How Are Beijing Restaurants Handling City's New Waimai Rules?

原创 Irene Li theBeijinger

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We reported earlier this year that Beijing would enact new regulations for waimai deliveries in April, requiring take-out food to be sealed. Now that we are already half way through April, it appears these regulations are in effect. The question is, how are restaurants reacting to and abiding by the new rules?

You might've noticed more deliveries are arriving sealed

What it means, for the most part, is different restaurants have adopted different packaging styles. Some chains use packaging bags that can be sealed directly, while other well-known fast food restaurants simply use stickers with their brand logo. Some restaurants even choose to staple their packages.

Some restaurants, though, have obviously taken things a step too far by using a zip tie to fasten the package. One of these is Tube Station, which currently binds their pizza packaging with a zip tie-like seal that's a little too hard to crack open. "It's incredibly annoying because I can never find scissors to open the package with!" My colleague complained.

Look closely and you'll see Tube Station's near impenetrable zip tie seal

The staff at KFC told me that their store started to seal all take-out orders since April. "That way consumers wouldn't worry too much about having their food spoiled," she said.

An example of new KFC delivery packaging

"I have noticed that there's been a lot more sealed orders recently, and as a consumer, I am quite supportive of this policy. It feels much safer now," one Beijing resident surnamed Zhou told me.

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At the packaging place of another barbecue shop, we spotted a worker who first carefully put the food in an insulated bag, and then tore off a sticker, which he used to seal the outer packaging before placing it in the take-out area to wait for the delivery guy to pick up the food.

Seals like stickers are usually added before the food is picked up by waimai riders

"A lot of chains have sealed their packages," one rider told me. "I personally feel the new sealsbi can also save us from a lot of trouble. For example, if the seal is intact, customers won't complain about receiving less food than promised."

Even drink packaging is getting sealed up now

Another delivery driver told me that during peak hours, he would notice some packages that haven't been sealed. "Honestly, it is not my business, and I think it is more of the restaurant's responsibility to take care of it. Besides, by the time the orders are delivered, most customers are already hungry, and I haven't met anyone who would make a big deal out of this," he said.

But will the new packaging mean a rise in meal prices? Will the extra costs of sealing lead to an increase of food prices? We talked to some restaurants and they said that they won't charge extra fees to cover the costs of sealing.

These stickers run pretty cheap online

But how much does using seals cost restaurants? We found on an online shopping platform where customized takeout seals are only about RMB 21 for 1000 pieces, which is to say, each sticker or seal only costs about RMB 0.02. So far, we haven't seen a price increase in waimai orders overall just yet. It is safe to say that it looks like these new rules won't bring any changes to food prices, at least for now.