The once popular “Mo’s Chicken Hot Pot” in Shunde, Guangdong, which attracted diners to queue overnight, has seen a decline in customer flow after about 4 months of being in the spotlight. During peak hours, the store had seventy to eighty employees, but now only about 20 remain. Owner Mo Zanrong said that online traffic “comes and goes quickly,” and even if the restaurant gains popularity again, he is not willing to start over.
According to reports from “Front Page News” and the “Yangcheng Evening News” on July 29, Mo’s Chicken Hot Pot gained fame in March this year due to a video posted by a food blogger. During peak hours, diners from various parts of China would arrive at the store in the early morning and wait in line for hours. Referred to as “Uncle Mo” by customers, owner Mo Zanrong was only getting about 3 hours of sleep per day at that time. After the surge in customer traffic, Mo Zanrong expanded the store to over 60 tables and had seventy to eighty employees during peak hours.
Mo Zanrong mentioned that business is not as booming as it was during its peak, but it is still relatively stable. On the day of the interview, he had already slaughtered 100 chickens in the morning.
However, a report on June 24 indicated that at that time, the store was only serving about a dozen tables per day, and the sales of live chickens had dropped from over 200 during peak hours to less than 20.
Mo Zanrong said that the brand currently has 5 franchised stores, with 3 in Guangdong and the other two in Shanghai and Nanning. They also plan to continue opening new stores in the future.
The “Mo’s Chicken Hot Pot” store has also set up a live streaming team of about 20 people, streaming twice a day to sell soup packs, chicken hot pot meals, salt-baked chicken, and other products.
“Live streaming may not be fun, but not streaming is not an option,” Mo Zanrong said. He added that the current business model is difficult to sustain long-term, and now the old store has only 20 remaining employees.
He also expressed that online traffic comes and goes quickly, and if they were to experience another sudden surge in popularity, he is “not willing to accept even large amounts of traffic.”
Chinese food industry analyst Zhu Danpeng previously mentioned that many consumer brands that rely on online traffic for their popularity invest heavily in online promotion and store packaging, but they lack investment in raw material research, supply chain construction, and product innovation, making it difficult to establish long-term competitiveness.
Regarding the cooling down of customer flow at Mo’s Chicken Hot Pot, some netizens commented: “What goes up in popularity overnight will surely have a downturn one day.” Others believe that in food and beverage operations, “short-term success relies on buzz, while long-term success relies on taste, consistent experience, and repeat purchases.” Some netizens also said, “It’s good to return to the calm of everyday life.”