Reporter Wang Yajie
A wall filled with small plastic particles costs more than 40,000 yuan.
In a Pindou studio in Beijing, transparent material boxes are lined up along the wall. There are shades of red, warm and cold pink, and each grid is labeled with a color number. Turning around the shelf next to it, blue, green and yellow are unfolded separately. From a distance, it looks like a color card. If you look closer, you can see that the box is filled with tiny spelled beans.
The picture shows Pindou Studio. Photo provided by interviewee.
This amount does not include the overall renovation of the store. Han Yanxin, the operator of the above-mentioned Pindou Studio, said that some colleagues can open a small store with 40,000 yuan. She put quite a bit of investment into this wall.
What customers take away may be just a few beans of a certain color number.
In a portrait of a character, the light and shade of the face need different colors to express it. For individual players, if they buy a whole pack of materials for a small piece of shadow, the rest may not be useful. In the store, if you are missing any color, you can continue to pick it up.
Consumers like Xiaoyu are calculating another account.
She is in no rush to finish her work. I picked the beans, compared the patterns, and placed them one by one. The afternoon passed. During the working day, news kept coming, and things always urged her to move forward. In front of the bean-making table, she could stop and daze for a while without having to explain her progress to anyone.
“If I could use one sentence to describe the consumption experience that Pindou brings to me, it would be quiet and a sense of accomplishment.” Xiaoyu said.
She was willing to pay for this time.
For shop owners, how to accommodate this “not in a hurry” and still be able to pay the next rent is another question.
The picture shows the work of Pindou Studio. Photo by Economic Observer reporter Wang Yajie.
一
The operation of Pindou is not complicated. Use tweezers to arrange the plastic beans of different colors on the template according to the pattern, and then iron them to make the beans stick to each other to form a removable work. A simple pendant can serve as a starting point, while a complex pattern can take days.
In Pindou Studio’s work display, anime characters were broken down into grids of colors. Someone only spelled out the character’s eyes, and the slender pieces were arranged in order, so that those who were familiar with them could recognize them at a glance. There are also complete avatars and cartoon pendants, and the expressions composed of pixels are still vivid.
The picture shows the finished products of Pindou in the Pindou Studio. Photo provided by interviewee.
The picture shows the finished products of Pindou in the Pindou Studio. Photo provided by interviewee.
Han Yanxin once received a customer who spent several days making a singing avatar of Joker Xue that was close to the size of a human head. During the concert, some people also came to buy the singer’s related peripherals. Photos of couples and pets at home can all be turned into patterns.
What the customer chooses is usually determined before picking up the tweezers, and then a long process of repeated actions is taken to make what they like bit by bit.
What Xiaoyu cares about happens to be this process.
One bean is placed incorrectly and needs to be adjusted. The colors are finely divided, so you have to be patient to distinguish them. She doesn’t need to compete with anyone, and she doesn’t expect the finished product to be perfect. Putting in a few hours and finally getting a small object that you can take away is complete in itself.
Han Yanxin said: “When I play beans, I don’t have to compete with anyone. If I want to go faster, I can go faster, and if I want to stop and daze, I can take a break.” In her opinion, it is not necessary to arrange a long trip during the holidays. It’s also worth spending an afternoon quietly. The finished product is certainly a delight, but if you just want to get a piece as quickly as possible, it’s hard to understand why anyone would sit around for so long.
This is also what’s special about this type of consumption. The customer personally undertakes the most time-consuming part of the production and uses it as an important reason to purchase the service.
二
Han Yanxin was a handicraft enthusiast before he opened his store.
I made bracelets when I was in school, and later came into contact with preserved flowers and glue. When I was single, my house was full of materials. After getting married, the living space needs to accommodate more uses, it is difficult to continue spreading materials, and some processes are not convenient to operate at home.
In April 2026, she founded a Pindou studio in Beijing. In addition to piecing together beans, the store also offers bean pod dolls, non-woven handicrafts, beads and other items. She judged that consumers’ interest in handicrafts has always existed, but they have new requirements for the environment and services to complete it.
Cross-stitch and diamond painting both took a lot of time. Today, customers expect materials to be readily available, tools to be easy to use, help when encountering difficulties, and final products to be closer to their expectations.
A bean is very cheap, but it requires investment to prepare all these conditions.
Han Yanxin said that there are different types of tweezers alone. Beans come in more colors, so when you buy them in sets, it’s easy to run into situations where one color isn’t enough and other colors are leftover. Making small pendants is manageable, but the more complex the pattern, the more obvious the burden of personal preparation of materials will be.
And the final ironing.
A customer may have spent hours, or even days, on a piece of work. At this point, the patience in front needs to be taken over by the operator. Temperature, time and processing methods will all affect the finished product. Han Yanxin said that the store masters more than 20 special ironing methods, and some methods even use the cage cloth used to steam the steamed buns.
Consumers are willing to slowly put out beans, but they may not be willing to re-research materials and processes. What the workshop undertakes is the preparation beyond these productions.
It also provides a place to stay. Come with friends and chat while doing it. Customers who come alone can have a single table similar to a school desk. They can wear headphones and do not have to participate in other people’s conversations.
Among the customers Han Yanxin receives, there are also some grandmothers who are responsible for accompanying him.
The grandchildren came to do their crafts while they waited nearby. Wait, wait, and start trying. Small pieces are made first, and then larger ones are made. The selected patterns include blessing characters, awakening lions, and Chinese-style flower window fans. Coasters and jewelry storage trays have all entered their production list.
From passing time with others to having something you want to accomplish, waiting has different contents.
三
Customers can slow down, but the store’s accounts cannot stop.
The person in charge of another Pindou restaurant Qi Qi said that the price per customer in the store is mostly between 45 yuan and 70 yuan, and there are both time-based items and unlimited set meals. Complex patterns and accessories require additional charges. About 70% of the people are young people in their twenties and white-collar workers, and many of them sit there for half a day.
On weekdays, the store receives about a dozen people a day. On weekends, National Day and other occasions, there can be 30 or 40 people, and you have to wait for a seat. But large numbers of people does not mean fast turnover, and long stays are exactly the characteristics of this business format.
The picture shows the finished product of Pindou based on Japanese animation. Photo by Economic Observer reporter Wang Yajie.
Han Yanxin’s Pindou Studio also has a similar difference between warm and cold. Han Yanxin said that during the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday that just passed, the passenger flow increased more than three times compared with normal times, and the seats were basically full. Working days are much lighter, and usually only capital can be maintained, mainly relying on holiday consumption to increase overall revenue.
She doesn’t agree with the statement that “little Pindou brings huge profits”. The initial investment in opening the store was more than 100,000 yuan, and the actual usable area is about 60 square meters. The rent and staff wages need to be paid on time. The store brought her some income, but it was far from an exaggerated return.
Even more thorny is price competition.
Qiqi noticed that there are more and more similar stores in the surrounding area, and some new stores use group purchases for 9.9 yuan to attract traffic. Many customers get a taste of the product after just one visit, and the store has to continue looking for the next batch of customers online.
The same table must not only allow people to sit on it, but also continue to generate income. Low prices attract customers, but the characteristics of occupying seats for a long time will not change.
The picture shows related materials for Pindou. Photo by Economic Observer reporter Wang Yajie.
Han Yanxin hopes to rely on materials and services to retain repeat customers, but this road also has difficulties. The difference in consumable quality is difficult for ordinary consumers to directly see. How much preparation the store has made for tools, colors and processes is not easy to explain clearly on a group purchase page.
The Internet has brought price comparisons and also brought customers. Han Yanxin’s Pindou Studio is not in a shopping mall. Han Yanxin admitted that without an online platform, the store would be difficult to discover.
Qiqi judged that the popularity of Pindou will not always remain at the current level, and it is more likely to become a regular handicraft project in the future. By relying solely on low prices and a single project, operating pressure will always exist.
Han Yanxin’s Pindou Studio originally prepared a variety of handicraft services. But right now, many customers have clear goals and want to buy beans when they come in. There is no time to introduce other items.
The heat brings people to the table. Whether they can come again depends on the end of this experience.
Xiaoyu is not distracted by this kind of industry judgment. To her, the reasons it was worth buying were specific. At work, she often needs to complete one thing quickly and then move on to the next. Once here, a few beans of similar colors can make her look at them carefully for a while.
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