Under high temperatures, residents’ consumption is diverse： takeout is on fire, and entertainment venues are popular
Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, August 4Topic: Consumer consumption in high summer temperatures
Xinhua News Agency reporter
Many places across the country have experienced hot weather above 35 degrees Celsius one after another. In the scorching sun and sweltering heat, people have chosen to look for "coolness". As a result, residents’ living habits have begun to change, and consumer demand has also seen new trends. This summer, takeout has become popular, online shopping has flourished, and entertainment venues that are cool have exploded in popularity… Scenes of fiery scenes have hooked up the consumption patterns of residents under high temperatures.
Avoid the "hot sun" and we will consume
At the Huiju shopping mall in Beijing’s South Fifth Ring Road, after 8pm, the crowds are still busy, and some popular restaurants are hard to find. "The mall has sufficient air conditioning, entertainment services are relatively complete, customers are reluctant to cook at home, and traffic counting has increased significantly," said the person in charge of a fast food store.
At night, the front of the 1,200 snack stalls in Haikou’s 300-meter-long snack street, which has a variety of characteristics from all over the world, is full of people. "It’s too hot during the day, so I only come out at night to make up for my daytime life," said Huang Linlin, 22, who formed a long queue in front of a local time-honored "refreshing" stall.
On Shuixiangkou Street in Haikou, many snack bars open after 7pm and stay open until 1am or 2am, often "full" at midnight. The person in charge of the Haikou Night Market Association said that the traffic of night markets in July increased by about 15% month-on-month.
At a barbecue restaurant near Chengdu’s West Third Ring Road, reporters saw that the shop, which can accommodate nearly 100 people, was almost always full from the first table of customers arriving at 5:30 p.m. until nearly 10 p.m. The store’s signature dish, grilled pork belly, sells more than 1,000 skewers a day.
The owner, Deng Yong, said that the business of the barbecue restaurant is positively related to the temperature. Every year, the business starts to improve in April, increasing month by month, and reaching a peak in August.
In response to the active situation in the catering, entertainment, and cultural industries after nightfall, relevant departments in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, and other places have successively introduced policies to encourage nighttime consumption, enrich the supply of nighttime catering, culture, art, and tourism products, and innovate management models.
At the same time that the night market in Neliang is booming, takeaway is also popular, especially "hot" cold dishes and ice products. According to the latest data provided by Meituan, Ele.me and other companies, the number of takeaway orders for cold dishes such as mixed dishes, salads, cold skin, cold noodles, popsicles and ice products has increased significantly week-on-week ratio.
Beijing Hema Fresh and other new retail companies have started chilling with the help of fast picking and the whole cold chain. "This year, the ice watermelon service was launched for the first time, and customers placed an order directly online and got chilled watermelons." According to the person in charge of Hema, each Hema store is equipped with an ice-cold area. In addition to watermelon, there are also various drinks and beers, which can quickly deliver these summer products to customers.
"This year, we mainly focus on small melons, generally between 1.5kg and 2.5kg, to meet the needs of a family of three to eat melons." Zhao Ning, the relevant person in charge of Hema Fruit in Beijing, said that the ice watermelon has nearly doubled since its listing.
Cooling and sunscreen "artifacts" are sought after
According to Chufu Big Data released by Suning.com, from July 14th to 22nd, the sales volume of sunscreen, sunscreen clothing, UVCUT, parasol, sunglasses and mask anti-sun six-piece sets increased by 421%, 329%, 109%, 223%, 313% and 162% year-on-year. Taobao data shows that from July 18th to 24th, the search volume for the keyword cooling artifact rose by 208%.
The reporter learned that in Beijing, Shanghai, Haikou and other places, the sales of household appliances are crowded, and merchants have launched various promotional activities such as trade-in. Sales of air conditioners and fans are very popular.
A salesperson at an electrical appliance store in Haikou told reporters that the most people buy movable air-conditioning fans. Mr. Tu, who purchased air conditioners on site, said: "I just bought two new air conditioners, but due to the large number of people buying air conditioners, the schedule of air-conditioning installers is very full, and the installation of air conditioners will take a few days."
In Guangzhou, a handheld fan that is easy to carry, USB chargeable, and has a small and cute design has swept the market. In offices, on the road, and on buses, some people can see it everywhere as a heat-relieving device.
Cuckoo is an internet brand owned by appliance company Midea, which focuses on developing products with an internet mindset. Cuckoo launched a portable handheld fan product at the end of April this year, which is a hit because of its careful design and powerful functions. "The weather is hot this year, and many users have strong demand for outdoor summer products, and the product has been well received by the market after launch," said Han Han, the brand’s product director.
Cultural tourism thermoelectric cinema becomes a new "summer resort"
Under the high temperature, "where to go for summer vacation" has become a big problem, and the cinema that provides air-conditioning has become a new generation of "summer resort". The birth of the domestic animation "Nezha’s Devil Child" has attracted groups of audiences to the cinema.
At a movie theater in Haikou, reporters saw that the chairs in the waiting area for the movie were full. Liu Ping, a citizen, said: "The movie theater has air conditioning and can watch a good show. I just want to sleep in the movie theater."
Liu Dong, general manager of Haikou Yixin Cinema, said that since the beginning of the summer vacation, from 2 noon to 8 pm is the "prime time" for watching movies. The box office has increased by about 30% compared with usual. The weather is relatively hot, and watching movies has become an important way to entertain during the summer vacation.
The emergence of new tourist attractions has also given summer tourists a new place to go. The online travel platform Qunar launched the "2019 Summer Beijing Tourism Heat List", which shows that as the fastest growing tourist attraction this year, the Expo ranked fourth in Beijing this summer, after the Forbidden City, the Badaling Great Wall, and the Yuanmingyuan. The average price of homestays in Yanqing area rose by 41% compared with 2018. The report also shows that since the beginning of this year, the number of tourist routes on the same day of Guijie, Olympic Sports Park, and Houhai as scenic spots has increased by 30% compared with previous years, and the number of people watching concerts, listening to cross talk, and watching exhibitions at night has increased significantly compared with the same period last year. (Written by reporter Ji Ning, participated in the writing of reporters Liu Bo, Xu Ru, Zhou Rui, Mao Xin)