Where can I buy affordable cold drinks?, A lollipop in Shanghai costs 70 cents, making it a hot search product | cold drink | lollipop

Recently, a news about "Shanghai's 20-year-old cold drink shop selling an old popsicle for 70 cents" has surged on the hot search - compared to last year's highly anticipated "cold drink assassin", the unit price of 70 cents is very affordable.

After the news spread, many citizens were confused: the old popsicles priced at 70 cents per stick came from a cold drink wholesale store in Yangpu District, but in retail channels such as convenience stores and supermarkets, cold drinks priced under 1 yuan are not common. Will "affordable cold drinks" just be a gimmick?

Is it difficult to find a community wholesale store?

"In fact, there are many wholesale cold beverage stores in Shanghai, but their storefronts are relatively ordinary. Most of them are in the community, and consumers, especially young consumers, are not very familiar with them," said Li Wei, a practitioner in the cold beverage industry. He took out his phone and entered the four words "wholesale of cold drinks" into Dianping, immediately displaying a long list. "It should be noted that community wholesale stores are mostly individual businesses, and there are differences in operating costs, procurement channels, product types, and pricing methods. Consumers can refer to reviews before making a purchase."

From the list, it can be seen that these community cold drink wholesale stores are scattered throughout the city, some of which even have no names and simply display the store logo of "cold drink wholesale". In netizen reviews, "affordable and high-quality" is the most frequent term, and some have specifically compiled a "treasure map" of affordable cold drink wholesale stores. Among them, wholesale stores were selected on Guohe Road in Yangpu District, Xiangde Road in Hongkou District, Puyu West Road in Huangpu District, Hongqiao Road in Xuhui District, Fengdeng Road in Jiading District, and Sijing Night Market in Songjiang District.

Dianping website contains a lot of information about wholesale cold drink stores, and netizens have also posted notes

The reporter followed the diagram and arrived at the cold drink wholesale station located in Hong'er Community on Hongqiao Road. The name of the wholesale station is Shanghai Haoyong Food Management Co., Ltd., but the residents of the community call it a "wholesale store". There are 6 retail refrigerators in the store, as well as a small window that leads directly to a -20 ℃ cold storage. If there are boxes of orders, the staff in the cold storage will deliver the cold drinks.

Just 5 minutes into the store, six or seven groups of consumers arrived one after another. "The price here is affordable," said Aunt Chen, a resident. "Starting from 10 units, the wholesale price is 70% off the retail price. Our family's favorite is Guangming ice bricks, which are sold for 5 yuan outside and only cost 3.5 yuan here."

At wholesale stores, consumers are also accustomed to purchasing a large pack of cold drinks at once

The boss, Jing Guangbao, is young and talkative. "This store is probably one of the earliest community cold drink wholesale stores in Shanghai, which has been open for more than 30 years. The threshold for cold drink wholesale stores is not high, so there are many in the city, but the competition is also fierce because we cannot only compete for price, but also for brand and quality."

He has been dealing with cold drinks for over 30 years and is familiar with various brands and varieties. Even the "internet celebrity" products that have emerged in recent years are sold in small stores. "Overall, consumers like both new and classic products." Jing Guangbao said that more than 30 years ago, when he started wholesale cold drinks, he had very few product choices, only a few old brands such as Guangming and Jinji. Later on, he added foreign brands such as Heluxue, followed by domestic new brands such as Yili and Mengniu. In recent years, he also added brands such as Baxi, Zhongjie, and Zhongxue. Every time a new brand or product is launched, consumers will try it out, and old products will be affected to a certain extent. "But in the end, the products that sell well are still those with high cost-effectiveness."

Taking his small store as an example, Guangming brand ice cream is always the best-selling brand. Products priced at 1.5 to 2 yuan in the market have wholesale prices of around 1 yuan, which residents like. Nearby supermarkets also look for Jingguangbao to purchase. "Supermarkets will choose other varieties at the same time, but if you don't have Guangming popsicles, you may not come to me." Roughly estimated, every summer, the small store can sell 700000 to 800000 units of Guangming popsicles.

Just as popular as Guangming Popsicle, there are other classic products from time-honored brands, including white snow ice bricks, doll ice cream, tricolor cups, and so on. Jingguangbao has specially set up a "Bright Counter" for this purpose, making it convenient for consumers to choose products from time-honored brands.

However, the market is not solely price driven, and the cheaper the product, the more market there is. Jing Guangbao found that the customer base of his own small store highly recognizes the brand. "For example, this year Guangming and Zhengguanghe jointly launched orange juice popsicles, also known as' orange water popsicles' by the old Shanghainese. There are products with similar flavors in the market, and the price may be even cheaper than Guangming and Zhengguanghe's, but consumers are just buying old brands. When recommending new products, it is also easier for consumers with branded products to accept."

Mr. Jing said that several new products of Guangming Cold Drink have high cost-effectiveness and are selling very well

It is important for cold drink wholesale stores in the community to face consumers directly and grasp market trends. After more than 30 years of trial and error, Jingguangbao believes that the core is still cost-effectiveness. "The price may not be the lowest, but the product must be better."

More and more brands seem to be aware of the potential of community wholesale stores and are setting up their own businesses. When the reporter visited, he saw that in the same wholesale store, different brands of advertisements were displayed on different refrigerators, and the ice packs used were also from different brands, most of which were promotional investments from different brands. According to sources related to Guangming Cold Drink, there are over 30000 community cold drink wholesale or small shops in Shanghai that have cooperative relationships with them. "This number does not include supermarkets, convenience stores, etc. We are increasingly realizing that products need to reach consumers."

Can a cold drink delivered in 30 minutes fill the gap?

From the perspective of market supply, community wholesale stores are just one type of channel. For many consumers, supermarkets and convenience stores are places where they can buy whenever they want. The previously exposed "ice cream assassins" are also related to this type of channel: some channels are mostly high priced cold drinks, while others have unclear pricing. Consumers casually pick up a cold drink, only to find that the price is "wild and generous" when checking out.

This phenomenon has improved this year.

The reporter visited multiple convenience stores and found that the phenomenon of cold drinks being priced at actual prices has greatly improved. Last year, the cold drink price tag of a certain brand's convenience store chain was located in the corner of the freezer, with small and dense font, making it difficult for consumers to recognize; But this year, the brand's cold drink prices have become much more prominent, clearly displayed on the freezer panel.

Last year's cold drink price tag at a convenience store was difficult to recognize, but this year it has greatly improved

However, in terms of variety, the proportion of mid to high priced products in convenience store freezers is much higher than that in community wholesale stores. Roughly estimated, varieties priced below 6 yuan are already considered low-priced, accounting for only about 20%, while cold drinks priced around 10 yuan make up the majority.

Li Wei said that in a market economy, it is difficult to criticize convenience stores. "Convenience stores are different from community wholesale stores and supermarkets, with high rent and limited freezer capacity. It is necessary to improve floor space efficiency and choose products with higher profits." He admitted that in the case of convenience stores clearly stating their prices, consumers can only "vote with their feet" and "not buy products with unreasonable pricing. Through market feedback, pressure is exerted on production enterprises and distributors to adjust their product selection and pricing strategies."

Behind the storefront of wholesale stores, there is often a spacious cold storage room

Fortunately, the market provides another option: savvy consumers have discovered that they can purchase affordable cold drinks through instant e-commerce.

"Recently, out of every 10 orders, 8 of them involve cold drinks, frozen drinks, and other ice products." Zhou Xi, the station manager of Meituan Maicai's Xiaomuqiao Road station, led reporters into the freezing area of the station. In order to cope with the increasing demand for ice products, the station has opened up cold storage and freezing warehouses from inside out according to the temperature level. The innermost freezer is -20 ℃, and the cold drink codes of various brands are neatly arranged. "Our storage space is relatively spacious, and we can provide a much wider variety of products than convenience stores, of course, there are affordable cold drinks." Among the cold drinks offered on this site, there are several brands of popsicles, with the cheapest unit price of 1.5 yuan. If there is a promotion, the unit price is less than 1 yuan. According to the service radius of the site, consumers can usually receive cold drinks within half an hour after placing an order online.

There are several types of popsicles on the site where Zhou Xi is located, and cold drinks frequently appear in the delivery box of the delivery guy

However, compared to convenience stores, instant delivery does not support single item sales and requires buying by box. "But currently, the packaging of cold drinks is not large, with only five or six units per box, which is highly accepted by consumers. Recently, we have received several orders to purchase three or four boxes at a time." The tallyman at the site couldn't help but interject. From the order address, besides the residents' homes, there are also many from nearby office buildings. "By afternoon tea time, there will be orders, which should be bought and shared by white-collar workers."

The delivery errand business also connects consumers with affordable cold drinks, and expands products from platform self operated to third-party merchants. "I usually use 'JD to Home', and the products are not limited to one store and can be compared. Ms. Zou, who works at an office building in Caojiadu, demonstrated. After entering the word 'lollipop' on the platform, the page immediately displayed nearby merchants selling lollipop products, including various brands such as Guangming, Yili, and Heluxue.".

JD Daojia can connect with different merchants for consumers and also compare prices online

The reporter's investigation found that "instant delivery of cold drinks" has become a standard configuration for fresh e-commerce and takeaway running platforms. Dingdong Maicai, Hema, Meituan, Ele.me, JD.com, and others have all been included in the market, and special packaging has been designed for cold drinks, including insulation bags, ice film, etc. JD.com also collaborates with merchants to adjust the display method of the launched cold drink products, setting up cold meal handover areas in stores to reduce the impact of short-term delivery on cold drinks.

A rider from Dingdong Maicai told reporters that these measures are very effective in delivering cold drinks. "As riders, we will specifically label frozen products on delivery orders. If consumers express that they cannot receive the goods in a timely manner, we will take them back to the station and delay the second delivery. So far, we have not received any feedback from consumers that cold drinks have become popular."

Specialized packaging makes instant delivery of cold drinks possible

How to innovate in the cold drink market?

Diversified channels enable affordable cold drinks to appear more frequently around consumers. However, from the source, the supply of affordable cold drinks is closely related to production enterprises.

"It's not easy for Guangming Cold Drinks. I'll calculate for them. Popsicle products only offer meager profits or even no profits. Many companies are unwilling to do business, but they insist on doing it." Jing Guangbao insisted that the reporter praise the time-honored brand. He believes that the sense of responsibility of production enterprises is very important. "In the past few years, there was a shortage of supply for popsicles, but this year the supply is relatively sufficient. The people are happy, and I am also happy."

He bluntly stated that when it comes to pricing, companies should be cautious. "This year, a brand has increased in price, with each type costing around 1 yuan, but the sales speed has significantly slowed down. If the company manages to lower the increase and increase prices less frequently, perhaps this is not the result."

For new products in the market, both dealers and consumers are very welcome, but after trying them out, what often stays behind are those high cost-effective products. "Guangming's Great White Rabbit Ice Cream has been on the market for several years and still sells well. Last year's Uber Fresh Milk Ice Cream, due to its authentic ingredients, was requested by consumers early this year. Yili's Bitter Coffee, Mengniu's Green Mood, and Baxi's Cup Ice Cream were all new products before and have been adjusted every year, but they have all become classics. The prices of these products are much higher than traditional popsicles, but consumers still like them. It is recommended that companies develop more of these types of products." Jing Guangbao shared his observations.

In fact, many companies have already taken action.

"Among the cold drinks sold on our platform, we have added our own brand this year because we have customized products for consumers through deep production lines, which can achieve a win-win situation between the platform and consumers." Guo Zhenyu, an expert in the development of cold drinks for Dingdong Maicai, revealed that among the cold drinks sold on the platform, the self owned brand "Luoying Ice Society" launched this year has performed outstandingly, with a month on month growth rate of nearly 18 times, and a high repurchase rate. "On the one hand, we have launched our own affordable products, including mung bean lollipop and red bean lollipop; on the other hand, we have catered to new consumer demands by participating in competition with flavors that consumers like coconut juice and sea salt. As it is our own supply chain, we are more competitive in terms of pricing and supply volume." Guarantee. "

Dingdong Maicai provides both its own brand and other brands of cold drinks

Zhong Xuegao, who once dominated high priced cold drinks, also launched the SaSaa series for 3.5 yuan per bottle this year, with four flavors including red beans, mung beans, milk, and cocoa. According to relevant sources, although it is a classic flavor, we still start from the raw materials, reflecting the personalized characteristics of the brand, including the use of real butter, pure cocoa butter, and the addition of more than 12% red or green beans. "The market recognizes the new product, and since the opening of orders in April, the order volume of this series of products has exceeded 20000 units."

In fact, the popularity of affordable products does not mean that high priced products have no opportunities. According to independent data monitoring agency Ren Tuo Intelligence, from March last year to March this year, brands with high sales on mainstream online platforms include Zhong Xuegao, Menglong, and Haagen Dazs, all of which have high product prices. Incomplete statistical data from CBNData also shows that in 2023, more than 70 new cold drink products were released by various brands, of which 51% were priced above 10 yuan per new product, and 46% were priced between 3 yuan and 10 yuan per new product.

"The demand in the cold drink market is many yuan, and the consumption habits of different channels and groups are different. Brands need to cater to their preferences and accurately position themselves." Li Wei analyzed that although Zhong Xuegao has many products priced over 10 yuan, with characteristics such as raw materials and flavors, online sales have always been good, and its high pricing also includes logistics and marketing costs; The new product priced at 3.5 yuan is more suitable for the offline market and helps to enhance brand image. "In short, the market space has not decreased, demand is more diverse, and consumers are more rational. When promoting products, production enterprises must consider these factors."

It can be seen that the competition in the cold drink market has never stopped, but the decision-making power always lies in the hands of consumers.

Reporter's note: Is "low-priced" products a downgrade in consumption?

This year, the popularity of the "Cold Drink Assassin" has significantly decreased. Although there are many high priced products in the market, there are significantly more affordable options. But some people also think that the market likes affordable or even low-priced products, is it because of consumption downgrading?

From actual investigation, it is obvious that this statement is not accurate. As some dealers have stated, the market is not solely price focused, but values high cost-effectiveness. Different customer groups have different preferences for products, some prefer low-priced classics, while others are willing to try high priced innovations. The products that can ultimately stay and stand firm are those that consumers believe are cost-effective.

Among these remaining products, there are both the "cheapest" ones priced around 1 yuan, as well as new varieties priced at 3-5 or even 78 yuan. Because consumers consider not only price, but also value. The "cold drink assassins" rejected by consumers include not only products with unclear prices, but also products with unreasonable profits.

In fact, setting a reasonable profit margin, even "small profits but quick turnover", is an enduring business experience.

In many community cold drink wholesale stores, affordable products have the highest sales volume, and their sales may not be comparable to high priced products, but consumer repurchase rates are high. With low profits and high sales, not only did it make the business of cold drink wholesale stores prosperous, but it also expanded the cold drink market.

It can be seen that between "low price" and "high price", enterprises can have a longer-term vision. The changes in temperature in the cold drink market have raised a warning: do not simply start from price and draw conclusions about "consumption upgrading" or "consumption degradation". Price should return to value, which is the product that rational consumers are willing to choose.