Chapter 22 022 Restaurant Review [Second Update]
Yang Tao handed the business card to Wen's mother, and was furious.
Wen's mother was also considering confronting Sun Mengyun. If making the same dishes wasn't a big deal, then copying the business cards was clearly a deliberate attempt to mislead people!
By evening, Wen's mother had fully witnessed Sun Mengyun's shamelessness.
My shop is located inside. Although there is an intersection next to it, if you go further in, it's the back gate of a nearby residential area. Not many people come and go normally; most people come from the other side.
Sun Mengyun took advantage of the free time, standing at the door with a smile, trying to attract customers.
"New store opening! Braised dishes are twelve yuan, cold dishes are eight yuan!"
Although this didn't attract many people, it still disgusted people.
Yang Hong was direct; when she found Wen's mother, she asked, "Aren't you going to slap her?"
I've never seen anything like it!
In other words, Sun Mengyun's house is not hers. Otherwise, it would be her tenant, and she would rather pay her back than let her rent it. She doesn't care about lowering her standards when she does things.
Wen's mother shrugged: "Who knew she would be like this?"
They'll go down a path to the very end without ever turning back.
Having seen it all before, Yang Hong sneered, "This guy is just being a scoundrel."
When she was little, there was a shop near her house that made delicious xiaolongbao (soup dumplings), and all the residents in the neighborhood loved them. Later, another shop opened up, also making xiaolongbao, right next to the first shop, and charged 50 cents less per basket, trying to piggyback on the first shop's fame. The first shop was furious, but there was nothing they could do; the second shop didn't cause trouble or get jealous, so they just kept piggybacking on the first shop's reputation.
They kept doing this for five or six years until that family went bankrupt, but they had already made a lot of money. The old man from the first family was so angry that he had a stroke.
Mother Wen: "Then what should we do? How about we change the signboard?"
Wen Fan held a cup of coconut mango tea and took a big gulp.
She recently discovered a new world: cola has become second only to all kinds of milk tea.
Wen Fan never imagined that people nowadays could create such wonderful tea experiences. These sweet little drinks immediately won over her taste buds.
"So, if she keeps pushing us to change it, should we still make any changes?"
Sun Mengyun is truly capable of doing such a thing.
"That……"
Wen Fan finished his drink and, still feeling unsatisfied, threw it into the trash can.
Mr. Wen hesitated and said, "Shall we run some advertisements?"
Yang Hong: "That's all we can do. Let's find a few local food bloggers to promote the storefront and help people recognize it."
Wen's mother never expected things to escalate to this point. Sun Mengyun seemed to have lost all interest in how much money she was making; she was simply acting out of spite. If she had done the math, she would have known that continuing like this would definitely not earn her as much as making rice noodles.
How do I find food review bloggers?
Yang Tao raised his hand: "Me! Me! I'm interested in a few local ones!"
Yang Tao took out his phone and started searching. There were big and small local food bloggers. The big ones were too expensive, but there was one small one that Yang Tao particularly liked.
He is a young man known for his large appetite.
He started by doing mukbang (eating broadcasts) featuring big eaters, but later the platform started limiting his viewership, so he switched to exploring local restaurants.
However, this person eats a lot and quickly, making it easy for them to perceive the food as particularly delicious and giving them a good appetite.
Yang Tao pointed to a line of text below the other person's name: "The email address is here!"
After a moment's hesitation, Wen's mother said, "Maybe we should wait a little longer."
Seeking publicity is a common tactic, but Wen's mother always felt frustrated.
Why should I?!
As the party being counterfeited, why should they have to spend money to find promotion?
This money is hard to come by.
...
When the evening came and the business was tallied up, the store's business hadn't declined much. Although there were two fewer set meals, there were three new customers, all introduced by acquaintances.
Several guests went to the wrong place for dinner, but were quickly called back by their companions.
"Are you stupid? I told you it's the one at the very end! There's this little shop right next door, look at the storefront!"
The person who went to the wrong place scratched his head: "The sign is too similar. Besides, the owner was unethical; he didn't even tell us we went to the wrong place."
Sun Mengyun was hoping to grab as many deals as possible, but most of the Wen family's business came from referrals from regular customers or from online marketing by Yang Tao, and none of them were stopped.
Wen's mother closed the notebook: "It's alright, it basically had no impact."
Since it doesn't have any impact, let's just let Sun Mengyun do whatever she wants and see what kind of trouble she can cause.
Yang Tao said that Sun Mengyun also followed her example and served drinks, and even gave a bottle of mineral water with each lunch set meal in order to attract new customers.
This would increase the cost.
I don't know what she's after.
What's the point?
Wu Daneng also asked.
One night, the shop only had two customers.
They all went to the wrong place, ate only a couple of bites, and then went to the Wen family's house to eat.
A large pot of braised dishes that I made at noon are now soaking in the pot, and even some of the lunch food is left over because I didn't control the quantity well.
Sun Mengyun scolded him in a shrill voice for wasting things. Wu Daneng was already feeling wronged, and upon hearing this, his lips trembled with anger.
"I've already told you I don't make set meals!"
"Then learn it! And the braised dishes, what are you making?! I don't even want to eat them, do you think anyone will buy them?"
Sun Mengyun was also suppressing her anger. After delivering the lunch sets, three people messaged her privately, saying that the food had been delivered but smelled bad and demanding compensation. A dozen or so others remained completely silent tonight, clearly indicating they wouldn't be ordering tomorrow.
Sun Mengyun wanted to argue back at those who wanted to pay compensation, but she didn't dare.
Now that we've lost the rice noodle business, how will we survive if we lose the set meal business as well?
So after finding out the details, she paid compensation and went back to the store to give Wu Daneng a good scolding.
"Didn't you know to cover the food with a cloth when you delivered it? It's been so sunny all the way here, and you just put the food in a transparent box and let it sit for half an hour before it was still edible?"
Wu Daneng let his wife scold him, but Sun Mengyun's anxiety and fear were not going to subside so easily. She also realized that changing the product did not seem to be so easy.
The price of ten yuan is too low; the profit is small, so we have to cut costs bit by bit.
As a result, even after selling all day, the store still has the same amount of stock left.
The braised food can barely last another day, but what about the regular meals?
Sun Mengyun cursed and threw the things away, her heart bleeding.
"Alright, you don't need to cook anything for tomorrow. Just those braised dishes, chop them up and add some greens."
Sun Mengyun is carefree; she braised too much today, leaving a whole pot of leftover chicken wings, drumsticks, and pig's trotters soaking in the broth.
"They got off too easy. We'll just add it to tomorrow's meal."
Sun Mengyun felt that adding a portion of the cost of braised food was not excessive at all, given how high the cost of braised food was.
But when she posted this in the group, the group fell silent.
That evening, Sun Mengyun counted and found that only fifty-odd people had made reservations.
Some people even left the group, clearly indicating they would never visit again.
Sun Mengyun then turned her attention to cursing those people.
"They can't even spare a single penny, what a bunch of poor bastards!"
That's why people say you shouldn't work for poor people; the pay is low and the work is complicated!
"Fine, don't eat then! I don't want to be served anyway!"
No matter what she said, Sun Mengyun couldn't help but feel uneasy.
If it doesn't work out...
She shook her head. "There's no way we can't do it!"
This is just the beginning. As long as she perseveres and the Wen family restaurant does even better business, how could she not find customers?
Sun Mengyun started a food delivery business the very next day.
Unlike Wen's mother, Sun Mengyun immediately bought a week's worth of promotional items from the new store.
Following the example of the Wen family, Sun Mengyun took a picture of the storefront as her shop image, but she cleverly removed one character from the image.
Only half of the character "吴" was visible, and it looked almost exactly the same as Wen's mother's shop.
The next day, Sun Mengyun also bought noodles and cooked two pots of rice, and started selling rice and noodles with toppings.
It has to be said that she found a solution; the Wen family's store delivery service was actually their weakest point. Business had improved somewhat recently, but it was still only around twenty orders a day.
On her first day of delivering food, Sun Mengyun received more than 30 orders by noon.
Sun Mengyun shoved the phone in front of her husband's face: "Look, look, what did I tell you!"
As long as you have a direction, you have nothing to fear.
Since we've already started, let's keep going!
She checked the takeout shop of Wen's mother, and found that not only were there few orders, but the prices were also expensive, with a meal costing more than 20 yuan.
Unlike her, who offers a 10 yuan discount for purchases over 15 yuan, I don't believe anyone wouldn't be tempted by that price!
Sun Mengyun's takeout business did indeed pick up for a few days.
In the past few days, Wen's mother has received more and more complaints. Many regular customers have said that when they search for her shop online, two different shops appear in the results.
"I thought the two signs looked similar, so I just randomly picked one, but I made a mistake!"
"When I called, they were cursing at me."
Wen's mother said apologetically, "I'm really sorry."
The regular customer waved his hand: "This has nothing to do with you. It's all because that restaurant is dishonest. I gave them a bad review."
Not only did they give a bad review, but they also posted comparison pictures of the two restaurants' signs below, with clear explanations to guide other customers when ordering.
The regular customer took out his phone to show Wen's mother, but after searching high and low for a while, he couldn't find his negative review.
"Huh? I definitely sent it yesterday!"
Wen's mother: "...It should have been deleted."
You can pay to have negative reviews removed.
The old customer angrily slammed his fist on the table: "This is too mean, too mean! Isn't this bullying?"
"Why doesn't anyone expose them? It's infuriating!" the customer yelled angrily.
****
On the other side of the city, a young man in his twenties groggily got out of bed.
After a quick wash, he subconsciously turned on the live streaming device on the table.
"Good afternoon, everyone! Today it's time for our takeout food review segment again. Let's take a look at what we'll be ordering today."
The boy's live stream device displayed the name "Da Tuanzi's Restaurant Review," followed by the number of followers, which was over 1.3 million.
As the largest local food review livestreamer, Da Tuanzi's approach to food review is quite unique.
His main method for finding restaurants is to order takeout, eat it, and then go out to find the takeout restaurant.
It was all by chance. Before, Da Tuanzi was just an ordinary person who occasionally posted a video. The video showed him ordering takeout at the company and on his way home, he suddenly had the idea to see what the takeout restaurant he often ate at looked like.
When they got to the store, Da Tuanzi broke down.
His favorite takeout restaurant, where he could order three meals a day, was located in a small alley. Not only that, the dark environment, the ingredients casually placed on the sewage-filled ground, and the way the owner was stir-frying vegetables with a cigarette in his mouth were deeply imprinted in Da Tuanzi's heart.
That video got over a million likes, and the comments were full of people making jokes.
[Hahaha, he must be completely exhausted. He'll need to go home and throw up for three days straight.]
[Hilarious! That's why people say you shouldn't go into the kitchen; it'll make you lose your appetite.]
[Stop laughing, you think you're not eating like this? Everyone's eating the same thing!]
A paradise for flies, a home to rats.
[Don't say anymore, I feel like throwing up. I sympathize with the blogger.]
...
Da Tuanzi later tried live streaming a few times and found that the traffic was surprisingly good. Of course, this was also due to his background in broadcasting and hosting, which he studied in college, and his appearance and speaking skills were up to par.
So Da Tuanzi tried filming a few more times, and each time she got hundreds of thousands of likes. Gradually, Da Tuanzi quit her job and devoted herself to reviewing restaurants.
There are two types of restaurants that Da Tuanzi orders takeout from: those that are legitimate and those that have partnerships. However, even with partnerships, Da Tuanzi conducts rigorous background checks.
For those who actually visit the restaurants, Da Tuanzi will look for them in the fan comments.
Today, someone was recommending it like crazy in a live stream.
[Hey host, check out Wenji Restaurant! It's right across from Qunying Middle School!]
[Hey streamer, look at me! That rice bowl place is the best I've ever had! But I've never been to the restaurant, I really want to see what it's like!]
The big dumpling laughed and said, "Alright, let's explore this today."
He searched on the food delivery platform and two search results appeared.
Da Tuanzi's phone was placed under the live streaming machine, and many people watched him click and commented.
This is a new store.
[Yeah, could it be that the boss is deliberately using our big dumpling as advertising?]
[Didn't Da Tuanzi say before that she wouldn't try out new restaurants? Has she forgotten about that time?]
Da Tuanzi paused. The previous time, a new store owner had approached him for a collaboration, which he refused. Later, not giving up, he pretended to be a passerby in the live stream. When Da Tuanzi arrived, the other party acted as if they were familiar with each other, offering him food and taking the initiative to introduce him, making many people think that he had been paid.
From then on, Da Tuanzi stopped accepting invitations to visit new restaurants.
But……
Big Dumpling looked at these two search results; the pictures were so simple and unassuming, they didn't look like the kind of people who could afford to advertise.
"This store seems to have decent sales; I'll order some and see."
The big dumpling was from the restaurant mentioned above.
Someone in the live stream had a sharp eye.
You clicked the wrong one! It's Wen, not Wu!
"Never mind, it's all the same food."
This shop is undeniably cheap.
[Hahaha, have you guys forgotten that this kid spent two yuan on a meal, and then vomited and had diarrhea after eating it?]
[I'm doomed, I feel like today is going to be a disaster.]
[Failure +1]
[Failure +2]
Am I the only one wondering why these two are the same? I just searched it up, and they're even on the same street!
[This is even more interesting! Host, host, order one from each of the two stores and see!]
[Yeah! Let's order them all, it'll be even more fun at the store later!]
The big dumpling had a sudden thought: this was a great gimmick.
So I opened my phone and placed another order.
"Alright, now let's just wait for the food to arrive."
-----------------------
Author's note: Today's update is here~ Tomorrow's update will be at 11 PM.
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