During the National Day holiday, consumers who travel to Guangzhou, Foshan, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Nanning, Chengdu, Chongqing, Nanchang, Changsha and other places have a new way to taste local flavors: they don't have to wait in line at the store, and can also order signature dishes from local specialty restaurants through Meituan takeout. Meituan Waimai assisted tens of thousands of high-quality local stores in launching the "Queue King" activity during the National Day holiday. Some of the "Queue King" old stores that have accumulated good reputation in the local area but are limited by offline space and manpower, and have insufficient dine in reception capacity, collaborated with Meituan's front-line operation team to redesign their signature dishes and kitchen flow, and combined them to launch popular packages that are suitable for takeout scenes, allowing out of town tourists to taste local authentic flavors through takeout without queuing.

According to Meituan data, during the National Day holiday, the order volume of "queue king" merchants increased by 21% compared to the week before the holiday. These restaurants, which were previously overloaded with customers during holidays, now have online business entrances for tourists and surrounding residents. In the context of high proportion of offline rent and continuous increase in operating costs, strengthening the refined operation of food delivery is becoming an increasingly popular choice for local specialty catering businesses.

Meituan helps local good stores to finely operate takeout, and old store signature dishes leave the store

On social media platforms, tourists who want to eat local specialty dishes often have their travel guide posts written with a waiting time of "more than 1 hour" for popular stores. Using takeout to order signature dishes from old specialty stores has become a new choice for many people. But for restaurants, having a good reputation offline does not necessarily mean they can directly handle takeout. The cost of manpower, ingredients, and online operation experience all affect whether the store is willing to increase online orders. Especially for stir fried dishes and group meals, it is necessary to adjust the set meal, packaging, and dining arrangements according to the characteristics of the dishes.

On the eve of National Day, the front-line operation team of Meituan Waimai launched a campaign in key tourist cities to participate in the participation of 10000 local high-quality stores. They visited merchant stores, assisted in adjusting the product portfolio suitable for takeout, optimized the dining flow, and provided internal and external resource support to businesses that standardized food safety and information transparency. Merchants now have an additional entrance to cater to the needs of tourists and nearby residents, while consumers have the opportunity to choose locally reputable restaurants through takeout when it is inconvenient to visit the store.

Guanghai Handmade Cantonese Cuisine in Qiandeng Lake, Foshan, Guangdong has been operating locally for 14 years, and the handmade Cantonese cuisine has accumulated local foot traffic. After specialty dishes such as roasted black truffle crispy chicken and clay pot jelly yellow croaker are added to the takeaway menu, nearby families and office workers can also order online. In the week before the holiday, the daily average of takeaway orders at the store was 180, and during the National Day holiday, the daily average increased to over 220 orders, with a month on month increase in revenue of 23%.

The Hefushun Stewed Pot (Guzhen Daxin Store) in Zhongshan Guzhen Business District is a local brand store that has been included in Dianping for ten years. Stewed pot belongs to the specialty category of regular meals, and the store is doing a good job in online delivery operations outside of dine in, adding an online ordering entrance for dishes that originally needed to be purchased in store. During the National Day holiday, many out of town tourists placed orders for takeout, resulting in a 37% month on month increase in revenue.

The signature dish of the "Queue King" store has become a local cultural and tourism golden card, and the local delivery network helps tourists place orders remotely

Finding a good local store is the first step for tourists to place an order. During the event, Meituan Waimai selected specialty restaurants, old shops, traditional snacks, and street side restaurants in popular tourist cities across the country based on Dianping's "Local Recommended List" and real offline queue situations, and showcased them through on-site special events. Many consumers have expressed that this year's holiday season is based on "signature dishes" when choosing travel destinations. By opening Meituan Waimai, they can view local restaurants in the event, without having to rely solely on searching along the street or queuing for seats.

It is reported that the "queuing king" merchants selected over 60000 restaurants from nearly 5 million food merchants nationwide based on 70 million real word-of-mouth reviews and offline real queuing situations from Dianping. Among them, more than 40% are local old shops that have been operating for more than 10 years. These "famous shops" and "signature dishes" have become the golden business cards of local culture and tourism. The "Queue King" event of Meituan Waimai also refers to the real offline queuing situation in various places, making it easier for tourists to find reputable local stores on their mobile phones.

If the restaurant is far from the hotel, the delivery range also determines whether tourists can eat. During this period, some "queue king" merchants opened Meituan's "city wide delivery" service, covering a service area of more than 10 kilometers. Users can place orders normally within the delivery area of the store, and the platform matches the corresponding transportation capacity in long-distance scenarios, so tourists have more choices to taste local specialty meals in the hotel.

The partner canteen in Haizhu District, Guangzhou is a Hong Kong style tea restaurant that often requires waiting during peak meal times. The boss has been in Hong Kong style catering for many years and has always adhered to traditional recipes. When it comes to food delivery business, the boss said that the dine in dishes are served as soon as they are cooked, and it takes some time for the food to be delivered to customers. Therefore, the store repeatedly adjusts the cooking methods and seasoning ratios to make the signature dishes taste good even after they are delivered to their homes. During busy times, dedicated chefs and packers are arranged to ensure smoother delivery of takeout orders. Nowadays, in addition to out of town tourists, nearby office workers can order soy sauce chicken rice for lunch, and even order Hong Kong style figurine noodles when working late, without having to queue up at the store.

This change has also received user feedback, with some users leaving messages to businesses saying, "I can't wait to order, but the taste is still as good as ever." From store launches and dish adjustments to remote delivery, Meituan Waimai and "queue king" merchants have brought local restaurants with established reputations into online consumption scenarios. With a high proportion of offline rent and continuous increase in operating costs, they are not engaging in low price competition through "online activities" and "subsidies", but focusing on quality management, transforming their accumulated "good reputation" into "good business" both online and offline.