Exquisitely designed afternoon teas are no longer novel; what's gaining popularity among the younger generation is an activity that further emphasizes social class: taking dogs to pet-friendly restaurants.
To participate in this activity, you need to have a good-looking dog (which usually means you have relatively money and free time), a relatively wealthy wallet, and the mentality to be willing to suffer losses (after all, a dog treat meal can easily cost hundreds).
Pet-friendly restaurants have not yet fully taken off, but many people have already started thinking about opening pet restaurants: working for dogs and making a fortune off them.
Pink cloud-shaped donuts, pumpkin-flavored mini yogurt jugs, grass-green hat claw lollipops, fries, and popcorn chicken—dozens of delicious treats are displayed in the shop window, and they all look incredibly appetizing.
However, this delicious treat has nothing to do with humans; it belongs to pets.
The beautifully decorated pet restaurant offers a wide variety of pet food, treats, desserts, and baked goods. The menu features a variety of adorable dishes, each accompanied by a picture for dog owners to choose from.
If you feel that this isn't intuitive enough, you can also choose to bring your dog to the rotating buffet.
△The dogs sat obediently on the small chairs in front of the food counter, waiting for the food to be turned over.
Many dining areas have pet play areas. After your meal, you can take your dog for a swim in the pool, dress them up in a traditional Chinese dress embroidered with cranes or a fluffy white fairy veil, and take a picture at a specially decorated indoor photo spot to share your day of paying to walk your dog with the world.
Two years ago, when pet owners were still complaining about the inconvenience of dining with their pets and calling for more pet-friendly restaurants, some people shared their experiences of dining with their dogs:
When we went to Haidilao for hot pot, the restaurant ran out of dog cages, so the waiter stood outside the door with his dog until he finished eating.
Now, pet dogs in big cities can finally breathe a sigh of relief and have their own restaurants. Humans can only sit beside them, watch them eat, and pay for their meals.
At times like these, a dog's eating manners become especially important. A dog that eats slowly and deliberately shows good canine manners. A dog that jumps onto the food counter and spins around on the conveyor belt at the drop of a hat is obviously uneducated and needs a new round of canine manners training.
From "No Entry" to "Pet-Friendly," and now to directly serving pets, pet owners' wallets are getting thinner and thinner. Pet costumes, pet birthday parties, pet ice cream, DIY pet food—each of these items hits the sweet spot for pet lovers.
This is clearly a more advantageous strategy than opening a restaurant catering to a large number of people. The food industry is highly competitive, with new restaurants constantly emerging on platforms like Dianping (a Chinese review platform). Without genuine expertise, it's difficult to stand out, and even if you do, your competitors can easily copy your skills.
In contrast, the competition in opening a pet restaurant is much less, and dogs are far less picky eaters than humans. They will eat whatever you give them. It is generally difficult for people to make food that "dogs will not eat". Even if the food is really bad, dogs can express their dissatisfaction by "woof woof woof", and the owner may even think that it means "it is too delicious".
The information gap between humans and animals has given pet restaurants a vast space to thrive.
In the past, cats and dogs worked for people. People would go to cat cafes and dog bars, order a drink and a bowl of pasta, and get unlimited petting of cats and dogs. But this created a lot of problems: taking care of the animals was troublesome, the food couldn't be sold at a good price, and there were too few repeat customers.
In the end, the number of animals in the cat cafe often increases and becomes more and more bizarre: alpacas, lambs, ducks, the store is almost turning into a zoo in a shopping mall.
Clever business owners have already found another way: instead of continuing to get involved, I'll go work for the puppy first.
