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It is rare for a vegetable market to open a shopping mall in Beijing. Recently, a Beijing Business Daily reporter learned that the Chongwenmen Vegetable Market will move into the B2 floor of Mofang at the end of this year. After the return of Chongcai, it will strengthen the linkage with the merchants in Mofang in publicity and marketing, so as to drive the customer flow and conversion of the entire project. Introducing supermarkets on the B1 and B2 floors of shopping malls has become a common business logic for investment promotion, but introducing vegetable markets is still a minority. In the future, how a trendy shopping mall can combine with the people's livelihood needs corresponding to the vegetable market and stand out in the business circle is still a problem that the shopping mall operation team needs to think about.

Vegetable market enters shopping mall

The Moroccan side wants to liven up the atmosphere by bringing back the "old Chongwenmen vegetables". According to mall staff, the Chongwenmen Vegetable Market will return at the end of this year and will eventually be located on the B2 floor of the mall. During the visit, a Beijing Business Daily reporter saw on the B2 floor that the entire area has been fully fenced off and is currently under renovation.

Regarding the division of labor between Chongcai and Mofang, a reporter from Beijing Business Daily learned from Zhuang Dalei, chairman of Chongwenmen Vegetable Market, that the overall design and planning of Chongwenmen Vegetable Market is jointly completed by both parties, Chongcai is responsible for brand output and investment promotion of some classic stalls, while Mofang is responsible for unified operation of popular stall investment promotion and business format combination. Zhuang Dalei also revealed that in future operations, the stalls of Chongwenmen Vegetable Market may be combined with the restaurant upstairs of Mofang, and counters for specialty products may be set up.

It is understood that merchants in Chongwenmen Vegetable Market will uniformly use the market's business license and conduct unified checkout, charging the higher of the two based on rent and commission. This is also a common form of cooperation adopted by both parties when brands enter shopping malls. In terms of publicity and marketing, they will create trendy scenes and link up with merchants in shopping malls.

At present, the underground floors of most shopping malls are usually dominated by supermarkets, snack shops and lifestyle service brands. For example, the New World Department Store adjacent to Mofang has opened New World Supermarket, hair salons and nail salons, and simple meal brands such as Micun Bibimbap and Ma Jiyong Beef Noodles on its B1 floor. However, in recent years, the underground floors have gradually become the areas with strong customer flow in shopping malls due to factors such as the ability to attract customers such as the subway and the food city, and have also attracted some fast fashion clothing and gold jewelry to "sink" and be located in the underground floors.

It is worth noting that it is rare to build a vegetable market in the basement of a shopping mall. During the six years of operation by Mofang, the originally planned cinema and B2 floor space have not been open to the public, which has also resulted in a lot of space in the mall being vacant. In the opinion of Pan Haolong, an expert member of the China Community Commercial Working Committee, this move may be to revitalize the vacant space in the mall. At the same time, since many large-scale shopping malls are facing transformation difficulties, it is not necessarily ideal to introduce traditional supermarkets in this location.

Different from ordinary wet markets, wet markets in the basement of shopping malls inevitably have certain restrictions. Pan Haolong believes that "wet market operation must first have a sense of life. In addition to fruits, vegetables, staple foods, and cooked food products, it also needs to have delicacies and snacks, and the underground second floor may have some restrictions on the on-site preparation and sale of food."

In foreign markets, there are also attempts to open vegetable markets in shopping malls. For example, Japan's Isetan Department Store has built various vegetable stores, fruit stores, dessert stores, and various fried foods, seafood and other products on the basement floor. Its model is similar to that of a vegetable market, selling food that consumers need for daily life, but the environment is cleaner and tidier, and the proportion of cooked food sold is relatively high, which also provides ideas for domestic vegetable markets to open in shopping malls.

Needs in-depth running-in

Today, under the development of "one circle, one policy" encouraged by Beijing, Chongwenmen Business District will build characteristic theme blocks, explore ancient buildings and art, create important festivals such as flower markets and lantern festivals, further improve the traffic and vehicle environment, and make Chongwenmen a vibrant and fashionable quality life business district. The attempt to integrate traditional vegetable markets with modern trendy shopping centers is expected to provide more shopping options for surrounding residents. Pan Haolong believes that there are densely populated residential areas around Chongwenmen. If Morocco builds a vegetable market that meets people's livelihood needs, it will supplement the consumption content of Chongwenmen Business District and help promote the complexity of the business district.

Chongcai will return to its original location to meet consumers' feelings and expectations, while Morocco will attract customers through the symbols of old Beijing and further activate the resources in the market. Undoubtedly, this cooperation is expected to bring relevant value to both parties. However, when the vegetable market enters the shopping mall, factors such as rent, operating costs, and management costs must also be considered. The property owner must also consider the integration of the vegetable market with other business formats in the market. Whether the cooperation between the two parties can achieve good operation is still unknown.

How to bridge the gap between the customer base of the vegetable market and the overall customer base of the shopping mall is worth deep consideration by the project party. Lai Yang, a member of the Expert Committee of the China General Chamber of Commerce, believes that the vegetable market is usually dominated by the community and middle-aged and elderly customer base, and the brands on the other floors of the Mofang may not match them; at the same time, the business format combination within the Mofang lacks internal connections. After large stores such as restaurants divide the area upstairs, there is less space for consumers to shop, and the consumer experience is greatly reduced. "If the vegetable market cannot interact enough with the brands on other floors after opening, and the business format combination in the market cannot bring more experience to consumers, it will not help much for the overall customer flow and performance." Lai Yang said.

In addition, fresh food business is more difficult than other retail business, and it is also a test of the project owner's operational capabilities. Lai Yang believes that there are many considerations in attracting merchants to a vegetable market, such as how to combine merchants, their price competitiveness and quality, etc., which are all things that need to be considered in addition to the exterior design; and the vegetable market is a low-profit field, and its direct contribution to the project is limited. Therefore, Morocco needs to further consider the consistency of the customer base and the difficulty of business combination.

Beijing Business Daily reporter Liu Zhuolan and Hu Jingrong