Consumption into the off-season crayfish shop into the holiday "countdown"

a crayfish restaurant in Chengdu., general manager of a crayfish restaurant, announced a holiday "countdown".chef is working on crayfish.
National Day holiday has passed, when you are still looking forward to New Year's Day or Spring Festival holiday, other people's crayfish has entered the countdown to the holiday, that is, October 31 to start the official holiday 4 months, until March next year. Recently, Huaxi Metropolis Daily - cover reporter visit found that, with crayfish consumption into the off-season, Chengdu, many crayfish shops will be closed holiday into the plan, and a crayfish chain located in Chunxi Road business circle from October 13 to announce the countdown to the close. Xiao Chun, general manager of this shop's circle of friends, will also be closed every day holiday "countdown broadcast." Because of the rising store rents in recent years, the business circle has "to work for the landlord" argument, especially in the inch of gold in the Chunxi business circle. Only 8 months a year to support the whole year? Is this an isolated phenomenon or is it common practice in the crayfish industry? The reporter conducted an investigation and interview on this issue.
investigation
craye restaurant holiday 4 months
" to wake up, there are more than ten days to enter the vacation period, want to eat shrimp friends hastened to the whole plate, otherwise you can only wait for next year." From October 13th, Xiao Chun, who opened a crayfish shop in Chengdu's bustling business district, made the announcement in a circle of friends. According to reporters, Xiaochun crayfish shop area of about 300 square meters, sales season can treat more than 300 tables a day. But because crayfish are very seasonal, they are now basically at the end of the day. "When business is good in summer, it's open until 2 a.m., " Xiao said. Now there are only a few dozen tables a day, and the shop closes at 12 p.m. "There has been a significant drop in passenger traffic, crayfish prices have remained high, and the quality of crayfish has declined since the off-season, which invisibly has also given customers a bad consumer experience. So he decided to start the holiday at the end of October and not open again until March next year. This means that his shop is only open for eight months a year and has a four-month holiday. From the whole industry, due to the seasonality of crayfish, many lobster restaurants will choose to sell lobster in summer, winter to operate other products to maintain the year-round operation of the shop. In the past few winters, Xiaochun has also tried to sell lamb soup, fish hot pot and brine, but none of the products can support the entire store like crayfish. The two most expensive places to open a restaurant are rent and labor costs. Xiao Chun revealed that his lobster hall in the commercial square on the second floor of the most inside, the location is more hidden, rent prices are relatively low, but the peak season monthly labor costs are more than 100,000 yuan. And the nearby street shop monthly rent in 200-300 yuan / square meters, if you keep the whole team, sell other products but sales can not go up, operating costs are higher. So the holiday was two months ahead of schedule compared to previous years until the end of December. What about employees who have a four-month holiday? Xiao Chun said that this summer the store business is good, even if it is an early holiday, counting the whole year is still in a profitable state. And next year is willing to come back to work of the old staff, the company will also give everyone 3000 yuan reward.
accounting
labor costs are more expensive than rent
Although Xiao Chun's practice is more "personal", but early vacation in the industry is not an exception. Reporters visited found that due to this summer crayfish prices continue to rise, the early arrival of the off-season so that passenger traffic plummeted, many businesses have plans for an early holiday. "The price of crayfish has gone up sharply this year, and the off-season is earlier than usual." Mr. Huang, who has been selling crayfish at Qingshiqiao Seafood Market for four years, said that June and July were the peak season for crayfish production, and the price was relatively cheap, about 20 yuan per kilogram. This year is the cheapest in April and May, after June 20 crayfish prices began to rise, the most expensive in July, to sell 40-50 yuan per kilogram. As the off-season approaches, crayfish meat is declining and customer churn is rising significantly. A crayfish restaurant in the city centre also revealed that there are more young people shopping around, especially couples, "who are basically full every day in summer, and now there are about 70 per cent fewer crayfish eaters." "As long as the store is still open, crayfish will always be sold, generally until September will increase the crab, spicy seafood and other dishes. Some stores have been changing to local dishes such as lamb in winter for two or three years. Yuan Wei, head of another chain of lobster restaurants, said they would adjust the menu according to the season, but the off-season holiday is the best way to save costs, and the store will continue this year's holiday from New Year's Day until mid-March next year. Yuan Yu also calculated an account, in the city center on the middle of the lot to open a crayfish restaurant about 300 square meters, store rent at least 200 yuan / square meters per month, plus labor, water and electricity and other costs, the monthly fixed cost of more than 150,000 yuan, of which the highest cost is labor. "Early holidays only lose 2 months of rent, and autumn and winter dishes, if not handled well, are indeed less cost-effective than direct holidays."
In the industry
early holiday is the best choice
crayfish has a fixed growth cycle, many crayfish restaurants to start the brand, on the one hand will emphasize the product taste good, on the other hand, emphasize the good ingredients, constantly tell you what kind of crayfish is the best. This allows consumers to gradually form a psychological inertia, crayfish should be eaten in the summer. YangHang, a member of the Chengdu restaurant industry, said that crayfish product attributes and business marketing concepts determine the seasonality of customer consumption habits, and most people only use crayfish as a summer food, so the flow of people has dropped sharply in the off-season. How will an early holiday affect the store? In his view, one is that the store is closed for too long, it is likely to lead to changes in customer spending habits; Some crayfish restaurants close early, perhaps because they didn't make any money this summer, but because of the drop in off-season traffic, even if your product gross margin is higher and your winter sales are insufficient, it may be more costly to keep open than to close directly. "Although many businesses choose to sell lamb or soup pots, spicy fried seafood and so on in winter, the result is that individual stores can sell, and most stores did not achieve the ideal business objectives." Yang believes that, on the one hand, consumer perceptions are hard to change. On the other hand, many lobster restaurants only use winter products as a supplement, and are not as professional as crayfish in brand planning, publicity packaging and supply chain. So to come up with PK with other brands of the same type doesn't have any advantages.