Fat Donglai, known as "the first supermarket in China", is experiencing happy troubles.
Due to the recent explosion of fire, Fat East has attracted a lot of "purchasing". These people queued up early and snapped up all the hot goods when they entered the door. It is not uncommon for a person to guard more than a dozen shopping carts, which seriously affected the buying experience of normal customers. "It’s all about purchasing, and entering the door is like charging." "The happiness of local people is gone." A Xuchang netizen expressed his dissatisfaction.
But this does not affect the popularity of the "purchasing" business at all. Someone set up a stall in front of the supermarket, and a box of beer in 60 yuan was directly sold in 20 yuan at a higher price. Others hung the robbed goods on the online mall and started a "second-hand fat east". On an e-commerce platform, there are hundreds of results in the search for "Fat Donglai Purchasing". A beer from Fat Donglai was sold for 18,000 orders at twice the price.
Even the purchasing fee has been invented. According to a purchasing person, the purchasing fee for goods below 100 yuan is around 10 yuan, while the purchasing fee for rare goods such as tea can reach 100 yuan.
On April 5, Fat Donglai issued a statement demanding that these "second-hand Fat Donglai" shops stop infringing, but with little effect. The offline processing method is also unsatisfactory-because Fat Donglai can’t distinguish between normal customers and purchasing personnel, he can only take measures to limit purchases, and both sides are not pleased.
In desperation, Yu Donglai, the founder of Fat Donglai, directly turned to netizens for help in Tik Tok: "Let’s discuss what good solutions are available, including friends who are purchasing, and let’s move towards beauty together."
Why are there so many purchases in Fat East? This also starts with the explosion of fire from the fat east.
#01
become widely known
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Fat Donglai was first hotly debated in 2021. In April 2021, a milk tea product of "0 sucrose" under Yuanqi Forest was proved to contain sugar, which attracted a lot of abuse. After getting the news, Fat Donglai immediately removed all the products of Yuanqi Forest, and it was not until the "0 sucrose" on the package was changed to "low sugar" that it was put back on the shelf. After this move was posted online, Fat Donglai quickly rushed to the hot search, and the image of "Conscience Enterprise" was initially known by the whole network.
The further explosion of Pangdonglai was in 2023.
First of all, in a salary picture of a fat man from the East circulated on the Internet in March last year, a subsidy named "grievance award" attracted everyone’s attention. As the name implies, the "grievance award" is the compensation for employees who have been wronged. The picture shows that the compensation amount is 5000-8000 yuan. Although Pang Donglai responded that the "grievance award" does exist, but it is not so high. Actually, it is 500-5,000 yuan, but it really envies netizens. Some people ridiculed: "Going to work in Pang Donglai does not require salary, as long as you are wronged twice a month."
This was followed by the "eight-page investigation report" incident in June last year. Because a customer had a dispute with an employee from Fat East, Fat East released an 8-page investigation report, in which the cause, process and result of the dispute were written in great detail, and the most admirable thing was the handling result-
Pang Donglai admitted that there were problems in the service process, and decided to demote all the managers for three months, and brought gifts and service complaint prizes from 500 yuan to apologize to customers. But at the same time, Pang Donglai thinks that although the customer’s rights and interests have been damaged, he did not choose to feedback the problem through the complaint channel, but blamed the employees loudly on the spot, which caused serious harm to the personality and dignity of the employees. Therefore, Fat Donglai decided to give employees a mental compensation of 5,000 yuan.
This result of "respecting and caring for customers, but definitely not at the expense of belittling employees" has been well received. Some netizens said: "Let’s not talk about who is right or wrong, but it is the first time to see such a detailed investigation report on the Internet."
A similar investigation report also appeared in a "taste storm" in February this year. On February 15th, a video on the Internet showed that when an employee from Fat East was cooking a staff meal in the back kitchen, the chopsticks that he tasted noodles were directly stirred in the pot without changing the washing. In this regard, Fat Donglai quickly produced a 13-page investigation report, which finally decided: "Let the employees involved adjust their positions, but they can continue to work in Fat Donglai."
But the most touching thing in this matter is not the result, but the process. According to the report, this result is a democratic resolution that two voting schemes are jointly worked out from four groups of treatment schemes and then handed over to employees for voting. What is even more unexpected is that Fat Donglai also explained the specific reasons for the two voting schemes in the report, especially in the cause analysis, which was full of reflections on the company’s system problems, rather than personal criticism of employees, which was well-founded and convincing.
It is these consecutive events that have made Fat Donglai completely out of the circle, and now a small matter can cause great concern. This is evidenced by two hot searches: Yu Donglai said recently that "forcing employees to please customers is immoral", he denounced the culture of "overtime", and then "Fat East allows employees to sit and read books when they are not busy" and "Let employees become people with independent personality".
The most amazing thing is that no one thinks that Fat East came by luck. On the contrary, in the eyes of most people, Fat East should have been on fire long ago.
#02
Why is it from the fat east?
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In 1995, when Fat Donglai was just established in Xuchang, Henan Province, it was at a time when counterfeiting was prevalent. However, Yu Donglai, the founder of Fat Donglai, promised never to sell fake goods as soon as he came up, and also made a slogan of "Return if you are not satisfied". As a result, the business was so good that "it was too late to put the money in the drawer, put a box on the ground, and throw it directly into the box with your feet".
● The predecessor of Pangdonglai/Wangyuelou Pangzi Store
But if that’s all, then Fat East is just a supermarket that can make money. What really makes Fat Donglai a legend in the industry is the implementation of the "people-oriented" corporate culture after 1998, which is used in Donglai’s own words: "I have to let my employees have no worries in life."
In 1998, in order to protect several female employees in the store from being harassed by the underworld, Yu Donglai was retaliated by the underworld. Overnight, Pangdonglai was completely burned by the fire, and eight employees from Pangdonglai died on the spot.
This is the "315 Extraordinary Arson Case" that shocked Xuchang that year. This incident was a great blow to Donglai, but the local people encouraged him and hoped that he would cheer up. A strange old lady said to him, "Son, don’t stand up because of this. If you have no money, your uncle and I have saved more than 20 thousand yuan." I’ll bring it to you if you want to use it. "
The trust of Xuchang people made Yu Donglai start again, and also made him secretly swear: "No matter whether Fat East comes to earn money or not, in order to repay the feelings of the masses, we should also do our work well."
This determination is reflected in the future employee treatment of Fat Donglai.
One is the salary of employees. The salary of employees from Fat East is more than twice the local average salary. Front-line employees such as sales and security also have various commissions and subsidies. Now a cleaner from Fat East can earn 40,000 to 50,000 yuan a year. In addition to wages, there is also a company profit dividend. Since 2000, Yu Donglai has decided to distribute the profits to employees. From the beginning, he took out 50% of the profits and gradually increased it, and now it has become 95%. Yu Donglai always told the boss who came to study that if he couldn’t give 50% of the profits to his employees, it would be useless to study.
The other is employee leave. Fat Donglai stipulated very early that the working hours should not exceed 7 hours. "If the middle and senior managers are still in the company after 18:00, they will be fined 5,000 yuan at a time." When deciding to close the store every Tuesday in 2012, Yu Donglai asked the shareholders that if the annual profit is 200 million, closing the store every Tuesday will lose 70 million, then we "want profit or happiness". As a result, the shareholders all said that we should be happy. After 2014, Yu Donglai forced employees to take four weeks paid leave every year. He said: "It is to let employees go out to play, rest at home and relax themselves. This is to make employees happy."
This is a business world where "squeezing" employees has become a common phenomenon, but Fat Donglai has made employees feel happy and respected by violating business intuition. As a result, everyone treats customers with excellent service, and finally brings customers an excellent shopping experience.
There is a joke circulating in the industry: With the Fat Donglai supermarket as the center, 2 kilometers in Fiona Fang is the "supermarket cemetery". It means that as long as there is a fat east, the supermarket next to it can’t live. A typical example is that after Fat Donglai opened in Xinxiang in 2005, the local three supermarkets, Dennis, Century Lianhua and Wal-Mart, closed down one after another in a few years.
Another thing is that when Fat Donglai was preparing to withdraw from Xinxiang in 2016 because of the increase in rent, Xinxiang citizens and local deputy mayors came forward to retain him, which made Fat Donglai choose to change his address to reopen, and it was crowded on the opening day, and a large number of traffic police came to maintain order.
Dennis, Century Lianhua and Wal-Mart are all famous giants. In 2016, there were a large number of e-commerce companies such as Taobao, JD.COM and Pinduoduo. But why do local people love Fat East?
The answer is probably a cliche: service.
It is not without reason that Fat Donglai is called "Haidilao in the supermarket industry". Before entering the door, the parking lot is ready with a canopy, and there is a pet storage room at the door. There are all kinds of places for pets to eat and drink Lazar, and even a love station for sanitation workers to drink water for free. The service inside the supermarket is more thoughtful, with a bench on the shopping cart. If you are tired, sit down and have a rest. The configuration of the bathroom is also comprehensive, and there are never many hand creams and hair bands on the sink; Customers don’t have to be afraid to buy too much, because there are often supermarket staff to help them put them on the car …
In fact, "service" is not a business secret, but "service" is a matter closely related to "people". As a netizen said, "How can an employee who doesn’t feel respect and happiness provide services that make others feel respect and happiness?"
#03
Fat east, can you copy it?
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In recent years, there has always been a question around the Fat East: Can the Fat East be copied? Why didn’t there be a second Fat East?
As we all know, the profit rate of retail industry is not high, but the gross profit rate from Fat East is at a high level in the industry. In 2020, for example, the gross profit margin of Yonghui Supermarket is 21.37%, but it can reach 30% from Fat East. Then, how does Fat Donglai achieve high profits at such a high labor cost?
This is about its strong supply chain integration ability. In the early days, Fat Donglai joined forces with three retail enterprises, namely Xinyang West Asia, Nanyang Wandelong and Luoyang Dazhang, to reduce the purchase price of many commodities by 30%-50% year-on-year, so that he could continue to make profits and grow. After becoming famous, Fat Donglai further maintained its strong bargaining power with its huge sales volume and influence.
On this basis, Fat Donglai has launched its own brands in baking, fresh food, home and other categories, such as Explosicum cake, Xuemei Niang and other hot desserts, all from its own bread brand-Drikos bakery. Compared with purchasing goods directly from suppliers, the gross profit of private brands is higher. Take a self-operated liquor introduced in 2020 as an example. Before the price in 35 yuan, Fat Donglai also marked the ex-factory price in 28 yuan, and it was once sold out. An analysis report in 2022 showed that the self-harvesting rate of fresh cooked food from Pangdonglai basically reached more than 60%, which exceeded that of similar supermarkets such as Wal-Mart, Carrefour and Yonghui.
In the final analysis, all these measures depend on the monopoly position of Fat Donglai in the local market. Only when the cost is less, can the profits be more, and the employees’ high salaries can be obtained. This kind of regional supply chain management ability can only be achieved in Xuchang and Xinxiang, but others can’t learn it, and I’m afraid it can’t be copied by itself.
Not to mention the strict product supply and quality inspection system and the refined scientific management system.
Take the bean products in Xuchang Pangdonglai Fresh Food Zone as an example. These bean products, such as old tofu, bean skin and dried bean curd, all come from a village factory more than 30 kilometers away. The two sides have cooperated for 16 or 7 years. The boss of the factory once complained that because Fat Donglai had extremely high requirements for products, he once didn’t want to supply Fat Donglai again, but he also said: "For so many years, I have never been afraid to come to the factory for inspection, no matter in the city or town, because I know that Fat Donglai keeps coming to the factory to supervise and inspect, and the standards in our factory have been raised to a high level. I am not afraid of anyone who comes to inspect."
On the shelves from Fat East, the requirements for product quality can also be reflected everywhere. For example, fresh food not only indicates raw materials and storage time, but also has accurate values for sugar content and acidity. In addition, there are strict requirements on how to place goods and whether the surface is clean. If the display is not standardized, the arrangement is not timely or there is dust, the corresponding person in charge will be deducted. These requirements are written in more than 30 pages of new employee training manual, and every process of every position has a standard description. What these people can’t see before may really make it difficult for Fat East to copy.
If this is the objective reason why Fat East can’t be copied, then the business philosophy of boss Yu Donglai is the subjective reason. During a live broadcast, Yu Donglai was asked by netizens why Fat Donglai didn’t go to Zhengzhou. He blurted out: "The salary that Fat Donglai can afford is not enough for employees to live a decent life in Zhengzhou." Yu Donglai’s business philosophy is described by business observer Cai Yu as a kind of "gentry spirit"-"while expanding his business territory, he is taking care of his community with the gentry consciousness".
#04
Behind the pouring traffic
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But Excellence, such as being fat from the east, is not without its own problems, just like the current purchasing incident.
This has seriously affected the shopping experience of local consumers, which is one of them. The second is the essential problem reflected by the active purchasing, that is, the real and huge demand of foreign customers, and this demand is just too fat to meet. The sky-splashing demand brought by the sky-splashing traffic has become a happy worry for Fat East.
For the moment, in order to meet the demands of foreign users, opening online shopping malls should be the fastest solution. In fact, in March this year, Fat Donglai launched two WeChat applets, namely "Fat Donglai" and "Fat Donglai Department Store". At that time, after the news came out, it also ushered in a scene of hot sales, but a large influx of users quickly put the system into a maintenance state.
In addition, the online shopping mall from Pangdonglai has obvious defects, that is, although it is marked to be distributed throughout the country, when locating different regions, the categories of goods that can be selected will be different, and the delivery fee will be different. Users in Xuchang and Xinxiang can buy fresh fruits and vegetables, cooked food baking, leisure snacks, home department stores and other categories of goods, but users outside the two places can choose far fewer categories.
In fact, there are some signs that it is better to say that the measures on the line of Fat East are not in place, that is, it is not impossible, but not wanting.
As early as last March, Fat Donglai opened an online supermarket. At that time, the purpose was to take care of local customers who were inconvenient to go out, and on the other hand, to meet the needs of foreign consumers. However, it has been online for a whole year, but the related services to foreign users have not improved, which leads to being caught off guard in the face of the current explosion situation.
However, no matter how Fat Donglai chooses, as far as the whole retail industry is concerned, the integration of online and offline development is not only an irreversible trend, but also the basic consensus of industry personnel.
Many Shangchao brands have opened online channels. Sam member stores have vigorously laid out front warehouses, and now they have nearly 500 front warehouses nationwide. This allows Sam member stores to deliver goods in 30 minutes, which greatly increases the shopping experience of customers and makes its online sales exceed 50% of the total sales. Wal-Mart has achieved 100% nationwide online stores, from nationwide distribution service to one-hour speed, and the consumer experience has risen to a higher level. Yonghui Supermarket and Costco are also accelerating the layout of online business and promoting the strategic transformation of omni-channel business.
The coming out of the circle from the fat east has undoubtedly greatly raised the expectations of consumers everywhere, and it is different from the past after all. Especially when online shopping has become a part of adults’ daily life, do you stick to it or break through it? This is a problem that Fat Donglai, who has never left Henan, has to think about. At least, in the face of the user’s demand after the explosion, it is impossible for Fat Donglai to do nothing.
* Some references:
[1] CCTV interview "The Story of Three Brothers"
[2] Southern People Weekly "Fat East: Dominating a Fourth-tier City’s" Haidilao in Retail ""
[3] Half Buddha immortal "Fat East can’t come out of Henan, it is alive and clear."
[4] Extraordinary deep-fried dough sticks have been squeezed out again! Fat Dong came to open an online shopping mall and it was full in an instant.
[5] The most famous Funtalk is "Yellow Cattle Are Destroying Fat Donglai"
[6] The daily figure "Top Flow Fat East, why can’t you get out of Henan?" 》
Original title: "Fat East, to be yellowed by scalpers? 》
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