To have dining / snack business in China

[taylor04]

I remember a guy who used to set up a grill outside a foreign bar. He'd sell burgers for 20 kuai and cheeseburgers for 25. It was pretty popular since foreigners know what a real burger tastes like. I went one night he was scheduled just for the burgers and he showed up hours late, by that time I hated him and never wanted to try it:mrgreen: You could try it as a street vendor at first, testing the water and setting up shop where the foreigners are

[mcgau]

When I talked with local Chinese about my idea to have a turkish donner kebab store, all of them unanimously think it's a bad idea unless the price could be less than RMB5.

In Shanghai, a vendor prepares their meat on a typical kebab skewer, slices them and pack it with different kinds of bread. Meats are a lot but with lesser vegetable and variety of dressing. Rumors say that the meat is actually a rabbit so that they manage to keep profit while selling them at RMB4-5.

The weirdest theory, suggested by a guy when he heard the name "Kebab", is that it's a transliteration of a word "卡饼" (possibly a Sichuanese name) because their pronunciation is similar. When I showed them the photos, all insisted that they tried it.

"这是肉夹馍嘛 / 这是夹饼嘛 / 这不就是卡饼么? 卖多少钱的? "

"最少 8 元- 15 元吧? "

"谁会吃啊, 那么贵. / 这东西没品牌炒作一下, 没人吃的/ 卖5块说不定有人买."

Oh, fail.

I think I better think of something else.

Their feedback on a confectionery store is much more positive.

[gougou]

You should read about Porter's generic strategies. Those are cost leadership, differentiation and focus. Cost leadership in China is breakneck (this part is gougou's theory, not Porter's), so don't even try for it. Either you offer something special, where price won't be an issue, or you drop your plans. There's no way you're gonna beat the Chinese snack vendors, unless you want to live below their standard of living.