The cultural atmosphere of Shanghai Cafe

The design has ingenuity to create a classical flavor.

When my friends come to Shanghai from abroad or other cities, I like to take them to a cafe on the 31-story high-rise on the Bund. I hear them marvel at how they can look out from the floor-to-ceiling windows and have a panoramic view of the modern high-rise buildings in Lujiazui and the classical buildings in Puxi at the same time. The reason is very simple. The Huangpu River turned a corner at the foot.

I know that this is the biggest "business eye" of Shanghai Cafe-creating an atmosphere with environment and atmosphere. To borrow a classic joke, the cafes in Shanghai are absolutely romantic, but the coffee is not necessarily good.

When famous cafe brands from all over the world come to China, the first stop is usually Shanghai.

How many cafes are there in Shanghai? No one can tell.

Just like the perennial "mash-up" style of street fashion, cafes and bars in Shanghai often live in one room, even cafes during the day and bars at night. One figure says that there are more than 5000 cafes and bars in Shanghai, while another says that foreigners account for 30 per cent of Shanghai's cafes.

Miss Xia Ling, who introduced the classic American coffee brand thecoffeebeanery to China three years ago, said that she once asked an American industrial psychologist to do market research in China for a year. She traveled to almost all large and medium-sized cities in the country and found that Shanghai was more suitable for the development of cafes than any other city in China.

I've been to Europe and heard the phrase "I'm not in a coffee shop, I'm on my way to a coffee shop". In the streets of Paris, I have seen many people who put a cup of coffee on the table and sit quietly watching the street view, which is their enjoyment. Xia Ling said that unlike Americans and Europeans who drink coffee, they are more likely to buy it and leave. If they sit down, they will get a refill for less than $1. Xia Ling likes to talk to guests in the store. I read out not only the details of coffee from Shanghainese, but also some of the ways of running Shanghai cafes.

Xia Ling has three cafes in Shanghai, the largest one on the first floor of the Shanghai Grand Theater, which is very lively as long as there is a performance, and those foreign actors even come several times a day. Not far away is the Shanghai Museum, where some foreign friends are looking for cafes everywhere and will be overjoyed to find that the house opened by Xia Ling, with their familiar coffee cup logo, will come straight in for a drink.

Customers usually like to ask a few questions when they come into the store. Ask, "how many are there in Shanghai?" Most of them are Shanghainese, who trust the chain operation of big brands more. I heard that there are 300 stores in the world and 3 in Shanghai, and they will basically stay and spend. Xia Ling said that in the future, they may reach 50 stores across the country, all of which are directly operated stores. Xia Ling believes that the advantage of brands is that they do not have to explore their own ways to start from scratch, and can best retain brand-conscious customers in cities like Shanghai.

If it is a female customer, she may then ask, "how long has this brand been?" When they heard that it had been nearly 30 years, they relieved to look at the menu and wondered how there could be more than 30 kinds of coffee. They did not know that there were more than 130 varieties of this brand abroad. If they were male customers, they might ask, "can I smoke?" If not, most of them will turn around and leave. Xia Ling's approach is to create a strong air-exhaust smoking area.

In this way, there are more and more cafes in Shanghai, and foreigners who love coffee can find coffee from all over the world in Shanghai. I have also heard that cafes are one of the necessary facilities for the World Expo. It has been predicted that at least 40,000 cups of coffee will be consumed every day during the Shanghai World Expo, and more cafes will be opened in Shanghai. It seems that romantic cafes will increasingly become a scenery on the streets of Shanghai.