Approaching the Spring Festival, the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner in many places ushered in the peak of reservations, and some merchants took advantage of the trend to raise the consumption threshold, either setting the minimum consumption standard for the box, or only accepting the purchase of designated **. Although many consumers are dissatisfied, they can only accept it reluctantly considering the importance of the Chinese New Year's Eve meal.
During the Spring Festival, some ingredients are superimposed on the increase in labor costs and manpower shortages, so it is understandable that businesses should appropriately increase the number of dishes or fix the types of dishes. However, the rule of "only reservation designation" in some restaurants is essentially another set of "vests" of "minimum consumption", which belongs to the marketing strategy of merchants to engage in forced consumption in the name of **. It is not only suspected of infringing on consumers' right to independent choice and fair trade, but also may lead to over-ordering, which indirectly contributes to waste on the tip of the tongue.
In fact, the phenomenon of setting minimum consumption for Chinese New Year's Eve dinner and implementing designated ** is not new, on the contrary, it has become an "unspoken rule" in the industry in recent years, but such "industry rules" are not reasonable. As early as 2014, the Ministry of Commerce and the state jointly issued the "Measures for the Management of the Catering Industry (Trial)", which clearly stipulates that catering operators are prohibited from setting minimum consumption. Since then, many places have successively issued relevant regulations to strengthen the constraints and supervision of "minimum consumption".
Chinese New Year's Eve dinner is not a one-shot deal, doing business is about fine water. As high cost performance and emotional value have become new consumption trends, catering companies should take the initiative to innovate and launch more products and services to meet the increasingly strong market demand for Chinese New Year's Eve dinner. Only in this way can we better meet the diversified needs of consumers, create a good image, attract more repeat customers, and achieve long-term development.
To break the chronic disease of "minimum consumption", in addition to relying on the self-discipline of catering enterprises, it is also necessary for relevant departments such as market supervision and prices to strengthen supervision and strict law enforcement, stop and punish the violations of laws and regulations of unscrupulous businesses in a timely manner, and at the same time smooth the channels for complaints, and effectively safeguard the rights and interests of consumers. Consumers should also learn to protect their own rights and interests, and actively report the situation to the relevant departments when encountering unreasonable overlord clauses. (Tong Yunfei).
Editor in charge: Ren Yuxi].