The first 24-hour cafe in Beijing turned off the last light.

This is a bit of a special cafe "closing ceremony". The store closed is the first 24-hour cafe in Beijing, located on the second floor of Sanlian Taofen Bookstore.

Open 24 hours a day is the longest confession a cafe has ever expressed in a gentle way.

Two days ago, the first 24-hour cafe in Beijing turned off its last light and held a warm closing ceremony.

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A special closing ceremony

At 10:00 on the evening of April 25th, the staff on duty pressed the switch and the lights of the cafe went out.

The guests at the scene sighed.

▲ 's first 24-hour cafe in Beijing is closed

This is a bit of a special cafe "closing ceremony". The store closed is the first 24-hour cafe in Beijing, located on the second floor of Sanlian Taofen Bookstore.

The latter is the first 24-hour bookstore in Beijing, and Premier Li Keqiang once wrote, "I hope you will turn the 24-hour bookstore into a spiritual landmark of the city."

The cafe, which was opened in April 2014 by Sanlian Bookstore and Sculpture time Coffee based on the framework, has been 3 years old.

The news of doing a "closing ceremony" for a store began to circulate frantically in the coffee circle a few days ago. It's hard not to think of the special divorce ceremony in the movie if you are the one 2.

The tweet said sadly that the last opening time would be 10:00 on April 25th because of the overall adjustment and renovation of Sanlian Bookstore.

▲ shop closure notice

At 8 o'clock in the evening, the shop was full of wind-smelling guests. Most of them are regular customers, and everyone is talking in a low voice. Zhuang Yueli, the founder of carving time, also came from the airport to greet the guests.

Many regular customers of ▲ came to the wind and held a small closing ceremony.

Zhuang Yueli, founder of ▲ carving time, also came to attend.

The photos on the ▲ wall record the past of the cafe.

The sign on the wall reads: farewell is just for a better reunion. Guests took turns sharing stories with the 24-hour cafe and bookstore, with the host joking and laughing. It was supposed to be a sad moment, but the store was full of happy air.

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Cafes and bookstores: a difficult state of existence

A loyal regular customer recalled that on the first day of the cafe's opening three years ago, the staircase leading to the ground floor was full of people, and by 5 a.m., it was still full.

The compound operation of the coffee shop and the bookstore was described in the previous cooperation as: complement each other. The two have a high degree of agreement in cultural identity, and cafes have always been the birthplace of some cultural thoughts.

The cultural enlightenment, which spread all over the world in the 18th century, was the result of literati talking in cafes. The same is true in China. In the 1920s, Lu Xun's favorite, the famous "League of the left", was born at the "public coffee" cafe near Hongkou Park in Shanghai.

But the timing is different.

Zhuang Yili said that in his early years, it was easy to make money by opening a cafe next to the university.

When the time point of ▲ changes, it will be different.

But with the massive invasion of business competitors such as Starbucks, the livelihood of cafes has become difficult, and it is no longer a simple small business. In order to survive, we must do some commercial, large-scale operation and considerations.

For more self-employed operators, the cafe has a low turnover rate, a low unit price, a small base of customers in the market, and high investment in the early stage, which makes it known as the most difficult form in the catering industry.

Other worries come from landlords and policies. Earlier, Beijing began to renovate the neighborhood environment in some areas, and some independent bookstores and cafes that had been operating for more than a decade closed.

Private bookstores are also going through a difficult time. In the 1990s, independent bookstores such as Wansheng Book Garden and Fengjinsong were set up in Beijing and became holy places for academic and cultural circles. Nationwide, bookstores such as Nanjing Pioneer, Guizhou Sisyver and Shanghai monsoon emerged.

▲ Halloween Book Garden

Most of these bookstores are run by scholars or literati. When the state-owned bookstores are keen on the profitability of primary and secondary school teaching materials, they spontaneously assume the responsibility for the publication and circulation of academic books.

According to an article in Curiosity Daily, Chinese mainland built at least 1500 to 1600 independent bookstores between 1995 and 1998. However, seven years later, 3/4 of these bookstores have closed or transformed for a variety of reasons.

The main problem lies in the profit model. With the impact of the Internet, relying on retail books to support the operation of private bookstores has become more and more difficult.

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Compound operation or a new way out

The combination of cafes and bookstores is one way out. Chuang Chi-li says that the performance of this store is better than that of ordinary stores, and then there will be an opportunity to try to match with the bookstore.

But the new model that is more popular now is the compound operation of Fangsuo, Eslite Bookstore and so on.

In fact, it's hard to say what it is: books, coffee, creative products, and even clothing.

This kind of compound cafe is becoming the new standard in shopping centers. Shopping malls bring natural flow to bookstores and cafes, while the latter feed shopping malls through multiple formats and a sense of culture, thus getting relatively low rents.

The compound operation of ▲ Bookstore has become the popular new business type.

People wander around here, and the longer they stay, the more likely they are to spend. Smart real estate developers call this model a "timetable for managing consumers."

In Zhuang Yili's view, this has become another thing. Just like the sculpture time he founded, "2 or 3 small shops are the most comfortable."

When the capital entered, under the competition and catalysis of the market, running a cafe has become a systematic and complicated business behavior. He is not good at it and mocks himself as a "half-fooled manager".

In any case, they are no longer cultural people in the traditional sense, they must also be intelligent businessmen.

Accompanied by crowds and hustle and bustle, 10:00 in the evening arrived. The guests went out one after another and the clerk turned off the lights.