Unveil The Logic Of Low Price Of Community Assisted Meals: How Does The Internet "Comb" The Traditional Purchasing Chain?

With the aggravation of social aging, the elderly meal service has become a hot topic of people's livelihood and an important part of the pension service system. Since 2008, more than 1200 catering service centers have been built in Shanghai.

Recently, the 21st century economic reporter visited several community meal helpers and canteens for the elderly in Pudong New Area, Huangpu District and Changning District. The scale of the venues providing meal assistance services, and the dishes available for people to choose during lunch time range from more than ten to twenty, and there are rich meat and vegetable varieties. A bowl of plain chicken noodles in the community canteen costs only 8 yuan, while steamed stuffed bun, fried pork, potstickers, noodles, and boxed rice are also in constant supply. In addition to the cost-effective price, it can be sold from half of the price range from 3 to 20 yuan.

In the Yuanyuan catering Gubei community canteen located at 109 Yaohong Road, Changning District, Shanghai, the fragrance will come out before 11 o'clock. Wu, who is in his 70s, has lunch here every day. He often orders a bowl of steaming plain chicken noodles.

According to the planning of Shanghai, it is estimated that by 2022, the number of catering service places in the city will not be less than 1600. In the realization of this vision, it has become an important test for relevant catering enterprises to maintain high quality and low price. Nowadays, the Internet service platform is gradually involved to enable the traditional procurement mode.

Upstream of an old-age meal

Catering for the elderly has met the daily needs of tens of thousands of elderly people in Shanghai. Along with a bowl of ordinary soup and noodles, its supply chain has become efficient and intelligent.

Five hours before Mr. Wu arrived at the store, the delivery driver of Kuai donkey, a catering supply chain platform under meituan, delivered the ingredients needed on that day to gubeimen store at 5:30 a.m., while Mr. Wu, the chef of the canteen, had placed an order on the mobile app the night before, matching all kinds of ingredients needed by the store in one-stop manner.

This gear like supply chain is the lifeline of chain catering. "Our company has been working for 13 years. At the beginning, the employees went to the wholesale market to buy in the early morning. Later, when the enterprise grew up, it gradually transferred to the supplier model. Vegetables, frozen food, rice, condiments, edible oil and other categories have fixed suppliers. The quotation will be adjusted once every 10 days to half a month. " Lu Xiaofeng, general manager of Shanghai Yuanyuan Catering Management Co., Ltd., said in an interview with the 21st century economic report that the main efficiency improvement after purchasing goods online is not only the reduction of cost, but also the saving of manpower. In his opinion, the supplier multi management mode has a complex system and high docking cost. The existing small and medium-sized suppliers obviously can not meet the needs of future development.

Another point worth noting is that the meal time of the elderly is particularly "ahead of time". At the end of the meal, it is the old helper's meal. The earliest batch of lunch starts at 9:30 with the delivery staff. This means that at the front end of the supply chain, the delivery master of Kuai donkey's purchase has to deliver the goods to the store at 5:30 a.m., which is an hour and a half ahead of the existing distribution process.

"Raw material procurement and supply is the lifeblood of catering enterprises, but it is really not the strength of old catering enterprises. We hope that through cooperation with large platforms, we can reduce operating costs and improve efficiency, so as to support us to move forward quickly." Lu Xiaofeng said.

At present, the community canteen operated by Yuanyuan restaurant covers 21 streets and towns in 7 districts of Shanghai. In mid April, its first parent canteen in Hangzhou will enter the trial operation stage. Lu Xiaofeng plans to open four parent canteens in Hangzhou this year.

Intensive and large-scale procurement

Previously, Lu Xiaofeng had been worried about expanding business in other places, and it was difficult to find a suitable supplier for the moment. However, it was later found that the Internet platform also provides digital and standardized supply chain services in Hangzhou, which can help enterprises better carry out remote management. It is very important to break the information barrier between cities.

"The production date, shelf life and storage conditions are clearly printed on the package of Kuai donkey's products, which has become a basis for the company's management." Lu Xiaofeng believes that the Internet procurement mode not only eliminates the waste of food materials, but also provides the possibility for the long-term development of restaurants. More and more restaurants have chosen to reform the food supply chain, purchase on demand and reduce costs.

According to the data of the National Bureau of statistics, in 2020, the scale of China's catering market will be nearly 5 trillion yuan. If the average cost of raw materials for catering is 30% - 40%, the market scale of catering materials supply chain will be at least 1.5 trillion yuan. But behind the track of trillion food supply chain, the pain points still need to be solved.

"We removed the original warehouse and saved part of the cost. Because the purchase on the Internet can be delivered by day, there is no need to stock up. It can save many costs such as warehouse, transportation and labor Ms. Wen, founder of Tianjia daily materials, told the 21st century economic report that through the digital reform of the supply chain, unnecessary warehouses were removed, which not only saved the storage cost, but also saved the salary cost of warehouse management personnel.

5% - 10% cost reduction, for catering enterprises, supply chain optimization has great significance. Especially in the field of helping the elderly, fast food and so on. Zhao Zhiqiang, founder of big pizza, believes that China's largest market in the future will be in the second, third and fourth tier cities. If catering brands have the ability to sink, they will have a good future. "In terms of supply chain and scale cost, Volkswagen brand has formed a brand with category focus, simple model and easy to copy."

The old people pay attention to material benefits when eating, and the most attractive thing is low price and good quality. A series of such as the management system of independent warehouse distribution, the digitization of food material purchase, the online operation of food products, and the digital management of cost can also help the merchants reduce the cost of the circulation of food materials and improve the efficiency and profit margin.

The cost reduction and efficiency increase of the supply chain will undoubtedly make the product price further sink, which provides the possibility for catering enterprises to open up the sinking market space.

In Lu Xiaofeng's view, to do community food, we must be clear about the public welfare positioning. "The price of our dishes is 10% to 15% lower than that of the same type of Chinese fast food restaurants in the market. When the old man comes to eat, a large meat meal, a small meat meal, a vegetable dish and rice are usually around 15 yuan, and the soup is free. "

His expectation is that in the future, in the delivery of the last kilometer of the buffet, more joint forces can be formed with the delivery platforms such as meituan and hungry Mo, such as adopting the mode of staggered peak cooperation. "The old people eat early, and delivery starts at 9:30, and a delivery man can deliver 30-40 families. All must be delivered by 11:30 noon. Generally, the cost of takeout is about four or five yuan, but the government subsidy is three yuan. We hope to solve this problem with external resources. "

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