Cultivation of national snacks

On December 8, 38-year-old Deng Fangshu came to the store early, and a familiar voice came from his mobile phone: "The Shaxian Snacks Culture Festival has begun

In the 1990s, Deng Fangshu's father walked out of Shaxian County in the mountainous area of ​​western Fujian, and opened many stores in the north and south

In Sha County, Sanming City, Fujian Province, there are tens of thousands of such families

Well-known snacks are available all over the country.

For more than 20 years, Shaxian County has experienced five county party committee secretaries, successively serving as the county party committee’s leadership team, one after another, and one after another.

The only "Snack Office" established in the name of the government in the country

Yubang Village, Xiamao Town, Sha County, is known as the "First Village of Shaxian Snacks"

Yu Guangqing, in his 70s this year, recalled that when everyone wanted to get rid of poverty but couldn’t find a way out, some diligent villagers carried a small coal stove on one end and food ingredients on the other.

Lin Yingming, a villager who went out to make snacks in Shaxian County in the 1990s, still remembers that he was awakened by the sound of the neighbor’s “dangdangdang” beating the meat as soon as it was light

No one knows who was the first to go out to sell snacks, but such an approach "money comes quickly

"At first it was so poor that it was

But in that era, those who didn't farm land to sell snacks were still "heterogeneous

At that time, the Shaxian County Party Committee and the county government presided over the establishment of the Shaxian Snack Industry Development Leading Group, with the county head concurrently serving as the team leader, and the Snack Industry Development Leading Group Office under it-the only "snack office" established in the name of the government in the country

In addition, the Shaxian government department also proposed that at least one section-level cadre in each township should stay without pay to make snacks

In order to promote Shaxian snacks, this year the Shaxian government organized an activity called "Eight Min Trips for Shaxian Snacks".

Go all over a city and open a shop

Putting down the hoe, hatchet and picking up the pots, bowls and rice spoons, the people of Shaxian started the snack business and slogan: "1 yuan to enter the store, 2 yuan to eat, 5 yuan to eat well

Grounding is the "gene" of Shaxian snacks

Zhang Wanquan was one of the first people to go out to open a snack bar
.
In 1994, he opened his first store in Fuzhou, which is an ideal location near a vocational school and wholesale market
.
Zhang Wanquan rode an old-fashioned bicycle and spent more than ten days walking around Fuzhou City several times, "I know exactly where there are public toilets
.
"

Luo Guangcan, who is in his 50s, can be regarded as the first generation of snack owners.
He went to Beijing to open a shop in 2004.
It took half a year and three pairs of shoes were broken before he found a shop that he liked: more than 30 square meters.
It used to be a cake shop
.
But when he applied for the business license, he discovered that he was scammed by the intermediary: the "landlord" who signed the contract was actually a "three-landlord", which made them unable to apply for the business license immediately
.

It is common to be wronged when opening a store outside
.
One year when he opened a shop in Ningbo, a customer asked Zhang Wanquan to deliver the hot sauce.
At the time of the lunch rush, Zhang Wanquan was too busy.
The customer put the noodles upside down on the table and threw coins on the kitchen glass door.
On
.
"That kind of grievance is very uncomfortable, there is no way, you have to endure it
.
" Zhang Wanquan said
.

"The snack industry came out because the people of Shaxian County'dre to work hard and dare to work hard.
People who can't
bear the hardship can't do this .
" Huang Fusong said with emotion
.

There are coup tricks to "siege the city strategically"

Even in the face of many difficulties, the people of Shaxian County continued to find a way out of their enthusiasm to open a shop
.

"The first thing is to show momentum and quickly expand the market, and another
strategy is to encircle the city from the countryside .
" Zhang Changsong waved his hand like a master who taught the secrets of opening a store
.
Since 2000, he followed his cousin to open a restaurant to make snacks, and since then he has often played the role of the “pioneer officer” of Shaxian snacks
.

He recalled that at the beginning of this century, many people from Shaxian went out of Fujian to set up shops
.
A common practice is that several familiar folks go to a new city together, each set up a store, do the same decoration, make an appointment to open the door on the same day, and start the same promotional activities
.
"The purpose is to let the locals suddenly discover that Shaxian snacks are springing up like bamboo shoots after a rain, so that they can make a splash
.
"

"We opened a new store in the same county, and when the time is right, we will transfer it to other villagers to do it.
We usually don't do it for more than half a year
.
" Zhang Changsong squinted his eyes and recalled the old days of "exploiting the land.
" We are doing out
" .

Relying on this method, Shaxian snacks quickly "conquered the city" and moved across the country
.
Around 2005, Zhang Changsong returned to Sha County to build a small courtyard
.
In those few years, the threshold of his house was almost broken, and people who came here wanted to take over the snack bar
.

Those practitioners who went out first not only switched stores and taught experience, but also became "angel investors" in Shaxian snacks
.

Lu Jiamin, born in the 1980s, went out to make Shaxian snacks with his relatives in his early years.
In 2006, his family earned more than 100,000 yuan
.
I heard that this business is making money quickly, and my cousin also wanted to join in, and proposed a brand-new "pan shop" idea: Lu Jiamin transferred the snack bar to my cousin to operate, but he could retain 40% of the shares, and there will be every month in the future.
Dividends
.

"Try it first
.
" Lu Jiamin thought
.
Unexpectedly, in the following years, she had a monthly dividend of tens of thousands of yuan
.
After tasting the sweetness, Lu Jiamin opened his own shop while investing in shares.
After 2009, he simply stopped directly participating in business and turned to specialized investment to drive more fellow villagers to devote themselves to Shaxian snacks
.

With the expansion of Shaxian snacks, these "angel investments" have also gone overseas smoothly
.
A few years ago, a cousin at a snack bar in Kaisha County, Cambodia, found Deng Fangshu and wanted to borrow money from him to open a second store
.
After thinking about it for a while, Deng Fangshu proposed to invest in shares instead
.
"This solves your immediate problem, and everyone with money can make money together
.
" Speaking of that investment experience, Deng Fangshu was quite proud
.

But these "angel investors" did not invest in Shaxian people
.
Once, a relative wanted to join in and open a shop, hoping to get investment from Lu Jiamin.
Lu Jiamin went to his house for a meal, and found that the kitchen was dirty and poor, and the craftsmanship was average, so he decisively refused the investment
.
"I have a principle in investment.
The most important thing is whether this person is reliable, whether he is diligent and clever enough, and what he does is not clean
.
" Lu Jiamin said
.

A benign interaction between the market and the officialdom

As more and more Shaxian people go out to open stores, Shaxian snacks are becoming more and more famous
.

However, many people in Shaxian who have just entered the city still lack the experience in operating shops.
Some people don't even know the accounts, so many jokes have been made
.
There is still a long way to go before farmers can become shopkeepers or even "entrepreneurs in the snack business"
.

Zhang Xin, deputy director of Shaxian Snack Industry Development Center, still remembers this scene: At the beginning of this century, he brought together a few snack owners who were the first to set up shops in Shaxian County, carried mandarin duck pots and snack raw materials, packed in a jeep, and visited villages one by one.

.
Whenever they arrive in a village, they will convene young people in the village to come to a meeting, ask snack owners to introduce their experience of going out to open a shop, and demonstrate the craftsmanship of various snacks on the spot
.

The stories of setting up shop and getting rich have inspired Shaxian people, but this is not enough
.
After the training is over, Zhang Xin will come up with a "shop opening manual", which covers almost all things related to making Shaxian snacks, such as how to choose a location and apply for a license, how to set up the sink in the store, and where to sit when going out to open a store.
Train, which phone calls can be made in case of emergency, this "shop-shop know-how"-like manual is almost all-encompassing
.
"Let them have a model of benchmarking and a way of doing things, and they will be able to go out bravely
.
" Zhang Xin said
.

However, people in Shaxian found that some outsiders were also hanging out the signs of Shaxian snacks, and sometimes even the locals in Shaxian couldn't tell which was the real and which was the fake
.
Some owners just went out to open a store, they encountered strong buying and selling: some people carried a large bag of flour to occupy the door of the store, demanded a high price to buy, and if they didn't buy, they would smash the store and block the door
.
Sometimes, in densely populated areas, several Shaxian snacks were opened together in a crowded area, fought with price wars
.
"This damage is Shaxian snacks' own brand
.
" Huang Fusong said
.

In order to escort the "small business" of Shaxian snacks, the Shaxian government has supported the establishment of two offices: one is the Shaxian snack owners' rights protection office, which is responsible for seeking help from the public security departments in other places to solve the general complaints of strong buying and selling by Shaxian snack owners who go out to open stores The other is the Trademark and Brand Rights Protection Office, which is responsible for applying for and managing the unified trademark of Shaxian Snacks, and guiding the development of tens of thousands of Shaxian snacks stores to avoid low-end disorderly competition
.

Today, Shaxian snacks have formed more than 240 varieties, and tens of thousands of people have gone out to make snacks in the county
.
Some researchers said that Shaxian snacks created the miracle of industrial transfer from underdeveloped areas to developed areas, the miracle of transforming grassroots food into modern industries, and the miracle of farmers entering cities to promote urbanization
.

Zhang Yanlong, an associate professor at the Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, has tracked and studied many local cuisines
.
He believes that the success of Shaxian snacks lies in the formation of a benign interaction between the market and the officialdom, as well as the coordination of civil forces and government forces
.
"This is not the original creation of the local government, but in response to the development of the real estate industry.
The most important thing is the collaboration between the torrent of private entrepreneurship and the government's strong support
.
"

Changes brought by "Snack II"

Shaxian snacks have become the business card of Shaxian
.
According to statistics, the average annual income of farmers in Shaxian County in 2019 was nearly 20,000 yuan, of which two-thirds came from operating snack bars
.
More than half of the houses in the county town were bought by snack bar owners, and there is a saying in the local area: "Flat meat is bricks, noodles are steel bars, and stew pots are cement
.
"

But with many of the owner's words, Shaxian snacks "it is hardly worth the effort earned," "with affection and healthy exchange"
.
Make dumplings, make flat meat, stir-fry, pick up noodles, stew pots, wash dishes, deliver meals.
.
.
everything in the store has to be done by yourself
.
It opens at 5 or 6 in the morning, and is busy until one or two in the middle of the night.
This is the norm for many Shaxian snack bars, and even in some southern cities, there are 24 hour snack bars
.
In the past, many snack bar workers were busy late at night, "often counting the gross votes until they fell asleep" when they settled accounts
.

"The folks are getting rich, but many people are also exhausted, and some even collapsed on the stove
.
Many young people don't want to suffer this kind of suffering anymore,
" Zhang Xin said
.

Zheng Kai, born in 1998, is a standard "second generation of Shaxian snacks"
.
As far as he can remember, his parents moved to Dongguan, Shenzhen and other places to make Shaxian snacks
.
The narrow storefront is usually facing the street, and there are so many customers that there are almost nowhere to go.
At night, you can sleep with your waist before you can climb into the small attic built in the store
.

In 2015, Zheng Kai successfully entered the university and returned to work in Sha County government after graduation
.
Upon hearing the news, Zheng Kai's parents were so happy, fortunate that the child finally jumped out of the "snack door"
.

But for most of the younger generation in Shaxian County, snacks are still the first choice for employment
.
According to the survey and statistics of Shaxian County, the main force of making Shaxian snacks is young people in their 30s
.
However, these young people who have taken over the business of their parents have a longer-term view
.
"What job you do, you have to have a face and a ticket
.
" Zhang Xin said
.

In the first two years, Luo Guangcan, who had worked hard for more than a decade in Beijing, returned to his hometown in Shaxian County and gave the Beijing shop full power to his son Luo Jing
.
This was originally not in his plan
.
After graduating from university in 2008, Luo Jing went to Beijing to find a job but failed
.
In the second year, Luo Guangcan simply asked his son to take over his snack bar in Beijing, starting from the most basic ordering, cooking, and cash registering step by step
.
Two years later, Luo Guangcan invested 700,000 yuan to open a new store for his son
.

Now, Luo Jing has expanded the store to Tianjin, Baoding and other places, and has also registered an independent catering brand under his own name
.
This made Luo Guangcan quite proud: "Maybe most people (Shaxian) don't have this consciousness yet
.
"

Zhang Yanlong tracked and studied the development of Shaxian snacks.
In his opinion, the “second generation of snacks” with young people as the main body has a completely different understanding of Shaxian snacks
.
"It turned out to be all on their own.
Young people now feel that they need to balance work and life, and Shaxian snacks should also be upgraded
.
"

Nearly 2,000 stores are connected to the Shaxian snack system

As the "second generation of snacks", Lu Jiamin clearly felt that in 2014, Shaxian snacks had reached a turning point in their development and that "traditional methods can no longer be done
.
" Shop rents increase every year, and the profit margin of Shaxian snacks is getting smaller and smaller
.
Yellow braised chicken rice, Chongqing noodles, donkey meat fire and other snacks also flocked to Shaxian snacks to face unprecedented competitive pressure
.

"The most important thing is that consumers' requirements for the catering environment are increasing.
In the past, most Shaxian snacks were still in a messy state
.
" Lu Jiamin said that many Shaxian snacks practitioners are eager to change this situation
.

In 2017, the Chinese Snack Industry Development Conference was held in Shaxian County
.
Wu Jian, Dean of the China Food and Beverage Industry Research Institute, mentioned a set of slightly embarrassing data at the meeting: Diners go to Shaxian snack bars to consume, and the top three choices of dishes are noodles, rice and flat meat.
Among them, the second-ranked rice category is not a special snack in Shaxian County
.
In addition, most customers choose Shaxian snacks because of their low prices, while customers choose other snacks because of taste, not price
.

Shaxian Snacks have already walked from the alleys to the main street restaurants, but they still cannot change the "low-end" impression that is deeply rooted in the hearts of customers
.
In order to promote the upgrading of the snack industry in Shaxian County, the Shaxian government began to build an integrated management platform in 2015 and began to digitally transform the snack industry
.

The first thing to change is the mode of production
.
According to traditional practices, every bowl of wontons and steamed dumplings must be handmade by the owner, and many "snack generations" get up early to prepare ingredients
.
Today, Shaxian snack products are also available on some fully automated production lines
.

In the Shaxian Snack Industrial Park, a large number of ingredients are washed, chopped, stirred, and seasoned every day, wrapped in the dough rolled by the machine, and turned into white and transparent steamed dumplings with willow leaves
.
After passing through the spiral quick-freezing device at minus 40 degrees Celsius, these steamed dumplings "jumped" into the packaging bag and were sent to trucks to be transported across the country
.
Almost every day, 20 tons of steamed dumplings are distributed from Shaxian County to Shaxian snack franchise chain stores across the country
.

In recent years, Shaxian has established the Shaxian Snack Group with a background of state-owned assets, and has established many subsidiaries across the country to join chain stores with unified standards, unified images, and unified supply chains.
A total of nearly 2,000 stores have been connected to Shaxian snacks and catering chain supply chain services.
System
.
With the help of digitalization and other technologies, Shaxian snacks are also becoming "tall"
.

Deng Fangshu is one of the earliest franchise chain store owners
.
In his shop, the decoration, clothing, and tableware are unified, and the menu and signs are provided by the snack group uniformly.
Even the soymilk machine is much cheaper than the market
.
"We are very blessed as the second generation.
There is such a large group and government behind us to support us
.
"

During the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the business performance of Shaxian snacks, the main dine-in restaurant, plummeted, and many stores closed
.
Shaxian Snack Trade Association issued a proposal, calling on landlords of Shaxian snack shops across the country to reduce or exempt a certain amount of rent
.
Yang Xingzhong, secretary of the Shaxian County Party Committee, sent a letter of help to Meituan.
com in his own name
.
Shaxian County also introduced ten measures to support snack owners to tide over the difficulties.
Among them, Shaxian Rural Commercial Bank urgently provided 300 million yuan in credit
.
Shaxian Snack Group also reduced or exempted all franchise store management fees
.

Shaxian Snacks, which originally focused on dine-in meals, have also begun to attach importance to takeaways and have developed new products that are more suitable for takeaways
.
"In the past, the turnover rate was very high, and there was no time to do takeaways.
This year, because of the epidemic, a new battlefield has been opened up
.
" In Zhang Xin's view, the biggest feature of Shaxian snacks is flexibility.
Not only does it open stores very quickly, but it can also be affected by the epidemic.
Recovered soon
.
"Every Shaxian snack can become a stronghold for Shaxian people to make a comeback
.
"

Today, in Shaxian with a population of only over 270,000, more than 60,000 people are engaged in the snack business
.
Planting and breeding, processing and sales, logistics and distribution, digital services.
.
.
Shaxian snacks have formed a unique industry chain
.
In 2018, the county's food industry output value exceeded 8 billion yuan, driving the growth of tertiary industries such as logistics, catering and tourism
.

In Shaxian, many people have a common "small goal": to make Shaxian snacks bigger and stronger, so that Shaxian snacks can also be listed as a listed company
.
Perhaps by that day, the Shaxian snack owners who used to carry wooden mallets and mandarin duck pots on their backs will have a brand-new identity
.
(China Youth Daily · China Youth Daily reporter Wang Lin Chen Qiang)