Where there is wine, there are always stories. Taking Beijing’s Paradise Supermarket and Liquor Bar as the wedge, we feel that it is time to write about people and places related to wine, whether you are a drinker or not, I hope you can read some interesting words.

Relying on retail beer, we started from convenience stores from scratch and expanded at an incredible rate in a few years. In April, a 400-square-meter second store was opened on Yan'an West Road. Next month, on the banks of the Suzhou River, the former site of Du Yuesheng's granary will be opened.

How Auntie Success - Her pattern seems too simple and easy to replicate.

What secret made her one of the most famous aunts in Shanghai? We don’t want to give you a simple conclusion, so I bothered the aunt several times, asked half a circle of old customers, and contributed the entire work week to the hardwood long bench in the aunt’s store in August.

The earliest beer aunt was Zhang Yindi, who runs a restaurant.

The aunt recalled the small business in the catering industry back then, and she still had a little pride: "There is no one in Fahua Town who doesn't know Yuanyuan Restaurant and Kailinda Hotel."

The hotel owner, who deals with daily business trivial matters, must be well-educated. She has a good alcohol tolerance and a sincere and refreshing personality, and she can't help but sit down and have a few drinks with regular customers. She often jokes about the big men and invite her to fight for wine, and finally drink herself on the table and is drunk. The aunt has two bottles of Wuliangye at 50 degrees, and it's no problem.

In the eyes of ordinary people, the restaurant business is exhausting, and the aunt's good alcohol tolerance and socializing methods are like fish in water in this industry. If it were not for various majeure factors that forced the restaurant to close and relocate, opening a convenience store was not her first choice.

Because it is right at the entrance of Haifu Apartment, it has become Haifu Convenience Store because of the name of the community.

I will only be one of the millions of convenience stores in the Magic City. It is open next to the residential area with little fame, selling Coca-Cola and Guangming ice tiles, and also selling shampoo and caravan soap. There are no bright and bright floor-to-ceiling windows of chain convenience stores, and there are no powerful air conditioners that are so low that they make people tremble. It is hard to say that they have any competitiveness.

For most customers, the aunt in the convenience store period is probably only a "auntie" symbol without a name. She will remember the shopping choices of regular customers and will also remind you to leave, but at this time no one knows, nor do they care about the aunt's name. No one will give her nickname, and no customers will ask her to sit down and have a drink together.

Moreover, the business of convenience stores is not easy to do.

Profits have almost no room for maneuver. Increases of prices lead to loss of customers, and low prices lead to losses. Around 2005, e-commerce developed rapidly before, and chain convenience stores expanded rapidly. As the two hit, Haifu's business was struggling.

In 11 years, perhaps because my aunt had a keen sense of business, she smelled the changes in the air. Next to Haifu Convenience Store is Xinhua Road, with more than a dozen bars stationed on the street, a large number of foreign residents in Xujiahui, and there are many young and fashionable international students at nearby Jiaotong University. It is hard to tell what kind of brewing and timing have been done. Haifu Convenience Store began to transform this year.

She sold most of the groceries, invested money into several freezers, found the drink supplier who used to open a restaurant, and bought a batch of beer. The prototype of the beer aunt was born.

"The first time I went to my aunt's place, I really felt like I opened the door to the new world." When talking about her first experience of Haifu, she put down the chicken legs that were about to hand it to her mouth, "The feeling was like the first time I drank an ipa, the hop aroma, wow, it was simply bursting, and it directly changed your previous understanding of beer."

He is a well-known noodle shop owner in Shanghai and he is also in the craft beer business. Although he has supplier channels, drinking is cheap and has a wide variety of them, and now he rarely goes to the aunt's shop. But he admits that the aunt's beer convenience store is a key node for his craft journey.

Especially when I recall a few years ago, imported beer was known in the Magic City, as if it was undercurrent, only in a few small circles. At this time, the surprise of stepping into the aunt's store was comparable to the feeling of winning the Charlie Chocolate Factory gold coupon.

"At that time, when you go to my aunt's side, you will see many acquaintances (wine circles). If you have any activities, you will make an appointment there." We sat on the second floor of the aunt's old shop. Rooney showed a bit of a pity on his round face, "But I really rarely go now."

He was one of the earliest drinkers to visit when the aunt had only two freezers in the old shop.

"Why don't you go to the place you like?"

"It feels different."

He had an almost innocent obsession with his original aunt. To be precise, what he described was not the beer aunt - it was the Haifu convenience store where only two freezers and a small table could not be placed.

At that time, there were far less types of beer than now. There were also people who came here. There were two tables in a narrow open space at the door, holding a large parasol. It was good to have a seat, but when you were happy to drink, no one cared about the two small tables. Everyone squatted on the ground, sat by the roadside, standing by the tree, and when they stood tired, they could change their legs to support them. When they were tired, they squatted for a while. Simple, simple and friendly.

"Drinking alcohol should be an easy and stress-free thing. You really don't have to dress up in a suit and tie, and go to a romantic, post-industrial bar."

The aunt would sit in the corner of Haifu, calling a barbecue worth ten yuan and a bottle of monastery beer worth more than two hundred yuan. When everyone has limited knowledge and has no need to brag, she used this simplest and honest learning method to drink every wine in her freezer and recommend it to customers with her experience, which can be considered as growing up with customers.

In April, when the new store on Yan'an West Road just opened, Rooney went to take a look. What he liked the most was a small open space between two rows of buildings, holding a large parasol and casually placing a few round tables. It was the kind of freedom he missed, and only Haifu once had, but-

In addition to having larger space, more freezers, more wine, and higher ceilings, the aunt's business model has never changed:

Very, very much wine, in a lot of freezers.

The problems brought about by this simple business model are also very obvious: the batches on the beer production date are not fresh enough, and there is also a problem in preservation - the beer or wine displayed in front of the floor-to-ceiling window is exposed to the sun for a long time, which actually causes a considerable loss of flavor.

Because her reputation has been heard throughout Shanghai, suppliers naturally want to come here to get traffic. Just as the old customer of my aunt, Lin Lin of the Magic City Craft Beer Association, said bluntly: "If you make imported beer in Magic City and don't make it into the Aunt's store, it's the same as not doing it."
Chapter completed!