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Sometimes I fantasize about disappearing.
Not dying.
Just logging off.
Getting a job no one cares about.
Growing tomatoes.
Writing poems in the margins of a notebook no one reads.
Not as a failure.
But as a kind of freedom.
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sometimes i wonder how many versions of myself i’ve outgrown without even noticing. i look back at old photos and remember the thoughts i used to carry, the dreams i thought would save me. it’s strange how you can live inside yourself every day and still not realize you’re evolving. it’s only when you look back that you realize how far you’ve come, how many lives you’ve already lived in the same skin.
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LOOK AT THIS PICTURE. WHY IS THIS WORRISOME?
In the past few months, I have reported how Hou Yi, the 'retired' founder of Alibaba's Hema (Freshippo), has launched a new initiative: Pet Fresh (here substack.com/@techbuzzc…). Hou Yi is (in)famous for being an idea factory, but not necessarily very good at managing the execution of his ideas. During his years at Hema, he launched more than 12 different formats, most of which have disappeared because they were unsustainable. He also kept changing the company strategy every half year or so, resulting in a lot of unrest with staff and suppliers alike.
Hou Yi's constant 'throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks' is often blamed for the lack of profitability of Hema, and at one point Alibaba considered an IPO and then selling the supermarket chain, but found the valuation was too low. After the 'retirement' of Hou Yi, Hema's CFO took over, and the supermarket chain has focused on its original (Xiansheng) format and Hema NB discounter format and has become profitable.
Meanwhile, Hou Yi has launched Pet Fresh, which some described as the 'Hema for cats and dogs'. Doing location scouting for ChinaTechTrip, I naturally had to go check it out when I arrived in Shanghai.
I was underwhelmed.
Expecting an enormous pet store, I found Pet Fresh to be basically a store focusing on dried pet snacks, augmented with some well-known pet food brands like Purina. It was smaller than I expected and there were no customers inside.
But one specific thing caught my attention: the 'Pet Kitchen'. Now, you have to know that in China, there is a popular catering concept in which you select different ingredients and have the restaurant stir-fry them for you with a sauce. You can see it in the top picture below.
Pet Fresh copied this idea for pets (primarily dogs, it seems). You have a comparable 'buffet' where you can pick ingredients for your 'furry children' (as the Chinese call them) and have them prepared in the kitchen. Judging from many of the reviews on Dianping, the dogs are often not impressed. One customer described taking the dog meals home and noticed that other dogs in the neighbourhood also refused to eat it.
While Pet Fresh doesn't seem to be a big success, there is also something worrying about this. I have worked in the pet food business for 4 years and learned how it can be highly problematic when humans start projecting their own eating preferences on their pets. I have seen cases of pet owners slowly killing their animals because they only fed them vegetarian meals, depriving them of taurine and causing serious health risks.
As such, I hope this will be another one of Hou Yi's ideas that will soon disappear. I'm not sure you are doing your furry friends a favour with the Pet Kitchen and would suggest sticking to premium pet food that has a lot of true R&D in it.
- Ed
