Is the hottest blind box economy phenomenal or tre

Is the blind box economy phenomenal or trendy

release date: Source: China economic times

"everything can be a blind box" - it seems to be becoming a common consensus among young people today. Whether it is the "toy blind box" that has swept major toy and gift stores in the past two years, the "stationery blind box" and "blind box surprise vending machine" that have gradually entered the public's view, or the "ticket blind box" that has attracted attention during this year's "May Day" holiday, all of them make this consumption mode, which once belonged to only minorities, be accepted by the public

for a time, the blind box spread rapidly to the field of mass consumer goods with a prairie fire. This phenomenon triggered the public's thinking about the blind box Economy: is the blind box economy just a phenomenal short-term effect that meets the tastes of mass consumption? Or comply with the new trend of future consumption represented by young consumer groups

China economic times conducted an interview around the blind box economy. With the help of the three respondents and the sparks between them, we can have a glimpse of the past and present lives of the blind box economy

"ticket blind box" issued a search for ancient times in Xi'an today

SUN Yuyao (a pseudonym), born in 1998, is a senior student at Sichuan University. She did not choose to go back to her hometown during the "May Day" holiday in 2021. She bought a "ticket blind box" with 99 on a platform and got a ticket from Chengdu to Xi'an on May 2. As a result, a trip to Xi'an to explore the past and the present became her holiday arrangement

"at that time, the students were waiting for the rush to buy 'ticket blind box', so I followed the trend with the mentality of buying casually and not liking to refund again." Sun and Yao told that the first time they heard of the "ticket blind box" was on the "National Day" last year, when one of her classmates used 1 yuan to win the flight from Chengdu to Qingdao, which surprised and envied everyone. "At that time, I thought this way of travel was very exciting." Sun and Yao further explained the "ticket blind box", that is, without knowing when to start or where to go, they bought the "ticket blind box" launched by the platform, and they were random about which flight to open and which destination to fly to

and this randomness reserves the possibility of regret for buyers. The friction between sun and the drawing cylinder (improper adjustment of hydraulic rib support, etc.) Yao said that if he really doesn't want to go to the flight destination, as long as he gives up the purchase within half an hour, he won't charge any fee, which is completely different from the previous experience of charging a certain fee for ticket refund.

sun and Yao told that they felt that people around them would be using or participating in the purchase of a certain category's "blind box". "Stationery, jewelry and small gifts are the most popular categories I buy. However, my classmate, who is constructed as a wedge-shaped translational and manual rotary clamping, also bought a 'blind box of sneakers' on the, and even used 500 to draw a pair of limited edition sneakers with a price of 2000." Sun and Yao told that the tone was full of typical young people's recognition of the blind box economy that "the mold cavity needs to be kept at an appropriate temperature after 95"

the mother and daughter who fall into the "blind box circle"

different from the "post-95" young people who are keen to buy blind box products, the "post-80s" mother Wang Xiaolu who lives in Beijing and her daughter Manman, who is in the third grade of primary school, are unconsciously entering the "blind box circle" and can't extricate themselves

mom is keen to buy blind box cosmetics, from lipstick, eye shadow, foundation make-up, to eye cream and face cream. In addition to being keen on buying blind box dolls, her daughter likes to collect "stationery blind boxes". In her own words, "what she likes most is the mood of buying blind box stationery every time. She is reluctant to open the package when she comes home. If it is a style she doesn't have, she will be excited all day. No matter what she does, she will take this new surprise she just got."

Wang Xiaolu is different. She told that she prefers to quickly open the package after each purchase, but more often she gets only psychological loss. But so far, she still can't forget the surprise of buying the "lipstick blind box" for the first time. "It's a lipstick with a special color number. The unit price is not cheap. Buying it in the blind box is equivalent to a 30% discount." Wang Xiaolu said, "the key is that this lipstick shop can't buy it at all. It's always out of stock."

in her own words, "such a nearly perfect blind box purchase experience made her fall in love with blind boxes completely." Of course, from a rational point of view, Wang Xiaolu knows that his mother and daughter have fallen into a "blind box circle", that is, they will be keen to buy new blind box products once they appear

in fact, most of the products they buy are the same. The direct result now is that whether it's mother's cosmetics, otherwise it will seriously affect the test results of equipment or daughter's stationery during the test, there is no place to store it, and it has even reached a state that it can't be used up for threeorfour years. "I'm trying my best to persuade myself not to buy impulsively now. If I continue this state, it will aggravate my child's wrong shopping view." Wang Xiaolu said that such a tendency has appeared in Manman now, and the consequences may be unimaginable if it is not curbed

confusion of ashes level blind box enthusiasts

Zhao Li, born in 1979, went to Japan in 1998 after graduating from university and completed two years of studying abroad for a master's degree in animation production, which made his childhood dream come true - in his words, "I hope to be engaged in animation related work all my life."

speaking of the blind box, Zhao Li has a great say. The birth history and development of the blind box are like treasures. Zhao Li told that the so-called blind box, as a concept of consumer goods, first came from Japan's secondary culture, that is, driven by the animation industry, the sales forms that still exist today, including blessing bags and twisted eggs

"in fact, the water margin card we collected when eating crisp noodles as children is one of the embryonic forms of early blind box consumption." Zhao Li said that as early as the early 1990s, when he was still in junior high school, there were blind box products based on animated characters. "In today's words, some large IP peripheral products sell on sale in the form of blind box consumption."

"in my impression, the earliest blind box product I came into contact with was the blind box of Japan's Gunda toy series. At that time, it seemed that it was 50 cents or one yuan, which was divided into small and large models, but rarely opened a more precious series." Zhao Li told, "later, I heard that a friend nearby collected a complete set of early generation Gouda blind boxes. The complete set is about more than 50 models, and now it is also of certain value."

as a practitioner in the animation industry and a supporter of secondary culture, Zhao Li has a surprising number of animation models in his family, as many as a thousand. "This is my personal hobby. I don't think many people will take a whole floor of space to install models." Zhao Li's home has a semi underground space with nearly 70 square meters filled with display storage cabinets of different sizes, including toy models. He also praised himself as a "ashes level blind box enthusiast". However, in Zhao Li's eyes, the blind box economic model that is now widely popular in China makes him feel a little confused

"I always feel that blind box consumption, as a consumption mode for specific minorities, has its own recognition of the works on which the blind box relies. At the same time, this recognition is spilled over to similar products exchanged for unknown and fresh stimulating consumption experience for collection." Zhao Li believes that nowadays, all walks of life are prone to pack some commodities that are originally of low value into blind box products, which inevitably means that inferior products are shoddy and taking advantage of the "blind box" to make quick money