Zhang Xin rented a 60-square-meter house on the first floor of Beiqijia in Beijing for 3,600 yuan a month, at least 600 yuan higher than the other floors.
But Zhang Xin still insisted on choosing the first floor, because it has a small courtyard.
Zhang Xin recently applied to do a community group buying platform “head of the purchase”, every afternoon at 1 pm, the truck to stop in his small yard, unloading.
When the “head” no salary, but Zhang Xin can enjoy some more discounts on ingredients – in addition to He often buys goods through community groups to find lower-priced ingredients.
Affected by the epidemic, vegetables and meat and eggs and milk price increases, Zhang Xin small store purchase costs, the unit price of sales dishes also climbed.
But in the past few months, the price of ingredients back down, Zhang Xin does not want to follow the price reduction, “so easy to rise up, the fool will drop.
There are many takeaway store owners like Zhang Xin. After the epidemic led to an increase in the price of ingredients, many people found when ordering take-out.
Many of the dishes also followed the price increase, crying out that the days of “take-out freedom” are getting farther and farther away.
Another phenomenon is that the epidemic has led to difficulties in the operation of many brick-and-mortar restaurants, with less customer traffic and gradually rising costs of ingredients and rent, once leading to a major reshuffle of the brick-and-mortar restaurant industry.
But in fact, as the epidemic stabilized and supply and demand gradually regained balance, these takeaway merchants’ days did not seem to be affected by the epidemic too much, and even had the courage not to lower the unit price of dishes as the price of ingredients fell back.
Why is the situation of brick-and-mortar restaurants and takeaways in the same restaurant, but one to the sky and one to the ground?
From the perspective of profit, cost and quality of dishes, where is the gap between takeaway and brick-and-mortar catering?
This issue tries to dig the black industry in the take-out industry, and in the story we learn.
How hot and spicy pork can be sold for less than the cost of pork to get bologna and bacon with higher meat content, and whether there is beef in fatty beef rolls or not.
Why almost every takeaway platform sells shredded fish and meat, how the fancy discount method allows the selling price to explicitly drop and secretly rise, the reason why lamb is expensive but lamb kebabs never rise in price ……
The following are true stories about them.
01
Takeaway industry “lost like profit margin”
“After the epidemic, the restaurant closed down, but the takeaway is fine, even the dishes do not increase prices”
In the special chef, restaurant industry manager Zhan Yi impression, before 2016, only KFC, McDonald’s and other foreign fast food to do take-out, Chinese restaurants rarely participate.
Because take-out needs fast food license, the application is far more difficult than the catering company, plus not profitable, so people are not interested. After the Internet companies to promote, take-out only gradually exploded.
Takeout is hot, because many people want to do catering, but can not do the license.
Some takeaway platforms promote offline, promising merchants that they can help each other complete the relevant procedures, or even rent a restaurant license.
This makes the investment threshold for the restaurant industry, which was already low, even lower. With the influx of private lobbying money, in the past, the entity restaurant to open takeaway, is to “lose money to earn money”.
But today, dine-in has become an image project, the real profit depends on take-out. The profits of the physical store is only 15%, takeaway to bear the cost of delivery, the return rate is very low, but profits can be as high as 25% or even close to 30%.
Zhan Yi for a long time to figure out the logic of making money from take-out, in his impression, Beijing, a better offline brick-and-mortar restaurant profits are hardly more than 15%, online stores are even lower.
On the one hand, the platform service fee is high: let the platform delivery, generally to deduct 25% of the price of a single order, their own delivery, also have to deduct nearly 10%.
On the other hand, the cost of getting a single high: want to get orders on the platform, you must desperately discount, otherwise it is difficult to enter the top 10. if ranked after 10, but also receive less than 10 a day, after ranking to 30, may not receive a single a day.
However, the price of ingredients in 2019 is claimed to have increased by “50%”, last year’s official statistics are “10.6%”, there was another round of big increases at the beginning of this year, but the price of take-out has barely moved.
“A dish, what price in the takeaway platform in 2019, to 2021 is basically the same price,” said Zhan Yi.
“Even if some customers order 40 times a month, but four times a month to order the same store customers, the probability is very low”, said Zhan Yi. “If the takeaway is 100% genuine, the profit margin is hardly 3%”.
Reliably such a meager profit, how can online restaurants survive?
02
Hot and spicy hot and kebab takeaway “operation”
“Using duck meat as fatty beef, adding starch for good, and exchanging thin bamboo skewers for thick ones.
Since 2010, Feng Bai Lie has been doing hot and spicy dishes.
The reason for choosing hot and spicy hot to start is simple, no chef, simple management, the taste is rough, rely on 19 yuan self-service. The second year after opening the store, Feng Bai Lie opened a second small store.
Feng Bai Lie introduced, hot and spicy hot is the catering industry, the largest profit fluctuations in the category.
For example, the purchase cost of fish tofu, the cheapest 6 yuan / catty, expensive can reach more than 30 yuan / catty, but eat almost no difference in taste.
In addition, a thousand pages of tofu cheap 7 yuan / 400 grams, expensive 20 more than 400 grams; bean curd cheap 8 yuan / catty, expensive 18 yuan / catty.
At the beginning of the spicy hot, especially Feng Bai Lie surprised that the cheap bacon is less than 7 yuan / kg, bacon is only 15 yuan / kg.
However, the production of 7 two bacon need to use a pound of pork, why the price of bacon and bacon can be cheaper than pork?
Later he examined a circle of wholesale bacon rolls and bacon in the market, only to find that these meat products contain a certain amount of duck meat.
Not only that, even lamb rolls may also contain a certain amount of duck meat.
“Duck growth period of 40 days, the cost of raising only 25 yuan, ducks out of the pen, duck wings, duck neck, duck intestines, gizzards, duck liver, duck blood, duck palm, etc. immediately by the brine factory to buy, the cost of the remaining a duck, only 8 yuan more “, said Feng Bai Lie.
However, the taste of duck meat fishy, many customers do not love to eat directly.
So the meat processing plant will be duck meat and lamb in the ratio of 7:3, wrapped together frozen, cut into thin slices. The duck meat is coarse fiber, after roasting and shabu-shabu, and the taste of lamb is similar.
“This treatment is harmless to humans and has become a normal operation in wholesale”, said Feng Bo Lie, a similar operation with beef, which is also generally mixed in a ratio of 7:3 Pork or chicken, adding spices, again very difficult to eat out.
The price of thousand-page tofu is related to the storage time of soybeans, the longer the storage time of soybeans, the quality and price are significantly reduced, used to make thousand-page tofu in the appropriate.
In addition, most of the thousand-page tofu, fish balls, fish tofu are labeled in the ingredients surimi, “but surimi is not necessarily fish, chicken, duck meat crushed, can also be called surimi”, said Feng Bo Lie. Feng Bo Lie said that the different costs of surimi have a direct impact on the price of the finished product.
All of this, he stressed, “is legal.” Before 2016, the spicy hotpot business was so good that Fung’s stores could make almost 25 percent profit.
Despite the increase in the price of many ingredients after 2016, the spicy hotpot business is still the best in the restaurant takeaway. Because, in addition to the source of ingredients available in multiple ways to reduce costs, there are a lot of “trolling”.
First, the seasoning “work”, such as hot pot red, aromatic agent, chili essence, a drop of incense, etc..
“The vast majority of bone broth spicy hotpot is made with spices, really use bone broth, the cost can not afford”, said Feng Bai Lie. In addition, the chili essence (legal additives), for example, more than 50 yuan per kilogram, spicy equivalent to about 100 kilograms of dried chili peppers, the latter cost 4,000 yuan.
Secondly, pushing low-cost products.
Customers would order more than 10 kinds of ingredients at once, so Fung would sometimes call them and tell them that certain ingredients were sold out and suggest replacing them with other products of the same price.
The customers are usually impatient to confirm one by one, so they will let Feng Bai Lie decide for himself, so if they order fatty beef, they will exchange it with bacon, and if they order lamb, they will exchange it with duck.
“There is another advantage of spicy hotpot, is how much the portion, the user does not count. Say 50 grams a serving, put in the soup, frozen tofu, gluten, tofu, etc., you say how much is how much. “Feng Bai Lie said.
When business was at its best, Feng Bailie had operated up to four small spicy hotpot stores at the same time, now the store rent, labor prices soared, he kept a physical store, mainly on take-out survival.
Operating barbecue takeaway Xu Guifeng believes that, in addition to spicy hot (including spicy hot pot, risotto, etc.) takeaway profits, barbecue is also a good takeaway business choice.
Kebabs are profitable, originally the fist project of the entity restaurant, Xu Guifeng said: “Now a lot of snack food stores are losing money, but the kebab store is definitely one of the longest persistence. “
“Dry barbecue ‘rules’ is mixed with duck, pork, chicken, etc., duck meat used in particular, because the cost is only 1/6 of lamb , mixed with lamb oil, seasoning marinated overnight, no one can taste it.”
Xu Guifeng opened a stall in a food city 10 years ago, he has counted, there are more than 10 barbecue stores in the food city, only 1-2 home real lamb.
“For example, crude lamb loin, very little is true, the lamb tail oil paste on the loin is considered conscientious, the more black is ‘oil wrapped liver’. The lamb liver chopped, wrapped in intestinal coating, add seasoning marinade, baked almost indistinguishable”, Xu Guifeng said.
During the epidemic, the price of meat rose rapidly, open online restaurants, grilled by the biggest impact. But Xu Guifeng did not dare to raise prices, for fear of affecting customer traffic, so he chose to make the string as small as possible.
“In the past, 1 catty of lean meat plus 5 two mutton oil can wear about 40 skewers, now at least 50-60 skewers, more can wear more than 70 skewers “, Xu Guifeng said.
Mutton will shrink when exposed to heat, too little meat baked out not look good, Xu Guifeng will be small bamboo skewers into thick bamboo skewers, increase the marinade time before baking, so that the meat fully absorb water and then add starch, outside baked cooked, the inside is still half-cooked, the volume will appear larger.
In addition, the marinade time is long, add starch, will affect the taste, Xu Gui summit with meat Bao Wang find a remedy. “It has a meat flavor, most of the marinated meat are added to the meat Bao Wang, every 10 pounds of raw materials can only use a few grams, the meat Bao Wang 1 kg only 20 yuan, the expensive only 60-70 yuan. “
“To judge whether there is meat in the meat skewer is very easy, the taste is particularly fresh, after eating back to the top of the feeling, that must have added the meat Bao Wang. “Xu Guifeng said.
03
The open drop dark rise discount, more use of “dish package”
“You never know, you order take-out in the end is a few months ago well done”
To do hot and spicy hot, kebabs, only material “potential” is not enough, but also rely on the price strategy.
Feng Bai Lie’s approach to provide spicy hot mega discounts, mega discounts, put open money, charge dark money.
In the takeaway platform, Feng Baili launched the slogan “one yuan for the whole place”: in addition to a few meat, most single products as long as 1 yuan per copy. But add a single product, charge 0.3 yuan “packing fee”.
“Customers point spicy hot, rarely pay attention to buy 30 yuan of things, light ‘packing fee’ has been 9 yuan money “, said Feng Bailie.
But the more let Feng Bailie headache is that the platform supports big discounts, but the discount is too big, the cost is not enough.
So, “delivery fee must be low, more than 3 yuan, customers will generally be other, so many stores on the platform, at least dozens of spicy hot subheads, customers only look at the first impression – delivery fee is low, or even free. They will look more than two eyes. “
The benefit of charging a “packing fee” is a hidden increase, 1 yuan single product plus The “packaging fee” is actually 1.3 yuan, but users think it is 1 yuan.
Behind the big discounts, it is an explicit drop and a hidden increase.
For example, the lamb loin of crude oil, priced at 25 yuan, half discount 12.5 yuan, at least 2 copies at a time, the second original price, the actual price of a single product is 18.75 yuan, but in Xu Guifeng’s store, before the epidemic, the lamb loin of crude oil priced at 17 yuan.
Xu Guifeng said bluntly, “Consumers just want to make a bargain, don’t they? In the books, I let you cool enough. “
Xu Guifeng barbecue takeaway, fried noodles priced at 40 yuan, a 0.55 discount, as long as 22 yuan, in fact, offline stores generally as long as 16 yuan.
Therefore, takeaway users often see such a “spectacular scene”: in Xu Guifeng’s store, buy 40 yuan of goods, has been reduced by more than 70 yuan, which is equivalent to enjoy a 30% discount The discount is equivalent to a 30% discount.
“Seeing the big discount, who would think that its original price is unreasonable? After the discount, even if the price is higher than the physical store, the user does not care. “
Xu Guifeng said that the kebab store is the most convenient discount, because the kebab can be large or small. Tofu for example, the original price of 3 yuan, only 1.88 yuan after the discount, but in the past a string hanging 3 pieces, now each piece cut into triangles, strung together, looks quite a lot, but at most hanging 1.5 pieces, but the price has gone up.
After the price of meat, now the barbecue mainly relies on gluten, thousand pages of tofu. Picked from the network platform, a string of gluten only 0.40 yuan, after the barbecue, the price into 3 yuan, the profit margin is greater than other single products.
In addition, there is a phenomenon on the take-out platform, that is, most of the spicy hot, barbecue, covered rice and other snacks and set meals, but less fried dishes, even if there are, most of them are scrambled eggs with leeks, dry pot thousand-page tofu, dry pot cauliflower, ma po tofu, braised pork, shredded fish and meat and other dishes.
Why not develop new products? Because, everyone is using the dish package.
The dish package is a concept imported from Japan, which is to stir-fry the dish in advance, and then seal it with a quick-freeze, and when needed, microwave it into a plate of stir-fried dishes.
Once popular in Taiwan, dish packs entered the mainland in 2018, and now 70% of stir-fried dishes in the restaurant industry come from dish packs. The advantages of the dish package is also obvious, you do not have to do it yourself, the restaurant opened since someone came to the door to sell, a cost of the lowest dish package, only 4 yuan.
That’s why, many restaurants can quickly make dozens of stir-fry dishes in an operating room of only 10 square meters. In contrast, the efficiency and cost of the traditional kitchen is not as good as the direct consumption of the dish package in all aspects.
“With the dish package, do stir-fry takeaway only need to do a license, in a large stall or simply in rented in residential buildings, with cheaper residential gas stir-fry. “
“Restaurants mostly use large tanks, a large tank does not last a few days,” said Zhan Yi, while residential natural gas is much cheaper, even 1 cubic liters cheaper than commercial natural gas 1 yuan. In the traditional back kitchen, the cost of gas is huge, plus water and electricity together can account for 25% of the total cost.
But the downside is also obvious: most of the kits used are made a long time in advance. In other words, most of the take-out dishes made with dish packs are “leftovers” of several dozen days, which not only contain more nitrites, but also may contain various germs.
Traditional freezing preservation methods can only inhibit the growth of bacteria in the package, can not be sterilized, and the longer it is put in the freezer, the more dangerous.
How can you know how long ago the take-out you ordered was stocked? And how long ago was the package produced?
04
Takeaway is cheap, but the benefits are not worth the losses
“You think you’re getting a bargain, but you’re losing more than you think.”
“Takeout is killing Chinese food” “Ordering takeout is Paying IQ tax” “Ordering takeaway is chronic suicide” ……
Similar concerns are being voiced both inside and outside the restaurant industry.
Takeout priority punishment is the production of fine, delicate ingredients, complex process categories, the impact of rising ingredients, barbecue, spicy hot, etc. can slow up, not up, but the white case forced into a dead end.
For example, leek pie, from 2 yuan/pc in 2018, to March 2019/pc, to 6 yuan/pc today, beef pie also doubled from 6 yuan/pc the year before, up to 12 yuan/pc this year.
In addition, there are many varieties of Chinese food, the traceability of ingredients is difficult, not to mention the traceability of take-out ingredients.
Zhan Yi worked in a foreign restaurant, and in addition to seasonings, the ingredients add up to no more than 20 kinds, each of which can be traced. For example, the lamb can be directly linked to the farmer.
Zhan Yi said: “Open a small Chinese restaurant, at least hundreds of ingredients, how to trace the source? The most you can do is to trace it back to Xinfa Di. “
Chinese food is not short of quality ingredients. In the memory of Zhan Yi, Shanxi a potato taste that he still remember, and then such as northeast hazel mushrooms, purple clove mushrooms, flower face mushrooms, “more delicious than meat.
Another example is the old Beijing fried liver, originally made soup with mushrooms, Zhangjiakou outside the grassland only, every time after the rain, the ground slightly bulging, dig out with your fingers, if the mushrooms arch out of the soil, the fragrance is dissipated, the mushrooms and peppercorns together in a bottle to preserve, but today there is which fried liver so elaborate?
The low production and high price of quality ingredients, once in the market, there will be a large number of imitations.
Guests eat all the fake, they think it is just so, but will be counterfeit as the genuine product, the genuine product but stagnant sales. Thus, the dilemma of bad money expelling good money.
“Takeout is encouraged to be cheaper and cheaper, only big discounts, the platform will give you push, each platform also use the discount to catch the eye. People in the industry know that according to the current cost of raw materials, a stir-fry, the price of 30-40 yuan is reasonable, but everyone pretended to believe that 20 yuan can also make the real thing. “Zhan Yi said.
For example, the stir-fry oil, which should be 7 vegetables and 3 meat, in the name of health, now all use vegetarian oil, but is the most resistant palm oil, coconut oil, they have long been included in the American Health Association’s list of edible oils with high risk to the heart.
Almost all takeaways use sugar to enhance the freshness, generally not labeled, customers eat it, but also do not know, this is called “latent sugar”, may pose a health risk.
In addition, take-out uses a lot of peanuts, which can cause serious allergic reactions and may cause death. Foreign snacks are clearly marked on the outer packaging, family treats, guests must be consulted in advance whether the peanut allergy.
For a long time, the country mistakenly thought that yellow people are not allergic to peanuts, but from the statistics, the Chinese allergy rate, the severity of allergic reactions, and Westerners are not comparable.
“Allergic reactions are complex, such as a sudden low fever, a slight feeling of weakness, or even a bit of nasal congestion, can be allergic, but many people think it is ‘fire ‘. ” said a medical worker who did not want to be named.
“Takeout is cheap because public health, gastronomic traditions and so on are not priced and are occupied by takeout for free, but this cheapness does not pay for itself. “Zhan Yi said.
05
Postscript
After 2 p.m., Zhang Xin and his wife started to get busy.
A single item of their online restaurant has rushed to the fifth place of regional turnaround rate, because of the delivery of more things – collection of small stores, immediately send 2 yuan; add 0.1 yuan, send eggs; add 0.5 yuan, send kielbasa, or send kimchi ……
After becoming the “head of the purchase”, Zhang Xin’s cost of goods fell a lot. Previously, every day to stare at the phone, eyesight actually decreased by more than 100 degrees, before he thought, into adulthood, eyesight will no longer change.
Although vision has decreased, but Zhang Xin temporarily do not intend to refit glasses. Zhang Xin’s child is in his second year of junior high school, next year will be the examination, which means that the child will soon return home, spending will also increase a lot.
Today, his takeaway store has been able to earn 8,000-9,000 yuan per month. For every single order, he will put coupons, promising to give good reviews and place orders 5 yuan cheaper.
At first, Zhang Xin would write a few warm words, but later found that no one read them at all, and the chances of repeat consumption were not much higher.
“Takeout, most of the young men, is to save time and fresh, do not want to contact you more”, let Zhang Xin frustrated is that many people in the morning two or three o’clock order, call Past, often in exchange for a reprimand from the other side.
“This is an industry that is not familiar, take one step at a time,” said Zhang Xin.
After doing takeout, often stay up late, Zhang Xin has dark circles under his eyes, and his eyes are often red.
But as soon as you hear the electronic female voice coming from the phone loudly “XXX order ……”, Zhang Xin will Immediately leap up, rushed into the kitchen, mouth to the old: “What’s wrong with it? Not even 3 p.m. on the order, this is what to eat ah ……”
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