Total Issue 3900
Author | Restaurant boss insider Sun Yu
Prices are soaring
National snacks become "consumer assassins"
The joy of gnawing chicken feet is unbearable for workers.
"Sky-high chicken feet" has repeatedly appeared on the hot search list this year. #鸡爪比牛肉贵登上热搜, countless migrant workers complained that they were "stabbed in the heart".
Recently, #男子吐槽买鸡爪遇刺客2个27.4 yuan # was on the hot search again, a customer said that he bought two chicken feet at a stall on Hefang Street in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, and was asked for 27.4 yuan, suspected of being a "chicken foot assassin", he said that the vendor did not clearly mark the price at that time.
In this regard, netizens expressed their opinions, and some ridiculed, "I'm afraid this is the claw of the phoenix?" Some people bluntly said that "chicken feet are expensive, don't buy them if you can't afford them", and some people expressed their understanding that "after all, this is a scenic spot, and it is better for tourists to be cautious when buying things." ”
After the incident, the Hangzhou Qingbo Market Supervision and Management Institute went to the scene to investigate and verify, and there was no unspecified price, but the price tag of the store was not eye-catching, and it was recommended that the store involved be replaced on the spot. However, the price of 98 yuan/500 grams is really expensive, and some netizens even complained about it, "You can grab it, and he will give you two chicken feet".
The voice of complaining that chicken feet are too expensive "swarming".
Some netizens said, "I bought a roast chicken feet at the stall for 15 yuan, and a chicken foot is more expensive than a pound of meat." Another person said, "I bought a box of 50 yuan/250 grams of boneless chicken feet in the lo-mei shop, and spent 130 yuan, which is really careless, who can stand it, and I can't return it." ”
Nei Sanjun also specially visited some supermarkets and lo-mei delicatessens, and on the whole, the price of chicken feet is really not low.
Frozen chicken feet in a community supermarket are sold for 29.9 yuan per catty, which is three times that of chicken thighs, comparable to the price of beef next to it; The ordinary braised chicken feet in a deli are sold for 43 per catty, and four cost 20 yuan; The most popular is boneless chicken feet, which is priced at 81 per catty in a deli in Shanghai.
In contrast, the chicken feet stall on Hefang Street raised the price to 98 yuan per catty, which is indeed a bit scary.
Tiny chicken feet, everywhere
All kinds of chicken feet have long become "national snacks", penetrating into various consumption scenes, and cultivating a large number of "chicken feet lovers". Because of this, the price of chicken feet soared, which attracted outrage.
Let's start with the restaurant scene.
In the public perception, chicken feet are called phoenix feet, and many restaurants also like to use "phoenix feet" to name their products. As soon as the name was changed, it seemed much more "extravagant".
However, from a professional point of view, chicken feet and phoenix feet are different products. A senior supply chain expert told Nei Sanjun: "The one with the leg bone is the chicken claw, and the one without the chicken claw is the phoenix claw." The price of phoenix claws is more expensive, because the bones have weight, but they don't have much value, so the overall price is lowered. (See image below)
◎Left: chicken feet; Right: Phoenix claws
However, most merchants are confused about the names of chicken feet and phoenix feet. In view of this, we will refer to these products as chicken feet (except for brand-named product names).
The use of chicken feet is almost ubiquitous in the catering sector. Looking smaller, it is the "drainage item" of many restaurants, or "popular accompaniment"; Looking bigger, there have even been "Internet celebrity chain brands".
Tiger skin chicken feet once became the most popular "drainage explosive product" in hot pot restaurants.
After frying, marinating or braising chicken feet, they are also flavored after being simmered again in the hot pot soup base. Zhu Guangyu Hot Pot Restaurant launched tiger skin and phoenix feet in 2020, and this signature dish has also become a major item with a high order rate and repurchase rate in stores; Last year, Haidilao Supply Chain Yihai International officially entered the lo-mei market, and its snack brand "Wow" launched tiger skin and phoenix claw products.
Braised chicken feet or tiger skin chicken feet also have a strong presence in noodle fast food restaurants.
Fast food restaurants like to use lo-mei such as chicken feet as a snack to accompany their meals. Order a small noodle and add a chicken claw, which is both filling and rich. In this way, it not only improves the consumer experience, but also increases the unit value of customers.
There is also a brand, which directly turned the single item of chicken feet into a restaurant chain.
The Internet celebrity restaurant brand Arui Roasted Chicken Feet, which was once popular all over Beijing, had more than 150 stores nationwide at its peak. With its unique and innovative grilled chicken feet flavor, the brand has increased the repurchase rate to more than 90.7%, and has captured a large number of young customers.
However, the single-product explosion model is now exhausted, and there are only about 80 stores in business at present.
Set up a stall to sell chicken feet
Some people earn 3000 a day, and some people earn 0 a day
The chicken feet business is even more popular among food street stall owners.
In particular, boneless chicken feet have almost swept the country in recent years. According to iiMedia Consulting data, the online market size of China's boneless chicken feet industry will be 4.98 billion yuan in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 16.5%, and its market size is expected to reach 7.76 billion yuan in 2028, with most of the consumers being young and middle-aged, and consumers under the age of 44 accounting for 93.59%.
The plasticity of boneless chicken feet is extremely high, and the production method is not complicated, except for the major lo-mei chain brands, people can learn to make it directly at home, and it is easy to start a stall and start a business, low cost, and no burden.
The Xiaohongshu platform is full of "boneless chicken feet stall business secrets", and some people even rely on stalls to sell chicken feet with a turnover of more than 3,000 yuan. Of course, this is just an example, and many stall owners said that when the business is good, there are four or five hundred a day, and there are netizens who set up stalls for the first time and sighed, "Only one is sold on the first day, and 0 directly on the second day."
Setting up a stall to sell boneless chicken feet seems to be easy, but in fact, there are certain difficulties, such as learning to make in the early stage, how to purchase and choose quality chicken feet, and removing bones and cutting nails all require technology and time costs.
When talking about why boneless chicken feet are expensive, a girl who works part-time as a stall bluntly said: "The purchase cost is high, ordinary chicken feet are 16 yuan a catty, and those with a lot of meat are even more expensive." Wholesale chicken feet look and smell twice, there are a lot of soaked and bleached chicken feet on the market now, if you don't buy well, there will be a fishy smell".
For consumers, whether it is in e-commerce, supermarkets, or to deli or stalls, the label of boneless chicken feet is always "expensive", which also scares off many chicken feet lovers.
Why are chicken feet getting more and more expensive?
What is the reason why chicken feet are expensive?
First, the processing of chicken feet requires labor costs.
It is understood that the pre-processing of chicken feet requires labor costs, such as nail trimming is not solved by industrial equipment, and the task is very large.
A restaurant owner who used to run chicken feet noodles joked: "Every day, I watch employees cut their nails for chicken feet in baskets there, but I don't eat chicken feet anymore, and I'm tired of watching them." ”
Second, the restaurant has a high standard of demand for chicken feet, and it is necessary to strictly control the raw material suppliers.
For restaurants, a tiger skin chicken feet should be served safely, appetizingly, and beautifully looking at a glance.
Therefore, when choosing a chicken foot buyer, brands need to strictly control the criteria such as chicken foot size, meat quantity and taste. If the pre-treatment of chicken feet is not perfect, it will directly affect the standardization of dishes, resulting in uneven quality and food safety problems. The uneven quality of chicken feet raw materials is also a great loss to store operations and brand image.
This requires brands to choose regular and high-quality chicken feet, so the cost price is higher.
Third, the raw materials of chicken feet have entered the "seller's market", and the price has risen.
On the one hand, the demand for chicken feet is rising day by day.
With the abundance of catering, stalls, retail and other scenes, the demand for chicken feet is gradually expanding. According to the data, the annual consumption of chicken feet in mainland China has reached more than 20 billion, and the sales volume of chicken feet in 2022 will be about 564,500 tons, an increase of 194,500 tons from 2018, and the market size of leisure ready-to-eat chicken feet will increase from 2.874 billion yuan in 2018 to 3.497 billion yuan in 2022.
On the other hand, the supply of chicken feet is decreasing.
According to the Guanyan report network, the output of chicken feet in mainland China in 2022 will be 578,900 tons, a decrease of 2.11% from 2021. In the same year, the number of chicken feet imported from abroad also dropped from 673,900 tons to 584,400 tons. Both the production and import of chicken feet showed a downward trend.
As a result, the price of chicken feet has skyrocketed. From the wholesale price point of view, the average wholesale price of chicken feet in the past three months is not less than 18 yuan/jin, and the average wholesale price of boneless chicken feet is higher, located at more than 22 yuan/jin.
At present, whether it is the purchase of raw materials, the production of products, to the retail and catering terminals, and finally to the hands of consumers, the entire circulation of chicken feet is facing layers of price increases, and what merchants can do is to control the quality of chicken feet. In the face of high prices, customers can only follow their hearts to decide whether to spend or not.