Digitalization Adds Intelligence to Breakfast Project

By Yin Jianhua

Ms. Gao worked at Raffles North Bund. After leaving Tilanqiao Station through Exit 3 on Metro Line 12 at 08:30, she rushed to her office on 23/F, East Tower with a 10-yuan taco cake set meal ordered at Tacobell (Mexican Taco Restaurant) and started her one-day work. Currently, many white-collars and residents in Hongkou, like Ms. Gao, can easily have a steaming breakfast on the way to work, near home and at mobile stalls.

It is reported that since the implementation of the new round of breakfast project, 201 breakfast outlets have been added in the district, of which 62 breakfast composite stores have been added in total. The breakfast convenience benefited by digitalization is also functioning. The breakfast supply system has basically formed by taking chain breakfast outlets as the primary and taking featured single stores, mobile dining cars, online ordering cabinet (store) for collection, delivery platform and other forms, in a bid to continuously push up the citizens' sense of happiness and gain.

45 New "Breakfast Shops" Added on the North Bund

At present, the high-grade office buildings at Magnolia Plaza and Raffles North Bund attract a large number of white-collar workers. The Hongkou District Commerce Commission takes how to serve the group as an important measure to optimize the business environment, focuses on the construction of the breakfast project at the North Bund, and adopts precise measures to provide more convenient breakfast services with more varieties for office workers.

Lawson, KFC, Family Convenience Stores, Doutor Coffee and other coffee shops on B1, East Tower Office Building, Raffles North Bund opened early. At the Lawson Convenience Store, it was noticed that not only are there all kinds of coffee, odens and barbecue around the cashier, but also a "breakfast shop for vigor" has been specially set up on the inner shelf, which is filled with Chinese vegetable buns and meat buns, western sandwiches, rice balls, sushi and other varieties. The 10-yuan package and 12-yuan package recommended by the store manager are particularly popular. According to the staff at the store, the set meal includes a bottle of milk and a rice ball. The amount of 10-yuan set meal is small, which is more suitable for women while the amount of 12-yuan set meal is slightly larger, more fitting male buyers. Some young consumers like the "mix of Chinese and western food". A male white-collar worker with a black backpack went straight to the "breakfast shop for vigor" and took a meat steamed bun. While waiting for the store staff to heat the steamed bun in front of the cashier, he ordered a cup of coffee. A few minutes later, he took the coffee and the heated bun and went upstairs to work.

According to statistics, from January to August this year, 45 breakfast stores were newly established in the North Bund area alone, accounting for 35.2% of the total number of new stores in the region. Chen Jingjing, head of Hongkou District operation of Lawson Convenience Store, said that Lawson has 38 outlets in Hongkou, and it will open 15 new stores in the next stage, so that more white-collars and residents can have breakfast nearby.

Sanjiaodi Food Market Cooperates with "Time-honored Brands"

At 08:30, there were two long queues at the door of Dafugui, a food store beside Sanjiaodi Quyang Food Market on Chifeng Road. One of the queues was composed of the residents who bought steamed stuffed buns, soybean milk and other breakfast, and the other queue was composed of the aunts and uncles who added cooked dishes after purchasing food from the food market. Aunt Zhu who lived nearby had a bowl of big wonton at Dafugui, and she asked the staff to pack a bowl of cold noodles and a bowl of gluten soup. She said that she had breakfast at Dafengui every day, and it was clean and delicious. Because her husband was busy in taking care of children, she had to pack up and take it back home after eating. "Because Dafengui is operating near home, we don't need to go to Laoximen for it. I come back to buy cooked food later." Xia Menglai, the store manager, introduced that since its opening on June 15, the business of the store has been very hot, especially in the morning. From 06:30 to 07:00 is the first morning peak of hall food daily. From 06:00 to 09:00, the stall selling steamed stuffed buns ushers in the peak, and the sales of vegetable and meat buns are the best. From 08:00 to 09:00 is the peak time for cooked dishes. Signature dishes such as Sanding chili sauce, stewed duck with bean sauce and hairtail are the most popular.

According to reports, breakfast supply channels and varieties have been constantly expanded. In addition to supporting the layout of brand convenience stores and new stores, Hongkou District also started to stimulate the application of food market scenarios: mining state-owned food market carrier resources and attracting high-quality breakfast enterprises. For example, the surrounding residents refused to have the breakfast prepared by the self-employed tenant in the original facade room of Sanjiaodi Quyang Food market for the hygienic environment is poor. With the purpose of allowing residents to have a good breakfast near home, the Hongkou District Commission of Commerce guided the food market to introduce the time-honored Dafugui to provide the greatest convenience for breakfast enterprises to settle in, and realized the "breakfast scene of two in one composite business" for surrounding residents to buy vegetables and breakfast.

Internet + Makes Breakfast Mobile

In the morning, people race against time. "Order breakfast in the subway and take it in the cabinet next to firm". Since this year, 71 new or modified network reservation counters or stores have been built in Hongkou for office workers and other staff in business buildings and industrial park to encourage the enterprises to improve their intelligent management with the help of APPs and WeChat Mini Programs, so as to turn the white-collar breakfast mobile.

Hongkou promotes digitalization to empower breakfast and supports Meituan.com, Zhenyouqu.com and other e-commerce enterprises, in a bid to promote contactless meal-taking mode. At present, 50 intelligent meal-taking cabinets have been laid in 25 business buildings and industrial parks such as CITIC Plaza, Baijinwan Plaza, Jin'an Building and Xinyefang. Zhenyouqu.com focuses on the layout of the industrial park, and sets up intelligent breakfast cabinets in Xinyefang, 1876 Old Station Creative Park, Zhongtu Blue Bridge and other parks to provide nearly 30 breakfast varieties for office workers in the park every day, which is deeply welcomed by office workers in the park. Zhu Jun, the head of Zhenyouqu in charge of Hongkou District's Operation, introduced that the breakfast cabinets cooperated with large-scale chain catering enterprises of the Shanghai breakfast alliance, such as Qingmei, Barbie Steamed Bread, Yang's Fried Dumplings and Zhang Ji. After a consumer place an order, the catering enterprise provides cold and hot food, which will enter the breakfast cabinet in the designated park through the cold chain transportation. The intelligent cabinet has the function of heating or refrigeration to ensure the food safety hygiene.

Meanwhile, major "mobile dining cars +" drive into the parks. Yixiaotu Mobile Dining Cars arranged in Huayuanfang Park provides 70 breakfast varieties and nearly 10 kinds of 10-yuan breakfast preferential packages. At present, the maximum service person-time of the dining cars in a single day is nearly 300, meeting needs of over 5,000 office workers in the park for the convenient, fast and affordable breakfast consumption. In addition, Guangming Mobile Dining Cars were introduced into the riverside path on the North Bund, and participated in the light show along the riverside path, the navigation parent-child festival and other activities to provide catering services for consumers visiting and participating in the activities.

The Hongkou District Commerce Commission said that based on the three key elements of digit, health and sharing, focusing on the goals of more convenient breakfast consumption, richer categories and healthier varieties, we will further clarify the demand, consolidate the "home" breakfast distribution, enrich the "next-to-company" breakfast distribution, and implement the "mobile" breakfast distribution. Going forward, we will continue to play the demonstrating and leading role of demonstration sites, promote the development of more new models and new business formats with digital empowerment, plot breakfast electronic maps, create a variety of breakfast application scenarios, continuously improve the quality of the breakfast popularization project and the citizens’ satisfaction, and ensure the breakfast project satisfy and benefit the masses.