Opening a coffee shop in the county, "not selling cold rice noodles is my last stubbornness"

After deciding to open a coffee shop in the county, Huang spent two or three hours every day in Xiaohongshu, Taobao and Internet, and moved all the most popular online celebrity items in the whole network to the store. He firmly believes that big data can discover people's preferences, not only decoration, but also drinks and desserts. Unsurprisingly, more and more young people chasing new things come to his online celebrity shop through the Internet.

Wen | Xie Chan

Edit | Zhao Lei

Operation | Mi Yue

Maybe the city coffee shop has been rolled up to a certain extent. On social media, there is an argument that "coffee accelerates to sink into the county seat". The coffee industry said from the media cafe that the sales volume of small shops in the county town has increased by 10 times in five years.

Who will open a coffee shop in the county? When I first threw this question to KOL, a boutique coffee industry, the answer was "dreamer". The other party went on to say that it had sunk to the county seat. Can you still call the coffee shop?

Huang is the dreamer. In the past 10 month, his coffee shop Utopia opened in Yongan. At the time of site selection, Huang's distance from east to west is also the area with the largest population flow in the county. Only walked for 20 minutes, and finally decided on the facade of the two houses. At the foot of the uncompleted residential flats shopping mall, the monthly rent is only 6000 yuan.

Yongan is located in Sanming City, Fujian Province. If the map is slightly reduced, this county-level city surrounded by mountains will have no sense of existence. In terms of popularity, it is less than one-tenth of Shaxian County next door. Like most counties in China, there has been a serious brain drain of young people in recent ten years, and they have gone to Quanzhou, Fuzhou and Xiamen.

It is such a small county town, with no coast, no overseas Chinese and no coffee culture. First, Lu Xiao Tea came here, and half a year ago, Ruixing also came here. Students from vocational schools and nearby residents support this shop. At nine o'clock in the evening on weekdays, all five tables in Ruixing's shop are full of people, and the deliverymen also come in and out. While drinking cups, the clerk was busy explaining to the guests how the couple used the coupons and what the raw coconut latte tasted like. Then around this National Day, Yong 'an opened at least four coffee shops, namely two new stores, a local small chain store and the second store of Ruixing.

County towns are diverse and complex. Yong 'an, a small sample, may not represent the whole situation of the vast counties in China, but it can still be a window to observe how coffee consumption sinks to the counties. We came here, trying to find out, who drinks coffee in the county? What kind of attitude does the county coffee shop live in? Also, does the county really need coffee and coffee shops?

Figure/Japanese drama "My story is a long story" screenshot

What should a good coffee shop look like? As early as when Huang planned to open a coffee shop in the county, many people gave him an accurate summary: the store is small, the flow of people is large, the equipment is good, the quality is stable, and it is best to have more urban white-collar workers working overtime nearby. In Shanghai, such boutique coffee shops are scattered in the streets and alleys in the core area of the city. With a seesaw, you can order a cup of coffee and enjoy an afternoon; Be polite, take a cup of coffee and leave.

But for Huang, the new coffee shop owner, his coffee shop has nothing to do with these characteristics, or even the opposite: his rented storefront is 140 square meters, which can accommodate 30 to 40 people; The coffee machine uses Jiahui 3 10, an ordinary household machine. I bought it from the second-hand market with the bean mill, and it only cost 5000 yuan. Every day someone asks him, "Can your machine hold up?" There are no baristas, no brand beans and no flowers in the coffee. Whether the product is stable or not is not an important issue.

People without bad karma in 996. It gets dark after six o'clock in winter. On the most prosperous commercial square in the small county, the neon lights of the merry-go-round and amusement park light up. Some brands set up a stage in the square to promote sales, and asked "clowns" to blow balloons. The stage was crowded with adults and children. In this atmosphere, it seems that everyone passing by is happy.

It is difficult to judge everything here by the business logic of big cities, although from the first day, various questions revolved around the shopkeepers who opened coffee shops in Huanghe County: Who wants to drink coffee in the county? Won't it become a chess room? Can you live by selling coffee?

Huang never paid attention to these problems. Before opening the store, he went to the largest coffee shop in the area, sat and counted several people, and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was still bustling after 9 o'clock. He thought, maybe Yongan can accommodate another coffee shop?

However, opening a coffee shop in the county is doomed to be counter-common sense. Urban white-collar workers don't understand it, and neither do county residents. Huang's father joined his son's coffee shop with friends. Without hesitation, they asked, "What did your son open? Why don't I understand? " Huang's father echoed them and said, "I don't understand either."

From the first day of opening the store, all kinds of compromises and changes were staged in the county coffee shop. Some people on the Internet say that coffee shops in my hometown also operate barbecues. Every day, people punch in until midnight, and some coffee shop owners laugh at themselves online. "Not selling cold noodles is the last stubbornness."

There is at least one knowledge that does not need to be investigated: to open a shop in a county, we should increase the variety of caffeinated drinks and milk tea as much as possible, because that kind of pure coffee is difficult to sell.

In Yong 'an Coffee Shop, soda is the most common coffee companion, and it can also be a single item. In the week when the yellow coffee shop was put into trial operation, the second-hand 3 10 went on strike temporarily. The customers who poured in drank soda for a week, and no one felt abnormal. In the following days, the best-selling soft drink was a soft drink called Taobobo. The clerk of another coffee shop said that since she opened the store for more than a year, no customer has ever asked her about the taste of beans. The best seller in this store is lemon tea.

Bubble bottles in the shop. Figure/thank you

The most popular is the original coconut latte, which is twice as high as the second place, Ruixing. Raw coconut lattes also naturally appear on the menus of other coffee shops. Huang doesn't care about the comparison of consumers. He even likes to hear customers say, "Your coconut latte is as good as Ruixing."

He also bought all the drinks of Ruixing, just to study how to make the taste more popular. Finally, he found that the biggest feature of Ruixing's ability to enter the sinking market and capture more people is that it is sweet enough. So when they mix new products on their menu, others often worry that this drink will be too sweet, and Huang will only say, "No, it's not sweet enough".

Others want to take a more traditional path. Pan of Yong 'an and Lin Guanheng of southern Fujian invested in a boutique coffee shop in Yong 'an. In the official profile of Quality Cafe, this café, which originated in Shanghai, claims that it has set off the third wave of fine coffee in Chinese mainland. But in the process of opening a shop, they found that it was too difficult to perfectly recreate a Shanghai boutique coffee shop in the county.

When the headquarters team first arrived in Yong 'an, all kinds of signs made them hesitate. Finally, he persuaded the people at the headquarters to open the authority with sincerity. Pan Wenbin has almost no experience related to coffee. For example, no one has ever told him that the coffee machine needs water and water. When the coffee machine at headquarters arrived, he discovered this loophole and had to redo the bar.

In terms of decoration, the headquarters gave them two design schemes. They initially chose the wave point roof of Shanghai Hongqiao Airport, but this was beyond the ability of the local decoration team. The interior design team has few choices, either passive Nuo Nuo only nodded, or too many ideas refused to give in. In this way, the coffee shop that the headquarters originally planned to open next month was blocked in Yong 'an for several months, while the neighbor who rented the store next door sold pig's feet and rice, and it took only three days to open the store.

It is more difficult to recruit a good barista. In most county coffee shops, the clerk will directly say that there is no barista, or secretly explain that "our barista is trained and can be recognized". A coffee shop clerk said that all the employees in the store can make milk tea and coffee. Before that, a professional barista came to apply, but in the end, they rejected the applicant. "On the one hand, they can't afford a high salary. On the other hand, they feel that they have buried their professional talents." The staff of Ruixing's store said that Xiamen's stores will require newcomers to be trained for 90 hours before they can take up their posts, but in Yong 'an, newcomers can be trained for 60 hours before they can take up their posts.

Despite this, these "four unlike" coffee shops have been opened one by one.

Figure/TV series is nothing more than 30 screenshots.

Utopia may not be a standard coffee shop, but it must be a standard online celebrity shop.

Huang's idea is simple. All the designs and scenery are based on the principles of "cheap" and "suitable for taking pictures". If any corner of the picture looks bad, it will be torn off. In Huang's shop, there are the most complete online celebrity items in the whole network: eucalyptus leaves, ins wind vertical glass, petal mats, log wind sideboards and David sculptures. ...

These are all brushed by him from Xiaohongshu and Taobao. He spends at least three hours on these softwares every day when he is preparing to open a shop. He is convinced that big data is useful and will let you know what people in this era like, what their needs are, and what kind of scenery girls pursue.

Before opening a shop, Huang went to Xiamen and Fuzhou to open a shop for inspection. When he meets beautiful details, he writes them down. He is very frank. The layout of the desks in the store is from the perspective of Kirin Bookstore, an online celebrity bookstore in Fuzhou. The inspiration of Qianmen street sign has appeared in many online celebrity shops; The most praised paper towel wall in the toilet was also seen one day when I was brushing the toilet in an online celebrity. Finally, the three most popular photo styles, industrial style, ins style and journal style, have all moved to the store.

Information dissemination in small counties also depends on the same city as Xiaohongshu and Tik Tok. From the first day of opening a shop, Huang updated his diary of opening a shop in Xiaohongshu with the theme of "100,000 yuan back to the county to open a cafe". The water and electricity in the unfinished building can't be solved, and the green plants bought in the store have arrived. Take everything out and tell netizens that there is a great momentum to open a store. Tik Tok, the same city, spread quickly. The stereo of the barbecue restaurant next door was connected to the boss's mobile phone, and the local hot post "Utopia boss has something to say ..." was accidentally brushed, and Huang He's voice echoed in the square in the video.

The coffee shop in the county will also invite the bloggers of Xiaohongshu to visit the store. A Zi is one of them, and there are 29 shop-exploring posts in her little red book. Although I am a shop-exploring blogger, in Yong 'an, a post by 300 yuan is too expensive for the owner. Many times, after some bargaining, the reward will shrink into free food, just write a grass post.

Young people who are keen on punching cards are the most common crowd in coffee shops. Huang's younger brother lamented that after living in Yong 'an for so many years, he had never seen so many young people. This Sunday afternoon, no guest will miss the opportunity to take pictures. There will always be people taking pictures at the sign hem in the green plant area and at the door. A woman wearing a beret took a mobile phone and told her mother to aim the bottom line of the frame at her feet later. This is the most common photography composition teaching in Little Red Book. Five teenagers riding heavy motorcycles parked their cars and began to take turns to sit astride the chairs and take pictures, holding their heads high and making all kinds of cool and crazy pulling movements.

Others are here to shoot products. In cafes in other cities, this behavior is counted as commercial shooting, and generally a lot of extra venue fees are charged. However, I have never rejected these people Huang. "The biggest fear of opening a store in the county is that it is not lively." The products photographed here include snacks and soft drinks. There is also a couple of newcomers from the county next door to take wedding photos. The bride came to this store from the little red book, and was attracted by the ins wind photos, so she decided to take wedding photos here.

To some extent, the county cafe is the product of the era of network celebrities. Young people chasing new things come here through the internet and give back the photos they have harvested here to the internet. These photos will be labeled as "higher film rate", "ins wind collides with industrial wind" and "pretending to be in Korea" and appear in Xiaohongshu, friends circle and Tik Tok. Huang said that people even came from Fuzhou to punch in recently.

At the gate of Utopia, young people are punching in to take pictures. Figure/thank you

Even the previous experience of learning art before opening a shop is no longer applicable. Big data and short videos will teach you everything. Not only decoration, but also drinks and desserts can be sold now. Recently, Huang began to pound thousand-layer cakes, and also followed the short video software. When he turned to the N position, he was finally able to spread a decent cake crust.

No matter how busy you are, an unavoidable question is whether you can make money by opening a coffee shop in the county.

Perhaps in time for the National Day, Huang's turnover in the first month exceeded 40,000. In the following days, as long as the weather is good on weekends, the store will be full. He calculated that according to this trend, he might be able to return to his hometown during the Chinese New Year.

The young people brought by the fermentation of Xiaohongshu and friends circle are the most primitive traffic accumulation in coffee shops, but they may not be transformed into stable consumption.

How to price the coffee shops in the county? All the raw materials of quality coffee are bought according to the requirements of the headquarters, and the quality should be exactly the same as that of the stores in Shanghai. The semi-automatic coffee machine alone cost100000. Pan Wenbin is quite sure that this is the most expensive coffee machine in Yong 'an.

During the trial operation, in order to attract customers, all the drinks in the quality cafe are discounted, and only 9.9 yuan is needed for American. However, this price is difficult to exist for a long time. It is said that the coffee decoration cost of the quality pavilion is as high as 700 thousand. Lin Guanheng can only always emphasize "looking at the long term and not looking at the immediate interests".

Even if we return to the normal price on the menu-the average price is in the early twenties, which is already 60% off compared with the stores in Shanghai-it is still an embarrassing pricing range for Yongan.

Chestnut cake and American quality coffee are 35 yuan and 9.9 yuan respectively. Figure/thank you

Yong 'an's per capita salary can't be compared with Shanghai, nor can it be compared with Fuzhou and Xiamen. A local civil servant said that his salary was 3,000 yuan ten years ago, and it is still this figure. Not only that, the year-end bonus is getting less and less every year. Although the luxury cars such as Maserati parked on the street in the new district have reduced the worries of the visiting team at the headquarters of the Quality Pavilion and convinced them that there are consumers and spending power here, this is not the background color of the county. County residents are very sensitive to prices. In the busiest business district, the signboards used to attract customers are still1spaghetti in 0 yuan and filet mignon in 28 yuan.

Coffee that has just been opened for more than a year has also experienced price reduction. Although no one will point out that the price is too expensive in person, the clerk is keenly aware that it is always the cheapest drink that sells best. Aunt Wang, the boss, is worried that if this continues, it will be difficult for customers to drink better drinks, and maybe they will not come next time.

There are also many old shops in the county town. In the sixth year, Mocale Coffee Shop opened a branch next to the cinema. A friend of A Zi joined the stock market. She learned privately that she had returned to Ben during the opening of the new store.

However, Mochale is not a coffee shop in the strict sense. This shop also sells spaghetti steak and all kinds of baked goods. The residents in the county like to choose Mocalai as a birthday present for their children. In addition, Mokale's founder also owns Korean restaurants, dessert shops and custom shops in West Point. During holidays and promotions, almost all five stores unite to sell universal coupons.

Unlike the city stalls selling coffee outside, almost all coffee shops in Yong 'an are mainly dining. Two storeys and two pavements are the standard, while the Mochale coffee shop, which is recognized by Yong 'an people as the best business, has three storeys.

Before opening, Pan studied the two stores with the highest take-away orders in the county and found that one was milk tea and ancient tea, and the other was Ruixing. Pan and Lin Guanheng know that when the take-away order volume exceeds 50%, a store may enter a benign development state. But for the county coffee shop, this seems to be an unattainable goal. A coffee shop clerk who has been in business for one year said that the take-away orders are all single digits, and if she and her friends order take-away, they will also give priority to some chain milk tea brands.

In the county, the competitors of coffee shops are often not another coffee shop, but more common tea shops and teahouses. Pan considered making milk tea before opening a shop, but after investigation, it was found that the milk tea shops in the county were too saturated and the competition was more intense. However, coffee shops can be differentiated by providing a public space to drive the consumption of drinks.

But in Yong 'an, it is difficult to guarantee the turnover rate and floor effect pursued by restaurants in big cities. After half a week of trial operation, Pan urgently ordered several sets of new tables and chairs from the manufacturer. Unable to control the wastage rate, he expanded his reception capacity. Huang often envies the barbecue restaurant next door. The guests will leave after eating, and immediately welcome the next table. One day, all the pupils crowded into the shop. Two or three people ordered a cup and shared it. After taking care of it all afternoon, the turnover is only a few hundred dollars.

The good thing is that many raw materials can be solved on the spot. If there is a shortage of ketchup, you can buy it in the supermarket now, and the fruit you need to make soft drinks is also bought in the fruit shop next door. When opening a store in the county, there are few anxious and tense moments belonging to entrepreneurs, and people and stores are growing at will.

Huang is now used to observing every day. Except for the girls who take pictures, most of them are mothers and aunts with children. If it is difficult for a place to establish coffee consumption habits, it is only when coffee shops truly become the living space of citizens that it is possible to go further. But at present, no one can give a good solution.

Figure/Japanese drama "My story is a long story" screenshot

Almost all shop owners have a beautiful vision buried in their hearts to bring coffee culture back to Yong 'an. It's not that Huang doesn't want to open a boutique coffee shop, but a customer told him he wanted a drink. The coffee culture here has not yet been enlightened. Even Pan himself didn't have much contact with coffee before he met Lin Guanheng.

Back to the logic of business, different from the stable coffee consumption groups in cities, what kind of cafes the county can retain and what kind of consumers the cafes can attract are all headaches.

In Yong 'an, Ruixing's large coupons for newcomers are still very attractive. This store, which has been in business for half a year, makes a lot of raw coconut lattes from 9.9 yuan every day. Customers will ask the question, "Is the latte with ice or hot?" Compared with coffee, you may need kway teow, tea and barbecue all over the street.

With this in mind, Lin Guanheng's idea is to "be a leader, not a follower". But whether it is to change local consumption habits or to integrate into local life, Pan and Lin Guanheng are a little different. In the end, Pan only said, "You have to change them and tell them that they can't play cards here and won't come again next time." Lin Guanheng was silent after hearing this.

Change is indeed an arduous task, and the flavor and characteristics of the county will enter the cafe. Every time Aunt Wang returns to the coffee shop in Yong 'an, she will feel a kind of "noise", which is not caused by the roar of the coffee machine or the scream of naughty children, but a kind of boiling noise belonging to the street. Here, people unconsciously lower their voices. The people by the window will argue about who should shuffle the cards in this game. Older women are pouring out their pains to each other. Their topic is only about family and parenting.

Aunt Wang went to the fashion circle in Shenzhen on 20 18. People in this industry always have coffee. Slowly, she also got into the habit of getting up early or having a cup of coffee in the afternoon. But in Yong 'an, she never felt the casual and relaxed atmosphere brought by drinking coffee.

For those younger consumers, drinking coffee is a ritual thing, more solemn than daily life. A Zi, 20, has three days off a month, and she will use these three days to go shopping. A Zi, who doesn't care much about what to wear on weekdays and doesn't wear makeup at work, will be uncharacteristically on this day. She must put on makeup and beautiful clothes before going out.

Ah Zi always pays more for himself, so he can't be careless when ordering food. A new shop she recently went to sells a thousand layers of tea in 30 yuan. She thought about it in her mind. This is the most expensive Melaleuca sold in Yong 'an, which is 5 yuan more expensive than the most famous West Point House in the county. If it's delicious, it's not a big problem. Once you step on the thunder, "you will be very distressed by money."

She also yearns for the outside world. Even if the salary is not too high, she will save money to visit her favorite city. Yong 'an has nothing to do with entertainment, especially for a person who has lived here for more than 20 years. Only when new things-those popular online celebrity coffee shops and online celebrity cakes in the little red book-appear in Yong 'an, she and her friends will be a little excited. Those things will make people forget the boredom of real life for a short time.

Young people really value the environment and atmosphere more. Pan also opened a spring cake shop in the county. At the gate of RT Mart, the stall shop is always sultry because of baking spring cakes, and the environment is not so neat. It is difficult for him to recruit young people with a salary of 5000 yuan here. The two aunts have been staying in the shop. When the coffee shop first opened, young people did not hesitate to choose a coffee shop with a salary of only 3000 yuan.

Although he runs a coffee shop among internet celebrities, Huang has carefully studied the books on coffee marketing, and he agrees with the concept of "the third space" advocated by Starbucks when it entered China in the early days. Someone asked him at the bottom of the post what is the most important thing to open a coffee shop in the county. He replied, "Don't focus on coffee, focus on social atmosphere and customer experience."

Among all the beautiful things that are divorced from the real world, the coffee shop is undoubtedly the most accessible image. In the county, cafes have become an imagination of ordinary people for leisurely, comfortable and modern life. They are not used to the bitterness of coffee for the time being, but they are already moving closer to a more exquisite life psychologically. This is also useful for middle school students who play truant every week and housewives who are trapped by bills and chickens.

Here, when they use online celebrities to describe a coffee shop, it only means that it is fashionable, exquisite and can bring happiness to people. After all, living in a poor county, having a good place to date is the most important thing.

(Auntie is a pseudonym)

Figure/Korean drama "Do you want a cup of coffee? 》 screenshot