Coffee Information Coffee Cafe Management status of many people across the country

The present situation of the operation of many people's cafes:

one

I saw the last time before the cafe disappeared.

It has become fragmented, there is a thick layer of dust on the floor, and the movers are dismantling the equipment. The hand-painted patterns on the indoor walls, the black ceiling decoration, an abandoned billiard table in the middle, the bar on the right-hand side of the entrance, and several sofas and stools placed together all talk about the old days here. Today, these things have been collectively transferred to others.

Liu Bing and her friend Huimin are copying a transfer agreement on a round table. She has long hair and speaks very skillfully. If she doesn't tell you, it's hard to imagine that the girl in front of you is a gentle angel in white. Just two hours ago, when we were sitting in a pub run by Huimin, Liu Bing told me the story of the cafe called "many people's Cafe".

At first, it was a story about the dreams of many people. In 2011, Beijing-based Douban netizen "Mosquito Erniu" launched the initiative of "We use 2000 yuan to open a coffee shop", setting a precedent for crowdfunding to set up a coffee shop in China. This call was answered by many people, and the coffee shop of "Mosquito two Girls" opened in the "semi-basement".

At the end of 2012, Liu Bing brought the idea from Beijing to Zhengzhou, which also attracted 99 people in the city who had a dream of opening a coffee shop. After raising 600000 yuan in the first phase, Zhengzhou "many people Cafe" opened for trial business in the office building of Guomao 360.

Most of the 99 shareholders are young people of the same age as Liu Bing, who have their own legitimate jobs, including doctors or nurses, journalists and media workers, and other 9-to-5 office workers. Everyone gets together for the "dream" in their hearts and looking for a place to relax. Both Liu Bing and Huimin are among them.

This novel way not only attracted many people to support it, but also came to the media, and even People's Daily and China Youth Daily also paid attention to the behavior of this group of young people. On the walls of the cafe, the reports were printed and nailed to cork boards made of photo frames along with postcards from many places. When we left, Liu Bing took everything down and put it in the bag as a souvenir.

two

"people only have dry dreams, but few people are willing to take action." In Huimin's tavern, Liu Bing said to me in this way, there is a kind of helplessness and tiredness in the tone. This is an important reason why "many people Cafe" can't hold on. After the shareholders contributed, most of them did not contribute any more, relying entirely on Liu Bing and a few shareholders to operate after work. A manager and three waiters were employed in the store, and none of the shareholders were willing to serve full-time.

Media attention and people's initial passion once made "many people Cafe" the busiest place in the building, with turnover reaching 20,000 yuan a month at its peak. However, this kind of income is still difficult to cover the huge expenses of the cafe, and the rent and staff salaries have already exhausted the turnover.

After a long time, after the passion faded, the business of the cafe fell again and again, and many of the passenger flows were attracted by friends before, but finally became miserable. At the most embarrassing time, Liu Bing and others decided to let shareholders and friends come over for coffee for free, and no one wanted to set foot.

This situation is not unexpected. As a native of Zhengzhou, Liu Bing knows the city and its young people very well. "impetuosity and stress occupy the hearts of young people, and they have not formed the habit of drinking coffee at all, or even this kind of consciousness."

Zhengzhou has a population of nearly 11 million, the second densest in the country, and most of its population comes from other cities in Henan. A large number of young people flock to the city to seek opportunities, work and live here, under great pressure of survival, there is no condition and time to spend money in cafes.

At dusk, Liu Bing looks down at the coffee shop of ITC 360. The intersection of Garden Road and Agricultural Road is full of off-duty young people who ride bicycles or take buses to travel through the city like ants. Compared with other cities, the salary in Zhengzhou is relatively low, and the amount of money that invites a friend to a cafe may be enough for his meal for two days. Coupled with the short lunch break and the possibility of working overtime in the evening, who would want to go to a cafe?

Liu Bing believes that the development of Zhengzhou in recent years is so fast that the living standards of people here simply can not catch up, and prices and house prices make the pressure of life to an unprecedented height. In the past, many migrant workers rented cheap houses in the "urban villages" of the city, but now these villages have disappeared and become high-rise buildings. While the number of tuhao who became rich overnight increased as a result of demolition, the pressure on the lives of migrant workers also increased a lot overnight.

After the local tycoons have the money, they are more willing to go to large coffee chains to enjoy the atmosphere and "high-end" feeling, while office workers find it harder to have a chance to drink coffee because of the increasing pressure of survival. In recent years, Starbucks, Man Coffee and other foreign brands began to enter Zhengzhou, they rely on huge financial support, the cafe design style to the highest end, to meet the psychological needs of many people who have never come into contact with to enjoy and show off. With the emergence of these coffee shops, the survival of small cafes in Zhengzhou has further intensified.

As a result of this reality, almost all the small cafes in the city are operating at a loss, and very few are able to break even, let alone make money by selling coffee. "it's just to see who holds out for a long time."

three

A local newspaper in Henan once reported on the survival of small cafes in the city under the title "the coffee shop built in Zhengzhou has become a gust of wind in the twinkling of an eye". Some stores were transferred after opening for a year, some stores were transferred four or five times in a year, and some even closed after opening for a month.

Three years ago, it was a fad in the city to open cafes in office buildings. There were several small cafes in the office buildings of ITC 360 alone. Now, according to one public account, "these days, except for the old batch of cafes left behind, who is really going to open a cafe? it's definitely SB."

Poor business is one of the reasons why it is difficult for "many people Cafe" to survive. In Liu Bing's view, it is difficult to unify the views of shareholders, and problems in coordination are the main culprit to quickly end its life. Prior to this, Liu Bing launched in the form of crowdfunding and received responses from 99 people, who took 2000 yuan as a share, a maximum of 10 shares and a minimum of 1 share, but regardless of the number of shares, they all enjoyed the same rights with each other, adopting the ideal democratic model, that is, the so-called equality of all.

Later, she found out that it was this kind of "equality for all" that hurt "a lot of people's cafes." "everyone needs to vote on everything. I have to call or email one by one when I encounter problems. People who understand will know my difficulties, and people who don't understand will complain and complain."

This democratic management model gives a voice to many people who pay money but do not pay much attention to the cafe, and it also leads to a huge rift in the management of the cafe. Everyone wants to put their ideas into practice, but few people say they are willing to join in.

Liu Bing said that she was so tired that it was helpless to post the transfer notice of "many people's Cafe". For her, it was also a kind of relief. "in the end, I found that I didn't want to go to the store anymore, and as soon as you stepped into that place, all kinds of problems and troubles came. When the cafe was founded, everyone thought that their 'dream' had finally come true, but later on, it was not what everyone wanted. "

In addition, the "many people Cafe" business model is also problematic. At the beginning, everyone was running the store with an ideal model, hoping to find a relaxed way of life, a sense of literature and art and freshness here. Later, there are some companies continuously Liu Bing, want to contribute or join, but may want to change the development model. This was opposed by many shareholders because they did not want to be too commercialized and went against the original intention at that time. And this also determines that the end point of the "many people Cafe" must be the transfer or closure.

four

When we talked about these things in Huimin's tavern, Liu Bing would give a wry smile from time to time. She shared with me a lot of things she had never said to the media before. "at that time, it was the need for propaganda, but now it is not necessary." I like such frankness.

Huimin's tavern is named Dor, which is the same name as the cafe in the Taiwanese movie 36th Story. This is another cafe that she runs in partnership with two other friends, and the business is only mediocre, relying mainly on chartered space and other businesses to survive. Compared with the "many people Cafe", the advantage here is that the partners will compromise on a lot of things and will eventually choose the path that is most beneficial to the restaurant.

Of all the shareholders of "many people Cafe", Liu Bing is the largest shareholder, is the sponsor, and pays the most energy. Once upon a time, like taking care of her own children, she worked in the hospital every night and came to work in the store without a break during the day, like a "madman" who had been beaten with chicken blood. She cherished that time because of her attempt to let the sun shine into her dream at that time. Although the cafe is closed now, she does not think it is a failure.

Before I met Liu Bing, I had been reading a book called "staggering because of you" in the City Light Bookstore next to "many people's Cafe". The author's name was Wang Sen. I once wrote a book called "just want to Open a Cafe". In the book, Wang Sen describes some of the cafes he encountered during his inspection tour in Taiwan, and has always believed that China's coffee market has great potential, which continues to ignite the coffee shop dream in the minds of many people.

However, when I was reading this book, I thought of Liu Bing's "many people Cafe", which was founded because of this dream at that time, but finally had to come to an end. I think, is the coffee market in China really that big? Can those literary and artistic young people with dreams be able to open a cafe and live an ideal life?

"this book misleads many young people to some extent." This is the common conclusion that Liu Bing and I have come to. (end)

[editor's Note]

When I saw Liu Bing and her "many people Cafe" on the Internet, I thought it was very interesting, so I tried to contact the girl. Later, I felt a little sad when I saw it being transferred on Weibo. After thinking about it, I even want to know the whole story. Many things, really can not be supported by dreams alone, whether it is to open a coffee shop or do other things, the truth is the same. (editor / Ganqiu)