Hangzhou implemented a new policy for nightlife, encouraging physical stores to provide services in the middle of the night and early morning.

Recently, there has been a lot of discussion about whether there is nightlife in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

The entry "Jiangsu is a province that goes to bed early and gets up early" has been linked to a hot search. Zhejiang’s nightlife is not rich, and Hangzhou locals often joke: "The nightlife in Hangzhou is free blowing by the West Lake." The topic is in full swing. At this time, Hangzhou issued a New Deal, proposing to build a "sleepless paradise Tesco Hangzhou". The focus of the policy is to create a night economy ip, and encourage physical stores such as catering, retail, entertainment, culture and bookstores to provide services from 10: 00 pm to 6: 00 am the next day. The program has been implemented for three years since July 25th.

In fact, in the past three years, Hangzhou has always wanted to speed up the progress in developing the night economy. As early as July 2020, Hangzhou proposed to guide the awareness of night consumption, cultivate the night consumption market and build a night consumption platform. Yan ‘an Road featured business, canal culture and Southern Song Dynasty culture were selected as the first batch of "Top Ten Night Landmarks of Night Economic Agglomeration" in Hangzhou. In addition, Hangzhou has also increased its support for the business activities of shopping districts and commercial districts. At present, 97 shopping districts have clearly liberalized their business activities.

This summer, once the policy was released, it quickly attracted "onlookers". Hangzhou, which has been labeled as a "nightlife desert", can this time build a "paradise that never sleeps" with the help of policies?

Night market is not a panacea.

When it comes to nightlife in Hangzhou, apart from the blowing by the West Lake, the most famous ones are Wulin Night Market and Wu Shan Night Market. In the most prosperous business district, tourists from all over the country always visit Hangzhou for more than ten years. This form of night market has also become an important starting point for the development of night economy.

However, "the success of Wulin Night Market and Wu Shan Night Market is hard to replicate." Shishan specializes in market operation. "The attraction of other night markets is slowly declining." The turnover of stall owners is a remarkable sign. Even if the same goods are sold in the same place and at the same time, the sales volume of most stalls is only half that of the past.

"The night market is a consumption of fresh experience." Shi Shan said. With the encouragement and advocacy of relevant policies, night markets have blossomed everywhere, but the forms are exactly the same and the categories are similar, so it is difficult for people to have a desire to buy again. "At the beginning of this year, it was rare to set up stalls selling blind boxes; By May, it was already a’ rotten street’. When I first took it out, a small toy sold for seventy or eighty yuan, and many people were willing to pay the bill; Now the price of similar products has dropped to twenty or thirty yuan, and it still cannot be sold. "

Hangzhou Wu Shan Night Market. Gong Pingping

Night market is not a universal formula for developing night economy. As a service provider, Shishan’s company undertakes the needs of the government or business circle. Before the opening of each night market, they will set aside three days for special evaluation, and thus set the booth fee. "If the residents around the night market are older and their consumption power is not strong enough, then they can only put gadgets with lower unit prices; If there is no subway station in the area, the traffic is not convenient enough to attract long-distance consumers, then it is enough for the event to last for 3 days, and the repurchase situation is generally not ideal. "

Now, the night market in Hangzhou is becoming more and more "rolled". "Event organizers are thinking of various ways to transform." Acrobatic magic, open-air movies and small band performances may all appear in the night market and are expected to become new attractive passwords. "In the past, there was basically only one performance in 10 events; Recently, at least half of the activities have performances. " Shishan feels that the night market has gradually become a part of a large-scale event, not the protagonist.

Enrich night consumption scenes

Since the attraction of night markets is no longer in the past, is it still meaningful for cities to develop night economy and continue to build various night markets?

The reporter heard a very interesting phenomenon-Wenzhou’s night economy scene is richer than Hangzhou’s. Many Wenzhou people go to Hangzhou and have no place to go at night, so they naturally go home early. Back in Wenzhou, the bedtime became late again. Explain that the consumption habits at night will not disappear, but there is no place to spend.

Hangzhou makes great efforts in night economy, clearly shows its attitude, and supports and enriches the supply of night consumption scenes.

Guanhe Night Market opened in Wenchuang Garden of May 7th Commune. Gong Pingping

Wenchuang Garden, located in Xiaoshan, Hangzhou, was rebuilt from the old cotton and linen factory and coal factory. It opened in March this year and is a fashionable destination in online celebrity. When the whole Wenchuang Garden was established, it was aimed at night consumption and opened at 4 pm. There are a variety of settled merchants, in addition to all kinds of catering, there are skiing experience, parent-child photography, car display, camping equipment sales and so on. No matter what format, even a design company that works from nine to five, it is clearly required at the beginning of the investment attraction in the park that it should not close before 10 pm, and all the lights must be turned on before that.

In the planning stage, the park will leave the location of the main road, operate a long-term night market, fix stall owners, and put out stalls every day. According to the different areas, the monthly booth fee for cultural and creative categories is 1,200 yuan in 800 yuan, and the monthly booth fee for catering categories is 1,200 yuan to 2,000 yuan. The park implements a relatively systematic assessment system. If the stall owner dresses up as a cartoon character "Bumblebee" or accumulates a lot of fans on social platforms, he will get extra points if he can drain the park. If the sanitation around the booth is not good and the attendance rate cannot be guaranteed, points will be deducted. Specialized administrative personnel often assess, and stall owners with a score below 75 may be persuaded to retreat.

The stall styles of Guanhe Night Market have their own characteristics. Gong Pingping

"If a sanitation is not good, or the lights are dim, the surrounding merchants will be affected. Every booth must create momentum for the atmosphere of the park, so it will be lively." Zhang Fanhua, director of the operation of Wenchuang Park in the May 7th Commune, said, in other words, every stall and merchant has to provide better night consumption services, thus forming a joint force.

At present, it seems that the effect of creating momentum is remarkable. While shopping, Zhang Fanhua casually "showed off" the outstanding performance of the stall owner to reporters. "This lottery booth sells more than 100,000 yuan a month; This hamburger is also online celebrity, selling one or two hundred a day; A bowl of iced tofu pudding can sell for four or five thousand yuan a day. " The park has about 15,000 daily visitors on weekends, and the number of social media-related entries is more than 1.6 million times per week.

After the policy provides convenience,

Some time ago, Zhang Fanhua received a notice that Hangzhou proposed to build a "sleepless paradise and Tesco Hangzhou". The government encouraged and advocated it, trying to provide convenience as much as possible, and how to do it specifically, and all business entities were free to explore.

"Try to provide convenience" is a bit empty at first glance, but it actually requires the joint efforts of merchants, parks and cities. Generally speaking, the cost of labor at night will be much higher than during the day, and the requirements of logistics and supply chain for night business are also higher. At the same time, the park should be equipped with at least 10 night security guards, and the night market cleaning should also increase the number of people, and be on standby in public areas at any time. If it is dirty, it should be cleaned up to ensure the dining environment.

Guanhe Night Market invited the resident band to create momentum for the park atmosphere. Photo courtesy of respondents

Zhang Fanhua also told reporters the story of a bar. The road at the entrance of Wenchuang Garden is relatively narrow, with two lanes. When the night market is hot, the traffic police need to close the road to maintain order. Generally, large bars are not allowed in this area. When a bar is opened, there will be many employees, and it will be lively until dawn, which will bring great pressure to the road facilities, and the traffic police will have to stay up until 4 am. Considering the night consumption demand and the convenience of business approval, the bar finally opened.

On a larger scale, for a city, many seemingly insignificant "soft services" can also become the most effective catalyst for night economic prosperity. The relevant person in charge of the Hangzhou Municipal Bureau of Commerce said that in the previous investigation, they found that the short number of bus lines at night, the long interval and the early end of the subway operation all limited the length of stay of consumer groups in the business circle. During the consultation period of the New Deal, some citizens suggested setting up a special traffic lane for shopping malls at night. This suggestion has been adopted, and the newly opened business projects will also be given priority consideration in transportation in the later period.

Some citizens also suggested that nightlife blocks should be far away from residential areas, and many office workers in Hangzhou need to rest at night. The Hangzhou Municipal Bureau of Commerce has adopted this proposal, and will evaluate and identify a number of demonstration blocks for economic gathering at night in the future, and standardize management with urban management, fire protection and other management departments.

Hangzhou is taking an important step to encourage the development of night economy, upgrade and create consumption scenes and consumption environment, and transform from "nightlife desert" to "sleepless paradise".

Editor-in-Chief: Kong Lingjun

Author: Gong Pingping Wang Shu

Photo source: Gong Pingping