Some netizens said that Xibei may be able to sue Luo Yonghao in court, but he has lost his brand reputation and consumer trust in the public opinion field, lost his inner self and face.
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On the evening of September 12, in the live broadcast room that Luo Yonghao wanted to open, Xibei was hammered and it was hard to make a sound.
"Butters are more expensive than black pearl buns, and children's meals are older than children." Faced with such hard-core complaints, no matter how many consumers who have supported Xibei have supported Xibei, they can't help but wonder, "This restaurant is really not very kind."
In this public opinion war, whether Xibei's dishes are pre-made dishes is the open core of this debate.
But in fact, what made many public unacceptable and angry was the opacity of dishes used in restaurants like Xibei, that is, whether pre-made dishes are sold as freshly prepared dishes at super high prices.
1
Is it considered a pre-made dish?
Public perception is more important
The focus of controversy between Xibei and Luo Yonghao this time is how to define pre-made dishes.
Xibei believes that although its dishes have been pre-processed, they are not pre-made dishes, because pre-made dishes are finished products, and cooked food is processed and frozen, and then unpacked and heated to eat directly. Xibei’s dishes need to be served in the store.
Luo Yonghao believes that many of the dishes in Xibei are processed in advance and only need to be heated or cooked to serve, so they are pre-made dishes.
However, Luo Yonghao's live broadcast on the evening of September 12th used a lot of evidence to hammer Xibei, which may directly deviate from Xibei.
In the live broadcast, Luo Yonghao showed the frozen ingredients taken by the media visiting Xibei's kitchen (such as sea bass with a shelf life of 18 months), bagged chicken soup, etc., and compared the transparent labels of brands such as Laoxiang chicken (such as "just made in the restaurant" and "semi-prefabricated"), pointing out that Xibei did not clearly inform consumers of the processing methods of dishes, and was suspected of concealing them.
Among them, the frozen fish packaging displayed by Luo Yonghao shows that its shelf life is as long as 18 months, far exceeding the perception of "fresh ingredients" by ordinary consumers.
What is even more shocking is that the ingredients lists seven food additives, including sodium tripolyphosphate, sodium hexametaphosphate and other complex moisture retention agents.
The main function of these additives is to retain water and prevent corrosion, so that the fish can still maintain a certain taste and moisture after long-term freezing, but compared with fresh fish that are "killed and made immediately", the nutritional value and taste will inevitably be greatly reduced.
He also took "fried celery fragrant and fragrant" as an example to illustrate that consumers' perception of "fresh ingredients and on-site cooking", and Xibei's use of pre-made ingredients violated this expectation.
The fact that shocks consumers is also shocked is that the shelf life of the lamb chops used by Xibei has a shelf life of up to 24 months, and the shelf life of the chicken products is also 9 months. The beef sauce used in children's meals has a shelf life of up to 9 months, and the ingredients list also contains a variety of additives.
The media recently visited Xibei Back Kitchen and found that many of its cooking tools are induction cookers and ovens, and lack traditional stoves. It is pointed out that many of the daily dishes of Xibei are heated and served.
In the live broadcast, Luo Yonghao also focused on discussing the steamed buns sold in Xibei at 21 yuan. According to the evidence he showed, the steamed bun product is probably also heated with pre-made dough, and its food cost and processing method are difficult to support such a high price.
He even questioned: "Does consumers pay a premium for 'making now' but get pre-made ingredients? "And that night, many netizens responded in the live broadcast room, "I really support Lao Luo this time."
2
cheaper,
Maybe I will be less scolded
One of the reasons why Xibei was scolded in this public opinion dispute is that his restaurant has a high per capita consumption for a long time, but the consumer experience does not meet expectations.
Not only Luo Yonghao complained that he did not eat enough for 5 people who spent 830 yuan this time, most Xibei dishes such as "21 yuan steamed buns" and "49 yuan lettuce" are also often criticized by consumers for being "low cost-effective".
The latest data on Hongju Big Data shows that Xibei currently opens a total of 382 stores nationwide. Among the same Northwest cuisine, Baixing Kitchen ranks second in number of stores, and currently has only 153 stores. Jiu Mao Jiu, the former sensational Northwest cuisine brand, currently has only 70 stores.
Also according to the big data of Hongju, Xibei's average customer unit price is 83.66 yuan. Although it has declined compared to the 98 yuan per capita last year, compared to the 54.96 yuan per capita of Jiumaojiu and 50.82 yuan in the kitchen of Baisheng, Xibei's average price exceeds that of the peers.
Why can Xibei sell so expensive? Under the high-end character design, which consumers are paying for Xibei?
The answer is that Xibei has successfully attracted a large number of middle-class families by relying on children's meal strategy and service premium.
Xibei, who comes from Northwestern cuisine, does not have the spicy oil and spicy Sichuan and Hunan cuisine and the lightness of Guangdong cuisine, and the ingredients are mostly beef, mutton and coarse grains, and is rich in nutrition. It has long formed a complete "emotional value supply chain" for consumers by providing consumers with "full hosting" services (waiters accompany their children to draw and play games), free balloons, coloring picture books, etc.
In order to successfully attract children, Xibei shouted the slogan "If you have a baby at home, eat Xibei" in 2017, and established the "Xibei Children's Food Research Institute" in 2022. In the first half of this year, Xibei also launched a parent-child food education class.
In addition, Xibei also requires employees to master magic, singing, dancing and other skills. For each additional skill, their monthly salary will increase by 300 yuan. The employees are emotionally stable, patient and versatile, which can make children feel safe and pleasant, so they completely like to eat here.
Among the many catering brands in the mall, parents complain that Xibei is high, but because of the scarcity of child-friendly restaurants and their children do like them, they can only be forced to spend repeatedly.
Data shows that from 2019 to 2022, Xibei Children's Meal revenue increased by 415%. In 2024, Xibei sold more than 20 million children's meals, attracting nearly 6.5 million children's customers.
However, even if you easily seize the high ground of children's meals, Xibei's business in the past two years has not been easy.
In September 2024, Jia Guolong said at the 2024 Catering Industry Conference that Xibei's sales fell by about 10% nationwide.
Later, in an interview with the media, compared with the highest revenue of 6.2 billion set by Xibei in 2023, Jia Guolong described this as a "critical strike".
The China Cooking Association analyzed that the growth rate of national catering revenue and limited catering revenue from January to June decreased by 3.6 and 2.0 percentage points year-on-year, and the growth momentum weakened.
The revenue growth rate of catering companies above the limit (annual revenue of more than 2 million yuan) was 3.6%, which was lower than the national average, and the top brands of high-end catering and chain brands were under serious pressure.
After the introduction of the alcohol ban, the number of high-end restaurants above 500 yuan per person in Beijing and Shanghai has dropped by 52%, and the attendance rate of private rooms has dropped from 70% to 30%. Some brands have transformed into the mass market.
In the downward market environment, high prices will inevitably be unpopular. In addition, it is believed that pre-made dishes are used in large quantities, and perhaps Xibei is cheaper, so it is less scolded.
3
The "price-value sense" is unbalanced,
Will Xibei fall completely?
After the evidence was presented, it would be difficult to convince the public that I had no pre-made dishes.
In the live broadcast on the evening of September 12, Luo Yonghao emphasized that he did not oppose the pre-made dishes themselves, and believed that it is legal for catering companies to use pre-made dishes. He also used Laoxiang Chicken as a positive case and praised his dish processing grade work brand, and clearly publicized the processing methods of all main meal dishes, so that consumers can choose freely and consume clearly.
He said that his purpose is to use this incident to promote the transparency of the domestic pre-made vegetable market, and called on the country to issue national standards for pre-made vegetables as soon as possible to safeguard consumers' right to know.
After this round of public opinion, although Xibei founder Jia Guolong personally came to fight Luo Yonghao head-on and established "No dish in Xibei store is a pre-made dish", the business situation of Xibei restaurants across the country is still quite affected.
According to on-site visits by multiple media and feedback from employees of Xibei store, the passenger flow of Xibei restaurants has declined significantly recently, which directly led to a decrease in store revenue. The takeaway order volume in some stores has been cut in half, and the revenue is directly cut in half.
Jia Guolong recently stated in an exclusive interview with "Chinese Entrepreneurs" that after the public opinion, Xibei's turnover decreased and the passenger flow decreased sharply.
"Today, all stores combined, the daily turnover dropped by 1 million yuan respectively. Today, I estimate that it will drop by 2 million to 3 million yuan." Jia Guolong said on the afternoon of September 12.
A netizen commented that Xibei's brand PR handling was "a complete, arrogant, textbook-style failed PR"——
1.Missing the opponent: Your opponent is not Luo Yonghao, but a million consumers who have the same feelings behind him. But you turned a battle for the people's hearts into a slanderous lawsuit with someone. You are suing your client.
2. Indulge in the defense of "legality" and completely ignore the perception of "reasonability": you are debating the definition of "pre-made dishes" with consumers with the national standard "Shangfang Sword" and you think you have won the truth, but in fact you have lost all the hearts of the people. Consumers don’t care about how to set the national standard, they only care about “whether the chef cooks what I spent 200 yuan to eat.” You are using legal logic to respond to emotional problems.
3. Completely intensify conflicts: prosecute, publish the other party's consumption records... This series of operations is full of fighting and provocation, bringing the brand to a level of "tearing each other" with individuals. The core of public relations is "resolving", but you are "adding fuel to the fire".
4. "Luo Yonghao Menu" is the pinnacle of PR tricks: he thought he was humorously "turning crisis into marketing", but in fact he was the lowest level of cleverness. In the anger that consumers generally question your "high price and second-quality", this operation will only be interpreted as insincere ridicule and arrogance, further confirming the accusation that "Xibei does not respect consumers' feelings at all."
This netizen said that Xibei's founder and his public relations team had a perfect "suicide PR". They successfully attracted and focused all the common problems in the industry about "right to know" on a brand in Xibei, and portrayed themselves as a negative example of "refusing to listen, making excuses, and bullying customers with big stores." The final result: Xibei may be able to sue Luo Yonghao in court, but he has lost his brand reputation and consumer trust in the public opinion field. Lose the inner world and lose face.
Will Xibei fall completely and never recover from now on? The situation and public opinion are still fermenting.
![["Pre-made dish" storm] Kill Xibei? Eliminate "Prepainted dishes? What is the core of the problem?](https://img.todayinfo.info/images/20250914/68c59c73a89db.jpg)
