There's an interesting new culinary phenomenon sweeping through Western Chinese cities these days (and perhaps elsewhere, I wouldn't know): the house restaurant. Ambitious restauranteurs are abandoning the traditional storefronts and instead turning individual apartments into restaurants. This is particularly popular with Tbtn restaurant owners, with a good number having sprung up in new high rise buildings. They are all decorated in Tbtn style but each has its own selling point. One restaurant might make all the food fresh. Another has a black tent in the living room in which customers can enjoy their meal while sitting on pillows. Still another complements the Tbtn style with dozens of books for customers to read while waiting, thus underscoring the owners credentials as both a traditional T person and a well-known blogger, singer, and author.
The economics of the restaurant business and advances in technology make this set-up potentially profitable, providing one can get the word out well enough. Firstly, such a restaurant, lacking in the store-front space that might make encourage walk-in business, needs a way to encourage word of mouth. Although the methods are still rudimentary (this is no Wharton Business School guerrilla marketing campaign), WeChat (I've mentioned this app before) has proven a remarkably useful tool for generating word of mouth, and getting the word out. Secondly, however, it seems to have become increasingly expensive to get a regular storefront. Rents are getting higher, often far exceeding the rent of apartments, while new spaces often require a zhuan rang fei 转让费, a fee to take over the lease. These fees often cost tens of thousands of (US) dollars even for the least desirable locations, and that doesn't even count the money it costs to decorate and get all of the necessary equipment. The start-up capital required to open a new restaurant, can then make it prohibitive. Interestingly, this is not limited to restaurants. A number of other businesses have also begun to use this (DeCerteau-ian) tactic in their incessant quest to realize the China dream, and share in the country's "economic miracle." Cosmetics shops, hair stylists (not super professional, but still), jiating lvguan 家庭旅馆 ‘home hotels,' massage parlors, yoga studios and more. I don't know about the enforcement, nature, or even existence of zoning laws in this country, but I would guess that some such businesses are unlicensed. A number, however, are credentialed, and proudly display their credentials near the entry. It will be interesting to see where this phenomenon will go, and whether they ultimately will be able to compete with more traditional businesses.
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About TimAs you can see elsewhere on this webpage, I conduct research on ethnic minorities in western China. This blog offers semi-academic musings on the minutiae of daily life out here--the sort of information otherwise destined for footnotes. Categories |