半月谈：节日消费“去面子化”折射品质回归

Ban Yue Tan commentators Lu Wenjun and Lan Tianming

Don’t focus on ostentation but focus on health, don’t focus on socializing and focus on relationships. During this year's Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day, a refreshing trend is emerging in the consumer market.

Related news such as "the sky-high price of mooncakes cannot be sold" has been on the hot search, and the sales of high-end luxury gift boxes have dropped sharply. Consumers are more concerned about whether the product itself is "sugar-reduced" or "low-sugar"; National Day travel has also faded away from impetuousness. More and more people are no longer obsessed with checking in with Internet celebrities, gathering at scenic spots, and posting in Moments. Instead, they choose to walk in the suburbs, relax in the city, and stay at home with their families... These visible market changes are not a cooling of consumption, but a real change in the public's concept of celebrating the festival.

In the past, it was easy for holiday consumption to fall into a cycle of comparison: the quality of gift boxes replaced true feelings, and the more luxurious the packaging, the more thoughtful it seemed; when traveling during the National Day, people did not care about the scenery, but only pursued exquisite photos. "Special Forces" style of rushing to scenic spots, crowding in, and staying in Internet celebrity B&Bs at high prices became a temporary phenomenon; relatives and friends used to eat more and prepare more when gathering together, and would rather be extravagant and wasteful than be afraid of a deserted scene. Various "face projects" have turned the festival into a social performance, gradually dissolving the connotation of the festival itself.

The focus of the festival has never been to show off to the outside world or compare with others, but to relax physically and mentally, spend time with family, experience life, and cultivate feelings for home and country. More and more people are breaking away from the shackles of external evaluation and no longer being coerced by Internet celebrity traffic, consumption gimmicks, and superficial appearances. Everyone began to plan vacations based on their own life rhythms and family needs. They did not travel blindly, deliberately follow the trend, or hold on to the scene.

This change in consumption is not only the result of the continuous improvement of social atmosphere, but also forces the market to transform and upgrade and promote supply-side optimization.

The profit space that used to be occupied by packaging, marketing, and traffic is returning to the product itself and service experience. Merchants have begun to reallocate resources: investing in the creation of "sky-high-priced gift boxes" in the past to upgrade ingredients, process improvement, and healthy formula research and development; investing the budget used to hype Internet celebrity check-in points into short-distance travel route design, local cultural exploration, and parent-child interaction scene construction; and focusing on setting up inflated set meal stalls in the past to polishing small portions, customized meals, and home-cooked tastes, so that the value of goods and services can truly return to the use itself.

A series of changes have made consumer supply more in line with the lives and demands of ordinary people. The market is completing a benign iteration from "gimmick driven" to "quality is king".

The "de-face" of holiday consumption is not to reduce consumption and reduce the quality of life, but to return consumption to its "people-oriented" nature. When we no longer use ostentation to define our hearts, no longer use check-in to define travel, and no longer use price to define happiness, the holidays can truly become a precious time that nourishes life and connects emotions. This increasingly mature concept of consumption and festivals will eventually promote the whole society to form a new trend that is more pragmatic, more calm, and more focused on a real sense of gain.