Chapter 70 Chapter 70 "Li Gui" loses

It is easy for people to follow the trend when opening a fried chicken restaurant. Liu Mianmian guessed this from the beginning. After all, this thing seems to be quite simple. It is just marinating the meat, coating it with flour and frying it.

But in reality, the two renowned Western fast food chains have been able to remain viable for decades because of their core technologies, such as marinating seasonings and controlling oil temperature. The same ingredients, processed by different people, can taste vastly different.

Liu Mianmian naturally did not have the core technology of the two Western fast food restaurants in later generations, but in fact it was almost the same. It was a food blogger in later generations who verified the recipe after a whole year of persistent experiments. When the blogger announced the recipe, it became a hot topic.

As for oil temperature control, this is actually simpler than the seasoning formula. After all, there are so many snack stalls in the world, and after countless people have tried it, this is no longer a secret on the Internet.

Besides, there is no end to making money.

Nancheng is such a big city, let alone one or two fried chicken shops, I am afraid that opening ten or eight of them would not be a problem. Liu Mianmian is not in a hurry to expand, and thinks that since she has done it, she will try her best to do it well and build "Xiangzikou" into a good snack brand.

Of course, another reason is that it is too tiring to do it herself, which does not fit in with her plan of enjoying life, so she plans to look for a suitable partner and hand over this part of the business to the other party.

On a related note, while Liu Mianmian had anticipated that others would follow suit, she certainly hadn't anticipated their emergence so quickly. Furthermore, the stall's sign was still "Hutong Entrance Fried Chicken Stall," a clear copycat.

The fried chicken shop itself was opened not long ago, and the "Alley Mouth" brand has not yet become well-known. Now that a "Alley Mouth" has suddenly appeared, it is easy to confuse customers.

The most important thing is that it would be fine if the other party's food was of good quality and tasted good, but Liu Mianmian asked someone to buy one, and the taste was really very average. Not only was it too salty, but the meat was also very tough. If people were to confuse them, it would really affect the reputation of "Xiangzikou".

"The bad taste is one thing, and their ingredients don't seem to be that good either." Xu Haitang himself is a purchasing agent, so he naturally pays special attention to this aspect. The oil they use for frying is not very good, the flour seems to be bad flour, and the meat seems to be just average. Sometimes, if it's not sold out in one day, they will continue to sell it the next day or the day after.

Liu Mianmian leaned back in the recliner, thought for a moment, and said, "Even if it's cheaper, their stall won't be able to survive. There's really no competition, but it's easy for them to discredit us. We should try to establish our own brand. Find newspapers and radio stations to advertise. Keep the slogan simple, like "For fried chicken, eat at the alley entrance, alley entrance fried chicken, the only authentic Western-style fried chicken." Repeat it at least three times. Think about it carefully and get started as soon as possible."

Although this kind of repetitive bombardment of advertising is annoying, it is undeniable that it is the easiest way to increase brand awareness.

Liu Mianmian has a deep understanding of this. Although she had never bought certain products in her previous life, she was so impressed by the other party's pervasive and repetitive advertisements that she would probably never forget them even if she traveled through time again.

Xu Haitang's eyes lit up, and he took the initiative to say, "Then I'll discuss it with Wu Heng. We can go to his dance hall to promote it again. The promotion effect of the western restaurant last time was very good. He even found someone to learn the dance from us and performed it in the dance hall every day."

No matter how beautiful a dance performance is, it will naturally become useless after a long time. Wu Heng was a smart man and quickly found someone to choreograph a few more dances. Although the performance was not as good as the dance in the Western restaurant, it did increase the number of customers in the dance hall.

There are dances every night anyway, so it would be nice to compose a dance related to fried chicken and perform it. Liu Mianmian agreed to Xu Haitang's suggestion.

But she was actually a little surprised. Xu Haitang didn't even call Wu Heng "Boss Wu", but called him by his name. When did the relationship between these two people become so good?

Of course, this is Xu Haitang's private matter. Although Liu Mianmian is curious, she will not ask.

The two discussed it and Xu Haitang left soon. She did not delay and went to the newspaper office and radio station immediately.

At that time, people were not very aware of advertising, but the editor-in-chief of Nancheng Evening News was a smart guy. He started to open advertising space in the newspaper a few years ago, and later the radio station also started to have advertising time slots, so it was still easy to advertise.

Before opening the clothing store, Liu Mianmian had never thought about advertising. After all, the clothes were not produced by them, and there was no brand effect, so there was no need.

As an old western restaurant in Nancheng, Zhijiang West Restaurant has a certain degree of fame, so there is naturally no need to advertise in newspapers or on the radio.

As for the fried chicken shop, Liu Mianmian wants to build a brand, so it is very suitable to use advertising to quickly increase its popularity.

If there hadn't been a "fake", Liu Mianmian would have actually preferred to open a few branches and slowly build up the brand. But now she has changed her mind and decided to just open it directly, and the number of branches can also be increased.

Liu Mianmian was just thinking when she saw Aunt Liu walking into the yard angrily.

"What's wrong?" Liu Mianmian asked curiously. Aunt Liu was a good-tempered person and it was rare to see her like this.

Aunt Liu was so angry that her hair almost stood up: "I know who that damn alley entrance is!"

Liu Mianmian sat up straighter: "Oh?"

To be honest, she was a little curious. She was curious about who was so shameless and made such terrible food.

Seeing Aunt Liu like this, she must be someone they know. Considering that the stall was set up at the intersection of Maoer Hutong, Liu Mianmian couldn't help but have a wild imagination: "Could it be someone from the Sun family?"

But then I thought about it, and it didn't make sense. The Sun family was either working, taking care of the kids, or drinking and messing around. No one had the time for this. Besides, I'd seen a lot of people at that stall before, but no one knew them. If they did, the news would have spread long ago.

Aunt Liu pulled a stool and sat down, then she said, "Oh my, I'm so angry! That young man is Lao Cao's nephew, and the one working with him is his girlfriend. Lao Cao is such a shameless guy! She's helping us here and learned how to marinate chicken and coat it in flour. She must have taught her nephew that."

In fact, if you learned it secretly and found another place to do this business secretly, no one would say anything.

But the disgusting thing is that not only did they steal the skills of the fried chicken shop, they also set up their stall near the fried chicken shop and gave it a name that was ambiguous. Even the people who looked after the stall had to imitate the fried chicken shop and hired two young people, a man and a woman. Aren't they just deliberately imitating others to gain fame?

Aunt Liu was so angry that she was gasping for breath. Liu Mianmian came to comfort her, "If we ask for help, we have to take the risk. But they've only learned the basics. They're not good enough. With their level, the stall won't last long."

Setting up a stall also costs money. The push-pull tricycle and the customized stove all cost money. If the stall really fails, Aunt Cao's nephew will probably blame her for coming up with such a bad idea.

If it didn't affect the reputation of the fried chicken shop, Liu Mianmian would not have bothered to pay attention to such a competitor.

However, it was said before that Aunt Cao had changed, but now it seems that she can't change her ways. After she did this, I guess her old sisters will no longer like her. At least Aunt Liu wants to tear her apart.

Xu Haitang acted very quickly. The advertisements appeared on the radio and in newspapers the next day. Then within three days, Liu Mianmian heard the naughty kids in the alley memorizing the advertising slogans.

"The fried chicken shop at the entrance of the alley, authentic fried chicken, authentic fried chicken, only at the entrance of the alley."

"Eat chicken only at the alley entrance, eat chicken only at the alley entrance, eat chicken only at the alley entrance..."

Some kids who were so eager to buy cheap fried chicken at the alley entrance that they changed the advertising slogan: "I only eat chicken at the alley entrance. The chicken at the end of the alley is not good, and the chicken at the alley entrance is even worse. The fried chicken at the alley entrance is terrible, terrible, really terrible."

As a result, "Hutongkou fried chicken is so bad, so bad, so bad" soon became a catchy saying among the naughty kids in the neighborhood.

But Aunt Cao was very angry.

Two days later, when Aunt Liu mentioned this matter again, she was smiling.

"You didn't see that Lao Cao's face was all scratched by his niece-in-law. She complained that the recipe she gave was bad and said that the rhyme about fried chicken being unpalatable was made up by Lao Cao and that she had bad intentions."

Actually, Aunt Cao heard the kids yelling in the alley and chased them for two blocks with a broken broom. Then the kids ran to Maoer Hutong and yelled at the fried chicken stall, saying it was unpalatable. When the young man who was running the stall scolded them, they deliberately said that it was Aunt Cao who said that.

Therefore, the destructive power of naughty children is sometimes hard to guard against.

Aunt Cao's nephew was not a quiet and hardworking person. He was spoiled by his family and was afraid of hard work. It was Aunt Cao who said that Liu Mianmian's fried chicken shop could earn hundreds of dollars a day, which stimulated him to want to become rich.

As a result, I really did it. The first few days were fine and I did earn one or two hundred yuan. But things got worse and worse afterwards. Recently, I can only earn twenty or thirty yuan a day.

Actually, earning twenty or thirty yuan a day is pretty good these days. But for those who earn one or two hundred yuan a day and aim to earn hundreds of yuan a day, how can they care about these twenty or thirty yuan?

So instead of feeling grateful to Aunt Cao, I started to blame her, thinking that she was unreliable, that the business she introduced didn't make much money, and that she worked tirelessly every day.

Now they heard that Aunt Cao was mocking their fried chicken behind their backs, saying it was bad. Wouldn’t these two people, who already had bad tempers, be even angrier?

So when Aunt Cao spent a lot of time and effort to make stewed meat for her nephew and sent it to him, her nephew spoke harshly to her. His girlfriend even started to fight and scratched her face after a disagreement.

Now, Aunt Cao is in a difficult situation.

In this matter, the person who was the most angry was Aunt Cao's son. It was not until this time that he realized the immoral things his mother had done.

Shen Weizhuo's wife is such a generous person. She always asks her neighbors to help with any work in the store and pays them very high wages.

His mother is so good. She earns other people's money while secretly learning other people's skills. Then she turns around and lets her nephew come here to set up a stall and steal business. Is this what a human being would do?

What’s even more infuriating is that his mother was wholeheartedly thinking about her nephew, but his cousin blamed his mother and even beat her up.

Aunt Cao's son was so angry that he ordered his mother not to see her cousin anymore or go out to work anymore. She should stay at home honestly, otherwise he would send her back to her hometown.

Aunt Cao’s son is Pan Hua. He and his wife are both from the street. They are very busy with work and don’t really take care of their mother. I used to think that their mother was just a little talkative, nosy, and unpopular. It wasn’t until this incident that I realized it was more than that!

As neighbors for many years, Pan Hua naturally understood the Shen family's situation. Even if they couldn't maintain a good relationship, at least they couldn't make enemies with such a family, right? So he quickly brought some things and went to apologize.

Liu Mianmian had met Pan Hua several times in the alley. Pan Hua was a warm and talkative person. Liu Mianmian only just found out that he was actually Aunt Cao's son.

How should I put it, I feel quite sympathetic.

Pan Hua said helplessly, "I also talked to my cousin before coming here. I wanted to persuade him not to set up a stall, or to move it somewhere else. However, my cousin is usually spoiled at home, and he doesn't really listen to others..."

Liu Mianmian understood immediately, but she just didn't listen to the advice. Maybe she even scolded Pan Hua instead.

She waved her hand and smiled, "It's okay. He's him, and you're you. He's an adult, and you can't make decisions for him. Besides, his business doesn't really affect me. But it might be a bit risky for him to continue."

Pan Hua shook his head and sighed, "I really can't control him."

Since no one cared about the stall, Pan Hua stopped talking and turned to the topic of renting a place: "I heard you were looking for a shop. My wife and I both work in the street office. I work in Puchuan Street and she works in Quanlin Street. We both have some shops for rent. If you're interested, we can take you to have a look."

This is a pleasant surprise.

Liu Mianmian was planning to open a few more fried chicken restaurants, so she said, "If it's convenient for you, I'll come to see you in the next two days."

Pan Hua smiled and said, "It's convenient. Besides, renting out a house is the job of the street office."

Liu Mianmian did not delay and went to the street office to find Pan Hua the next day. She rented a shop diagonally opposite Puchuan Middle School, and then went to Pan Hua's wife's workplace. She didn't find any shop suitable for a fried chicken shop there, but there was a shop suitable for a clothing store, so she rented that too.

In the following time, Liu Mianmian decorated the shops while recruiting people. The recruits first helped in the western restaurant and fried chicken shop. When the shops were renovated one after another, several stores opened at the same time.

Just one day before the new fried chicken shop opened, something happened at the fried chicken stall at the entrance of the alley.

A child from a nearby alley bought a large chicken drumstick from one of their stalls. Shortly after eating it, he began vomiting and having diarrhea, running cold, and was rushed to the hospital. The doctor diagnosed the child with ingesting something unhealthy. Once the child's condition stabilized, the parents naturally approached the stall to demand an explanation, but the stall owner denied any involvement.

The child's parents were not easy to deal with. They reported the case early and kept a series of evidence including the child's vomit, hospital test reports, etc. Then Aunt Cao's nephew was taken away.

It didn't take long for the police to figure out that the fried chicken stall at the entrance of the alley had been operating poorly, and the ingredients had been stored for too long and spoiled, leading to food poisoning after the child ate them. Not only did Aunt Cao's nephew have to compensate the other party for their losses, he was also administratively detained, and of course, the fried chicken stall was also shut down and can no longer operate.

It can be said that after working hard for two months, they not only did not make any money, but even lost money.

Liu Mianmian heard about this matter and didn't care about it anymore because the new store was opening and she had to go there in person to take care of it.

The previous advertisement was only published in the newspaper for one week, but the radio station directly bought the time slot for a whole year.

After a period of relentless broadcasting, the slogan "Eat Chicken at the Alley" has become a familiar one among the citizens of Nancheng. Therefore, when a new store opens, the queues are even longer than those at the old one.

Several stores here opened at the same time, and Liu Anmin, who rushed to Guangzhou after the New Year, also called. The new wholesale market in Guangzhou has been decided and will officially open on May 1st.

Because she opened a few more stores, the money she had originally intended to use to buy a stall in the wholesale market was a little insufficient. Liu Mianmian was considering whether to cash out some of the Gangcheng stocks first. Yu Guoliang also called and said that he was going to remit the first quarter's dividend to her.

Liu Mianmian did the math and found that it just filled the funding gap.

So, investing is really good. Investment will bring returns. When you are short of money, money will come to you on its own wings.