Milk tea "cools down"
In May 2024, the -18 degree milk tea brand announced its closure, leaving many people sad. For the 8X and 9X generations, -18 degree was once number 1 in terms of luxury, grandeur and "coolness".
Many people consider -18 degrees as youth, because they spend a lot of days hanging out in this chain of shops. Previously, Ten Ren milk tea, which was once a big hit across the country with nearly 30 stores, had to accept raising the white flag and closing all the chains.
Other big milk tea brands such as Bobapop, Dingtea, TocoToco, Royaltea, LeeTee, Alley... after a few years of dominating the country, have now cooled down and are holding on. Simply, because milk tea has passed its “trend”.
From the time when young people were willing to spend 70-80 thousand VND to buy a cup of milk tea, even having to wait in long lines to buy it, now hardly anyone is interested. Milk tea has "cooled down", and is only considered a regular drink.
Running an F&B business following trends is like walking a tightrope. Business people have to listen anxiously while selling, and young people are changing their interests, so business people have to rush to catch up.
Chasing Gen Z
Currently, most F&B businesses following the trend are targeting Gen Z customers. Gen Z is the young generation born from around 1997 to 2012 (some people also say Gen Z was born from 1995 to 2010).
Generation Z grew up in a thriving digital environment, with new and unique trends and movements. For some early Gen Z, they graduated from college around 2019 - 2020 and started working, having money to spend.
Because this generation is modern, they grasp world trends very quickly. This also makes business people have to be sensitive. More fiercely, Gen Z's eating trends are changing rapidly.
In early 2023, Malaysian fried banana cakes caused a fever. In mid-2023, coin cakes (cakes with cheese filling, small as coins) made young people excited. At the end of 2023, snow lemon smoothie (blend lemon peel, using a strange type of lemon originating from China) made young people hunt. But in early 2024, everything was different.
In early 2023, seeing the trend of "eating up Malaysian fried bananas", I invested in opening a chain of high-end fried bananas Zero7 with the slogan "No oil, crispy for 7 hours".
On the first day of opening, the staff were so busy that customers kept lining up to buy. Even though we increased our capacity, we still couldn’t meet the demand.
But by January 2024, after only 3 months of "selling like hotcakes", revenue had plummeted. We bitterly acknowledged that fried banana cakes had passed their trend. Just like coin cakes, from the time of crowding to buy them, young people are now indifferent to this type of cake.
Strange young man
The fate of the lemon snow smoothie was even shorter. After a few months of popularity, now no one cares. The difficulty for those doing F&B business following trends is that they cannot predict anything.
Even the giant in the F&B industry, Phuc Long, started out as a place that created peach tea, selling for 80,000 VND/cup, but couldn't make it fast enough because young people were buying too much. After only 1 year, how many people still come to Phuc Long to buy peach tea?
The owner of Phuc Long also admitted that he had to create something new to please the kids. Once he was satisfied, he had to continuously come up with new dishes because kids "get bored quickly".
So, is the business of street food, refreshments, and snacks sustainable? In terms of products, it cannot be sustainable. Business people are forced to chase after the consumption needs of young people - while they change very quickly. Therefore, chasing after them is very tiring. Therefore, sustainability only comes from the perspective of "persisting in chasing after them".
Whoever has the endurance, is not afraid of change, is not afraid of failure, will continue. Even young people do not know what they will like to eat or drink in the future, so how can F&B businesses serving young people predict?
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