One hundred thousand taels of silver seemed like a lot, but after spending a little here and there, there was actually nothing left.
Bai Wanyi was very frugal and didn't even have time to replace the people in his yard. He plunged into the shop and tried to find ways to make money.
Naturally, you have to open a glass workshop first. This does not require a shop, just find a farm and set aside some space.
As for the craftsman, Lu Yan knew Craftsman Li, who was very envious of Wuxiang Liuli. Now that someone was supporting him in making Liuli with money, he naturally agreed and moved into the Lu family's newly built Liuli workshop with his apprentice and a few friends.
Colored glaze cannot be made in a short time, and now he has to find a way to make quick money. Bai Wanyi took back the two adjacent shops he had.
The original tenants were driven out, and after the two shops were renovated, one sold milk tea and the other sold dim sum.
These two shops were Lu Yan's mother's dowry and fell into her hands. When she said she wanted to open a shop, Lu Yan had no choice but to agree. There were too many things to do and he was injured, so he could only leave everything to Bai Wanyi. As time went by, he actually forgot that the Queen wanted him to return the cloth.
Bai Wanyi had limited funds, and he originally wanted to decorate the two shops as luxuriously as possible so that he could only do business with the powerful and wealthy. However, after budgeting it out, he would have to spend more than 10,000 taels of silver.
Bai Wanyi felt sorry for the money, but was confident in the recipe he had, so he reduced the ingredients as needed.
There are two styles, upper and lower. There is a counter below, and you can buy and leave.
The private room above also has a counter, but it is much more exquisite, with an open water bar. You can sit in front of the bar or sit somewhere else. She also used several kinds of flowers and trees to partition the private room. The shadowy atmosphere, coupled with the swing seats wrapped with flowers and vines, gives it a unique artistic conception.
The milk tea downstairs is sold for five, eight, or ten cents a cup. The cups are made of bamboo tubes, and when you drink it, you can taste the fragrance of bamboo.
The price of milk tea upstairs is ten times higher. It is served in sweet white porcelain cups with colorful straws and decorated with fruits or leaves on the rim, which looks particularly beautiful.
The dim sum shop next door was decorated in the same way, with a small path next to the counter on the first floor for the ladies to go upstairs to the private rooms to enjoy the food.
There are two shops. The dim sum shop is called Good Luck and the milk tea shop is called Shuangxi Tea House. The names convey the meaning of good luck and the shops are novel and unique. As soon as they opened, they attracted a lot of people.
In the first ten days, the turnover of the milk tea shop alone was more than one thousand taels of silver, and the dim sum shop sold even better, with a turnover of more than three thousand taels of silver.
The net profit was more than two thousand taels.
Bai Wanyi suddenly felt more confident. She planned to take back all the shops she had, including the shops in the Marquis' Mansion, and open a beauty shop, a hot pot restaurant, and an amusement park, providing a one-stop service for food, drink, and entertainment, so as to make money from everyone from women to children to the elderly.
Just when Bai Wanyi was getting ready to do something big, Qin Wan's four shops quietly opened half a street away.
Bai Wanyi opened two stores, and Qin Wan opened four.
Qin Wan's shop is similar to Bai Wanyi's. There is also a dim sum shop next to the milk tea shop. On the east side of the road is the milk tea shop Piaoxiangju and the dim sum shop Jinyingzi. They sell affordable milk tea and dim sum there, and the cheapest milk tea costs only one penny.
Luxi sells Yuchuan tea and honey fruit fragrance, and the cheapest milk tea they sell is 500 wen per cup, which is ten times the price of Bai Wanyi's shop.
The prices in the four shops are really different.
Qin Yan sat on the second floor of Yuchuan Tea with his beloved concubine Hengzhi. Looking across at the bustling crowds of people at Piaoxiangju, he felt a little worried. "You set Piaoxiangju prices so low, and it's so expensive here, how can you really make money? Who's going to come to your Yuchuan Tea? Aren't they all going across the street to buy those one-cent milk teas?"
"Don't try to squeeze the Bai family and end up losing money yourself. It's not worth it."
Qin Yan really thought that Qin Wan was just trying to compete with Bai Wanyi, so she did this. After all, apart from anything else, sugar is expensive. A cup of milk tea costs one penny, not to mention goat milk, cow milk, tea, etc., just the sugar alone will not make back the money.
Qin Wan looked at her with a smile and asked, "Don't mention you. I'm only asking Heng Zhi, who's beside you. If you were to go out, would you go to Piaoxiangju, or come to Yuchuan Tea? Or would you go to Shuangxi Tea House, which is half a block away?"
Heng Zhi said without hesitation, "In the past, I would have gone to Piaoxiangju to buy tea and snacks for a penny a cup, but now I'm a concubine of the Zheng family. My comings and goings represent the reputation of the Zheng family. Even if I don't have enough money, I can't go next door. I'd rather come here and spend 500 coins for a cup of tea. At the very least, I'd ask for a free glass of water. Isn't Miss Qin going to give it to me?"
"Of course I will." Qin Wan nodded and looked at Qin Yan again: "Third sister, think about it, if you go out, which house will you go to?"
Qin Yan is not short of money, so why would he buy milk tea for only one penny per cup?
As a lady from a wealthy family, with countless servants and attendants when she went out, there was no need for her to squeeze with ordinary people and compete for a cup of milk tea that cost only a penny.
After Qin Yan figured it out, she smiled and said, "No wonder you set the price so high. You're not worried about lack of customers. Her Bai's shop is crowded right now because there hasn't been a shop like yours. Now that there is one, they won't rush to squeeze in."
The Shuangxi Tea House is actually not that big. There is a counter downstairs and a path has to be left next to it leading to the upstairs, so there is not much space left.
Nowadays, which rich lady or lady goes out without some servants?
When the young ladies go upstairs to have tea, they need at least four people to serve them. There is not enough space upstairs in Shuangxi Tea House, so the maids and servants can only wait outside and cannot serve them personally. How can the young ladies, who are used to being served, bear this injustice?
However, Yuchuan Tea House is different. The upstairs and downstairs are spacious. The downstairs is for the servants to rest, and there are private rooms and lobbies upstairs. It is very convenient for the ladies to ask someone to serve them.
Bai Wanyi was busy planning a new store and thinking of new recipes. She didn't even have time to take care of the injured Lu Yan. She didn't even know that a new store had opened half a street away. By the time she found out, more than half a month had passed. Lu Yan's injury had healed, and Shuangxi Tea House and Haoyunlai had submitted their revenue books for this month.
The account book was formatted according to Bai Wanyi's habit, with records in Arabic numerals, and the accounts were clear and easy to read at a glance.
When Bai Wanyi saw that Shuangxi Teahouse's total turnover was only 3,000 taels of silver, but its actual profit was only 500 taels, he was obviously stunned: "Are you sure you have the account right? With such a large turnover, how can there only be 500 taels of silver in profit?"
Bai Wanyi took out the account book from Good Luck again. The dim sum shop had much better sales than the milk tea shop, but the profit was only a few hundred taels.
Bai Wanyi's face darkened immediately. "How do you manage things? The two shops have been open for ten days and the net profit has exceeded two thousand taels. How come it's only one thousand taels now?"
The two managers exchanged a glance, and the manager of Shuangxi Tea House spoke first: "Our milk tea was selling well, but then Piaoxiangju and Yuchuan Tea opened up on the street, and our sales dropped."
Bai Wanyi frowned, "That profit figure isn't right either. Logically, it should be around five thousand taels. Why is it decreasing instead of increasing?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
