Students, white-collar workers and families filled the tables during a recent dinner rush at a branch of Saizeriya \u2013 a Japanese-owned chain of Italian restaurants \u2013 in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou.<\/p>\n
In the same shopping district, a queue stretched outside a Sushiro conveyor belt sushi restaurant at 8pm. \u201cWe waited two hours for a seat, but it was worth it,\u201d said one diner.<\/p>\n
Such scenes present a contrast to China\u2019s generally sluggish catering market<\/a>, with analysts saying that budget Japanese restaurant chains such as Saizeriya, Sushiro and Torikizoku are thriving in a deflationary economic environment by exporting their recession-tested formula of low prices and standardised operations to provide an \u201caffordable dignity\u201d to customers in uncertain times<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThis combination of affordability and dignity perfectly fits consumers\u2019 psychological needs during the ongoing economic downturn \u2013 they want to save money but also dine decently,\u201d said David Wong, a management lecturer at Hang Seng University of Hong Kong and a long-time independent observer of China\u2019s economic and social changes.<\/p>\n \u201cThrough central kitchens, meticulous Japanese-style supply chain management and standardised workflows, these brands achieve a balance between low-cost operations and high customer retention.\u201d<\/p>\n Saizeriya\u2019s latest menu offers black pepper beef tomato pasta for 14 yuan (US$1.97), stewed mussels for 22 yuan, and grilled chicken thighs for 19 yuan. The Torikizoku grilled chicken-skewer chain implements the same uniform pricing system it uses in Japan at its Shanghai stores, charging 18 yuan per dish or drink.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Students, white-collar workers and families filled the tables during a recent dinner rush at a branch of Saizeriya…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":545474,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3090],"tags":[3801,51,1395,42282,122156,175286,1700,175284,175289,175290,28867,175288,175293,2122,175285,175291,175292,175280,10741,175283,175281,175287,175282,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-545473","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-beijing","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-china","11":"tag-consumer-price-index","12":"tag-deflationary-pressures","13":"tag-economic-stagnation","14":"tag-economy","15":"tag-factory-gate-prices","16":"tag-food-life-companies","17":"tag-gift-holdings","18":"tag-guangzhou","19":"tag-hama-sushi","20":"tag-hang-seng-university-of-hong-kong","21":"tag-japan","22":"tag-lost-decades","23":"tag-machida-shoten","24":"tag-overseas-expansion","25":"tag-saizeriya","26":"tag-shanghai","27":"tag-sichuan-hotpot","28":"tag-sushiro","29":"tag-tadashi-okura","30":"tag-torikizoku","31":"tag-uk","32":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115483729183199787","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/545474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}