With the rise of takeaway platforms, ordering takeout has become a lifestyle habit for many young people. However, recently, a number of consumers have reported that the amount of takeout delivered is significantly less than that of dine-in, and they feel that it is not enough to eat. In order to investigate whether this phenomenon exists, a reporter from Beijing Youth Daily recently randomly selected 10 well-known chain restaurants with large takeaway sales such as Yoshinojia, Hallasan, and Meizhou Dongpo for investigation. The survey results show that 8 out of 10 samples do have a situation where the amount of takeout is less than that of dine-in, and the difference in the amount can be up to nearly 150 grams, which is equivalent to one-fifth of the dish size.
experiment
Random selection of 10 stores
Includes dinner, fast food and desserts
The first step is to buy
Dine-in takeaway is the same product in the same store
In order to find out whether the takeaway portion of the restaurant is really lower than the dine-in portion, the reporter of Beiqing Daily needs to complete the first step of the investigation – buying meals.
The Beiqing Daily reporter selected 10 well-known chain merchants including Yoshinojia, Hallasan, Manji Dessert, Meizhou Dongpo, First-hand Store, Fresh Taro Xian, Hegu, Dao Xiaoman Half Chicken Yunnan Rice Noodles, Jin Dingxuan, and First Best Chicken Chop with large takeaway sales. The purchase locations were randomly selected in 4 areas of Guomao, Red Temple, Tuanjie Lake, and the Asian Games Village on the North Fourth Ring Road, located in the East Third Ring Road. In order to make the measurement results more accurate, the dine-in meals selected by the Beiqing Daily reporter at the time of purchase and the meals ordered by the takeaway platform were all from the same store.
So, Beiqing Daily reporters bought 10 kinds of meals: Yoshinojia’s "Jiwei Shuangpin Rice", Hallasan’s "Kimchi Pork Bibimbap", Jin Dingxuan’s "Preserved Egg and Lean Meat Porridge", Manji Dessert "Durian Wangreturn", the first best big chicken chop "Salted Crispy Chicken", the first-hand store "Chicken Gizzard", Meizhou Dongpo’s "Boiled Beef", Fresh Taro Immortal "Taro Yuan No. 2", Dao Xiaoman Half Chicken Yunnan Rice Noodles "Big Crispy Beef Rice Noodles", and Hegu’s "Kung Pao Chicken Rice". The meals for the dine-in were ordered by Beiqing Daily reporters in the store. After each meal was served, the meal was packed into a lunch box and brought back. At the same time, the Beiqing Daily reporter ordered the same meal through Meituan, Baidu and other takeaway software.
The second step is to weigh
Weigh 20 meals
After purchasing 10 boxes of dine-in food and 10 boxes of takeaway food, the reporter of Beiqing Daily began the second step of the investigation – weighing. First, label each product with "takeaway" and "dine-in food" to distinguish it. Then on the same household kitchen electronic scale, weigh 20 meals separately, record the number of grams, and compare them one by one.
For example, at the Hallasan Fortune Center store, a reporter from Beiqing Daily ordered a "spicy cabbage pork belly bibimbap" for 35 yuan. The waiter brought a stone pot containing rice, spicy cabbage, pork belly, eggs, vegetables and other food. The reporter from Beiqing Daily asked the waiter to pack the box and poured all the food in the stone pot into the box. At the same time, he ordered the same "kimchi pork belly bibimbap" for 36 yuan through Meituan takeaway.
The Beiqing Daily reporter noticed that in the takeaway delivered, the same takeaway box contained a layer of small plastic baffles, the lower layer was rice, and the upper layer was spicy cabbage, pork belly and other foods, but the vegetables were obviously not as much as the dine-in. Therefore, with an additional layer of small baffles in the takeaway packaging box, the Beiqing Daily reporter weighed them separately, and the final dine-in weight was 706 grams, and the takeaway weight was 561.4 grams, which means that the dine-in portion was 144.6 grams more than the takeaway.
The third step, the survey results
8 merchants take out less than dine-in
The survey results show that in terms of weight, 8 of these 10 stores have less takeaway than dine-in. The top three are Hallashan, Meizhou Dongpo, and Fresh Taro, with a weight difference of 144.6 grams, 135.2 grams, and 132.9 grams, respectively. In other words, after randomly testing 10 stores, Beiqing Daily can come to a conclusion that 80% of merchants have less takeout than dine-in.
The reporter of Beiqing Daily calculated the percentage again, and it can be seen that if the missing amount of takeaway is compared with the original dine-in amount, the top three with the highest proportion of dine-in amount are Fresh Taro Immortal, Hallasan, and Yoshinojia, which are 20.7%, 20.5%, and 16.9% respectively. That is to say, the takeaway amount of Fresh Taro Immortal and Hallasan is one-fifth less than that of dine-in.
If you look at the appearance of the dishes, the dine-in and takeaway of the 10 restaurants do not look much different, but if you compare them carefully, you can still find the differences. Comparing the two boxes of Yoshino’s "Jiwei Shuangpin Rice", the Beiqing Daily reporter found that the takeaway chicken was 5 pieces, the packaged dine-in was 6 pieces, the amount of beef was visually significantly less than the dine-in, and the carrots in the side dishes were also significantly less.
From the price point of view, the takeaway price of 8 stores is the same as that of dine-in. The takeaway price of 2 stores is slightly higher. Among them, the stone pot bibimbap in Hallashan is 1 yuan more expensive than dine-in, and the takeaway of Jin Dingxuan’s preserved egg and lean meat porridge is 0.3 yuan more expensive than dine-in. (Wen/this reporter, Peng Xiaofei, Li Mengting)
survey
Business claims vary
Attribution standards are not uniform
Claim one
The dine-in and takeaway standards for the same meal are different.
In Hallasan, the same food is called "spicy cabbage pork belly stone pot bibimbap" in the store, and the takeaway is called "kimchi pork belly stone pot bibimbap". The dine-in is more and cheaper than the takeaway. Why is this? A reporter from Beiqing Daily called the Hallasan Fortune Center Store. The staff of the store said that many customers have called to inquire about this issue. Since June and July this year, Hallasan’s dine-in and takeaway have begun to have different standards, which has led to different portions of the two.
"Before, our store and takeaway were called’Spicy cabbage bibimbap ‘, but after the company managed the takeaway separately in June and July, the bibimbap was changed to’Kimchi bibimbap’ on the takeaway page." The staff member said, "To say the difference is that the takeaway vegetables are missing bean sprouts and spinach, and the spicy cabbage and pork belly are the same." As for whether there is a specific gram number rule, the other party said that the company stipulates that the takeaway rice is 280 grams, and the dine-in is 250 grams. As for the specific weight of the dishes, I don’t remember, but it does make the takeaway lighter than the dine-in because of the lack of two vegetables.
The staff member also introduced that, except for the two dishes such as tuna bibimbap and bibimbap that have not been renamed, the names of the dishes on the takeaway page are inconsistent with the store, and the standards are also different. The reason, the other party explained, "This is a unified arrangement of the company, and the takeaway business and the dine-in business are managed by different departments. We don’t know the specific reasons ourselves."
Claim two
The weight of the takeaway is "affected" by the takeaway box.
The reporter of Beiqing Daily found in the investigation that regular restaurants have customized takeaway boxes, so many merchants also "blame" the different weights of dine-in and takeaway to the takeaway box. The reporter of Beiqing Daily purchased the Meizhou Dongpo boiled beef dine-in weight is 945.6 grams, and the takeaway weight is 810.4 grams, a difference of 135.2 grams. In this regard, the reporter of Beiqing Daily called the Meizhou Dongpo Tuanjiehu store. The staff of the store asked about the dishes ordered by the reporter of Beiqing Daily and said that whether it is takeaway or dine-in, the beef in the boiled beef in the store should be the same. Maybe it is the different amount of vegetables or soup at the bottom that leads to the different amounts of dine-in and takeaway.
"We have the same standard of dishes for dine-in and takeaway. We have a lot of dishes, so different dishes correspond to different packing boxes. Sometimes considering that there is too much soup for the takeaway box to hold or the takeaway box is not easy to deliver, the master will put less soup." The staff member said that there may be visual reasons why customers think that the takeaway is not as much as the dine-in. "For example, our master will put two tablespoons into the flat plate, which looks more, but the same amount in the takeaway box will look less."
Claim three
More and less, subject to the baseline of the container.
In response to this situation, a reporter from Beiqing Daily called Fresh Taro Xian, and the staff said that they have certain standards when serving desserts, but they are not accurate to the weight. "Take Taro Yuan No. 2 as an example. When serving desserts in the store, we will take the second line of the’taro ‘printed on the bowl as the criterion, and the takeaway box is generally filled to 90%." However, the other party said that there is no clear weight regulation for the red bean soup of Taro Yuan No. 2 and the ingredients added to it, but only a baseline. In other words, it is not necessarily clear to the merchants who has more or less than 90% of the takeaway and the baseline of dine-in. Text/This newspaper reporter, Peng Xiaofei, Li Mengting
expert
Takeaway weight is less dishonest behavior
The lack of standardization of food products makes it difficult to protect rights
In response to the findings of this investigation, Chen Yinjiang, deputy secretary-general of the China Consumer Law Research Association, analyzed that there may be two factors contributing to this phenomenon: first, due to the non-face-to-face purchase behavior, the merchants have dishonest behavior of "lacking weight". Second, due to the price competition of takeaway platforms, the cost of merchants has increased. Chen Yinjiang said that now the price competition of takeaway platforms is fierce, and merchants will inevitably make up for the cost by other means while accepting the takeaway platform and increasing the packaging cost. This part is likely to be passed on to consumers in the end.
Under normal circumstances, merchants do not have a clear standardized regulation on how much a meal should be. The lack of measurement standards is a problem in itself, and it also directly affects consumers’ rights protection. "This kind of behavior is actually a dishonest practice. Consumers choose takeout mainly for convenience. When consumers choose to order takeout, they have accepted the possible uncertainties such as hygiene. These are invisible, and the lack of weight is visible, which will directly lead to a crisis of trust among consumers in merchants." (Text/This reporter, Peng Xiaofei)
