What are people worried about?, A 5-year rent of 9.43 million yuan for a middle school cafeteria

On the eve of the start of the new semester, a 150 square meter small shop at Huai Concentration School in Zhaoqing City, Guangdong Province, was sold for a sky high rent of 9.43 million yuan over a period of 5 years, attracting public attention.

The local authorities quickly responded, stating that according to the contract, the selling price of the products in the convenience store must not exceed the market retail price, and the quality must comply with the national commodity quality regulations. Moreover, there is no mandatory consumption behavior towards students, and local market supervision, the State owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, and other departments will also strengthen the supervision of the quality, price, and business services of small shops.

However, people's concerns have not been completely dispelled. Based on an annual rent of 1.88 million yuan, even if there is no rest throughout the year, it is open for business during winter, summer, weekends, and holidays, with a daily rent sharing of over 5000 yuan. So, what kind of profit level can support such high rent? It is worth noting that the assessed and listed prices for the 5-year rent of the convenience store are both 385560 yuan. Assuming the assessed prices are objective and reasonable, does this mean that the convenience store can only bear the rental cost of about 400000 yuan according to normal profit levels? Does the additional 9 million yuan rent out of thin air mean that it needs to be earned through significant price increases on the basis of normal profits?

People's concerns are not unfounded. From media reports alone, it can be seen that the phenomenon of monopolistic operation and high quality at high prices in school canteens and campus convenience stores is not uncommon. Under the management model of contract operation and buyout of lease, regulatory issues regarding canteens and convenience stores have also been highly concerned.

The management of canteens, as well as the supply of daily necessities, learning supplies, sports supplies, and other logistical support services, have all become difficulties and burdens for schools. In response to the drawbacks of self operated logistics support by the school, many schools have carried out socialization reforms in logistics support, mainly by contracting out canteens, campus canteens, etc., and managing and operating them through market-oriented enterprise institutions.

The socialization reform has improved the efficiency of school logistics support, and the contracting parties rely on their advantages in funding, technology, and management, as well as higher levels of specialization and economies of scale. It has also transformed school logistics support from a burden to a profitable business opportunity. However, after implementing this contracted management model, the supervision and quality issues of logistics support have gradually surfaced. How to balance the bidding price and management level of the transferee in the bidding process of transferring contracting and leasing rights, rather than simply saying "the higher the price, the better"? How does the school supervise the safety, quality, and price of daily operations of contractors and lessees who have independent operating rights? How can regulatory authorities effectively intervene and carry out daily supervision of canteens and small shops located within the campus that do not provide services to the public? This series of issues will ultimately affect the safety, quality, and experience of student consumption.

The fact also proves that not all schools can solve these problems well. Taking the campus snack bar as an example, in 2016, the annual rent of the snack bar at Nanning No.3 Middle School in Guangxi was sold for 1.73 million yuan, and in 2021, the rent of the snack bar at Xinning No.2 Middle School in Hunan was sold for 3.2 million yuan, both of which have caused widespread public questioning. People are concerned that with such high rental costs, can tenants ensure the quality of goods and reasonable prices? Will rent be passed on to students through methods such as "excess profits", damaging their economic interests? The "sky high priced snack shops" at Huai Concentration School this time, along with their business scope of selling cookies, ham, sausages, ice cream, instant noodles, candies, cakes, etc., were also questioned for violating the clear requirements of relevant departments, such as "primary and secondary schools and kindergartens should not set up snack shops or supermarkets on campus in principle, and should not sell high salt, high sugar, and high-fat foods if necessary.".

In terms of school canteens, issues related to food safety, quality, and price have also been reported from time to time in contracted canteens. In June of this year, the "6.1" food safety incident at Jiangxi Industrial Vocational and Technical College, which caused a stir around the issue of "rat head or duck neck", fully exposed the lack of supervision in the school cafeteria under the contracted operation model. In this incident, the cafeteria contractor, the school, and local regulatory authorities failed to fulfill their corresponding regulatory responsibilities. Moreover, according to reports, the parent company of the involved cafeteria contracting enterprise has directly invested in at least 24 local related enterprises in multiple provinces and cities across the country, and has operated over 700 university cafeteria projects. Have these canteens established effective regulatory mechanisms to prevent incidents such as "rat headed duck necked" incidents? These questions are all worth asking.

The catering, food, daily necessities, learning supplies, and sports supplies operated by school canteens and small shops are directly related to the nutritional health, physical and mental growth and development of students, as well as closely related to their consumer rights and economic interests. Whether stricter supervision can be implemented and stricter standards can be applied under the contracting and leasing business model is probably a more important issue behind the remarkable amount of "9.43 million yuan".