Creativity and Ingenuity on Show at Bread Festival

The Super Wonderful Bread Festival gathered over 150 bakeries from 50 Chinese cities in Minhang District, including Nanjing, Chongqing, Beijing and Shanghai.

It was held at the MixC Mall from March 12 to 15 for visitors to enjoy the creativity and ingenuity of local baking.

Bread enthusiasts, shoppers and local neighborhood members came together over the four-day fest; some even made a long journey to indulge themselves in the wide varieties of bread.

The event attracted 540,000 visitors, with 800,000 items sold and bread sales totaling 14.28 million yuan (US$2.09 million). The event also drove a 55 percent year-on-year increase in overall sales at the MixC Mall, with retail sales exceeding 60 million yuan.

Online trendy brands like Shanghai's "todos los dias" also made their appearance at this huge convening of bread connoisseurs.

The stalls were spread out in the outdoor space of the MixC Mall, with attractive offerings ranging from classic baguettes, rice bread and Japanese soft bread to scones, bagels and cakes, leaving visitors with a myriad of options.

Rabbit & Rose, a bakery in Xuxi of Shanghai's neighboring Jiangsu Province, sold out its offerings on the first day of the bazaar. Xu Chao, the owner, drove back immediately to replenish the stock and is considering opening a shop in Shanghai.

For many out-of-town brands, the greatest benefit of these past few days has been not just the sales figures but also a rare opportunity to gauge the market: why do consumers stop by and take a sip? Which flavors are they willing to queue for? Are they willing to make repeat purchases online after trying the products in-store? Answers to these questions become clear almost instantly through on-site observation.

At 11am on 14 March, on the street outside the MixC Mall, shoppers queued up at stalls that had only just opened. At some popular brands, shoppers had to queue for several hours.

On-site staff, volunteers from Hongqiao Town and support personnel, including cleaning staff and security guards, were stationed at various checkpoints in the neighborhood.

This kind of large-scale event serves as a case in point where local authorities, shopping malls and organizers joined hands to boost consumption through the integration of culture, commerce, tourism, sports and exhibitions.

Sun Jing, a resident from Shanghai's Putuo District, took two hours to reach the venue by Metro and bus. She lives on her own in Shanghai and attended last year's hamburger bazaar as well. For her, the appeal of such events lies not in stocking up on goods but in the lively atmosphere of "tasting and trying things out."

"I really like this sort of atmosphere; I don't necessarily have to buy a lot; I just want to browse and look around," she said.

Ms Gu, aged 48, had clearly done her homework. She had read through countless guides on social media and had a shopping list. "I'm a real foodie, so I simply had to come to such a lively bread festival, and surely I want to be fully prepared."

Organizers have made detailed plans to not only curate the event but also to form a favorable cycle for the shopping mall and the area as a whole.

An official of the MixC Mall said, "To complement the Bread Festival atmosphere, we have extended some of our in-mall beverage and dessert outlets to set up stalls outdoors, which brought back the event's footfall into the shopping center."

For the shopping center, this is more important than simply staging a "sell-out" event on the day. The footfall generated by the bread festival did not just stay at the outdoor areas but was partly channeled into the shopping center mall, creating a more complete consumer cycle.