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Amid Tough Times, Chinese Delicacies Take a Price Cut
2009年3月11日
Shanghai has a new cha chaan teng — the Hong Kong term for modest eateries where locals stop in for snacks or a milk tea. This one has bigger ambitions. It serves abalone, shark's fin soup and bird's nests, three of the most exclusive foods in Chinese cuisine. Two large seafood vendors from Asia opened the pilot store in January and plan to expand the restaurant chain up to 100 outlets in China and other Asian cities by the end of 2010.
Upscale retailers all around the world have increasingly relied on the cut-rate strategies to keep recession-weary customers. Late last year, the Saks Fifth Avenue in the U.S. slashed prices by 70% on designer clothes before the Christmas season. Heavyweight brands including Gucci and Prada were also offering discounts in exclusive shops as high as 50%, shocking the top fashion world.
Luxury companies have mostly avoided price-cutting in still-growing China, though many shops are now offering free gifts and some department stores are offering overall discounts. But where the cuts have come, they seem to have come to food — a cultural touchstone for a nation proud of its acumen in the kitchen.
At the Ar Yat Tian Xia restaurant, abalone, the signature ingredient on the menu, is offered in a variety of dishes and set meal with average spending of 50 yuan per person. Among the most expensive is a set meal of shark's fin soup with abalone priced 68 yuan and an abalone, bird's nest and shark fin set costs 99 yuan . The average price of a cooked abalone in regular seafood restaurants here is 500 yuan .
Abalone, a kind of edible sea snail, is a highly prized and expensive ingredient in Chinese cuisine. When the former U.S. President Nixon visited China in 1972 after 20 years of frosty relations between the two countries, the then Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai fed his delegation with one metric ton of abalone captured by Chinese divers from the deep waters near Dalian.
'We have experienced recessions before. We know young people will keep spending. The key is to have an attractive price,' said Ng Cher Yew, chairman of the Singapore-listed Oceanus Group, which is a controlling owner of the restaurant. As one of the largest abalone producers in the world, Oceanus will guarantee the huge supplies of fresh abalones for the restaurants. The Shanghai store alone now consumes roughly 1,000 abalones a month.
Ng Kwong Fung, the managing director of Ah Yat Abalone Group, the other partner and no relation to Ng Cher Yew, said that the new restaurant is targeting urban middle class with average annual income of 60,000 yuan . Mr. Ng runs another 23 upscale seafood restaurants in Asia, including Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Shanghai.
'Amid the financial crisis, it's difficult to hold up the businesses at big restaurants. Snacks are less affected,' said Mr. Ng of Ar Yat Abalone. He said that the sales of Ar Yat Abalone seafood restaurants worldwide have declined about 10% in the past months.
To cut costs, the two companies also set up a separate joint venture to run a central kitchen unit which supplies the snack restaurant chains with semi-prepared food. Both companies are hoping that the new snack business could tide them over the tough year.
Analysts said that in the long run, cheapening luxury products risks ruining images of exclusive brands and lowering the future price expectation of consumers. 'The higher the value is, the better the sales will be. Luxury brands lose everything if losing the value,' said Michael Ouyang, the China representative of the World Luxury Association.
But so far most customers have posted positive feedback on dianping.com, a popular restaurant review Web site.
On one recent evening, Jenny Wu and her husband took the subway and visited the restaurant after work. 'I think it's a very good business model. It makes more people to be able to enjoy the tasteful food. I will come back with my friends and parents,' said Ms. Wu, a 30-year-old administrator at a Chinese company. She ordered the special set for the day: a 58-yuan set with abalone and shark fin soup.
时世多艰难，珍馐降身价
茶餐厅是人们顺路停下来享用点心或奶茶的餐饮场所。不过，上海新开的一家茶餐厅却有更高的追求。这里供应中餐里的三大名贵菜式：鲍鱼、鱼翅羹和燕窝。亚洲的两家大型海鲜供应商1月开了这家试点店，并计划到2010年底将在中国和其他亚洲城市的连锁店增加到最多100家。
全球高端零售商都越来越依靠降价策略来留住遭受经济衰退打击的客户。去年年底，美国的Saks Fifth Avenue在圣诞购物季之前将品牌服装价格降了70%。古驰、普拉达等重量级品牌也在专卖店推出了50%的折扣，在顶级时装界掀起轩然大波。
Ellen Zhu 鲍鱼鱼翅羹奢侈品公司大多并未在经济仍然增长的中国推出降价举措，不过许多商店现在都派送免费礼品，一些商场提供总体的折扣。如果有降价的话，似乎都是在饮食行业－－在一个以其烹饪技艺而自豪的国家，这么做也很自然。
在这家名为阿一天下的餐厅，菜单上用招牌食材鲍鱼制作的有各种菜式和套餐，人均消费为人民币50元（约合6.40美元）。最贵的有68元（合8.70美元）的鲍鱼鱼翅羹套餐和99元（合12.70美元）的燕鲍翅套餐。此地普通海鲜餐厅烹调好的鲍鱼平均价格为人民币500元（合64美元）。
鲍鱼是一种可食海生贝类，在中国烹饪中属于高档食物材。1972年，时任美国总统的尼克松在美中关系陷入僵局20多年后首次访问中国，当时的中国国务院总理周恩来以中国潜水员从大连附近深海捕捞的1吨鲍鱼招待尼克松一行。
阿一天下控股方、新加坡上市公司欧圣集团的董事长黄子耀说，我们以前也经历过衰退。我们知道年轻人还是会继续消费，关键是价格要有诱惑力。作为全球最大的鲍鱼生产商之一，欧圣将保证旗下餐厅所需大量鲜活鲍鱼的供应。仅上海这一家餐厅现在每月就要消耗大约1,000只鲍鱼。
合作方阿一鲍鱼集团的董事总经理Ng Kwong Fung说，新餐馆的目标客户是年收入6万元的城市中产阶级。Ng Kwong Fung还在亚洲的新加坡、马来西亚、印度尼西亚、香港和上海等地经营23家高档海鲜餐厅。
Ng Kwong Fung说，在金融危机的情况下，大餐厅的业务很难维持，而快餐受到的影响较小。他说过去几个月阿一鲍鱼在全球的海鲜餐馆销售额下滑了10%左右。
为了削减成本，两家公司还建立了一个单独的合资企业，经营一个中央厨房，为快餐餐馆连锁供应半成品食物。两家公司都希望新的快餐业务能让它们度过难关。
分析师们说，从长远看，高档商品降价会有损害高级品牌形象、降低客户将来的价格预期的风险。世界奢侈品协会（World Luxury Association)驻中国代表欧阳坤说，价值越高，销售情况就会更好，奢侈品牌一旦丧失价值就丧失了一切。
但到目前为止，热门的餐馆点评网站大众点评网上的大多数顾客都给出了不错的反馈。
不久前的一天晚上，30岁的Jenny Wu和丈夫下班后乘地铁来到这家餐馆。在一家中国公司任管理人员的Jenny Wu说，我觉得这是一种很好的商业模式，它让更多的人得以享受美食，我会跟朋友和父母再来的。她点了当天的特选套餐：58元的鲍鱼鱼翅汤套餐。
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发表于 2016-8-12 16:30:42