children's theme restaurant, consumer reviews can be roughly divided into the following two types.
Some people said that the children's restaurant was in line with expectations. "There is a menu for children and the theme is good. "There are a lot of small gifts, and it is a good place to eat and walk the baby." "The children's ** are much richer than before the upgrade, and the children especially like to eat. ”
Some people also commented that the comprehensive cost performance is not high. "After the decoration, it is more attractive to children, but in fact, it is a disguised increase in price, the children's meals in the general restaurant are discounted**, and the children's meals here are improved, and the portion is pitiful. "The children's meal at the Capone restaurant upstairs is only 199 yuan a piece, at least 29 yuan here, but the amount is average, and there is a high probability that the slightly older children will not be full. ”
Before opening the first children's experience store, although Jiumaojiu has been exploring the children's meal business for a long time, it is the first time to launch a children's experience store.
In addition to Jiumaojiu, in fact, many restaurant chain brands have taken a fancy to the children's meal market.
In 2013, some Haidilao stores began to provide free children's steamed eggs and individual babies**, and at the same time carried out a pilot children's handicraft workshop;
In 2017, Xibei began to study children's meals, and then with the positioning of Xibei Noodle Village gradually "family", it continued to increase children's meals.
In 2020, Huang Jihuang launched a small "children's stewed pot" and gave away blind boxes of toys, and since then has set up a children's area in the store such as building blocks, drawing boards, and books.
In 2021, Jiangbian City will also join the baby meal business and launch two new models**.
In addition, in recent years, brands such as Wangshunge, Meizhou Dongpo, Xiaofangniu, and BigPizza have launched children's exclusive **.
Well-known restaurant chain brands are crazy about children's meals, which is related to the "lively" situation of the children's meal track in recent years. Multiple sets of data prove that catering is no longer just the home of adults, and the "Little Sun" family customer group has become a part of catering consumption that cannot be ignored.
According to the "2023 Children's Meal Online Consumption Insight Report" released by Meituan, the number of orders for takeaway children's meals in 2022 increased by 300% year-on-year, and from January to April 2023, the number of orders for children's meals nationwide increased by more than 144% year-on-year.
With the rise of the first generation of "new" forces, many F&B brands are gaining new growth points from the children's group. At the beginning of the year, Jia Guolong, chairman of Xibei, said in his 2024 New Year's speech that in the past year, Xibei served more than 60 million customers, including more than 6.4 million children.
However, looking at the catering brands that target and increase children's meals in the current market, many brands simply add one or two children's meals to the original menu, and do not pay attention to nutrition and matching, so that many restaurants have children's meals through free delivery or low price** to gain customers.
For the new generation of parents who are willing to pay for children's meals, the appeal of free or reduced prices is not great, and once they are not satisfied with a store's children's meals, it is difficult to form a "repeat purchase". For catering brands, if they don't make children's meals well, they may not only lose children's customers.
It is obvious that when the demand for children's meals is increasing, parents are demanding more and more children's meals, and this track needs more professional players.
Author: Zhou Hongchu of Red Food Network; Editor: Wang Xiuqing).