Can the coffee shop in the fourth or fifth tier town still roll up? The county coffee track has been blocked.

Go to the fourth or fifth line of small cities to open a warm coffee shop, this is probably the "poetry and distance" of young people in big cities. According to Meituan's Insight report on Coffee consumption in China 2022, there were 117300 coffee stores in mainland China in the first half of 2022, with an average growth rate of 18.28%. Among them, the third-tier cities have a relatively strong growth momentum.

The coffee market in first-and second-tier cities is becoming saturated, and more and more coffee brands are sinking in the market, focusing on affordable coffee. Can coffee shops in fourth-and fifth-tier cities still adhere to "Poetry and distance"?

It may be hard to feel the cold data. So the code clerk came to chat about his hometown. First of all, a brief introduction, my hometown Xinhui, belongs to a district under Jiangmen City, its main city is Huicheng, there is still some distance from Jiangmen city. It is a nominally third-tier, but actually fourth-tier, small town with a resident population of less than 500000.

Before 2015, apart from the coffee-themed meal bar, there were only three coffee shops that actually sold coffee. And this year, it was Starbucks that settled in Xinhui. At this time, the presence of big brands was conducive to the development of local coffee shops, because the current coffee market at that time was full of blue sea (it was the era of milk tea at that time). It was the arrival of Starbucks, the industry authority, that made the residents of the small town begin to understand the ready-made coffee.

Coffee shops really began to spring up at the end of 2019, when community coffee shops began to spring. coupled with the reason of the epidemic, many young people chose to return to small cities, and the scale of community shops expanded rapidly. most of these stores are located in the alley near the central commercial street.

In this way, these small coffee shops face the first challenge-everyone is huddled together to grab the cake. There are few and small business circles in small cities. As shown in the picture below, there are 16 coffee shops within 500m, and basically there is a coffee shop every two steps. If tea shops are included, there are more than 30 shops in this small area with a walk of 500 meters.

Such fierce competition makes coffee shops try their best to create selling points, such as decoration style, coffee equipment, product richness and price competition. What is more intuitive is that the coffee equipment perfectly explains "although the sparrow is small, it has all the five internal organs". When the code clerk visited the store, there were all kinds of well-known coffee machines and bean grinders (all the rent saved was invested in the equipment).

The product line is also very rich, Italian series, hand series are complete, in addition to the coffee shop independent research and development of creative coffee. And, of course, lemon tea. (lemon tea is indispensable for coffee shops in a small town. After all, coffee is poetry and distance, and lemon tea is life.)

In terms of price, the code clerk anchored the most American coffee and latte, with an average price of 13-15 yuan in the American style and 17-20 yuan in the latte. The code clerk brazenly asked about the cost of coffee beans and milk, which is similar to that of coffee shops in first-tier cities in terms of raw material costs. The reason for this price is mainly to form a price advantage with the tea shop.

For coffee shops in these fourth-and fifth-tier cities, the second challenge is the sinking market of large chain coffee brands. If the competition between local coffee shops is neck and neck, then the entry of big brands fighting in the first and second lines is a blow to reduce dimensionality.

In 2021, when Luckin Coffee, the first member of the Xinhui Club, entered the Star Exchange Square (the busiest business area), Ruixing played much more violently than Starbucks, directly showing his wool for everyone to win. Lucky's products are highly coincident with those of these community stores, and even form a price advantage, coupled with the influence of brand power. All that is left of the community store is the advantage of location and taste (this advantage can only be seen if people have higher requirements for coffee). Now Ruixing has three stores in the city, covering the main business circle, and the location advantage of small shops in the community is getting dimmer.

There is a third challenge for small coffee shops in the community, which is the social space nature of coffee shops! In a big city, you may pay a special visit because of the product of a store. In small cities, people prefer the social space attributes of coffee shops. This is the deficiency of small shops in the community. Just as the major coffee shops in the small town are full of exciting news during the Spring Festival, the community shops are full, the coffee shops selling space are also full, and the community shops are full because your space is too small. the coffee shops selling space are full because young people return to the small town and need a space to chat and socialize.

Coffee shop "stoichization"

For the community coffee shops that are desperately trying to roll in the old neighborhoods, smart owners have started the "Stores" business.

Store means commissary. In the past, when there were no chain convenience stores everywhere, these stores provided convenience for nearby residents. These stores are all self-employed, but they seem to have formed an agreement that there will never be a second store in the residential area radiated by a store. Like the agreed division of territory, the Stores only serve the residents of this area.

The code clerk found that in the newly built district far away from the business circle, there will be a coffee shop nearby, and this is the only coffee shop. The most touching thing is that the coffee shop at the gate of the building, which was handed over in January, is already under renovation. This coffee shop has become an important facility resource of the community as if it had contracted the coffee of the residents of this community.

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