Yesterday I passed by the mall, and at noon on weekdays, ** is obviously rare. But there are two stores that are very lively.
One is a product experience store of an imported stir-fry machine.
I saw that the store was crowded with decently dressed silver-haired old men, in addition to the mothers with children, everyone gathered in a big circle, in the middle is a teacher who sings Peking Opera, children who perform calligraphy, and the periphery is a photographer who is busy recording videos.
I checked the products of this store, ** is also amazing, all of them are tens of thousands, which is equivalent to a stir-fry machine integrating the functions of juicer, wall breaker, cooking machine, soybean milk machine, dough machine, steamer, wok and other small kitchen appliances.
I consulted a friend who had bought a similar product, and she told me that the sales method of this product is similar to selling insurance, and the sales are all selling goods in the circle of acquaintances, and even developing relatives and friends into their own downlines, and it is not surprising that they will hold this kind of family carnival customer annual meeting in the store.
Another one that is very lively is a sushi restaurant that looks unremarkable. The only special thing is that there is a striking advertisement at the door that reads "All products start at 10 yuan".
At one o'clock at noon on Monday, the waiting time was already an astonishing 594 (the call number was 530 at the time), and the clerk told me that the estimated waiting time was about 45 minutes (in the end, I actually waited for an hour).
This restaurant I've heard of before is said to be the most famous affordable sushi chain in Japan. Although as the first store in Beijing, there is a new customer gathering effect, but it is indeed a bit beyond expectations to wait for an hour at noon on Monday. However, I still decided to give it a try, first, I was not too hungry at the time, and second, the cost of trial and error was not high, after all, the whole audience was 10 yuan (from).
While I was waiting, I observed the crowd. About half of them are with children like me (it's winter break, maybe parents bring their children to the mall for interest classes), and the other half are young people who are partying with friends (they will sit face to face and communicate with each other in mobile games).
Before I entered the store, I was actually a little confused. There are not many affordable sushi options in Beijing, such as the national chain of competition, there are many stores, and it is cheaper, what is the reason why so many people have to come here? I didn't understand until I ate it. This affordable sushi and Zhengxian are completely different customer groups.
Zhengxian is a Japanese-style fast food, and the product of this one is Itamae sushi (the kind that the sushi chef will pinch for you in front of you). The unit price of fresh customers is about 60, the unit price of traditional Banqian sushi is more than 200, and the unit price of this affordable sushi is just over 100. This meal, I took my children to eat 241, in fact, it is not much cheap.
You must know that Itamae Sushi is a representative of high-end Japanese cuisine with a strong sense of ceremony, and it is also the most common mid-to-high-end Japanese restaurant in Beijing. Take the most classic tuna mid-belly and tuna belly sushi as an example, if you want the ritual sense of the chef pinching in front of you, the price is at least consistent. This affordable sushi abandons the ritual sense in front of the plate and uses an electronic conveyor belt to deliver the food, and the pricing of the tuna belly and belly is consistent. It's more than 50% off.
In other words, the reason why this affordable sushi is so popular is not because of its simple parity (after all, there are many cheaper than it), but because of the dimensionality reduction blow - it has attracted a lot of people who originally consumed mid-to-high-end itamae sushi. I once swiped a Japanese food blogger in Beijing to check in for the first time, and gave a good review.
By the time I came out of this sushi at 3 p.m., there were still people waiting at the door. The store announcement is still saying that the current dining peak waiting time is long, please understand.
I also happen to know the owner of a Japanese restaurant in Beijing, whose business has been so bad lately that he only has business in the evenings, and in order to attract the surrounding office workers to eat at noon, he has started to try to serve a la carte food in the restaurant at noon. The same midday business, such a big difference, is indeed very emotional.
Some people may say that this is not surprising, consumption downgrade.
However, in this process, the diversity of needs is still worth studying. Dropping from 10 to 9, or down to 3, can be said to be a downgrade in consumption, but why did the previous 200+ customers per capita have to line up to eat 100+ affordable sushi per capita, instead of 60 real affordable sushi?
In the process of downgrading, what can we give up is the sense of ritual, the rich selection of dishes, or the freshness and taste? None of this can be explained by a simple downgrade in consumption.
Even those who buy tens of thousands of cooking machines may be motivated by consumption downgrades. Because their target is to reduce the purchase of outside food. For example, buy less than 68 cups of healthy juice in a fitness restaurant and make it yourself at home; Less to buy a variety of thousands of Internet celebrity pots, it is better to buy a set of fully automatic and full-function integrated ones.
In my opinion, the downgrading of consumption worth discussing is not simply a reduction in spending, but a change in consumption consciousness. A typical example is the recent report that Uniqlo has become hard currency in second-hand. Many people will buy used clothes worn by others on second-hand **, among which Uniqlo is the most popular. Someone shared that the light down jacket he bought for 299 was worn for a winter, and 150 hanging salted fish were sold again.
At first glance, this sounds like an unscrupulous attempt to save money. In fact, there are many reasons why people buy second-hand Uniqlo, and they are not limited to saving money.
There are those who love the early styles of Uniqlo, including limited collaborations; There are those who feel that buying at the original price is too insulting to IQ because Uniqlo has reduced prices too often; Of course, there are also those who simply feel that the original price is expensive, don't mind the second-hand traces, and want to find a bargain.
Searching for Uniqlo on a second-hand platform even opened a special segmentation option.
The consumption logic is similar to that of luxury vintage and jewelry auctions. There is an element of bargaining, but it is not just for the sake of cheapness. The more central change in demand is that "buying second-hand clothes" is no longer a shameful thing. This change is very impactful for the middle class, which once loved to show off label consumption.
But if in the future, like Japan, frugality becomes the consumption consciousness of the whole people, there will be many similar shocks and changes. Of course, new opportunities will arise from this.
If we go back to the definition of demand in economics, demand is the unity of the desire to buy and the ability to buy. The so-called consumption downgrade has focused on purchasing power, and what has actually quietly changed is the desire to buy.
After a long time, everyone's ideas have changed, the desire to buy is gone, and they want to reduce their expenses, and the first thing to cut is this part of the demand. But do you say that as long as the economy improves, this part of the demand will come back? Most likely, not. Then this is not simply a consumption downgrade can be explained.
This may also be the psychological basis for the popular phrase "not that xx can't afford it, xx is more cost-effective" can become popular.
Source: DT Business Observer.
In short, in the context of reducing consumption, it is much more meaningful to discuss the specific changes in consumption desire and consciousness than to simply lament the downgrade of consumption.