In the lifetime of many people, 2020 will be a year that leaves a lasting memory. It is the year that humans all over the world have their lives disrupted by Covid 19.
No one’s life was unaffected. I, an elderly housewife living in Beijing, did not experience any major ups and downs, but I could feel the changes in every aspect of my life from the perspective of my daily consumption. But the daily consumption process of the little bits and pieces.
Mouthpieces
At noon on January 22, 2020, my husband and I went out for lunch. There was no need to wait in line at the simple food restaurant, which usually requires waiting for a table on weekdays. In the mall, all the staff except the diners wore masks, and more than half of the customers wore masks – almost the same day that people in Beijing started wearing masks in public on a large scale.
After dinner, I took a stroll. At a jewelry store, I had a nice conversation with the clerk who recommended pendants to me while saying that the mall required them to wear masks, which was not polite, but I couldn’t help it.
I didn’t buy anything that day. But I remember that the young man was very enthusiastic, and we were both laughing and joking, and we both had the joy of the upcoming New Year inside. We both thought, “This mask won’t last for a few days, so I’ll take it off when this period is over. Why are you still wearing it? “
–Who would have thought that the mask would not come off and would be worn all the time?
Before the epidemic, I had never bought anything in a hurry. Once I said I had to grab something, I simply didn’t want it. But this year, I also snapped up, and grabbed the mask.
When the epidemic first started, many factories had not resumed work, and medical masks were often not available in brick-and-mortar stores or online. A sister has a channel to buy medical disposable masks. It was more expensive – a pack of ten, 65 yuan. Without saying a word I snapped up 300 of them. A lot more down-to-earth, a sense of security.
Not long after, the full resumption of work, masks will soon not need to grab. And the 300 masks, which is the same as those stocks I bought, perfectly bought at the highest point. However, not a single moment, not a single moment has been regretted.
Today, wearing a mask to the mall is still the norm, and it will be for quite some time to come: except for eating, in public spaces where there are many people and covers, the mask, almost becomes an organ of our body.
Allocation
Before the Spring Festival of 2020, that is, before Beijing started to get nervous, I went to the store and ate deflated. In addition to Hermes, there is a fà country brand, known for year after year out of the explosive bags, the old flower world’s leader, many years ago in a book written by an American about luxury goods, that brand is “the luxury world of McDonald’s The brand is the “McDonald’s of the luxury world”, and it has also started to implement the dispensing system.
The other day, I looked at a long small silk scarf with a monkey pattern, a thousand or so dollars, which is basically the same as ten dollars in SKP. The counter girl said to me expressionlessly, “You have to match the goods. “Look at my face confused, the counter sister explained,” you have to buy a bag ah or something, in order to ride to buy these small accessories. “
In fact, I was confused not because I did not know what “matching”, but because. “Just your family, also to ask for matching ah? “Other people buy bags with silk scarves is matching goods, did not say buy silk scarves with bags ah? This is not the same as saying that you want to buy a pair of chopsticks and the store says you have to buy a pot first.
It is not to deny the sales strategy of people. After all, there is a line at the door all year round, and they don’t need money. In fact, I myself like their bags very much, lightweight and durable but also good-looking. In the second-hand market, their home bag is also the price is strong, fast circulation, easy to sell – never worried about selling, that must be by the nature of people tossed ah.
But in April, I went back to that store, there were already more clerks than customers. Casually asked a question, “buy accessories still need to match the goods? “The counter sister mouth can be sweet,” no no, are casual buy. “Feel free to buy …… so many years, I have not seen that store clerk lowered high head.
The epidemic, ah, finally spread to the super brand.
As a result, by the second half of the year, the Chinese people also see that a moment is not going to get out, to buy things only in the country. That store is back to the door, but also all concessions are not to participate in all. The counters’ necks are back up again.
SKP
As the king of Chinese stores, SKP’s annual birthday and store celebrations in April and November are two large-scale events, which are a living lesson for ordinary people to observe the consumption of the rich.
This time in November, both the sales and the customers are holding their breath to have a big one. In the past, the brand day, only the same day to pay, the crowd is particularly large, can not get in and out. This time, many brands in the brand day before the full purchase, the purchase of small tickets to sales, until the day of the brand sales and then to exchange points, so that customers do not have to wait until the day to go to the big line, crowded.
So, on a normal day in November, I was fortunate enough to meet a large number of shoppers who had swiped their cards.
I had bought a piece of jewelry from a brand in SKP before, and I had added WeChat with the salesperson. I liked the girl, and I usually liked and teased each other with coughs in my circle. That day just in time for her to go to work, I stopped by to find her.
The result is that in the store, I have not said a few words, a girl came to buy jewelry. The girl had a good figure, tall and thin, long legs, long hair, and carried a big brand bag. The girl tried on a pair of emerald with diamond earrings. It looked like high-priced jewelry. I saw that she really wanted to buy something, and consciously left first. When I finished shopping and went back, the girl had already left. When chatting with the sales, the girl bought a pair of earrings and a necklace, adding up to more than 500,000.
I said to the sales girl, “Your task for this month, this is almost finished, right? She said, “No, we’ve been given a seven-million-dollar task. It’s seven million per sale. She said, the first half of the year because of the epidemic, basically no one came to shop, the mall and the brand is actually very anxious, the second half of the year has rebounded, plus the mall this campaign, the brand is also high hopes, so set each of them almost impossible to complete the task.
A few days later, I watched her post a friend circle and said she had passed out for 15 hours. I thought the sales must have been too hot the day before. When she woke up from her nap I asked her if your sales task had been completed. She said yes. I congratulated her wholeheartedly for completing her sales quota of 7 million for a single month in November.
What do you think? It was that the money that should have been spent in Europe and the U.S., because it couldn’t get out, all went to the Chinese store king with a vengeance.
But I also know that SKP can not be seen as a universal phenomenon, because it is almost the top of the consumption pyramid in China. Outside of SKP, there are so many individuals and businesses that have worked very, very hard to not get killed by the big wave in 2020.
Lipstick
The relationship between lipstick and the economy has been discussed for a long time. But 2020 is different again. The mouthpiece, a newly grown human organ, has fully encroached on lipstick’s territory. Public and work places that used to require lipstick now all need to be covered with masks, so is lipstick still needed?
Need. Not only do you need it, but you also need it in particular. After all, lipstick for women, its significance has never been much greater than the value of use. It is a weapon, a trumpet, a fighting spirit that never goes out, a hope that occasionally sinks but does not sink, a light in the night, a star in the sky, a hormone that continues to bounce even if it remains.
In the past, I bought up to ten lipsticks and lip glosses every year, the more tense the situation, the more I bought: this year, really mourning, buy a lipstick flush; passport expired, also can not get out, angry to buy three lipsticks! Wuhan unblocked, great, happy, buy lipstick; 618, boost the economy, consumer patriotism, buy lipstick; this million years difficult to buy color official website actually has goods eh, to a; this new packaging is too painful; this brand I do not have it, but also a woman must have a series of life, the set has three colors also cheap …… God knows what, it bought more than thirty lip makeup.
Who said that wearing a mask is no place for lipstick? There is always a time to take off the mask, right? In the past, I used to wipe off my lipstick before eating; now, every time a dish comes up, I make up my lipstick again. What is healthy or unhealthy, when not to use it now? At home, I would suddenly think about doing housework, when can I use all those lipsticks? What law says you can’t wear lipstick when you’re scrubbing the floor? Wipe it on. Even if you are going to put on the mask soon, you should first apply the lipstick carefully and evenly, and then put the mask on!
Lipstick is probably a kind of hope, I feel that as long as I can still buy lipstick and apply lipstick, the day can still be tossed and have a head start. Especially in 2020, lipstick means that one day you will take off the mask and resume your normal life.
Dine-in and take-out
Since I can’t live without restaurants, and I have very good friends who run restaurants, I pay extra attention to restaurants.
For a lazy egg like me, who can’t cook, eating at a restaurant is as natural as breathing, but when I suddenly can’t go, won’t go, or dare to go, I realize how dependent I am on restaurants. 2020, there were four meals that made a deep impression on me, among them, one take-out, two dine-in, and one that I wanted to eat but didn’t.
Generally speaking, there are two parts to a restaurant’s revenue mix, dine-in and take-out. But according to my experience, those higher class restaurants, the main focus on the dine-in, can take care of the dine-in customers, has cost them a lot of manpower, material resources and energy, so, in general, high-end restaurants do not do take-out – want to eat well, you trouble yourself to come running, this is also a gesture it.
But during the epidemic, the situation was completely different. During the most severe period, all the restaurants were empty, so the usual proud restaurants had to bow down, put down their dignified posture and start doing take-out as well.
There is a very good Beijing restaurant near my home that has been popular since it opened in 2018, and was rated one Michelin and one Black Pearl star a year after it opened. Theirs has just never been dine-in only, no takeout. The restaurant didn’t expand very quickly, and was only ready to open a second one just before this Spring. As a result, the new restaurant was renovated and the New Year’s Eve dinner was booked out, the epidemic came and the whole place was closed.
One day in March, I stumbled upon the take-out platform and found that the restaurant was actually open for take-out as well. We ordered several times, the delivery speed is very slow, 100 minutes to deliver. However, the taste was really good, no different from the dine-in. I still remember that day to eat the familiar delicious, mixed feelings, happy and sad – happy is that even for take-out, they have not lowered the quality of the dishes, still maintain a high standard; sad is, alas …… a few days later they home to the takeaway starting delivery amount to 600 yuan ……
The restaurant has to survive, but we still have to eat and get mouth support. 2020 March 22, my husband and I went to eat a small Japanese restaurant that we have patronized for several years. At mealtime, we were the only two people in the store. The owner of The Japanese restaurant is a young man after 80 years, we meet first to greet each other, safe and healthy. I secretly scanned the store, is in this case, the store is still using real flowers and green plants, did not take fake flowers against. I think this is the store’s spirit is still there.
That day before going out, the boss packed two boxes of dinner for us. He said, “Now out to eat is an act of charity. So supportive of us, out of a trip is not easy, how also have to let you to dinner also solve. “
I have been remembering the word “righteousness” for a year. I’ll keep it in mind.
Over the years, despite eating out all day long, I hardly ever ate fried chicken, because I always felt it was unhealthy. But on that day in February, there was a sudden desire to eat it. My husband and I went to the Texaco near our home and tried to order a crispy pistol chicken leg, but the clerk told us we were sold out …… Although I didn’t get to eat it, I was a little relieved to see the enthusiasm of everyone eating the crispy pistol chicken leg.
In April, I also went to a Huaiyang cuisine restaurant for dinner. At that time, dine-in customers were still scarce, so I had a few words with the foreman. The girl said they began to do group meals for a nearby company, only the noon meal, do two hundred copies, the price is not expensive, a few dozen dollars. “A little bit of flow is a little bit. Besides, the back kitchen ah service or something, also have to turn up, otherwise, when the return to normal, hands are raw. The main thing is the spirit of the child. The heart can not collapse. “
Later, the restaurant has also survived the big wave, last November also on the Michelin list. Congratulations to them.
The epidemic is so tumultuous, many service industry workers left Beijing and did not return, and now the restaurant industry is short of people, chefs, waiters and newcomers. So, there must be a place that is not as good as before, I think, try to understand each other more understanding, to get through this difficult time, first to survive, and then to improve.
Tableware
The big V Dong Dong Gun Jun started a question on Twitter: What is something you used to think was impossible that has become a reality? I wrote: “Learn to cook”.
I, a person who has been living off restaurants for years, suddenly restaurants are afraid to go, it is true that the enemy are forced to the doorstep. The last straw was a sickness at the end of May, realizing that they can cook, the initiative is in their own hands, in case one day the take-out is also broken, they always have to get a mouth to eat ah, they began to learn.
The point is, if you want to be good at what you do, you must first spend some money. In the past, the family did not open meals, there are not a few pieces of tableware. This own practice up, the first thing you have to buy some beautiful plates and bowls, look happy, want to use as much as possible, as a reverse incentive to try to improve their own cooking skills. And, with a good-looking tableware, that no matter how difficult it is to eat, at least not ugly ah.
So, off and on to get some tableware, tea sets also used as tableware, set a snack, fruit, just right. There are also some knives and forks and so on, a variety of Netflix pots and pans ah stove, before those who feel that they have nothing to do with all the things, suddenly all have a relationship. Demand is really created. Even if you do not do anything, looking at it is silly and happy.
At least, there is a situation, I can make a mouthful of food at home, there are beautiful dishes to support, the mood is not too bad, right?
Travel
When I went to Europe many years ago, I became friends with the travel agent’s tour leader, Little A. He was very handsome, just like the big stars. He was particularly handsome, like a big star. He led the European tour, in the circle of friends, you can see him every now and then or in Paris, or in Geneva, or in Rome, and sometimes also in London. At that time, if people wanted to buy anything, such as watches, bags, and skin care products, they would ask him to bring them back from Europe.
After the epidemic came, all these guides with European tours stopped. Little A in the shake a few live, pulling us a bunch of years of accumulated group of friends, talk about the good old days, miss the Seine River, the Jungfrau, the wishing fountain, hoping to be unblocked sooner, can go out sooner, but after a few months, this hope seems more and more distant, more and more remote, we think, may be nearly two or three years, are unlikely to play in Europe.
Now what he does not know. health and skin care products in Europe are still being sold. At the beginning of the year live, a group of their European tour guide said, from the Vatican to raise a small flag children into the Temple of Heaven to raise a small flag children. Have to lift it first, business also do not lose, this is not still looking forward to sooner or later to go out together?
Movie theater
In 2020, the cinema was closed for almost half a year. The relevant departments also took out the bottom of the box of goodies, with “Harry Potter”, “Star Trek” and other good reputation of the blockbuster to attract the audience into the cinema again.
I went to the cinema again on September 3, 2020, to see “Inception”, an afternoon show. I didn’t expect that this would be the first time in my life that I would have to pay for a movie: the entire screening hall had more than 230 seats, and only one ticket was sold to me.
Before I went in, the staff girl came up and asked me, “Have you seen Ya Bai”? I said I watched it on the first day of release, and, I didn’t like it very much. What? The girl said, this “Inception” is only one person, and the hall, afraid you are afraid, so I want to ask if you would like to change the other.
That said, it is not easy, the cinema play a loss a I also heartache, they do not want to pay for an audience of a cost, I deeply understand. But pick and choose, the right time do not want to see, want to see to wait an hour and a half later. Not to mention the communication, the movie should have started.
So, the entire 230-seat screening room was just me. As the girl said, the first ten minutes I was really a little scared. You say that if this breaks in a mugger, I call for help who can not hear ah! Then I thought, what do the criminals want me to do? I have a Beijing park annual pass? I didn’t carry it with me either. Then I relaxed.
But I still feel guilty. The way to deal with the guilt was to watch all the later blockbusters and go into the theater more often to show my support. The staff girl already knew me. When I greeted her at the ticket check for Creed, I told her to come in and watch it with me, as there weren’t many people there. She said no, there are other movies that need to be checked – I was really happy to see her working hard.
All of these consumer stories take place in the year 2020. For me personally, they will only happen in 2020; for the society, probably many people have similar experiences, personal consumption behavior, also has a universal meaning. A small purchase becomes a unique record of this magical year.
Perhaps, many years later, on a fruit afternoon, I will look at those small plates bought in 2020, which are already used, and remember this distant year – in 2020, a disease broke out on this planet, and the whole world’s existing appearance was profoundly changed in that year.
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