Alibaba’s New Retail Adds Another Hero! The 100-square-meter store generated revenue of RMB 500,000 in the first month!

It’s so fast that it’s unimaginable. Jack Ma’s father is making another move!

In recent years, Alibaba has launched a series of layouts around "eating" to create a comprehensive new retail of catering, such as the familiar "Hema Fresh", the well-known "Smart Restaurant" and what we are going to talk about today. "Chopsticks Horse Hot Food"!

This reborn new restaurant retail store is similar to Ele.me’s and incorporates Jack Ma’s “Future Restaurant” plan with full sincerity. It focuses on the dine-in + convenience store model, through its own brand, the addition of internet celebrity brands, and Hummingbird’s 30-minute delivery. services attract a large number of consumers.

Less than half a year after its opening, the first Chopsticks Ma’s monthly revenue has exceeded RMB 500,000, and its square footage is several times that of surrounding catering merchants. It has become a phenomenon-level template for the takeout model to support dine-in dining.

This project, headed by Wang Lei, the new CEO of Ele.me, plans to open tens of thousands of stores within two to three years. Currently, 50 stores have been opened in Shanghai alone.

So, what are the unique features of this smart restaurant from the future that are worth learning and learning from?

01

Small but complete

Snacks, drinks and hot meals are all available

As the saying goes, food is the most important thing for the people. There is another saying that goes even better. If you want to capture someone's heart, you must first capture their stomach.

In one sentence, the catering market has always been the focus of capital and has countless business opportunities. The second sentence says that it is not just about making a meal and someone will eat it. There are many things to consider. If more people like to eat it, it will be difficult for you to succeed.

Jack Ma's father's investment in the catering market at this time is destined to be extraordinary, and the pattern of the catering market is likely to undergo dramatic changes.

The characteristic of Choi Ma Hot Food is that it combines the characteristics of a restaurant, a convenience store and a take-out front warehouse. It provides services such as dine-in + take-out + delivery + packaged food sales. The categories sold include hot food + fresh food + cold food. + Dry food + snacks + water, etc. Ele.me hopes that Choi Ma Hot Food can become a front-end warehouse for Hummingbird delivery in the future, blocking the entrance to community consumption.

With such comprehensive positioning functions, does this mean full market coverage? Can the Choi Ma hot food in this 100-square-meter store be achieved?

The answer is, yes, not only is it possible, but it is also extremely efficient.

Even though it is a small 100 square meters, it is divided into 5 major functional areas.

Dine-in area

The central area is the dining area, with orange, yellow and gray as the main colors. The overall layout appears more compact and the circulation is more flexible.

Hot food operating area

Hot food grab-and-go area

Customers can order and pick up their own meals here. On the left hand side of the door is a hot food take-out area, which is specially designed for peak dining periods. Grab and go, convenient and fast, saving you time in queuing.

Snack retail area

Self-service service, just scan the QR code to purchase and pay at the end.

The drinks and fruits sold here are all sold in supermarkets, and the prices are very nice!

02

We don’t produce gourmet food, we only serve as transporters of gourmet food

As a catering brand that has just entered the market, Choi Ma Hot Food has gained user groups within a period of time due to its unique positioning and route development.

In the name, "chopsticks" and horse highlight the "speed" advantage, "hot food" presents the main service, and "chopsticks" can also represent Chinese food; the logo is an orange-red horse head with a "lightning" hairstyle. It also represents temperature. The English "Quick Mart" has both literal translation and transliteration, echoing "Chopsticks Horse".

Obviously, Choi Ma Hot Food focuses on "hot" and "fast".

In terms of brand naming alone, "Chopsticks and Horse Hot Food" can be called a classic. Although it is simple, it is highly recognizable and has low communication cost. The key is that it clearly tells you "I want to help you eat it as quickly as possible" A mouthful of hot rice”!

And it is not responsible for making delicious food, it is just a transporter of delicious food. Therefore, the essence of Choi Ma Hot Food is not catering, but retailing. What it really wants to do is to sell various types of hot rice just like convenience stores sell cola, soda, tobacco and alcohol!

03

Targeting urban white-collar workers

Create the most warm and convenient hot food restaurant brand

Different from the freshly made snacks provided by 7-ELEVEN convenience stores, Choi Ma Hot Food provides delicacies from major brands.

There are both shrimp rice bowl and Wan Chai Pier dumplings; staple food, casual snacks, desserts, drinks and snacks; not only can we do breakfast, lunch and dinner, but also afternoon tea and late night snacks.

Also in the form of a fast retail convenience store, Choi Ma Hot Food focuses on catering, aiming to provide urban white-collar workers with the fastest and most convenient bite-sized hot food.

Choi Ma Hot Food places more than 80% of its resources and energy on hot food. Whether it is staffing or space design, it is all for "hot food" service. Room-temperature products such as drinks and snacks do not account for 20%.

Chinese people's eating habits are destined to make hot food the mainstream. However, due to commuting, working overtime and other reasons, it is not easy for white-collar workers to have a hot meal.

However, with the advice of parents and the atmosphere of national health preservation, buying two steamed buns from the steamer cabinet at the 711 at the subway entrance has become a self-comfort breakfast for most people. It doesn’t matter if it’s not delicious. “I ate hot buns.” "Breakfast" is what matters!

For most white-collar workers, workday lunch is basically a casual affair. The key is not that it tastes good, but that it is fast!

This is the biggest pain point for urban white-collar consumers, and this is what Choi Ma Hot Food is doing.

The hotness and speed of Choi Ma Hot Food lies in a complete and fast standardized production line and standardized operation - the dishes are prepared through the central kitchen, regular SKUs are formulated, and can be sold and heated immediately with the help of special equipment.

Choi Ma Hot Food is equipped with a variety of advanced food processing equipment such as large intelligent steam ovens and built-in thermal insulation cabinets. It only requires a few manual operations to complete the heating and serving of food. At the front end of the store, there are only ordering and cashiering, and the clerk is only responsible for simple tasks such as maintaining the store environment and heating meals.

Therefore, there is no need for chefs with high technical content and high labor costs, only waiters who are quick, friendly and cheaply paid.

Secondly, everything about Choi Ma Hot Food is customized around its core service group.

In terms of location selection, unlike other restaurants that open their stores in bustling commercial streets, Choi Ma Hot Food opens its stores either downstairs of your company or in the community where you live, accompanying you wherever you go!

In terms of speed, if you are ordering takeout online, Choi Ma Hot Food is the "son" of Ele.me. In terms of delivery, Meituan also has a thumbs up; besides, it is not just to shorten the delivery time by driving so close to you. Distance?

If you want to eat in a restaurant, the delivery speed is fast enough to beat 711 - you can place an order online first and pick it up directly at the store; you can also scan the code to take away the food you want at the hot food grab-and-go area.

The efficiency of "eating hot food in three minutes" may rewrite the history of the past peak dining periods, when the restaurant was full and people had to wait for dozens of minutes for a bite of food.

Not only does it taste fast and hot, but it also tastes good, and the food you eat are hot-selling foods that everyone wants to eat.

With the support of Ele.me's "Future Restaurant" model and technology, "Future Restaurant" can use the data generated by the takeout platform in the background to conduct quantitative analysis on the taste, smell and other indicators of popular takeout products. On this basis, Selection.

Choi Ma Hot Food can use big data to provide different meals in each store in each area and under each office building, so as to achieve "thousands of people, thousands of dishes".

More importantly, behind all this, the price is also affordable, generally around 20-40.

Looking at it this way, everything is complete. Some are available for eating nearby, and some are delivered for those who are far away. The food is hot, and there are many varieties. You can eat whatever you want, when you want to eat, and where you want to eat.

There is no soil in any era that is more suitable for the growth of new catering retail than today. Big names from all walks of life have entered the game, and Alibaba is undoubtedly the most ambitious. It started with Hema Xiansheng, then spun out Hema F2, Hexiaoma, and now Chopsticks Ma Hot Food. It has been constantly exploring on this road. , this spirit is worth learning.

The new retail + Internet catering model has become more and more popular, and may become the new mainstream in the development of the catering industry.