A meal for two in Beijing costs 9.9 yuan?

9.9 yuan for a 199 yuan meal for two! "

A coconut chicken hotpot restaurant in Beijing wrote on social media.

Looking at the 0.5% discount, Chen Lu was very tempted. Although the event notes clearly stated "limited to one per person", this did not bother her. Borrowing her husband's and parents' mobile phones, and counting her own share, Chen Lu grabbed a total of four discount coupons.

Since the beginning of this year, the trend of price reduction has swept the entire catering industry. Some netizens have even summarized the low-priced packages from Monday to Sunday, such as McDonald's on Monday, Tustin on Tuesday, Burger King on Wednesday, KFC on Thursday, Luckin Coffee on Friday, etc.

Searching for "dine and dash" on Xiaohongshu has attracted more than 130 million views. The so-called dine and dash are super-low-price discount activities launched by restaurants to attract customers.

Now, simply lowering prices may not be enough to retain consumers.

Tai Er Pickled Fish, a once popular online catering brand, saw its per capita consumption drop to 69 yuan in the second quarter of this year, returning to seven years ago. In the Beijing market, the prices of small, medium and large portions of Tai Er Pickled Fish, its signature dish "Favorite Sea Bass Pickled Fish", have dropped from 128 yuan/198 yuan/258 yuan in 2022 to 88 yuan/138 yuan/198 yuan at present, with the price of small and large portions dropping by as much as 60 yuan compared to two years ago.

Chain operation expert Wen Zhihong told China News Weekly that the logic behind price reduction is to exchange price for volume, but there is a prerequisite, that is, only some companies use it or only reduce prices during certain time periods. When everyone does this, the price reduction will have no effect.