Do snacks also have blind boxes? The main reason why young people can't stop buying is for this purpose | snacks | young people

"The products that are on their due date are starting to attract young people" have repeatedly made it to the hot search on Weibo. The "snack freedom" that can be achieved for 20 to 30 yuan is becoming a new carnival for young people.

In the inherent impression of most people, the products processed on the brink of death are often the "good wishes" of middle-aged and elderly people, and the term "snack blind box" has become popular on online platforms, indicating that the food industry on the brink of death has entered the young population.

"To put it politely: save money"

How many snacks can I buy for 19.9 yuan? A box of boneless duck feet, or in the snack blind box evaluated by the main UP of station b, in addition to a box of duck feet of the same brand with slightly damaged packaging, there is a bag of prunus mume, a bag of crab fillet, a bag of winter bamboo cake and two boxes of Chicken rolls in normal size packaging.

Although the packaging may not look perfect, the UP owner still exclaimed "earned a lot" and "really fragrant", after all, in the world of expired snacks, the appearance is far less attractive than the large quantity and affordability.

Although most of the comments in the comments section are made fun of the snack flavors and the behavior of the UP owner that appear in the videos, these videos have a real impact on young people in reality.

The Douban group "I Love Perishable Snacks" was established in 2020 and has had 96209 "temporary food workers" join and maintain an active level of discussion.

After crawling through the 150 responses in the group post "What are the reasons why people buy expired products?", we found that most of the answers can be summarized in the words of one of the "temporary food workers": "To put it politely: save money, to put it directly: poor."

Being both "poor" and "greedy" is a self deprecation among young people, and it is also the driving force behind the popularity of "dying blind boxes" in this group.

Cleverly "spending" and happily "cutting", "temporary food workers" believe that the high cost-effectiveness of temporary snacks can simultaneously meet their dual goals of saving money and trying new things. Purchasing temporary snacks is gradually being accepted by more people and is considered a smarter way of life.

Money is limited, but the choice of snacks is infinite

With the increasing acceptance of expired foods among the public, more and more "food workers" will seek to replace them when they are short of money.

After conducting word frequency analysis on the titles of 1338 posts in the "I Love Temporary Food" group, we found that the biggest demand of "temporary food workers" is "food that can be used as a meal substitute for working people, such as milk, coffee, bread, etc.".

In addition to these meal replacement snacks, snacks for "tooth hunting" during leisure time are also a major consumer target at present.

We searched for a store on Taobao using the keyword "expired snacks" and selected the "naked price expired special imported food discount supermarket", which has been in operation for 7 years, has 1.86 million followers, and ranks first in sales and credit, as the representative of the expired snack online store. We analyzed the data of 557 items that are currently on sale and have been sold.

In terms of sales volume, dried tofu, puffed snacks and fast food snacks are often more popular.

The unit price of these snacks on sale ranges from 0.35 yuan to 135 yuan. Products with an expiration date price of over 30 yuan are mostly fast food with relatively high original prices, large packaged snacks weighing over 500 grams, and boxed beverages weighing over 20 bottles. But expired snacks priced below 10 yuan are more prominent in terms of variety and sales.

So, how much cheaper are these expired snacks that are increasingly seen by consumers as "new ways to save money"?

We classified common snacks and counted the two best-selling items in each category of expired snacks priced below 10 yuan, and compared their selling prices with regular prices. The price of most expired snacks is about 50% to 70% off the original price, with the lowest being around 20% off.

Even with discounts and coupons included, it is difficult for regular snacks to reach such a low price. Instant snacks are undoubtedly a more wallet friendly option for consumers.

Where does "due date" come from? Where are you going?

The popularity of expired food broke out in 2021, during which a large number of goods were forced to accumulate and become expired, leading to an unprecedented expansion of the expired food market in the following year.

However, the formation of the expired food market heavily relies on the imbalance of supply and demand in the food market. Only when there is a large surplus of inventory, sellers will use extremely low prices to promote expired products.

After the easing of the epidemic situation, the public's desire for shopping has rebounded and the overall social economy has rebounded. In fact, it is difficult to see a large-scale inventory backlog of goods again, so the peak expansion rate of the near term food industry has remained in 2021.

In addition, the public still has a sense of panic and doubt about the word "expired", believing that the taste and quality of expired food will inevitably be inferior to the original period, or that it is harmful to health. At present, there are no specific laws and regulations for expired food in China, and the existing relevant regulations are all local regulations based on the Food Safety Law and the Anti Food Waste Law. There are different standards among provinces and cities regarding how long the shelf life is approaching, which can be considered as expiration date.

As purchasing expired snacks becomes a trend, the phenomenon of confusion between fish and eyes gradually emerges.

Occasionally, such posts can also be seen in the group, such as "Finding expired products really requires a bit of luck" and "If you receive expired food mixed in, is it necessary to claim compensation?". The emergence of these issues means that the legal norms in the near term food industry urgently need to be unified and improved, which is also the basis for breaking public prejudice.

I look forward to seeing a healthy and more comprehensive market for expired foods, which not only meets the consumption and psychological needs of "expired food workers", but also fully leverages the edible, commercial, and social value of food within the compressed consumption period, and becomes an important part of the entire food market and industry.