The economy slides rapidly towards collapse: what could you do? $1.5 dinner: Post-95s save money too

this is a wedding banquet in a rural Village in a central province of China a large pot of food was snatched up in less than a minute in a country where food is plentiful such a scene would be unimaginable but China is no longer the same food has become very valuable in some poor areas no no no no no no no no no look at this it's a mall in a second tier City in a Southern Province where there is a promotion people are crowding up the escalator afraid that if they are left behind they won't be able to get the sale items Behind these unsettly actions lies the misery and fear of the Chinese people the real estate crisis overlaid with the repeated lockdowns against covid-19 outbreaks has slowed down or even halted economic growth in many places the government is incapable of tackling it and there is no comprehensive unemployment insurance program in China without any Social Security the majority of Chinese people have to help themselves of course the Communist Elite the top wealthy people have no need to be concerned about this issue as the nation's treasury serves as their pocketbook yet for most Chinese the most important way to self-preservation is to downgrade spending and cut back as much as possible as they have realized that this is just the beginning China's economy will continue to decline and it can't be stopped even for those in the upper income brackets their spending patterns are changing buyers of China's luxury goods Market worth 74 billion US Dollars used to buy only new products not used ones not so anymore Shoppers in a downtown Shanghai store walk past rows of shelves displaying a wide array of handbags shoes and accessories ready to find something that catches their eye yet this is no regular store it is a space dual functioning as a warehouse and shop for second-hand luxury goods Marketplace zzer a year ago a shopping trip for this lady would have usually involved standing in queues at the glitzy Flagship stores of Brands such as Louis Vuitton and Gucci in Shanghai in search of the latest season luxury bag but these days the office worker is exploring buying second-hand luxury products given the economic climate consumption will be downgraded as someone who is a corporate slave my consumption will definitely be downgraded this year but I still like what I like and I can control the desire to buy it so I think this kind of platform with secondhand Goods is particularly good mainly because there are a lot of goods here what attracts me is there are plenty of goods here and there isn't any salesperson following me around so if I like an item I will just get it straight away [Music] my desire for material Goods is reduced I mean if you could wear your pajamas for three months at home during covert lockdown so for example now I can go out with the 10 Yuen or a dollar 40 cents canvas bag I feel like everything can be simplified oh God z z e r is banking on sentiments like the lady before for growth the company which started as an online platform in 2016 began opening offline stores in Shanghai and Chengdu in 2021 and is now looking for more shop space in Beijing Guangzhou in Shenzhen the 33 year old former venture capitalist is seeing a surge in people looking to sell their Hermes birken bags or Rolex watches to raise cash as well as a jump in interest from belt tightening shoppers as the economy goes down the buyers are looking for better and higher cost effective ways to buy Goods so they will look for goods that are more cost efficient then they will discover that buying resale is a really good way to get into it the economic slowdown has indeed had some positive effects on our industry on the one hand on the consigner side because the economy has slowed down they will think why not sell the luxury goods sitting idle at home a luxury the goods natural eye to show man he said the number of zzers consigners or people putting up their goods for sale has soared 40 percent so far in 2022 over the same period last year the platform now has 12 million members and expects to sell 5 million luxury pieces this year it could have ramifications for the China focused strategies of the world's big luxury goods makers who are grappling with softening demand in the key Market in terms of the consumption side I'm not sure that it has really changed too much in terms of the consumption Habits Like I think it's still Niche it's still growing it still has room and potential for more um but you know overall the high-end Market in China is still expected to grow whether that's resale or new luxury I'd just say that maybe the middle class younger Generations or perhaps not buying new luxury as much in this moment of you know being more measured about their pockets China's second-hand luxury Market is tipped to grow to 30 billion US dollars in 2025 from 8 billion in 2020 consultancy eye research said last year new estimates from this year are yet to be released besides zver other top platforms are local names such as feiyu Pon who and Plum each of them Drew tens of billions of dollars in Venture Capital funds in 2020 and 2021 with an eye to improving authentication practices widening customer reach and in some cases moving from online only to online offline models though handbags Remain the top selling category on luxury platforms like ZZ ER its founder says sales of watches and jewelry are also growing fast while a nylon Prada messenger or Fendi baguette bag sells for 30 to 40 percent less on resale platforms than in luxury boutiques some products have seen the price Gap widen further as more consigners rush to sell goods online for more common Working Class People their spending concept has become more conservative and they won't be moved by Secondhand luxury goods at a reduced price this is an obvious sign because in China luxury goods are not only Commodities they are also important tools for social occasions and important instruments for saving phase but in front of the Practical reality these considerations have taken second place enough because the economic situation is not so good after the epidemic and the uncertainty level of The Future Has Rising I will prefer consumption that is more practical so I will save more and spend less on luxury goods according to Chinese media reports as early as 2020 when the epidemic began white collar workers in affluent cities like Hangzhou were already opting for lunches that cost 10 REM and b or about 150 in US dollars a piece previously their standard was at least twice or three times that price on the Chinese website jerhu a Mainland Chinese question and answer website someone wrote five US Dollars and 50 cents for a bowl of noodles the white collars can't afford as white-collar workers struggle to make ends meet in 2022 their incomes are worse than before so even dinner is showing the same Trend the topic on jerhu has also changed to with only one US dollar and 20 cents on hand how can white-collar workers make lunch and dinner a woman in her 20s in Hangzhou has posted more than 100 videos on social media on how to make dinners for 1.50 in US Dollars gaining hundreds of thousands of followers many others are posting videos of Chinese dishes or dinner ideas that cost no more than one dollar fifty cents at the same time encouraging themselves to hold on a little longer a girl surnamed Yang who claims to have been deep in credit card debt before the epidemic started a low spending research group on the doe band website with more than 150 000 members her ways to save money include no more Starbucks coffee no more French Cosmetics selling clothes at secondhand stores Etc if you look at China's social media such as xiaohongshu or Billy Billy you will see a plethora of ways to save money a recent article on the internet in China titled young people born in and after 1995 in first tier cities are tightening their belts to get by describes the lives of those born after 1995. it says that young people born after 1995 usually grow up with a lot of allowance from their parents only to find out after they enter the workplace that they have very little money left from their original salary after deducting expenses such as rent transportation and meals the article describes a girl who bought down jackets in Reverse in August in order to save electricity water and internet charges she stayed in the company until 9 pm every day her cell phone memo contains discount strategies for many supermarkets she only buys second-hand goods and stays at home during holidays a young man's company has been losing money for three years in a row and he hasn't received any salary for six months he said the epidemic has made him realize the extreme importance of savings now he keeps his food cost at one US dollar and 50 cents per meal young people's frugality will pose a threat to China's sluggish economy which grew at a near recession rate of 0.4 percent of GDP in the second quarter young people are experiencing a sense of insecurity and uncertainty that they have never experienced before mainly due to difficulties in finding jobs and downward pressure on the economy foreign now how difficult is it to find a job I'm a graduate of an overseas University I am now in Chengdu I've been looking for work for three months but haven't found anything 10 jobs and 10 failures nine of these 10 jobs are sales positions the remaining one is actually a sales position but it doesn't say it out loud in its hiring post I don't know what to do there's really no work I went to apply for a job as a security guard they said I had too much education that I might leave it after two months of work I then went to apply for a professional job I studied electronic computer engineering I was told I had no work experience and needed at least two or three years of work experience I'm at my Wit's End where should I go I contacted the crematorium the funeral home but they said they were full they don't need me my gosh it's been really tough to find a job I'm a graduate student from one of the Qs world top 100 universities it's been nearly three years since China implemented strict epidemic control measures as it drags on all sectors are deteriorating rapidly in major first-tier cities such as Beijing and Shanghai it has become impossible to hide the weak economy Street in Beijing another store has closed down it's a KFC I never thought that KFC a world famous company couldn't survive on chenman Street this spot was closed down less than a week ago last month there was a Ching Fung balza store a famous balza restaurant closed now it's a KFC although there is no sign-on we can still see the red color from the old days the store was quite large so sad it isn't easy so sad it isn't easy let me show you the surroundings there is a total of four stores three of them have closed down leaving only one big tea shop I don't know if it can hold on the situation isn't good it's bad look at this tea shop it's not doing well it's empty inside only the owner himself is here to sip tea moving on this is the east side of the street you can see it's the same two of the three stores in front of us are closed this is on beijing's chinman Street a famous pedestrian street for shopping and sightseeing it isn't easy to keep the stores open although they introduced a lot of traditional brand stores after a period of time they went down one after another the new brand stores have come and gone one after another two this is the century-old famous Commercial Street Beijing chinman Street I don't know when it will be able to restore its previous prosperity in the coastal manufacturing plans the feeling is almost disastrous the bosses are having a hard time and workers are already worried about survival in times of economic downturn people at the bottom of society are feeling even more pressure now so many machines are down no foreign trade orders you see only a little bit of sample garments we just took a few pieces of garments to work on there is not much work nothing to do now we don't feel good the last foreign trade orders are suspended client said pause and have suspended their orders just now I went to see the factory it isn't busy there isn't much to do it's just the boss and his wife sitting there by themselves not even a single worker there it feels like a bad year all Industries feel like this my friend said that his Factory was going to have a three-month holiday alas I really don't know what to do I only have very little money to live on I haven't worked overtime for several nights now I wasn't needed to work overtime for three nights a week and I am not needed to work on overtime on Sundays either our income is seriously reduced as a result let me show you what our plant is like once upon a time our Factory was ranked the first or second largest Enterprise in the whole town of changan we work 365 days a year and couldn't take a day off for the Chinese New Year what has happened to the Glorious times our Factory hasn't got too many orders those International orders are affected by the environment so compared to previous years we are a bit slower see this compression Workshop only one stop operating the machine this is a compression machine a row of machines isn't on working overtime has become difficult because the company needs to consider the cost now I can only make about 430 US dollars a month it's really difficult living expenses are big the cost of living is so high prices are rising even rice flour is rising how can we live huh the life of workers is really tough huh does the CCP have any better ways to revitalize the economy Chinese Premier League who is in charge of the economy introduced the concept of flexible employment a few years ago it's actually a disguised term for unemployment in March 2021 he said that flexible employment in China involved more than 200 million people back in May 2020 one of the premier's proposals was to let people in flexible status work as Street vendors as a result there was a fever for Street vendors in many parts of China but soon Street stalls were shut down in major cities at the time the Beijing daily quoted that people in charge of the municipal departments stressed that a Street full of Street vendors in Beijing wouldn't be conducive to building a good image of the capital in the country in September of this year it was probably because the economy couldn't hold out anymore that the street vendor economy returned to Shanghai first on September 22nd this year the newly amended regulations on the management of urban environment and health in Shanghai amended the previous total ban on street vendor operation to stipulate that while no unauthorized occupation of public places for peddling is allowed certain public areas can be designated for street vendor operation activities see nowadays in Shanghai not only have the Chinese people started street vendor businesses but foreigners have joined them as well for various reasons prices in China are soaring like crazy what does the Beijing government do to control inflation it can't raise interest rates because the Communist party still wants to stimulate the economy by cutting them in the first eight months of 2022 Chinese households have added 10.8 trillion remnb in Bank savings up from 6.4 trillion remnb in the same period last year large state-owned Banks cut interest rates on personal deposits on September 15th this year in an attempt to discourage savings and boost spending globally China is the only major economy to lower interest rates this year to boost economic growth what the government can do then is to pass on the increased costs to the people who run small businesses one way to do this could be to issue astronomical fines to vendors who increase their prices attention everyone attention all businesses if you dare to raise prices I will make you lose all your money attention all businesses if you dare to raise prices I will make you lose all your money those at the lowest levels of society in China have few channels to make their voices heard as the Communist Party celebrates its achievements over the 73 years of its regime depressing scenes showed that the so-called achievements and joys of the party have nothing to do with them foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music]