The vegetable market is the most smoky place in the city.
However, in recent years, with the rise and development of the market and online shopping, the traditional vegetable market faces many difficulties in its operation.
A set of data from the Vegetable Market Branch of the Municipal Commodity Exchange Market Association shows that in 2022, there were 575 vegetable markets in the city, with 41,780 businesses and 78,779 employees, with a total transaction volume of 34.9 billion yuan. Compared with 2021, the number of markets decreased by 58, the number of business households decreased by 28,654, the number of employees decreased by 45,000, and the transaction volume decreased by 11.6%.
What kind of consumption changes are reflected behind this trend? In the face of the new situation, how should the traditional vegetable market transform to seek a breakthrough and enhance the competitiveness of the industry?
On October 26th, the Municipal Commodity Exchange Market Association and the Municipal Agricultural Products Group jointly hosted a seminar on the innovation and development of Chongqing’s urban vegetable market, and invited representatives from the Municipal Commission of Commerce, the Municipal Market Supervision Bureau, the Municipal Supply and Marketing Corporation and other relevant service providers of the vegetable market to participate in the seminar, so as to jointly provide ideas and suggestions for the transformation and development of the traditional vegetable market.
There are two main reasons
The scale of traditional vegetable market has shrunk.
For a long time, the traditional vegetable market, as the main place for citizens to buy ingredients, has been loved by the people with its geographical advantages of many points and wide range and fresh, cheap and complete products. Although in recent years, large supermarkets have risen one after another, the core position of food trading in farmers’ markets has not been changed.
So what caused the scale of traditional vegetable market to shrink?
Li ke, general manager of Chongqing Supply and Marketing Fresh Chain Co., Ltd. analyzed that this is because both buyers and sellers have changed.
"First of all, the buyer has changed." Li ke said that the consumer groups who used to visit the vegetable market gradually grew old, and the main force of buying vegetables was replaced by the post-80 s and post-90 s. "This group of people grew up in the Internet era and were used to online consumption, and their sensitivity to agricultural product prices decreased. When the e-commerce platform for agricultural products developed one after another, it complied with their consumption habits, and the space of traditional vegetable markets was naturally squeezed."
From the seller’s point of view, the same is true. In the crowded market, many young people are no longer willing to engage in the traditional vegetable selling industry. "Many’ second generation vegetables’ are unwilling to take over. Who will rent our market to operate?" Li ke said.
In addition, most of the traditional vegetable markets have been operating for many years, and the facilities and equipment are gradually aging and the environment is not clean enough, which is also an important reason for the decline in consumer attractiveness.
Traditional vegetable market is irreplaceable.
But we should actively seek change.
While the scale of the traditional vegetable market is shrinking, e-commerce platforms and community group purchases are developing rapidly, and even catching up with the market is becoming increasingly popular, and roadside stalls selling vegetables are also common.
Despite this, Luo Dawen, president of the Vegetable Market Branch of the Municipal Commodity Exchange Market Association, still believes that the position of the traditional vegetable market is irreplaceable, but it should actively seek change in line with the development of the times.
Luo Dawen said that the vegetable market is an important carrier of the "vegetable basket" project and an important window of urban civilization, and plays an important role in meeting the daily needs of citizens, resettling employment, ensuring supply and stabilizing prices. In particular, the policy support has been increasing, and its main channel status and public welfare role are irreplaceable.
Relying on its own advantages, actively embracing e-commerce and realizing online and offline integrated development are considered to be the inevitable trend of innovation and development of the vegetable market.
"By linking the e-commerce platform, merchants can increase their profits and provide consumers with more efficient and convenient services, thus reversely draining the offline vegetable market." Luo Dawen said.
In this regard, Cailaobao (Chongqing) Technology Co., Ltd. has explored a road of integrated development. Founded in 2016, Cailaobao now operates 7 farmers’ markets. Taking the farmer’s market as the carrier and relying on the take-away platform, Cailaobao has become an operator supplying fresh agricultural products. Today, its market share in the take-away fresh food sector of large e-commerce platforms such as Meituan and Hungry is over 40%.
At the same time, under the online farmer’s market, Cai Laobao actively planned related activities for drainage. For example, Ranjiaba Store, a subsidiary of Anxin Food Market, held a "Pepper as a friend, you are my dish" flash event in Chinese Valentine’s Day, which attracted a large number of young consumers, and the daily passenger flow exceeded 8,000.
The vegetable market should form a joint force
Seeking resource integration and chain development
At the meeting, many people in the industry mentioned the chain of vegetable market.
Li ke said that compared with e-commerce platform and community group buying, the traditional vegetable market has its own unique advantages: merchant resources.
After years of operation and development, there are many merchants’ resources behind every farmer’s market. If we can integrate resources, warm up and complement each other’s advantages, we can greatly reduce operating costs.
At the same time, because the farmers’ market is a regional consumption place, the chain development can largely avoid the problem of horizontal competition.
Luo Dawen said that the chain development of the vegetable market can integrate supply resources through operating entities or leading merchants, and establish a more perfect supply chain system such as unified procurement, joint procurement, direct procurement at the base, distribution and distribution. It can also expand enterprises, institutions, school canteens, restaurants and other customers to provide lunch boxes and fresh ingredients, which will help the vegetable market to enhance its core competitiveness and reduce circulation costs.
"In the chain development model, we can also explore the incubation of chain merchants. Just like every shopping mall has Starbucks, KFC and other businesses, the development and growth of these merchants can bring people to the market." Li ke said.
In addition, at the meeting, some practitioners also mentioned the transformation of traditional vegetable market and the integration of service formats, such as relying on the transformation of traditional vegetable market and introducing hairdressing, dyeing and maintenance formats, which can not only improve the supporting functions of community public services, but also serve residents’ lives in depth and gather popularity for the vegetable market.
Our reporter Li Yuanyuan