They made a decision between self-esteem and survival.
Editor’s note: This article is from the micro-channel public number “understand understand notes” (ID: dongdong_note) , Author: Understand the deity.
Backpackers are common in Shenzhen Huaqiangbei business district. I believe that people who frequently place orders and purchase Huaqiangbei mobile phones and accessories online will understand that as long as you give specific needs when placing an order, backpackers will go to the stalls in Huaqiangbei markets to find goods and then take delivery. In your hands.
It can be said that the backpacker and Huaqiangbei grew up together. The existence of backpackers allows consumers all over the country to buy the goods they need without leaving home. If you see those carrying bags in the Huaqiangbei market and hurriedly walking around the stalls asking for prices, they are basically backpackers.
However, when I understood the situation of Huaqiangbei’s recovery after the epidemic, I was surprised to find some new faces in the backpacker team. It is understood that some of these new backpackers were originally merchants of Huaqiangbei stalls. After retiring the “one meter counter”, they carried heavy school bags and also became backpackers on Huaqiang North Street.
As a former merchant, they skillfully walked among the mobile phone markets, looking for goods for customers and buying goods. Their professionalism is extraordinary, and they have become a new landscape in the market. What are the unknown stories behind these “new backpackers” on Huaqiang North Street when the original business is not done and the “one-meter counter” is cancelled?
It doesn’t make sense to stay at the stall
“Oh, don’t think I’m so miserable now, in fact, I (have) had a good time.”
Ayu was the owner of a mobile phone market in Huaqiangbei. He told me to understand that after the Spring Festival this year, the market exempted the merchants from the half-month rent, but after reducing the rent, he resolved to retire the original stall and took up his schoolbag as a “backpacker.”
During the recent period, due to the influence of the “Dragon Boat Water”, the weather in Shenzhen has been rainy and sunny. Ayu walks on the streets and between the markets every day, and it is inevitable that the sun and rain will be different. This taste is definitely different from that when operating a stall. In fact, he felt quite hard at first, but after careful consideration, he found that his mental pressure was much lower than that of sweating and tiredness than when he was operating a stall.
“Did you know that thisThe monthly rent for stalls here is at least 10,000 yuan, and the monthly rent for a well-positioned counter is tens of thousands. “He shook his head and smiled. In Huaqiangbei’s leasing and operating stalls, the monthly fixed input cost is at least 15,000. However, the profit of mobile phones and accessories is too low now.
Each mobile phone now earns only a few hundred yuan. If you can’t sell more than one hundred mobile phones each month, let alone the liquidity of the cash register, even the rent will be lost. His business had faced tremendous pressures before the epidemic, so he expanded online channels, hoping to sell more mobile phones.
“To be honest, now I can not go out if I am in a bad mood, but before I was sick, I dared not take a break. If the stall does not open one day, I will lose money.” An epidemic became A Yu’s decision An important factor in the determination to retire the stall, “You see that the market is closed management, with temperature measurement and bright code, customers have always been few.”
Although the current epidemic prevention and control management in Huaqiangbei markets is much looser than after the Spring Festival, the temperature measurement and bright codes allow many shoppers to choose to bypass, in addition to taking goods, the merchants in the stall and Outside the courier, there are few “outsiders” entering or leaving the market.
“Even if there is no strict prevention and control, there are not many consumers going out shopping. It doesn’t make sense to guard the one-meter counter.” In Ayu’s view, after becoming a new backpacker, no matter what the market conditions are every day, he There is no need to worry about stall rents, “after all, the source of business is online now.”
He quipped that since becoming a backpacker, his “operational cost” during the day is less than twenty yuan, which is used to buy subway tickets, two bottles of cattle drinks pulsating beverages, “most of the orders are currently in previous cooperation Some of the customers who have visited are still foreign customers.”
In order to expand channels and contacts, Ayu did not forget to distribute self-made cards to passers-by who passed by Huaqiang North Street in the process of finding goods, so as to develop a new customer group, “I opened idle fish and transfers online. There are occasional new customer deals on it, and this line is doing word of mouth.”
Although he became a new backpacker, his daily profit is much higher than before when he opened the stall, but Ayu felt a bit worried when he saw that many merchants who retired also joined the backpacker army. He is worried that competition will become more and more fierce. “Now we encourage market stalls. Everyone wants to be grounded and intends to get rid of the pressure of rent.”
Buy a machine to repair a machine and earn a penny
“Switching from a stall (business) to a backpacker is still different from a traditional backpacker.”
Talking about the “business” that backpackers are engaged in, Ayu said with a smile that he involved far more services than traditional backpackers. Traditional backpackers generally only help foreign customers who place orders to purchase goods and issue mobile phone accessories, so they are only responsible for mobile phone configuration needs and accessory quality. After the business is completed, they will earn part of the difference.
whileIn his view, this role only assumes the role of broker and purchase. In addition to purchasing, he usually does small business of second-hand mobile phone recycling, mobile phone repair, and installment finance. “In the eyes, the few backpackers who can receive second-hand mobile phones have basically done stalls before.” /p>
Ayu told me to understand the notes. Although he retired the stall, he had a good relationship with many merchants in the market. If he saw a consumer selling a newer second-hand mobile phone, he would recycle it at a low price. If the profit margin is large, he will choose to resell to other merchants operating second mobile phones in the market, which not only saves time and effort, but also does not suppress funds.
“If it is a thousand yuan machine with a small profit margin, I usually keep it myself and sell it directly to customers in need.” It can be said that although he has become a new backpacker, Ayu is involved in the “business” It is basically the same as when operating a stall. Even if the customer just wants to repair the mobile phone, he will introduce it to the repair shop and earn a little commission.
Ayu’s statement on this is “I want to earn a penny.” This is the business creed of Huaqiangbei merchants. Even if he became a backpacker, he still insists on the belief of being a stall. In addition to the more profitable purchasing business, he will also introduce small businesses with small profits and non-professional business to familiar merchants, with commissions to earn commissions, and without commissions to earn personal connections.
So, now that the door of the Huaqiangbei market is open, the “one-meter counter” is also operating normally. In addition to online purchases, why do offline consumers need backpackers to buy mobile phones and accessories in Huaqiangbei?
Ayu bowed his head and thought for a while, “Huaqiangbei has so many stores, do you know which store is good and affordable?”
He told me to understand the notes. Although Huaqiangbei is hailed as the first street of mobile phones and has thousands of mobile phone and accessory merchants, the quality of the goods of so many merchants is uneven, and some merchants still exist inferiorly. The phenomenon of replacing old with new. “As long as consumers are not careful, they will step into the pit and be set by the merchant.”
“I’m not saying that all businesses are not real, but Huaqiangbei’s pits have always existed. Otherwise, how could a backpacker like this be spawned.” Ayu admitted frankly because of the asymmetric information Factors, some consumers go to Huaqiangbei to buy mobile phones, they will only find backpackers to help choose, so credibility is the root of their survival.
As a new type of backpacker who transformed businesses in the venue, Ayu is well-versed in choosing mobile phones and accessories, and often can get discounts for familiar merchants, while leaving a good impression on customers, he can also earn his due profits. , “Even if you are a stranger, you have the courage to flicker your customersDare not fooling me. “
Now Ayu has begun to gradually enjoy the life of a backpacker. Although being a backpacker does not require pressure, he still thinks about picking good products in the market, properly collecting some best-selling mobile phone models, and slowly selling them in his hand. “There are not many backpackers like me doing this. It’s more profitable to push a little bit of money. Only a few backpackers with enough strength will do this before.”
Fear of retaliation, the gap is huge
“Management pressure is less, but the psychological gap is also greater, I feel no root.”
When asked about the biggest challenge after becoming a backpacker, Ayu’s answer was a bit surprising. It wasn’t sun and rain, it wasn’t Roughton, but it was a bit stubborn.
Ayu, who claims to be “a person with a face and a tree with a skin,” told me to understand the notes. Although I don’t make stalls, I often meet with familiar merchants in the daily purchase and distribution business. Although a large number of merchant contacts accumulated in the past are beneficial to his backpacker business and can also get the best quality and most affordable goods, but he knows that after his role change, he always feels not so confident.
“Actually, in the past two months or so, some of the merchants I know don’t know that I am a backpacker. I can only say that Huaqiang North is too big.” Ayu said that once a familiar merchant asked him, They will tell each other truthfully, although they say that everyone makes money, and the merchants they know will always give him the best price for taking goods, but he always feels that there has been some change in the other party’s eyes.
Maybe you are self-minded, but this gap has always existed. Especially when I was a backpacker at the beginning, I always felt that as a stall business, I could blow the air conditioner every day, sit freely at the stall and shout business, but now I am running on the street and I have to distribute small cards. Once the customer places an order, It is necessary to immediately walk between the counters…somewhat difficult to adapt.
“I don’t know what an informed merchant thinks, but I should still laugh at me. They all say that making money is not shameless, but at the beginning, I try to avoid getting friends with good friends and avoid taking photos, because I am too embarrassed. .”
However, things that have made him more embarrassed in recent days are also happening: the backpackers who once asked him to get goods and cooperated now regard him as a competitor.
He smiled bitterly and said that as a backpacker’s upstream, he used to look down on backpackers, thinking that a large number of young backpackers are parasites in the Huaqiangbei business district, and use the information difference to earn little money every day.. “Now some familiar backpackers have discovered that even I have become a backpacker, and the expression is quite wonderful! It’s really artificial.”
At present, Ayu will be cautious and careful not to cross the line when conducting business, because the original backpackers also have to live, and they cannot “block the money of others”. In other words, even if he has a large number of high-quality merchant resources, he does not dare to offer too low a price when helping offline customers buy goods. “Reporting a low price” will hurt the traditional bottom line of traditional backpackers’ agreed prices, and is vulnerable to retaliation from others.
In his usual way of expanding the flow of passengers, he also remembered not to “grab the land” with the army of backpackers. He was only nestled in some alleys beside the street, and distributed small cards to the passing office workers, “to be a merchant of backpackers.” It is much less than traditional backpackers. Everyone is a man with a tail in his tail. After all, he has to live in harmony.”
【Conclusion】
Under the impact of the epidemic, some shopkeepers at Huaqiangbei stalls turned to become backpackers. Some of them are because of bad business, and some are losing confidence in the future of the stall. Therefore, even if the market reduces rents and the mall vigorously expands online channels, they still choose to become single-handed “lone rangers.”
Between so-called self-esteem and survival, many merchants choose the latter like Ayu. In the middle of countless malls and stalls, you will see these former “little bosses” are releasing long-deposited Pressure, running to earn meager profits. This is a microcosm of Huaqiangbei today, which is also the unyielding attitude of the stubborn.