01

The commercial public opinion field in September 2025 was undoubtedly completely detonated by the "war" between Xibei and Luo Yonghao.

One ​​side is the top anchor who shouted and pointed directly at the pre-made dishes and the high-priced "seven inches", which instantly ignited the public's long-established emotions; the other side is the catering giant's tragic "fight to death", and founder Jia Guolong would rather lose millions a day than "fight for black and white". In the torrent of public opinion, countless spectators came to the stage and turned this complaint, which was originally a personal experience, into a fierce showdown related to the future of the industry.

However, when we are addicted to discussing the gains and losses of public relations, the boss's personality, and even the right and wrong defined by pre-made dishes, we may all ignore the huge waves that really stir the times under the iceberg.

This seemingly accidental conflict is not a personal grudge or a public relations accident. It is more like a starting gun, firing the most important war in the next decade of China's catering industry:One ​​is the iron stream of "catering industrialization" driven by efficiency first and cost, and on the other hand, the traditional dining experience rooted in people's hearts and pursuit of "pot style".

02

To understand Xibei's "stubbornness" in the storm, you must first understand the "unsolvable" of the Chinese food chain chess game.

For decades, all entrepreneurs who have tried to establish a business empire in the Chinese-style meal field have to face a ghostly "impossible triangle":Scale expansion, soul-level "pot" (quality), and healthy profit margins. These three are like three-body problems. They seem independent, but they are pulled together in dynamics, and they are almost impossible to achieve a perfect balance at the same time.

The crux of this triangle lies not in capital, not in marketing, but in a charming but extremely "anti-industrial" element - a chef.

The essence of Chinese food lies in the rapid change of heat, the "a little" of seasoning, and the "soul" injected into the chef when he scoops.

This is a "craftsmanship" that relies on experience, understanding, and even the mood of the day. It is a inheritance passed down from the heart and mouth, but it is also the biggest "curse" of chainization. You can't expect that 1,000 chefs from a thousand stores can make "spicy sea cucumbers" with exactly the same taste, taste and heat for 10,000 customers on the same night.

This ultimate non-standardization makes the road to scale the Chinese meals full of thorns from the beginning. You can't "mass-produce" a chef who can stably export state banquet dishes within three months like McDonald's trained a burger operator. The growth cycle of an excellent Chinese chef is often ten years. They are the most valuable asset of the enterprise and the most unstable variable.

So, driven by the dual driving of capital and market, "de-chefing" has changed from an option to the only way out.

The most complex and most skillful cooking links are pre-installed to the central kitchen, and through standardized processes, precise formulas, and modern equipment, the "master's craftsmanship" is solidified into a semi-finished product that can be replicated infinitely (i.e. "pre-made dishes"). The store’s back kitchen is reduced from a “creation center” surrounded by fireworks to a “assembly assembly workshop” that only requires simple heating and placing.

In addition to capital's desire for expansion, there are also three cold mountains behind it: the continuous surge in rent, manpower and food costs. When every profit needs to be squeezed out from the gear of efficiency, industrialization is no longer the icing on the cake, but the "ballast stone" about life and death.

So, when public opinion regards "pre-made dishes" as an original sin and a "degenerate" of the catering industry, it may not see the profound commercial inevitability behind it. For Xibei and Jia Guolong, this is not an active "betrayal", but a heavy and contradictory weapon that will inevitably be picked up in the process of untiing the shackles of the industry's "destiny".

03

However, the logically self-consistent "optimal solution" in the business world is often worthless on the consumer's emotional balance. If we were discussing the "involuntary" of catering companies in the previous chapter, then in this chapter, we must dive into the surface and touch the surging "undercurrent" of consumer emotions that determines Xibei's fate.

The core of this undercurrent points to a mysterious and critical word—"pot gas".

What is "pot steam"? It is by no means a simple high-temperature stir-fry, but a catering aesthetic rooted in the Chinese genes. It represents the vitality of the ingredients bursting out in the instant when the fire collided with the iron pot, represents the chef's exquisite control over the heat, and also represents a unique sense of exclusiveness and fireworks cooked for you instantly.

It is the soul of Chinese food and the core trait that distinguishes it from Western food and Japanese food.

Consumers pay for the price per person of Xibei of 100 or 200 yuan. What they buy has never been about the cost of ingredients, but also paying a premium for this invisible "burn" and the craftsman spirit behind it.

The three words "pre-made dishes" are like a chemical weapon, instantly dispelling the entire legitimacy of this premium. It gives consumers a deep sense of "value betrayal": I pay the money "handmade by craftsmen", what I look forward to is the "skills of masters", but what you give me is an "industrial cuisine package" that only needs to be reheated? This psychological gap is enough to destroy all consumers' beautiful imaginations of the brand.

What is more fatal than value betrayal is the collapse of trust.

If the restaurant has been honest from the beginning, and clearly priced "fried dishes" and "pre-made dishes" so that consumers can choose freely, the controversy may be much smaller. But for a long time, the "secret" of the entire industry has made consumers feel that they are involved in a "gambling" with unequal information. This blinded feeling irreversibly escalates the issue of value to the issue of integrity.

Therefore, Luo Yonghao's Weibo did not create anger out of thin air, he just played the role of a "spot-cannon man". What he triggered was the doubts and dissatisfaction that countless consumers had accumulated in their hearts after eating "soul-free dishes" countless times in the past few years. This silent undercurrent has been waiting for a moment of breaking the dike, and Xibei unfortunately became the washed-out dike.

04

When the wave of industrialization collides head-on with the undercurrent of consumer emotions, history needs a "detonating point", a "bull's eye" that can carry all contradictions. Looking at the entire Chinese catering industry, no one is more suitable for this role than Xibei.

First of all, it is its price positioning. Xibei's per capita consumption has long exceeded the 100 yuan threshold, and some stores are even higher. This price band, in the minds of consumers, is naturally deeply bound to keywords such as "handmade", "fresh", and "quality". People are willing to pay for high prices, and what they buy is exactly the expectation of "anti-industrialization". Xibei's high pricing invisibly puts himself in the heaviest shackles, and also raises the public's standard of judgment on it.

Secondly, it is its brand narrative. From "I ♥ yu" to "natural pie", Xibei has worked hard for many years to manage a healthy, traditional and close to nature brand image. When the aunt who rubs buckwheat noodles in the "transparent kitchen" and the cooking bag with assembly line in the central kitchen are at the same time under the same brand, this huge narrative tear makes any defense pale and powerless. What consumers feel is the collapse of brand personality.

Finally, it is its industry position. As a national chain giant, Xibei has a large enough voice and a wide enough audience that any controversy about it can be quickly amplified and become a public issue. It is like a giant ship with a big target that cannot dodge.

Price, brand, and scale, these three together form a "perfect storm" against Xibei. It was kidnapped by its own success and fell into a fatal paradox: in order to maintain its scale, it must embrace industrialization; but its brand and price make it the most intolerable carrier of industrialization.

It is not simply a mistake, but its existence itself becomes a contradiction to be resolved. Luo Yonghao did not choose Xibei, it was a wave of history, and he chose Xibei as the "bull's eye" that must be washed away and judged.

05

When the storm gradually subsides, we will look back at this showdown and find a cruel truth: there may be no absolute "bad guys" in this war.

Jia Guolong and Xibei behind him are explorers who are trying to solve the problem of Chinese food chain under the driving force of business laws; while Luo Yonghao and the surging public opinion behind him are the instinctive shouts made by consumers in the face of experience downgrades and information opacity. They are all part of the times, being pushed to their respective positions, and performing a conflict that is destined to occur.

The real value of this conflict is not to determine the outcome, but torturing the "fig leaf" of the entire industry in a tragic way, forcing all practitioners and diners to face the problem that has existed but has been deliberately avoided:How should we choose between efficiency and experience, and how should we price it?

The answer may point in two directions:

One ​​is the ultimate differentiation. One ​​end of the future catering market will beThoroughly embrace industrializationchain brands that focus on the ultimate cost-effectiveness will be frank and show their "prefabricated" trump card; the other end ischain brands that focus on the ultimate cost-effectiveness will be frank and show their "prefabricated" trump card; the other end isAdhere to traditional craftsmanship, a "craftsman restaurant" with high customer unit price, small and beautiful scale. Brands that try to survive in the middle will face the most severe test.

The second is thorough transparency. "Sincerity" will become a more scarce pass than "delicious". Whether to use pre-made dishes is no longer a secret, but a part of the brand positioning, and ultimately it is left to the market and consumers to vote with their feet.

In this sense, the huge price that Xibei has suffered today may be a "credit" that the entire Chinese catering industry must pay from chaos to maturity. Although this pre-dawn war is noisy and painful, it also gives birth to a new pattern of more sincere and diverse catering.