Coffee Culture, "Black philosophy" in Shopping Mall

In November 1699, Ambassador Suleiman Arya came to Paris, except for Louis XIV, whose hat was embedded with diamonds worth 14 million gold coins at Versailles. It also started a "coffee diplomacy".

Later people described that period of history as follows: "the people here were immediately fascinated by the Turk." He happily received the guests and entertained people to taste coffee according to the customs of his motherland. In the high society of Paris, the first sip of coffee is bitter to everyone, but it is well worth it to experience the pleasures of the exotic world in the far East. "

From then on, coffee became popular in the high society of Paris.

Like alcohol and tea, coffee originally relied on social situations, but soon became a favorite of poets and artists. This is a special object. A kind of cloud curled up above it. It does not belong to the material, when the spiritual category, full of mysterious nobility. The fragrance is only on its floating surface. Its inherent charm is tempting to talk about.

Nearly a hundred years later, a man named Desang Pierre returned from the Indian Ocean island of Layunivan. He heard that the thinker Rousseau liked coffee and had "no luxury but coffee", so he gave Rousseau a small bag. Immediately, Rousseau's reply came:

"I just got to know you, but you gave me something in return. In this way, our communication has become a completely inappropriate relationship. Because of my financial resources, I have no room to give an answer. So, either get your coffee back, or never see each other again, please choose to look forward to it. "

At that time, Rousseau had just been banned from the cafe by the police, but the value of a small bag of coffee could still make him give the sensitive option of breaking up with others. At this time, coffee is still a status symbol.

Nearly a hundred years later, in 1884, coffee was introduced into Taiwan, but Chinese people are used to the mellow aroma of tea and find it difficult to accept the "strange taste" of coffee as a foreign drink in their eating habits. therefore, the development of coffee has been extremely slow for quite a long time after it entered China. Then, as Chinese consumers become more and more knowledgeable, their dietary needs continue to evolve, showing a trend of increasing diversity and high-end. Consumers began to regard coffee as a living habit and become an indispensable element in their lives.

Businessmen began to look at the value behind coffee from a commercial point of view. Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, said: "judging from the demographic changes in China, this group of consumers is large and growing. At present, there are about 100 to 300 million mainstream coffee consumers in the city. And with the increase in per capita income, the number of people traveling abroad is increasing, and so is the awareness of coffee culture. " When Starbucks opened its first store in Beijing in 1999, almost all of its customers were foreigners and returnees. Today, the majority of Starbucks stores in China are domestic consumers, and most of them are old customers, and new customers are also growing. According to Starbucks' results, the number of Starbucks stores in China has increased sharply since 2012, opening a new store almost every day in 2014, compared with the downward trend in other regions. China has become the fastest-growing market for Starbucks stores. And this growth has only just begun. Data show that China's per capita annual coffee consumption is 5 cups, which is far lower than the annual per capita level of about 300 cups in Japan and South Korea.

From the beginning, coffee has been a cultural symbol. In terms of affordability, most coffee shops in the prime area of the mall outweigh the gain: many customers spend most of the day with a cup of coffee. Many shopping malls even do not charge a fixed rent for coffee chains, but use running water to earn the harvest, with a percentage of only 8% and 12%. But there are still more and more coffee shops in the shopping center. In the domestic core cities, it has become the norm for regional shopping centers to have 4-5 coffee shops, and community shopping centers will also have 2 or 3 coffee brands. There are at least 4 coffee brands in Beijing SKP, and coffee shops have them on every floor. Because many shopping center operators have found that the cultural connotation and commercial value brought by a coffee shop has far exceeded the space in the store.

A multicultural experience store

An interesting phenomenon: almost all coffee shops do not seek to be consistent with the style of their surroundings, they always try their best to give people a unique experience without violating it.

In 1672, the first coffee shop on the streets of Paris was run by Armenians, but it was deserted. Later, according to the idea that a Persian called the cafe a "school of acquaintance" in his hometown, he moved the shop to a place where intellectuals gathered, and it was finally accepted.

Coffee shops have the special value of trendy food channels in shopping malls. For consumers, diet is a rigid demand and high-frequency consumption. As the old Chinese saying goes, "food is the most important thing for the people", diet has always been the focus of people's attention, and most Chinese people are willing to "explore" for food. The sense of experience in shopping malls is something that consumers care about very much, and the diversity of food styles is also an indispensable part. The popularity of coffee culture makes consumers' demand for coffee more exuberant, some Western-style food and beverage take advantage of coffee brands, stationed in the shopping center is to enrich the variety of food and beverage to meet the performance of diversified dietary needs. Unlike a bowl of instant noodles that used to be a breakfast, people now prefer to have a cup of coffee with a sandwich for breakfast. Life is becoming more and more refined and food is becoming more and more fastidious. We can call this phenomenon consumption escalation. With the improvement of living standards, people begin to focus on improving the quality of life, and the popularity of coffee culture is a symbol of the significant improvement of the quality of life.

Located on the ground floor of DubaiMall in Dubai, Vogue Cafe is a fashionable restaurant under the Vogue brand. It presents the complexity, elegance and charm of magazines to customers in the form of international cuisine, so it is favored by fashionistas. There are white roses on the table, and this pure tone may also be waiting for the next guest to walk in from Breakfast at Tiffany's in a Chanel classic little black dress. What to eat here is no longer the most important, here conveys a kind of lifestyle called fashion, exquisite and elegant life, that is, the world brought by Vogue.

A distribution center for social needs

VictorGruen, the father of modern shopping malls, once said, "you have to let people who only shop but don't buy push open your door and come in." Just by taking this crucial step, he changed from a window consumer to a real customer. A good store facade will make it easier for a customer to take this step, or even make him unaware that he has taken this step. " This sentence describes the business methods of the Austrian people in the old times. similarly, it also reveals a kind of consumer psychology of modern consumers. I want to walk into your shopping center. What can it bring me? why should I take this step? Many people come to the mall not for what they need to buy, but more often like a public community. People come here not to spend directly, but to enjoy life, and life itself drives consumption. As a result, the shopping mall gives us a new concept, and it is actually a distribution center for people to meet their social needs.

The arrival of the coffee brand is to add fire to this social center and make its social attributes more obvious. When you come to the mall with your friends, it is necessary to exchange feelings, and the noisy environment of the mall is not suitable for a long conversation. In this situation, you will need a relatively private environment. As a light meal, the establishment of the coffee shop is to meet the needs of consumers, it does not have the heavy characteristics of other types of food and beverage, the environment is more elegant and quiet, suitable for conversation. At this time, whether the coffee is good or not is not the most important, but the consumption environment is more important.

In France, the first popular coffee shop was opened by Procobo de Gueldello, a Sicilian. Procobo, who knows three things about coffee, has successively introduced ice cream coffee, black tea coffee, and transformed a public bath into a luxurious social paradise, establishing the status of coffee in France. In order to shatter the rumors that coffee hindered sexual ability in British and French women at that time, he also had 12 children with his two wives. This is the Procco Shop, which opened in 1689, became famous in Paris and even became a symbol of the Enlightenment.