news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

author丨wang meng

cover source丨weibo@谷谷逛谷gugugugu

looking at the latest arrived millet, tiantian, the manager of the millet store "dimension cat", stared at this box of blind draws from an unfamiliar ip (baji means badge, which is the transliteration of the japanese word バッジ).

she originally wanted to buy some of the recently popular "beer barbecue" series (hatsune miku's "project sekai"), but she didn't expect the purchasing agent didn't know the ip, and the preview photo she took could only barely show the colorful figures. because they had worked together before, the boss thought she could start with 200. when she got them, she found that they were all unpopular ips, and some of them couldn't even be found on "meilu" (a japanese second-hand trading platform).

after much thought, tiantian decided not to let the goods sit around, so she sold them at a low price. “even if i don’t make any money, at least i have to get the funds flowing.”

the chinese word "gu zi" is a transliteration of the english word "goods". in a broad sense, it refers to anime peripherals loved by the two-dimensional community, usually including babaji, acrylic products, colored paper, etc. most of them are small in size, low in cost, and easy to collect, display and circulate.

in 2024, the niche millet suddenly became popular, and the topic of "millet store revitalizes old shopping malls" became a hot search. according to meituan data, from january 1 to april 23 this year, the search term "millet store" nationwide increased by 8227.2% year-on-year.

in the eyes of newcomers who are eager to enter the market to make a fortune, this business has a low threshold, many potential consumers, and high product premiums, which can be said to be a sure win. but tiantian told xuebao finance that opening a millet store is actually very risky. "you must have goods before opening a store, and the payment for the goods is 400,000 or 500,000 yuan. you have to pay more for new products later. if the goods don't sell well and the inventory is accumulated, it is very likely that the store will be slowly consumed."

there are still many problems. the offline store owners who rushed in with the dream of making a fortune found themselves trapped in a besieged city.

dimension cat sells off the wrong goods photo by snow leopard finance

millet shops are booming, but making money is hard

on the b2 floor of wangfujing joy shopping mall, you can easily get lost if you are not careful.

every guzi store looks similar, with character standees of "haikyuu!!" and "blue zone" placed at the door. the most prominent c position in the store is almost always occupied by these two animation ips. there are rich product varieties and many blind draw styles. xuebao finance saw "haikyuu!!" drink blind draws in 5 guzi stores. the items are exactly the same, but the prices are slightly different.

liu lei (pseudonym), the store manager of dimension canyon, told snow leopard finance that when opening a store offline, one must consider the effective display area and turnover speed of the store. most millet stores prefer to enter popular ips. popular ips such as "haikyuu!!" and "jujutsu kaisen" have a wide audience and many fans, and they sell quickly, contributing to the bulk of the store's revenue.

however, new and old millet stores are flocking to sell homogeneous ips and products, which not only makes them lose their characteristics and competitiveness, but also reduces consumers' enthusiasm for "eating millet" (buying millet).

dimension cat is trying to make some differentiation. tiantian told snow leopard finance that in addition to the popular ips, they also buy some millet from old shows. for example, the 2006 anime ouran high school host club recently held a flash event in japan, and tiantian specially asked a consignor to buy some millet back.

image source of ciyuanmao store: photo taken by snow leopard finance

however, the acg ips are complex, new products are released quickly, and consumers have different aesthetic tastes. product selection and purchase have become a screening threshold and a problem that troubles bosses.

the millet shop owners finally came to the conclusion that choice is more important than hard work.

in order to support daily sales, guzi store mainly sells general merchandise. general merchandise means open to everyone for a certain period of time, with no quantity limit. the disadvantage is that the pre-order period is long, usually starting from 3 months.

"how many sets of products should be ordered? how will the sales be in three months? you have to know these questions." liu lei told xuebao finance that if you order too much, the goods will be on hand, not only losing money but also taking up inventory; if you order too little and the product is very popular, looking for spot goods will increase costs. "it is possible that the spot price is 10% to 20% higher than the pre-sale price, but it is not easy to pass the cost of the wrong decision on to consumers."

even though the store has been open for more than half a year, liu lei still doesn't dare to say that he has a good grasp of the selection and purchase volume of general merchandise. he once bought 40 boxes of volleyball boys flag raising edition at one time, thinking that it would be easy to sell with the popularity of the ip, but the actual sales situation was contrary to his expectations. after reviewing the situation, liu lei realized that there were many unpopular players in this series, and fans were more concerned, which affected the turnover speed.

compared with general vendors who have circulation risks, most millet shop owners prefer market vendors who have no worries about sales.

the street vendors need to be purchased in specific offline scenarios, such as theme flash mobs, theme cafes, ip exhibitions, etc. there is a certain threshold to enter such places, and there may be purchase restrictions. the street vendors have limited shipments, and things are expensive because they are scarce. therefore, as long as guzi store has street vendors, fans of the ip will come from afar.

tiantian told xuebao finance that their store recently sold products from amano akira, and many customers lined up before the store opened. liu lei said that online live broadcast rooms focus more on "what others don't have, i have" than offline stores, and only relatively rare vendors can attract traffic.

products sold at the ciyuanmao exhibition

however, due to the small number of vendors in the market, the millet shop had to rely on snatching to purchase goods.

"yesterday i bought a popular product through my personal channel, which was much faster than the online live broadcast room." liu lei excitedly talked about his experience of successfully grabbing products by taking advantage of the channel. "i have to spend a lot of energy on new products every day. if i am a step late, the good products may be sold out."

more and more people are joining the circle to seek gold, resulting in a surge in purchasing fees, and the profit margins of domestic millet stores are being continuously compressed.

"for some vendors who are more difficult to buy from, the purchasing agents will not quote according to the exchange rate. for example, they will directly quote a relatively high rmb price, but when we sell it, the price cannot be too outrageous, because we can't make a few yuan from such products." tiantian said helplessly, "but because it is so popular, we still have to buy it, even if it is just to attract traffic as a popular product."

as the market gets bigger, so do the competitors.

on xiaohongshu, there are more than 2.61 million guide notes for beijing gudian stores. "gudian people" carefully list every offline gudian store worth visiting according to the city and shopping mall. the number is so large that it is dazzling.

"in fact, most millet shops were opened this year," xiao zhou recalled to snow leopard finance. a year or two ago, the millet shop market in beijing was still tepid, and only the cuckoo club was considered an early shop. in 2023, before she entered the millet circle, she passed by there several times. she remembered that there were several capsule toy machines at the door, and there were not many people in the shop.

even the wangfujing joy shopping mall, which is now known as beijing's "grain-eating holy land," only had two millet stores when it first opened.

at the beginning of this year, xiaozhou took an hour-long subway ride to joy to buy a chiikawa doll. he was shocked when he got off the b2, "it was so deserted, there were probably only more than 20 customers on the entire floor." joy was formerly the new yansha street shopping plaza, which has been abandoned for more than three years since it closed for adjustment in 2020. "can the two-dimensional business really attract young people and revitalize this reborn shopping mall?" xiaozhou had doubts in his heart.

but the fact is that in the few months after xiaozhou left, the business of joy b2's guzi store became more and more prosperous. individual guzi stores opened one after another, and chain brand guzi stores such as manku and gugugugu also settled in one after another, and more and more acg people came to eat guzi.

photo of the store in dimension canyon provided by the interviewee

the hot millet economy is a microcosm of the growth of the domestic acg market. according to a report from the china research institute of industry, in 2021, china's pan-acg user base reached 460 million people, with a market size of approximately 63.2 billion yuan. by 2024, this figure will grow to 120 billion yuan, making china the world's largest acg market.

in the process of breaking through the circle of gu culture, the intervention of mainstream commercial real estate played an important role. before this, most guzi stores were small street shops and were scattered. even though they formed gathering points such as guangzhou animation new city, beijing souxiu city, and shanghai baili xiangxie, their commercial influence was still concentrated in a niche circle.

in january 2023, the shanghai bailian zx creative mall, known as "the first commercial complex in china focusing on 2d culture", was completed, allowing more people to see the value of the 2d business. during the national day golden week last year, this mall attracted an average daily passenger flow of 60,000 people with an area of ​​less than 10,000 square meters. in comparison, the suhewan mixc, which is 30 times larger in area, had an average daily passenger flow of 50,000 people during the same period.

in order to win more young offline traffic, shopping malls have proactively released central locations, allowing the two-dimensional world to have regular exposure in offline channels, further amplifying the influence of ip and the area of ​​audience contact.

changes in major consumer categories and lowered collection thresholds have also provided more possibilities for the expansion of the two-dimensional consumer group.

liu lei remembers that when he was a kid, the acg fans preferred to collect action figures, which cost hundreds of yuan each, and were expensive and took up space. but now, the fans prefer to collect small, portable and low-priced baji and acrylic products. although the average customer price of hot-selling products has decreased, the frequency of consumption has increased. the blind box gameplay is addictive, and fans will repurchase the same peripherals wholesale for their favorite characters.

influenced by this, many anime figure stores in souxiu city near chongwenmen in beijing have transformed into millet stores this year.

xiao bi (pseudonym), who came to beijing from xiong'an specifically to eat gu, stood at the door of animate and opened a blind draw. after finding that it was not a "self-recommended" (her favorite character), she turned around and went into the store to buy two more packs. she was obsessed with winning the two characters, hinata shoyo or kageyama tobio, from "haikyuu!!" in her opinion, the "self-recommended gu" drawn in the offline gu store is like "her own child", and this sense of accomplishment cannot be obtained by eating gu through any other channel.

after getting what she wanted, xiao bi calculated her expenses at animate with xuebao finance: a plush toy of tobio kageyama and eight blind draws of baji, which added up to about 500 yuan. after packing up, she decided to go to the next stop - wangfujing joy mall, which is also a good place to eat "little volleyball" valley.

xiao bi drew the character of toru ikawa from "haikyuu!!" photo by xuebao finance

but for the millet shop owner, the bustling market is not necessarily a good thing. with more customers, there are more competitors. a faint chill has quietly arrived in this early autumn.

if you want to make quick money, you will inevitably be eliminated.

guzidian, which has gone from wild growth to standardization and scale, is welcoming the arrival of professional players and capital.

chain stores such as chaowanxingqiu, bugushe, animate, manku, sanyuemon, happyzoo, goodslove, and gugugugu, which have accelerated their store expansion in the first half of this year, are mostly backed by film, animation, and ip agency companies, and have quickly expanded their stores with the help of their first-mover advantage. retail stores such as miniso and kkv are also co-branding two-dimensional ips to seize the market in order to improve their performance and brand image. in the first half of this year, the joint flash sale of miniso and chiikawa exceeded 8 million yuan in sales in 3 days through limited time and limited purchase.

compared with individual millet stores that operate independently, they can rely on their scale advantages and the capital power behind them to derive more gameplay in offline business.

for example, road pictures, the publicity and distribution company that introduced "the journey of bell buds" and "slam dunk", established the chain store brand gugugugu last year, providing a series of offline experience activities such as retail and curation. this summer, the japanese animated film "haikyuu! ! the battle of the garbage dump" landed in domestic theaters. in addition to holding a fan festival with 10,000 people on the theme of the movie, road pictures also set up exclusive flash areas for "haikyuu! !" in gugugugu stores across the country.

chain stores such as chaowan planet and gugushe have also improved their differentiated competitiveness by seeking ip authorization from upstream, opening theme cafes, launching ip customized food, and selling limited products.

"haikyuu!! garbage dump showdown" 10,000 fans festival

having support from a large company means having richer animation ip resources, lower costs, faster new product launch capabilities and stronger negotiation power.

the largest domestic japanese comic book distributor, "mitsukimon", is backed by "fanfan animation group", the copyright distributor of japan's shueisha in china. the latter has introduced many top japanese comics such as "one piece", "bleach", and "naruto". it has cooperated with domestic and foreign ip parties for more than ten years, and can obtain many exclusive ips and products. it can also take the initiative to negotiate with japanese manufacturers to resell popular products. shen hao, the founder of mitsukimon, once said in an interview with the media that nearly 90% of the genuine japanese comic book market is represented by mitsukimon.

march monster releases resale information source: weibo @三月兽march·monster

faced with the strong impact of capital, individual players are almost powerless to resist.

before opening the store, tiantian and the store manager decided on a strategy of focusing on chiikawa and supplementing other ips. at that time, the "three little ones" were very popular, but they were only shipped in japan and the production was limited, so it was not easy for fans to buy them. tiantian remembered that a customer came to buy chiikawa's kinkakuji limited edition. as soon as she entered the store, she was impressed that she couldn't buy this plush in japan, but there were so many in beijing.

before april this year, chiikawa had always been ciyuanmao's flagship product, shouldering the dual tasks of profit and traffic. consumers' impression of ciyuanmao was also "the store with a complete range of chiikawa products." but such an easy life did not last long.

when miniso announced that it would launch a joint product with chiikawa, my heart sank.

she understands that the entry of miniso not only lowered the price of chiikawa, but also diluted the value of the ip. when consumers are used to spending 20 or 30 yuan to buy a chiikawa doll, they will no longer be attracted by the japanese version of chiikawa that costs more than 100 yuan. after losing the golden signboard of chiikawa, she is still worried about how to build a new "moat" for dimension cat.

dimension cat when it first opened. source: xiaohongshu

in terms of site selection, the expansion of chain brands is also squeezing the living space of individual millet stores.

after nearly a year of being talked about with great relish, most shopping malls have clearly favored chain brands when recruiting investors, and individual shop owners are easily overlooked. at the beginning, shanghai bailian zx had many individual millet stores that moved from the nearby confucian temple, but now, almost all of them have been replaced by chain brands.

if a millet shop is not located in a shopping mall with convenient transportation and dense traffic, the business will probably not be very good. xiao zhou once went to a store in an office building to buy millet for black butler. it was far from the subway station and the route was very roundabout. after buying it, she thought to herself: i won’t come here again.

tiantian told snow leopard finance: "so if a millet shop is opened in a very remote place, few people will go there specifically to eat millet. after all, everyone's food is similar now."

opening a millet shop is not a low-threshold business as many people imagine. it places high demands on practitioners in terms of operational capabilities, supply chain capabilities, and understanding of subculture. under such circumstances, the "closing wave" of millet shops is not surprising.

even though dimension cat is already one of the most popular millet stores in wangfujing joy mall, tiantian still feels that running the business every day is like walking on thin ice. in order to find lower-priced sources of goods and more valuable products, she has to spend a lot of time and energy. "before i opened the millet store, i only had 200 friends on wechat, but now i have almost 2,000."

liu lei used his accumulated experience to carry out refined customer operations. on children's day this year, the store launched a membership system, where points can be redeemed, equivalent to a 5% discount on in-store products. within a month of the launch of the membership system, it had accumulated more than 2,000 users.

"too many people have come into this industry, but not all of them understand ip and how to sell goods." in liu lei's opinion, millet stores that are trying to make a quick buck will inevitably be eliminated in the industry's natural selection. this is a result they must accept.