In the wave of consumption upgrading, the consumption potential of the sinking market is gradually being tapped. This article focuses on the group of “cattle and horses in the county” and explores how they can reshape the consumption pattern of the sinking market through their unique consumption preferences and behaviors in their slow-paced lives. From the rise of emerging formats, to the dual pursuit of cost performance and emotional value, to the empowerment of digital technology, county consumption is showing unprecedented vitality and potential.
“In the past two years, everyone has been talking about ‘cattle and horses in big cities’, has anyone paid attention to ‘cattle and horses in the county’?”
Talk show actor KID’s sharp complaints in the show brought this rarely focused group into the public eye.
Compared with the “city cattle and horses” running wildly between the subway gates, the life of the “county cattle and horses” is like a movie that is pressed 0.5 times the speed: the sound of the clock-in machine at 8 o’clock in the morning breaks through the silence, and you can shake into the unit compound after 15 minutes of dragging your slippers; The lunch break was enough to squat slowly at the entrance of the alley and finish a bowl of rice noodles with red oil floating, and then lay on the desk and chatted with Zhou Gong for half an episode of “The Legend of Zhen Huan”; When the bell rang at half past five in the afternoon, even the folds of the curtains were filled with the rhythm of life on time.
But under this seemingly ironed and smooth daily life, there is a hidden truth in the workplace that “things are not hardcore but broken like cow hair” – morning meeting records, stamping processes, and cross-departmental messages are woven into a dense net. In the county seat, changing jobs is comparable to a domino that is overturned and restarted, and the cost of trial and error is so high that the soul of every late-night emo can wake up instantly. In particular, there is also a group of “new cattle and horses” who have withdrawn from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen to the county, and after seeing through the soberness of the law of the urban jungle, they want to press the “slow button” on life in the slow time of the county.
This group of people who are eager to breathe in the “stable cage” are reconstructing the consumption map of the county with unique emotional needs: the newly opened millet shop stacks animation figures into a rainbow wall, and no one self-helps The glass room of the KTV is lit up as a small lantern in the night market, and the sound of billiards in the billiard hall can roll along the twilight until three o’clock in the morning…… These new formats have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain, and some new brands with a keen sense of smell have already stepped on the consumption beat of “county cattle and horses” and run out of “expansion acceleration” in the sinking market.
01 The life of cattle and horses in the county town at 0.5 times the speed successfully counterattacked Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen
Luo Yue, an Internet worker, went back to her hometown in Luoyang during the summer vacation, and she was obviously a city person returning to the village before, but now she feels like a “rural person entering the city”.
A homecoming party completely subverted her cognition, from the self-service billiards hall to the unmanned chess and card room, from the 24-hour Bundy Club to the Zheng Yuanyuan pedicure room on the street corner, those consumer items that need to be repeatedly weighed in first-tier cities have long become easy daily enjoyment for “cattle and horses” of the same age in the county.
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What shocked Luo Yue the most was the “wool price” of self-service KTV. “79 yuan for ten people to sing for three hours, and the average person is only eight yuan!” Compared with the box fee of hundreds of yuan in traditional KTV, the overlord clause with a minimum order of 5 hours, and the premium of drinks and snacks, this new model of hourly billing and allowing bring-your-own food is only two cups of milk tea, and it also saves the embarrassment of frequent interruptions by service staff.
After three hours of singing, her friend took her into the unmanned billiards hall again. Without the packaging of the “middle-class filter” in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, the billing standard here is directly half cheaper than in Beijing, and the cost of playing an afternoon of football is not even enough to buy a cup of Internet celebrity coffee.
During the dinner, her classmate’s delicate short hair made Luo Yue mistakenly think that she was from a salon in a big city, but she didn’t expect that in her hometown in the county, Meituan’s group purchase only costs 58 yuan, and she can also choose her favorite hairdresser.
One day of the party ended with “Let’s find a place to get a massage?” “Finish. Stepping into the health pedicure massage shop, Luo Yue originally thought that she would meet all the middle-aged uncles, but she was pleasantly surprised to find many young faces, college students who graduated and returned to their hometowns during the summer vacation, and the county “cattle and horses” who got off work at the point and never wasted a minute and a second in the office, were all queuing up in the massage shop, waiting for the call, and spending 30 yuan to enjoy a 40-minute pedicure, which could be resurrected with full blood and let the “class flavor” dissipate.
Zheng Yuanyuan, Meituan group purchase price, Luoyang County VS Beijing
In reality, it is not surprising that young people have become the main consumer of pedicure massage groups. The words of Niu Ma Siyu in the post-00s county town express the logic: “The smell of going to work is too strong, shopping and buying clothes is not as good as buying relaxation, massage and singing are the spiritual needs that can wash away the tiredness, more real than any luxury.” ”
This consumption logic is reshaping the county’s economic ecology. Taking Zheng Yuanyuan, which has 9,000 stores, as an example, this community-based pedicure brand has even launched a combination of “pedicure milk tea burgers” to attract young people. Every weekend, the store is crowded with young people who can stay all day from morning to night, and they confirm a trend with practical actions: the main consumer force in low- and middle-tier cities is shifting from “material hoarding” to “experience investment”.
When Luo Yue experienced a self-service and unmanned consumption scene in Luoyang that was no different from Beijing, this land had long become a hidden “consumption enclave”. According to the data, in the past three years, the compound annual growth rate of online consumption in low- and middle-tier cities has reached 48%, and the market size is expected to exceed 800 billion yuan in the next three years, which is equal to that of high-tier cities.
Those healthy and leisure formats that have grown wildly in the county, from the 9.9 yuan self-service chess and card room to the 24-hour unmanned KTV and gym, are outlining a new map of offline consumption: when first-tier cities are still anxious about “consumption downgrade”, the county market has already used the combination of “cost performance + emotional value” to open up a blue ocean track for the experience economy.
02 The sinking market replicates the high-quality “service” of big cities
When Luo Yue finished filming in Hanfu in the ancient city of Luoyi, turned around and walked into Zheng Yuanyuan’s pedicure room on the street corner, the total consumption of less than 200 yuan on the bill was interpreting a new consumption paradigm in the middle of the earth tier city.
In the “Luoyi Ancient City” of Luoyang, Henan Province, young girls dressed in Hanfu and Tibetan clothes can be seen everywhere with palace lanterns to take photos, and the 99 yuan “makeup + appointment” combination has become a popular choice for young people on social networks with “cabbage price”.
The explosion of this experiential consumption has sprung up more than 100 Hanfu rental shops around the ancient city, and even tire shops and car washes have been transformed into Hanfu experience halls overnight. Luo Yue said that if you want to know which makeup is suitable for you, you can make an appointment with your favorite makeup artist in Meituan after making a good strategy on social platforms.
There are also many young people who are willing to spend 3 hours repeatedly adjusting the shape of the clay in order to combat “anxiety”. At Tao Gong Ju Yanyu Kiln in Jingdezhen, the 8 yuan “blank drawing experience class” has set a sales volume of more than 40,000 orders on the Meituan platform, which allows young people to touch pottery culture at the cost of a cup of milk tea.
Yanyu Kiln, which entered Meituan in 2020, now 90% of its turnover comes from online, and its Taoxichuan store has an annual performance of 2.2 million yuan, ranking first in Jingdezhen’s DIY sales all year round. Today, Yanyu Kiln plans to open up the whole country to join and replicate the model of “low-price experience + cultural consumption” to more counties.
Jingdezhen Tao Gong School Yanyu Kiln
From Hanfu rental to pottery experience, local brands are compressing the service experience of big cities into a consumption unit accessible to young people in the county through the modern interpretation of “small profits and quick turnover”.
Chain brands have gone further and sunk in this logic. Zheng Yuanyuan’s pedicure room, which has more than 9,000 stores across the country, has become the “infrastructure” of county consumption with an affordable price of 30-80 yuan and the service standard of “Pedicure World Haidilao”.
The 24-hour unattended ball room is embedded in various communities in the sinking city like a convenience store, and 73% of the customer base is 18-25 years old, meeting the needs of young people in the town to “play at any time”.
The economic prosperity of craftsmen injects a technical premium into “small profits and quick turnover”. Zhao Zhanzhan, who graduated from technical secondary school, won the national gold medal with his pedicure skills and bought three houses in his hometown. From the standardized pricing of skills in Meituan’s “star technician” system, it can be seen that the unit price of star technicians is 30%-50% higher than that of ordinary technicians, and the repurchase rate is increased by 40%.
For example, after a nail artist released a video of “Hanfu Armor Customization”, Meituan’s orders increased by 200% weekly, and the unit price of customers increased from 58 yuan to 198 yuan.
The rent and labor costs in the county are lower than those in first-tier cities, which precisely reserves profit margins for the low-price strategy of “small profits and quick turnover”. The dual demand for “cost-effective + social currency” in the county cattle and horses allows consumption such as 99 yuan Hanfu experience and 30 yuan pedicure to not only lower the decision-making threshold, but also obtain a consumption experience that is enough to blow up social platforms. According to the data, since Meituan increased its weight in the low-tier market in 2021, it has maintained a growth rate of 90% for three consecutive years, deeply cultivated in 284 cities, connected nearly 2 million merchants, and has a compound annual growth rate of more than 60% of users.
When Zheng Yuanyuan used 30 yuan pedicure to cover 80% of the young people in the county, and when Xiaotie self-service billiards achieved “anytime to play” with 6,000 stores, it is not difficult to see that in the county market, through the combination of “low price scale, high-frequency efficiency improvement, and service value-added”, small profits and quick sales are no longer synonymous with low-end competition, but replicate the business code of high-quality services in big cities.
03 Technology, efficiency, and local conditions only have 800 billion opportunities in small places
When Luo Yue enjoyed cost-effective quality consumption in the county seat, behind this feast of happiness and satisfaction at her doorstep was the strong thrust brought by the sinking of the dividends of the Internet and digital technology, which jointly released the huge potential of the 800 billion market for small places.
The number game about efficiency has already quietly adjusted the quality-price ratio of life in third- and fourth-tier cities to a more comfortable gear. Taking Zheng Yuanyuan as an example, through its own technician school and standardization of service processes, Zheng Yuanyuan has achieved an annual square meter efficiency of 12,000 yuan per square meter for a 50-square-meter store, giving full play to the evaluation of efficiency, and the compound annual growth rate of monthly transaction users in Meituan’s low- and middle-tier cities in the past three years has exceeded 80%.
The “technology” that once felt distant has also become a living temperature within reach of sinking cities. The AI quality control system independently developed by Xiaotie’s independent billiards allows consumers to easily enter the door by simply swiping their faces and complete the opening operation independently, and there are AI real-time coaches to provide professional guidance in the process, and the 24-hour business and AI intelligent control system (face swiping to enter the door, AI scoring) reduce the labor cost of a single store by 65%, and also indirectly promote the industry’s year-on-year growth of more than 300%.
The cattle and horses in the county, like the first- and second-tier middle class, also pursue the “trend” experience. In Lhasa, the “Gama Riqu Starry Sky Tibetan Medicinal Bath” does not blindly copy the inherent model of first-tier city spas, but deeply integrates the internationally popular singing bowl healing, floating meditation and national intangible cultural heritage Tibetan medicinal bath to create a unique regional cultural health experience.
In Dali, Yunnan, the “Cangshan Hiking Home” combines the rich local natural resources and cultural heritage to develop in-depth humanistic projects such as “stream hiking + dyeing” and “tea picking and making tea”, so that tourists can immerse themselves in the unique charm of Dali while getting close to nature. These innovative projects are all by tapping local characteristics and accurately anchoring young people’s needs for personalized and experiential consumption.
Cangshan Hiking Home
Meituan is like a capillary, quietly interspersed in the alleys of third- and fourth-tier cities. The payment code of the breakfast stall is affixed with the label of Meituan’s choice, and the mirror of the barbershop is placed with a reminder sign for Meituan’s appointment, helping the merchants on the street corner to slowly do business on more people’s mobile phones.
In front of the mirror of Fujino’s barbershop, Sister Li is curling her hair for customers. The tablet on the wall suddenly popped up with an appointment reminder: “The next customer has arrived at the store, do you need to activate the AI queuing function?” It is understood that during February 2 this year, Fujino Styling used Meituan’s new technology to “help make appointments”, and the number of haircut appointments increased by 270% year-on-year, significantly improving operational efficiency and service quality.
In popular variety shows such as “All the Way to Flowers”, which young people love to watch, consumers are taught how to enjoy real discounts anytime and anywhere. When young people use billiards as a new way to socialize, Meituan and Xiaotie self-service billiards plan billiards events, which not only increased brand exposure, but also drove a 40% increase in store passenger flow in the second Chinese Billiards Folk Ball King Tournament in South China.
The empowerment of technology, the optimization of efficiency, the innovation of local conditions, coupled with the help of the platform, have jointly injected surging power into the consumer market in low- and middle-tier cities.
04 Conclusion
The country’s 284 low- and middle-tier cities, nearly 3,000 counties, and 1 billion consumers undoubtedly constitute a potential blue ocean incremental space in the future. Zheng Yuanyuan and Xiaotie have rushed to the forefront, and the starry sky Tibetan medicinal bath and Cangshan hiking tea picking have accurately hit the hearts of county consumers. Other brands and tens of millions of craftsmen are also increasing their stores and activities, all hoping that this vast world can bring new sales growth points.
No one knows where new brands are born and where the imagination margin of service retail is in the sinking market. However, when Luo Yue stayed at a high-speed rail station for an hour on a business trip, experienced a pedicure or ear picking service nearby, and saw that the students who stayed in her hometown had opened self-service chess and cards and self-service KTV, she could realize that the consumption potential of the county was far broader than imagined.
Behind all these possibilities is not only the outbreak of the county market, which has been neglected for a long time in the traditional offline business era, but also reflects the yearning for a better life and the demand for quality of life upgrades among residents in the sinking market. It is precisely with the quality-price ratio of service retail that county consumption is redefined and new opportunities are being staged.
