Original link: https://codechina.org/2022/10/china/
Recently I saw someone on Twitter talking about the shared laundry in Paris,
Although what he meant between the lines was that he despised that this kind of laundromat was less hygienic. But from a practical point of view, I think this exposes his misunderstanding of hygiene and spending power.
In fact, it is not that such laundry rooms can no longer be found in China, but that such laundry rooms have never been popular. This type of laundry room with a dryer is rare in China, but it abounds in developed countries.
Take the United States as an example, the American way of life is roughly divided into two types, living in a detached house in the suburbs and semi-suburban and living in an apartment in the city. Homeowners of detached houses generally rarely use self-service laundry rooms, because their homes often have professional laundry and drying equipment that is the same size as a self-service laundry room. Also, drying clothes outside a detached house is often not allowed. For those who live in apartments, many homes have at most relatively small washing machines, and often need to use services such as self-service laundry rooms.
To give the simplest example, take the American TV series “The Big Bang Theory” as an example, many of Penny’s confrontation with Sheldon and Leonard took place in the self-service laundry room in the basement of the apartment.
Basically, if it’s an American drama that takes place in a city, you seldom miss a laundry room. No matter how rich the protagonist is or how trendy their lifestyle is, shared laundry room is their choice.
Friends laundry room scene
2 broke girls’ laundry room scene
Unless he is rich to another level, for example, his dry cleaning is all sent by assistants to retrieve, which he does not do himself.
Domestic high-end consumer groups have become accustomed to the concept of dry cleaning, because some high-end clothing and shoes are difficult to take care of without dry cleaning, but the overall acceptance of the concept of self-service laundry is still incomparable with foreign countries.
Many people think that self-service laundry is more unhygienic. In fact, first of all, the washing machine and dryer have the function of high-temperature disinfection, and there are also various disinfectants, and the degree of hygiene is completely no problem.
In 2010, Obama once had a speech that caused an uproar in the country, the original text was
If more than a billion Chinese inhabitants live like the Australians and Americans are doing now, then all of us will be in a very miserable situation, because that is beyond the reach of this planet. (If over a billion Chinese citizens have the same living patterns as Australians and Americans do right now, then all of us are in for a very miserable time. The planet just can’t sustain it.)
Many Chinese and the media responded with dissatisfaction and anger. Some netizens said in an overseas forum: “The development of the United States has plundered a lot of resources around the world, and now they are accusing China’s development. If you want to make the earth’s people live a good life, Americans had better go low first. The day of consumption.” (1)
In fact, you can also understand this sentence as China’s current lifestyle and consumption level are far inferior to those of the United States and Australia. Obama’s perspective is more in the perspective of energy consumption and carbon emissions. This is an aspect that many Chinese people really don’t know enough about.
A typical American household consumes much more electricity than a Chinese household. The dryer is a big one.
In the eyes of the Chinese, we don’t need the self-service dryers on the street, and even we are very rich, and we buy multiple washing machines at home, and buy a small washing machine for our children. This way our lifestyle is more hygienic. In fact, many specialized small washing machines lack the professional washing modes of large washing machines, such as heat disinfection, etc., but are more unsanitary. This is a difference in hygiene concept.
But this is more of a difference in consumption concepts, or to put it bluntly, a difference in consumption power.
According to statistics, the cost of washing clothes in a laundromat in Japan is 40 times that of washing clothes at home, but more and more people are still going to laundromats to do their laundry.
In China, the decoration must leave room for washing machines, as well as drying space. However, in Europe and the United States, there is generally no habit of drying indoors and balconies, and they are all dried. Many households in Japan still have space for drying on the balcony, but more and more rely on drying.
Drying is a more energy-intensive practice. Today, we do not talk about environmental protection, but only talk about consumption concepts and consumption power. We will find that those who are willing to pay for the electricity bill for drying or the cost of going to the laundromat have higher spending power. At present, some self-service laundromats have begun to appear in China, but they are often found in foreigners or around high-end communities.
Chinese people prefer to hang in the sun and wash in their own homes. In fact, it is not to save energy, but to save money. As everyone knows, the pursuit and concept of quality of life need to be upgraded. For example, houses in the north are expensive, but no matter how luxurious the decoration is, the balcony needs to be wrapped. But even if the balcony is wrapped, there is no need for quality use, because it is often used to dry clothes.
Another aspect that many people can’t understand about the value of washing machines and dryers is that if they can be as convenient as self-service laundry, the overall hygiene conditions can be greatly improved. For example, the washing machines in Chinese homes can rarely wash large quilts, large blankets, and even carpets and curtains. Or they can be washed, but once these large items are dried, they cannot be washed for a few days because they completely take up the drying space. Therefore, in many cases, the cleaning and replacement of these large items in Chinese households is a long cycle.
However, if you use a laundromat, it’s usually an industrial-grade washer-dryer that can throw anything in it. Drying takes about the same amount of time. You can often clean these bulky items in a day. Then these large pieces can be replaced very frequently. (We won’t talk about environmental protection and energy saving today, haha)
This is why you see the quality of life in many western countries appearing to be higher, and the truth behind it is what Obama said about energy consumption.
You can of course also say why we need to consume as much energy as they do. In fact, you can also ask from another angle, if our quality of life does not improve, how can we stimulate domestic demand?
20-30 years ago, the Chinese used to be proud that we were a bicycle kingdom, saying that the western way of life where everyone owns a private car is not energy-saving and environmentally friendly. That is to say, in the past 20-30 years, with the improvement of people’s living standards, the number of private cars in China is constantly increasing.
Dishwashers are another example.
Now some large urban dishwashers are becoming popular. But in terms of total volume, the Chinese dishwasher market has just opened up. According to statistics, the sales volume of dishwashers in China is increasing year by year. In 2013, the sales volume of dishwashers in China was only 80,000 units. In 2021, the sales volume of dishwashers in China will increase to 1.952 million units, an increase of 1.67% over 2020. (2)
Statistical chart of sales changes of dishwashers in China from 2013 to 2021
Although the annual sales volume in 2013 is 80,000 units, it is now nearly 2 million units, and the growth rate is significant, but the overall inventory is roughly 5-6 million. Compared with the population of the whole country, the penetration rate is very low, even compared with the population of about 100 million in first-tier cities, it is also very low.
The status quo of overseas dishwashers is completely different. The penetration rate in the United States and Germany is 60%-70%, and the British, French and Western Italians are 40%-50%. Even if the living habits are close to ours, the penetration rate in Japan is about 30%. Even if we only count the 100 million people in China with the highest consumption in big cities, it is only about 5%.
Similarly, the low usage of dishwashers in China is also explained by conceptual issues, and many people think that it is because the washing is not clean enough. In essence, it is the reason why most people do not understand dishwashers. They think that it costs electricity and water. The bigger consideration is still not the concept of hygiene, but the concept of consumption.
I have a friend on Weibo called Snoring Cute, who used to recommend everyone to buy a dishwasher, and was besieged by a bunch of housewives. She flipped through their photos, and was surprised to find that many self-consciously sophisticated housewives who shouted that the dishwasher is cleaner than hand washing are very worrying about the household hygiene conditions.
For example, the homemade delicacies they made are made of traditional wooden piers or modern planks. It looks like there are water marks from long-term water intrusion, and even some surfaces and surrounding areas have serious mildew spots. Some people claim to be delicious food, but the paint on the table is seriously peeled off. Few people use clean and beautiful tablecloths. Some people are naked, and some people have some newspapers. and many more.
In fact, this is the problem of consumption level.
The living standard has just improved, and the understanding of the quality of life and hygiene is not enough. For example, the average single-family house in the United States has a constant temperature system installed, but the self-built houses in rural China seem to have several floors, and many have no wooden floors or tiles, even cement floors, and air conditioners are rarely installed.
From the perspective of consumption upgrading, China still has a long way to go, and from the perspective of the entire national economy, if it is just like the government work report and the theory of a great economist, we must transform from an export-oriented economy to a domestic demand-oriented economy. , transformed into an economic model with internal circulation as the main and external circulation as the supplement. We need to continuously stimulate domestic demand and upgrade consumption, rather than downgrade consumption, so that China’s economy will slowly continue to develop momentum.
Quote:
1) Obama said Chinese people should not live American life Chinese people expressed anger
http://news.sohu.com/20100514/n272123699.shtml
2) Market panorama assessment and investment direction research report of China’s dishwasher industry
https://www.sohu.com/a/590715195_120948967
3) Dishwasher with depth of consumption upgrade series: the industrial layout is accelerated, and the future space is broad
http://www.invest-data.com/eWebEditor/uploadfile/2018040818001720776082.pdf
This article is reprinted from: https://codechina.org/2022/10/china/
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