The Free Noodle Shop Is Still Full, and the Neighbours Are Still Moving Out
The market regulator has ruled that Nanjing's free noodle shop is charity, not unfair competition — but the noodle shop next door still says it is losing customers and may have to move.
The Nanjing noodle shop where anyone in line can get a bowl of plain noodles for free has been a running argument on Chinese social media for two weeks now. The latest development: the market regulator has weighed in, ruling that the shop is doing charity, not unfair competition 零元面馆惹争议市监局称做慈善不违法.
The shop is one of two now in Nanjing, and the proprietor says he simply wants to do some good — one kind of plain noodle, open to anyone who comes in during business hours. A day worker who eats there says it is not just a food bank: one Weibo user put it, "有日结工称在零元面馆吃不用上班了" — day workers who eat there no longer need to work.
The neighbours are not reassured. The owner of a noodle shop a few storefronts away, which took over the shop in April this year, says the free noodle shop is hurting his business and the surrounding shops are losing customers. One shop owner said he was considering moving to avoid the competition from the free noodle shop nearby — and one Weibo user argued that the pattern is the one that Rockefeller used: "他的石油管道和成品油网点建到哪里，哪里的同行就撑不住，因为他完全是亏本经营，良心价里的良心价" — the pipeline and retail network built wherever competitors could not survive, because he ran at a loss, a "conscience price" inside a conscience price.
The market regulator's ruling has not settled the argument. The question that has been running since the first article on the shop — is a free noodle shop a kindness, a business strategy, or a problem that has no obvious consumer protection answer — is a question that cannot be answered by the market regulator's one line, and the shop itself is still full.