Low cost to maintain the quality of life, leftovers blind box

Bought 4 pieces of bread with an original price of about 50 yuan for 15 yuan; 48 yuan earned an avocado salad, chicken Caesar and fried chicken with soy sauce at an original price of about 86 yuan... On the social media Xiaohongshu, about "leftovers blind box " has thousands of articles.

The so-called blind box of leftovers is not really leftovers. It refers to the fact that merchants sell the expired food or the inventory that cannot be sold out before the store closes on the same day in the form of "blind box" on the software at a lower discount. The "blind box" can only be picked up by consumers at the store within the specified time after placing the order, and cannot be delivered.In fact, blind boxes of leftovers are not a novel consumption model.

It originated from a software called Too Good To Go established in Denmark in 2015. It builds a discounted food trading platform, connects merchants and consumers, sells unsold food before the store closes, and reduces food waste by merchants. At the same time, it can also bring help to consumers in need.

According to the feedback from the settled businesses, the food discounts on the Food Wise Magic Bag can reach the cost price or even lower. According to the official website, the fun pouch has a discount of 30-40%. In addition, the pick-up mode on the leftover blind box platform requires consumers to go to the store to pick up the goods in person. From the perspective of travel, it also reduces the loss of manpower to a certain extent.

For example, the stir-fried vegetables and soup in Chinese food are not suitable to be supplied to consumers before they are sold out on the same day, and if consumers need to reheat after purchase, the taste of the food will be affected. At present, baking and light food are relatively easy to store. Even if consumers don’t eat it on the same day, they can generally put it away and eat it the next day. Therefore, the first batch of large merchants to settle in are mostly bakery brands such as Wei Duomei and 85°C.

Taking Food Wise Magic Bag as an example, its business scope has covered more than 30 cities including Beijing, Nanjing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Changsha and Chengdu. However, Jiemian News found that in terms of the number of settled businesses, Beijing and Shanghai have more stores, about 200 each. The types of food they sell are Western dim sum, Chinese pastry, drinks, and cooked food, among which bakery is good.

In addition to such platforms for leftover blind boxes, some traditional retail channels are also dealing with the day's impending food through price reduction promotions.

A Bianlifeng clerk told Jiemian News that after eight or nine o’clock every night, the unsold bread, sushi, rice and sandwiches on the shelves of the store will be discounted, but the specific price can only be known by scanning at the cashier. Notification of unified discount strength from the company.

And Hema will also discount fruits, vegetables, daily fresh, cooked food, sushi, salads and other categories in the store after 8 o'clock every night, basically 30% off.

On the food delivery platform Ele.me, some merchants also sell "blind boxes" of food and beverages, including light meals and Chinese-style stir-fried dishes. Jiemian News made a phone call to a merchant and learned that such "blind boxes" are all sales promotions or promotional activities of the merchant itself, rather than a unified initiative from the food delivery platform. At the same time, relevant merchants stated that the blind boxes in their stores are not expired or unsold food, but all fresh food from the day.

Changes in consumer behavior reflect changes in the consumer market. In recent years, maintaining the quality of life at a lower cost has become a trend in the consumer market.

According to the "2023 China Consumer Report" released by McKinsey, the overall spending of consumers will tend to be conservative in 2022. Consumers will maintain their quality of life through stricter trade-offs, and consumers with lower incomes will turn to more price-competitive channels. , or choose a product line of the same brand with a lower price, and consumers will postpone their purchase plans and wait for promotional offers. On the whole, consumer behavior is more pragmatic and tends to be rational. This trend may continue and reshape Chinese consumption market.

According to the "2023-2024 China Temporary Food Industry Development and Benchmarking Case Study Report" released by iiMedia Consulting, the temporary food industry will accelerate its development in 2022, and the market size will reach 33.7 billion yuan, and the market size will reach 35.7 billion yuan in 2023. It is estimated that the scale of China's temporary food market will reach 40.1 billion yuan in 2025, and the temporary economy may become a new industry outlet.