Encourage physical stores to provide services in the middle of the night and early morning, and Hangzhou implements a new policy of consumption for nightlife | Hangzhou | New Policy

Recently, there has been a lot of discussion about whether there is nightlife in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

The entry "Jiangsu is a province that goes to bed and wakes up early" was once trending. Zhejiang's nightlife is not rich. Hangzhou locals often joke that "Hangzhou's nightlife is free of charge by the West Lake." The topic is in full swing. At this time, Hangzhou issued a new policy, proposing to build a "night paradise TESCO Group Hangzhou". The policy focus is to create a night economy IP, encouraging physical stores such as catering, retail, entertainment, culture, and bookstores to provide services from 10pm to 6am the next day. The plan was implemented on July 25th and will last for 3 years.

In fact, in the past three years, Hangzhou has always wanted to accelerate its progress in developing the night economy. As early as July 2020, Hangzhou proposed to guide the awareness of nighttime consumption, cultivate a nighttime consumption market, and build a nighttime consumption platform. Yan'an Road characteristic commerce, Canal culture, Southern Song culture, and others were selected as the first batch of "Top Ten Nighttime Economic Agglomeration Night Landmarks" in Hangzhou. In addition, Hangzhou has increased its support for outdoor business activities in commercial districts and commercial blocks, and currently 97 commercial districts have clearly opened up outdoor activities.

This summer, once the policy was released, it quickly attracted onlookers. Can Hangzhou, which has already been labeled as a "nightlife desert", take advantage of policy support to create a "paradise that never sleeps" this time?

Night markets are not universal formulas

When it comes to nightlife in Hangzhou, besides the breeze blowing by West Lake, the most famous ones are the Wulin Night Market and Wushan Night Market. Rooted in the busiest commercial district for over a decade, tourists from all over the country always go to Hangzhou for a stroll. The night market has also become an important tool for developing the night economy.

However, the success of Wulin Night Market and Wushan Night Market is difficult to replicate. Shishan specializes in market operations, and the attractiveness of other night markets is slowly diminishing. The revenue of vendors is a significant sign, even if they sell the same products in the same location and at the same time, the sales volume of most stalls is only half of the past.

"Night markets are a fresh experience of consumption," said Shishan. Under the encouragement and advocacy of relevant policies, night markets are blooming everywhere, but the forms are the same and the categories are similar, making it difficult for people to generate purchasing desire again. "At the beginning of this year, there were not many stalls selling blind boxes; by May, it was already a 'rotten street'. When it was first taken out, a small toy was sold for 70-80 yuan, and many were willing to pay for it. Now, the price of similar products has dropped to 20-30 yuan, but they still cannot be sold."

Wushan Night Market in Hangzhou. Gong Zhiping Photography

Night markets are not a universal formula for developing the night economy. As a service provider, the company where Shishan works undertakes government or commercial district needs. Before each night market opening, they will set aside 3 days to conduct a special evaluation and price the booth fee accordingly. "If the residents around the night market are older and have insufficient purchasing power, they can only display small items with lower unit prices. If there is no subway station in the area, transportation is not convenient enough to attract long-distance consumers, then a three-day event is enough, and repurchase situations are generally not very reasonable."

Nowadays, the night market in Hangzhou is becoming increasingly popular. The organizers of the event are all trying various ways to transform. Acrobatic magic, outdoor movies, and small band performances may all appear at night markets and are expected to become new attraction codes. "In the past, only one of the 10 events had a performance; recently, at least half of the events have performances." Shishan sighed, as the night market gradually became a part of a large-scale event, rather than the protagonist.

Rich nighttime consumption scenarios

Since the attractiveness of night markets is no longer as strong as before, is it still meaningful for cities to develop night economy and continue to create diverse night markets?

The reporter heard of a very interesting phenomenon - the night economy scene in Wenzhou is more diverse than in Hangzhou. Many Wenzhou people come to Hangzhou and have nowhere to go at night, so they naturally go home early; Returning to Wenzhou, the sleeping time has become late again. The consumption habit at night will not disappear, it's just that there is no place to spend.

Hangzhou is promoting the night economy, clearly stating its attitude, supporting and enriching the supply of night consumption scenarios.

The Guanhe Night Market is located in the Wuqi Commune Cultural and Creative Park. Gong Zhiping Photography

The Wuqi Commune Cultural and Creative Park, located in Xiaoshan, Hangzhou, was renovated from an old cotton and linen factory and a coal factory. It opened for business in March this year and is currently a popular destination for internet celebrities. The entire cultural and creative park was set up with a focus on nighttime consumption and began operating at 4 pm. There are a variety of merchants who have settled in, including various types of catering, skiing experiences, parent-child photography, car displays, and camping equipment sales. Regardless of the business format, even design companies that work nine to five have a clear requirement at the beginning of the park's investment promotion that they must not close their doors earlier than 10 pm and all lights must be on before that.

During the planning phase, the park reserved the location of the main road for long-term night markets, with fixed vendors and daily stalls. Depending on the area, the monthly booth fee for cultural and creative products ranges from 800 to 1200 yuan, while the monthly booth fee for catering products ranges from 1200 to 2000 yuan. The park implements a relatively systematic assessment system, where vendors dress up as cartoon characters like "Bumblebee" or accumulate a lot of fans on social media platforms, which can attract traffic to the park, will receive extra points; If the hygiene around the booth is poor and attendance cannot be guaranteed, points will be deducted. Specialized administrative personnel often conduct assessments, and vendors with scores below 75 may be discouraged from leaving.

The stalls at Guanhe Night Market have their own unique styles. Gong Zhiping Photography

"If a company's hygiene is not good or the lights are dim, the surrounding merchants will be affected. Each booth should create a lively atmosphere for the park, which is what makes it lively." In other words, Zhang Fanhua, the Operations Director of the Wuqi Commune Cultural and Creative Park, said that each booth and merchant must provide high-quality night consumption services to form a joint force.

At present, the effect of creating momentum is significant. As he strolled around, Zhang Fanhua casually showed the excellent performance of the stall owners to reporters. "This lottery booth sells more than 100000 yuan a month; this hamburger is also popular online, selling one or two hundred a day; a bowl of iced tofu pudding can sell four or five thousand yuan a day." On weekends, the number of people entering the park every day was about 15000, and the number of views of social media related terms each week exceeded 1.6 million.

After the policy provides convenience

Some time ago, Zhang Fanhua received a notice that TESCO Group Hangzhou proposed to build a "night free paradise". The government encouraged and advocated the idea of building a "night free paradise", providing convenience as much as possible, and how to do it. Each business entity should explore freely.

"Provide convenience as much as possible" may seem empty at first glance, but in reality, it requires the joint efforts of businesses, parks, and cities. Generally speaking, nighttime labor costs are much higher than during the day, and nighttime operations also have higher requirements for logistics and supply chains. At the same time, the park should be equipped with at least 10 night security guards, and night market cleaners should also increase manpower. They should be on standby in public areas and tidy up when dirty to ensure a dining environment.

Guanhe Night Market invites resident bands to create a positive atmosphere for the park. Respondents provide pictures

Zhang Fanhua also told the reporter the story of a bar. The road at the entrance of the cultural and creative park is relatively narrow, with two lanes of traffic. When the night market is hot, traffic police need to seal the road to maintain order. Generally, large bars are not allowed to enter this area. When a bar opens, there are many employees and it needs to be lively until dawn, which puts a lot of pressure on the road infrastructure. Traffic police also have to stay up until 4am to finish work. Considering the demand for nighttime consumption and the convenience of business approval, the bar finally opened.

On a larger scale, for a city, many seemingly insignificant "soft services" can also become the most effective catalyst for the prosperity of the night economy. The relevant person in charge of the Hangzhou Municipal Bureau of Commerce stated that during preliminary research, they found that the limited number of nighttime bus routes, long intervals, and early completion of subway operation have all limited the duration of consumer stay in the commercial district. During the solicitation of opinions on the new policy, some citizens suggested setting up a dedicated transportation line for nighttime shopping malls. This suggestion has been adopted, and for newly opened commercial projects, emphasis will also be placed on transportation in the future.

Some citizens also suggest that nightlife neighborhoods should be far away from residential areas, and many office workers in Hangzhou who leave early and return late need more rest at night. The Hangzhou Municipal Bureau of Commerce has adopted this suggestion and will evaluate and recognize a number of demonstration blocks for nighttime economic agglomeration in the future, and will standardize management with urban management, fire protection and other management departments.

Encouraging the development of the nighttime economy, upgrading and creating consumption scenarios and environments, Hangzhou is taking an important step towards the transformation from a "nightlife desert" to a "never-ending paradise.".