Text/Kayce
Editor/Octopus
The old G in the office has fallen in love with a high-end burger that costs dozens of dollars a lot in the past two years.
Two large slices of buttered burger are topped with a large piece of fresh, medium-rare ground beef and topped with onion rings, cheese slices, pickled cucumbers, organic lettuce and a variety of sauces.
When you take a big bite, you get a strong sense of satisfaction from high-quality protein and carbs.
For a long time, Friday night was the old G's exclusive "burger moment":
A big burger, a plate of small fries, a large draft beer, and a football game all make for a full and slightly drunk night. But recently, Lao G discovered:
The chain of American-style Hanburg stores he frequents are closing one after another.
The business of high-end burgers is getting worse and worse.
One of the representatives is Shake Shack from Madison Square in New York.
Last year, Shake Shack opened 0 stores and closed 0 stores in China, and the growth of new stores was 0 inside and out.
You know, when the brand first entered China 5 years ago, it created a phenomenal queuing spectacle.
上海新天地的Shake Shack首店剛開業時，人們需要在黃浦江1月的寒風裡排7個小時的隊，才能吃上一個售價68元的招牌牛肉堡，喝上一杯定價41元的經典奶昔。
But even so, Shake Shack at that time was still "hard to find", and there were queues wherever the store was opened.
The rich brothers and sisters outside Shanghai even do not hesitate to increase the price of the "vacuum burger" by air, but also want to taste the "Three Treasures of New York", which is claimed to be as famous as the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty.
The price of a cattle burger was even fried to 200 yuan by scalpers.
The grand opening of the first store gave Shake Shack great confidence.
在2021年與經營商美心食品的協定里，Shake Shack揚言到2031年要在中國開出79家門店，覆蓋各省的一、二線城市。
30 years have passed, and the once queuing for 0 hours has become the current takeaway 0 minutes, and the crowded "Xike Castle" in the past has become the "Rare Ke Castle" that is now picked up at the store.
Shake Shack's "45-year contract" for store expansion has also come to a standstill after the completion of 0 new stores.
But compared to its competitors, Shake Shack is doing pretty well.
Speaking of 2021 years, at that time, in the front row of the track of high-end burgers in China, there were the "four King Kongs" from the United States sitting side by side, they are:
Shake Shack (Shake Shack), Habit, Hamburg's first Netred Carl's Jr., and "Hamburg's Five (?) "FIVE GUYS.
Although the four heavenly kings have different nicknames, their development trajectories in China are highly similar, basically all:
The first store was opened in Shanghai, and the queue was rushed to buy it as an Internet celebrity, and the burgers sold for a small hundred, focusing on foreign light luxury.
It is also from the other side of the Pacific Ocean, why can this American burger be several times more expensive than KFC and McDonald's?
After reading the promotional copy of these companies, the answer may be available"Exquisite materials"These four words to sum it up.
A standard American-style high-end burger usually has the following qualities:
The patty sandwiched between two slices of hamburger is bound to be ground out of 100% Angus beef without antibiotics;
Tomatoes and lettuce that are sandwiched together, must be organically selected and freshly cut on the day;
The meatloaf can be cooked a little bit, the sauce can be increased or decreased freely, and the origin of the potatoes used in the french fries must be announced;
Even the drinks that go well with the burger should be brewed in small bottles, and the milkshakes should be imported and freshly blended......
Different from the highly industrialized assembly line "fortification" of Mai and Ken 24 hours a day, the American-style castle plays pure hand-made customization.
Freshly made and eaten, the pursuit is to eat with good ingredients and high quality.
So, you can even see high-end ingredients like foie gras, black truffle, and wagyu beef on the burger menu.
With the blessing of rare ingredients and authentic American blood, such a burger naturally has the confidence to sell for hundreds of dollars.
Of course, using good ingredients doesn't mean satisfying everyone's taste buds:
On social media, some people complained that Shake Shack's milkshakes were greasy and tasteful; Some people think that Habit's beef patties are too small to bite into them; And more complaints can be formulated as:
"One sells for XX yuan, but it tastes no different from XX's XX fort."
Either way, when a large plate of visually striking burger menus is paired with an America retro or industrial design, it's easy to transform an American expensive burger from a meal to a landscape.
Even for some Internet celebrities who have just returned to China and who have gone overseas, the plates and booths of Habit and the five brothers are just like the shopping carts and logos of Costco and Sam's.It is the "artifact" they need to run social media.
And put on Beats' button-headed headphones, put on lululemon's sports top and tight shark shorts, and keep your dog on a leash, and come to a big cow burger after the runThe presentation of the picture of American middle-class life.
In the past few years, under the leadership of the "Four King Kongs", American burger restaurants have sprung up all over the country, among which Charlies Pink Burger has even received investment from Internet companies like Bilibili.
But in 2025 years, not to mention that there are still a few burger restaurants that rushed to the wind back then, just looking at the "Four King Kongs" of the United States, their current situation highlights a "closed store":
Shake Shack's expansion has stalled as mentioned above, the five brothers have stopped opening new stores after 2023 years, Habitt has only one store left in the mainland, and Calstar has completely closed all directly operated stores.
The catering story of the expensive burger seems to have not been told for long, and it is about to usher in the finale of "out-of-gas".
What is involved in this is a battle for the right to define hamburg that has been going on in China for decades.
As we all know, burgers are an extremely "free" way to eat.
In a narrower sense, "an authentic burger can only be sandwiched with ground beef patties". So even K Kee's spicy chicken leg burger can only be regarded as a "sandwich that looks like a hamburger" at best.
Broadly speaking, all "two slices of bread and one piece of meat" are actually eligible to be included in the burger family.
Or even a little more relaxed,As long as there is a physical state of "clip", it is considered a hamburger.
汉堡，它可以夾神戶和牛肉、白鱘魚子醬和白松露，取名“金童”賣到4萬塊；它也可以只夾最普通的炸雞和綠葉菜，然後在華萊士的店裡10塊錢買3個。
And the huge flexibility in pricing also allows burgers to occupy all levels of food and beverage consumption.
Therefore, long before the "Shake Shacks" entered China, the domestic burger market had already been carved up by major brands:
On the mainstream track, KFC and McDonald's, which have been deeply involved in China for more than 30 years, firmly control the interpretation and pricing power of "foreign fast food";
In the sinking market, Tex and Wallace relied on the strategy of low price and low gross profit to make "hamburgers" a popular hunger filler;
The above-mentioned companies, together with a Burger King that has become more and more ineffective in recent years due to its mid-to-high-end positioning, constitute 90% of the national burger sales in the market report of 0 years.
In the remaining 10%, there are latecomers like Tustin and Jia Guolong, trying to use the new definition of "Chinese burger" to open up a new track of "fried vegetables with bread and vegetables, Chinese burger with Chinese stomach" in the market that has already become the Red Sea.
So on the other hand, American-style expensive burgers are equivalent to stepping on Burger King to touch the price again, wanting to tie this fast food to fried and fat for a long time.Reinvented into a high-end and foreign way of life.
This line of thinking has indeed attracted many white-collar workers and children, and broadened the ceiling of burger consumption, but the high price is also destined to make it a boom among only a small number of people.
After all, for the vast majority of consumers, words like "imported Angus beef", "organic vegetable cut", "customized frying" and "American environmental protection" are too illusory.
For consumers, no matter how fanciful your propaganda is, when it is served, I will see that it is still a burger that can be eaten in a few bites?
So when someone in Shanghai spent 258 yuan to order a beef rib burger that needs to be pre-ordered, netizens in the comment area said:
"With that money, I can have a wedding at Wallace."
Perhaps because of this, most of the high-end hamburgers that come to the mainland across the ocean are basically only active in the Yangtze River Delta area.
Once you open a store in the north or south, there is a high probability that you will not adapt to the soil.
At the same time, the "selection of ingredients" that expensive burgers have always used as a selling point has also been drawn with a big question mark under the washing of time.
像2023年7月，Shake Shack的武漢萬象城店，就因被曝出使用過期的奶油和番茄醬製作餐點並販賣過期的啤酒，而被有關部門罰款10萬元。
Although many burger brands have suffered from food safety crises, given the high average price of American-style burgers, such a rollover will obviously hurt the brand's credibility even more.
And when the initial freshness gradually fades, when the high-end sense of the ingredients is disenchanted layer by layer;
When the children who have just returned to China to pursue "cool" and "style" have entered the boring workplace and become workers, when the middle class who were once willing to pay for their lifestyle began to spend money rationally;
The story of the expensive burger is hard to go on.
After all, in the current catering market, cost performance is the most uncontroversial "version answer" no matter which sub-category it is.
Even if it is a foreign burger with the bonus of imported attributes, people want it to contain more dry goods called delicious and affordable, and less condiments called culture and story. Otherwise, it is also carbohydrate and protein, and it is really good quality and low price:
西洋大漢堡，還真敵不過陝北肉夾饃。