The ill-fated Electric City is still trying to continue the story of the past.
Editor’s note: This article is from the micro-channel public number “interface News” (ID: wowjiemian) , Author: Xu Shi-chi Wu Rong, editor: Wen Shuqi.
Young people who buy old cameras. Shooting: Xu Shiqi
“You will listen to the next child, just listen to the headphones.” In front of the booth full of re-enacted CDs, a forty or fifty-year-old male customer pointed to the last century Leslie Cheung, Teresa Teng, and Jacky Cheung For the album, he waved his hands disdainfully at the reporter, meaning: This is the music that we listened to at that time, and you young people who listen to songs on mobile phones do not understand.
In Jiangjundong Electric City, most of the guests are “old men” like him. There was already some coolness in Guangzhou in October. Looking around, the uncles and uncles shopping all put on long sleeves and vests, Wandering slowly in front of the shabby shops.
The Jiangjundong Electric City, established in 1998, was once the “men’s Taobao paradise”. More than ten years ago, by selling fashionable DVDs, speakers, telephones and other large and small electrical appliances, it became a mecca for many men’s holiday consumption. Shenzhen Huaqiang has the same name in the north.
However, unlike Huaqiangbei, the general has a long way to go: the original site built in the last century was an illegal building and was torn down and demolished in 2016. The main body of the Electrical City has undergone two relocations, and finally moved in 2018 To China Travel Service not far from the original siteBusiness City. Following the relocation, there is also an old shop that has been doing business in the Electric City for more than ten years.
A 2018 poster is also posted at the entrance of the electrical city escalator. Shooting: Xu Shiqi
The area in front of the park in Yuexiu District, where Jiang Jundong is now located, was once the core area of Guangzhou in the 1990s, and the China Travel Service Commercial City even offered “the best rent in Guangzhou”. Guangzhou’s urban center gradually moved eastward. After the 2010 Asian Games, the development of the Tianhe Road and Zhujiang New Town business districts was completed, and the park in front of the park became an old city neglected by young people.
Electric City is still trying hard to continue to write stories of the past. Now the main business here is second-hand electrical appliances such as audio and display, but because of the sluggish business, the passenger flow of the past is no longer, and the Merchants Office has to open up businesses selling jewelry, Chinese medicine and daily necessities. Most people who come here to shop are middle-aged and elderly people, mostly men.
In the last year, there were suddenly signs of “resurrection” here, and young customers appeared. Some businessmen saw it as a turning point.
The Internet celebrity shop that suddenly went out of circle
In Little Red Book and WeiboSearch for “Jiangjundong Electric City”, and most of the results lead to a retro camera store-Tintin Groceries, which netizens call “Treasure”.
This second-hand store on the “Fu” floor of the Electric City suddenly became popular last year. The shop sells antique electrical appliances that the boss has collected from various places, mainly cameras, ranging from a hundred yuan fool machine to a million-dollar out-of-print Polaroid. There is a post-it note on each product, with “Yi Yang Qian Xi same style”, and the classic line of “Happy Together”: “It’s better to start over.”
The sign “Welcome to take photos” in the store makes it a place for Internet celebrities to check in. On holidays, young people in trendy dressing to shop for cameras crowded the deserted Electric City.
A corner of Ding Ding groceries. Shooting: Xu Shiqi
Part of the shop window is expensive goods, and part is the private collection of Guo Liang and his son. Shooting: Xu Shiqi
The second-hand goods of the Electric City are actually mainly at par, but these young customers are more attracted by the feelings of old cameras. Some other shop owners told Interface News, Ding Ding’s goods are therefore more expensive than others.
This store is run by the owner Guo Liang, together with his father and wife. Both he and his father are digital product enthusiasts. They started selling digital products in Guangzhou in 2001, and at that time they mostly sold second-hand goods. The shop has moved to several places, and he stayed at the Jiangjundong original site for the longest time. He didn’t move here until after the demolition in 2016. It has been 3 years.
The story of the family’s persistence in the wave of technology is very popular. Many local media have interviewed Guo Liang. The popularity of Ding Ding’s groceries has gradually increased. Recently, Guo Liang and his son have appeared on a variety show of a well-known TV station, and opened a branch in another popular place, Super Wenhe Youli.
The large amount of exposure makes people think that Guo Liang is good at publicity. But Guo Liang said that the popularity of this small store was purely accidental. He did not deliberately renovate the store, just spent some thought on the display. Under the influence of his father, he knew the history and craftsmanship characteristics of these cameras. He still remembered which movie or MV a certain camera appeared in, so the product features Write on it.
The influence of the Internet and the nostalgia among young people fit in with the products in my store. The combination of these three factors happened to push him up.
Correspondingly, other businesses are a little jealous of Guo Liang’s passenger flow. There are hundreds of stalls on the first floor of the Electric City. A lady who runs the jade stall said: “My Wangding is not prosperous. It is normal that I can’t sell a single item for a few days. They are just fine. Many little girls are crowded there. Side.”
Wanting not prosperous means that someone visits but no one buys it. She said that there are many elderly people hanging out in the electrical city every day, but they are just strolling around. She likens it to a recreational place for the elderly such as fishing and square dancing.
The “old men” sitting at the door chatting. Shooting: Wu Rong
Lonely holy place for enthusiasts
A Peng’s “Super Sound” is also on the negative layer. He is about 50 years old this year, speaks fluent Mandarin, and many bosses who only speak Cantonese not much the same. When an old customer teased young people for not listening to old songs, he quickly glanced back, “Who said, my youngest guest is only 15 years old, middle school student.”
This replica CD shop has a history of nearly 20 years. It was also a tenant of the old Jiangjundong and moved here several times. The shop is close to the subway entrance and in the same passage as the restroom, and the location is convenient. “Moreover, the rent for a shop is only more than 2000 a month.”
In the Electric City, there are many other stalls selling CDs, cassettes, and vinyl discs like him. There are almost only old songs, mainly pop stars from Hong Kong and Taiwan in the 1990s. In addition, there are a large number of audio shops in the electrical city, from cables to amplifiers and speakers. A Peng told Jiemian News, “The stereos sold in the Electrical Appliance City range from thousands to millions, and they are very professional.”
One of the audiovisual stores. Shooting: Xu Shiqi
In the early years, Jiangjundong’s main products were audio equipment, home appliances, KTV, and concert-level equipment.
“Guangzhou’s Jiangjundong and Haiyin Electric City are well-known in the Pearl River Delta and even the whole country, and enthusiasts will visit these two.” A Peng said. Now, there are very few people outside the audio industry, only the elderly audiophiles still remember it.
He is also one of the enthusiasts. He started this business because he likes to listen to music. Talking about his favorite singer Teresa Teng, he took out a CD of his Hong Kong concert and put it in the stereo, recalling the past: “When she died, I was only in her 20s. I went to buy all Teresa Teng’s records that day. “
“My family has 7000 records.” A Peng went on to say that some of the out-of-print genuine CDs can only be copied and sold, and there are almost no discs that he can’t copy.
He makes discs all night 15 days a month so far. It takes nearly an hour to rip a CD, and he starts from 10 o’clock in the evening to 8 o’clock in the morning. Re-engraved discs are sold for 65 yuan uniformly, and the price is never negotiated, while the price of the original version may be thousands. He said that 65 is an extremely cost-effective price.
In one hour of chatting with the reporter, there were no customers at the door of “Super Sound”, but A Peng confidently believed that his business was good. More than 1,500 friends on the phone were all customers. He showed several WeChat chat pages: “Look, this customer directly asked for 14 photos on WeChat today, and turned around for RMB 910, which is very refreshing. There is also a female college student who came here once and I recommended other discs to her. She I bought it too.”
Apeng’s super beautiful sound shop. Shooting: Xu Shiqi
However, for middle school students and college students, The light customer is not many, his customers are 80% He is a middle-aged man aged 40-80. He has a large number of repeat customers. If you want to hear anything, just send him WeChat. When the copy is finished, customers will come from various districts in Guangzhou and even other cities to pick up goods. “No time to do an online shop.”He said.
Good at maintaining the relationship with customers, may be Apeng’s advantage, and it is also the magic weapon for many businesses in Electric City to support so far. He would politely invite strangers passing by to sit down and enjoy the dishes, prepare a pot of strong tea, pass a cigarette, listen to the song and talk about the story sung in the song, there is almost no blind spot. For decades, I insisted on keeping the shop alone. It is because of another person that it is difficult to retell the story of those 7,000 records.
How long can the feeling of “old brand” last?
According to the observations conducted by Jiemian News many times, in general, the businesses in the Electrical City are divided into two groups: one type of business is suitable for all ages, such as repairing mobile phones and selling TVs. These businesses do not sell second-hand goods, but The product models are relatively backward; the second category is the old merchants selling second-hand products mentioned above. They take care of both recycling and sales, and the customers are mainly middle-aged and elderly.
Mr. Ren from the Merchants Office of Jiangjundong Electric City said that there are more than 100 shops on the first floor, 90% of which are operated by old businesses for more than ten years. In recent years, only a dozen young shops have entered.
The rent here is very cheap. A 15-square-meter shop only costs about 3,000 yuan a month, with a 30% discount for the first three months, and “rents can be negotiated”. In downtown business districts such as Fashion Tianhe, the rent of such an area may be as high as tens of thousands. Cheap, the corresponding environment is simple and poor management. The furnishings in the Electric City are old and many people still smoke.
No matter from the perspective of products or mall environment, there are no elements to attract young customers.
The Guangzhou critic Lao Yibo used to be a frequent visitor to Jiang Jundong and has witnessed the changes here for more than 20 years. He believes that Jiangjundong’s main advantage before 2010 is the maintenance of old electrical appliances. “Many electrical products are replaced, and repair parts are not found in the manufacturers. You must go to Jiangjundong to find it.”
However, as online shopping has had a huge impact on physical stores, Jiang Jundong’s advantage has turned into a disadvantage: “Many elderly people are reluctant to use second-hand goods anymore. He or his children would rather replace them with new ones. And there are three guarantees for online shopping. Guarantee, and judge the reputation and quality of the product through comments.”
The quality and source of “rat goods” of unknown origin is a problem faced by electrical appliances cities everywhere. Lao Yibo observed that many people think that Jiangjundong is a “rat street” with products of unknown origin and unstable quality.
Another advantage of Jiang Jundong-the influence of the audio industry chain is gradually weakening. The entire recording industry is developing towards digitalization, and people’s habits of collecting music have changed drastically. “Don’t talk about vinyl, many people don’t even want to listen to CDs.” Music listening devices have evolved from MP3 to Bluetooth headsets. Audio has long been neglected, and consumer demand for audio peripherals has gradually decreased.
Transformation is imminent, and the China Merchants Office is also aware of this. According to Mr. Ren, Jiangjundong Electric City occupies the 1-3 floors of CTS Commercial City, and the Electric City only occupies the first floor.
However, according to a report from the Southern Metropolis Daily in 2018, Jiangjundong had plans to introduce catering when it was reopened and no large-scale restaurants have settled so far. At that time, the Electric City also thought about introducing drones and AI-related emerging products, but now they are also missing.
In Lao Yibo’s view, these transformation plans are “not at all possible”. He said that the interior of the China Travel Commercial City is based on the design of Hong Kong’s inch of land. The space is narrow, the flow of people is more outdated, and parking is inconvenient. The only way is to rebuild the whole, but the cost is high.
Some businesses have also realized the importance of transformation. After Ding Ding’s groceries became popular on the first floor, there was a “collection pavilion” of the same type on the first floor and started to promote it online. Every time a young man visits the store, the owner of Collection Pavilion takes a video and publishes the music with Douyin to the circle of friends. The copy must be accompanied by words such as “net celebrity, check in”. It may be that it is not recognizable enough. Recently, he also changed the name of the store to “Duo Duo Collection Pavilion”.
But how many new guests can be attracted through feelings? He didn’t know either.
After the epidemic, about a dozen shops were unable to sustain themselves and chose to leave, and many shops were vacated in the Electrical City. The huge red, green and green investment promotion posters are posted at the subway entrance in front of the park, and the investment promotion office is put down and not only open to electrical appliance merchants, “As long as it is not too excessive, you can sell anything.”