Before we knew it, the day arrived for the opening of He Wenhua Fast Food Restaurant.
He Wenlin didn't go to school because she had to.
In the morning, Mr. He drove He Wenlin and her brother to school first, and then drove Mrs. He to He Wenhua's shop.
After getting off the bus, He's father set off a string of firecrackers and gave He Wenhua a ceramic lucky cat figurine, along with a small red envelope.
"Wenhua and Lijuan, may your business prosper."
"Thank you, Uncle, please come in." Xia Lijuan warmly welcomed him into the house, offering him drinks and washing apples.
Fearing that Grandma He might not be able to eat apples, they also prepared bananas for her.
"Wenjun didn't have time to come, so I gave you a red envelope." After saying that, He's father handed the red envelope to them. "Did you finish your talks with the factory yesterday?"
They also followed the model of He Wenlin's fast food restaurant, cooperating with the team leaders and workshop directors in the factory. For every order they brought in, they would get a 10 cent commission on boxed meals, and for other items such as fried noodles, fried rice, and rice balls, which cost 1.5 yuan each, they would get 5 cents per serving. In addition, they could eat two free breakfasts every week.
He Wenhua laughed and said, "It's all settled. We've already sold over thirty servings of fried noodles this morning."
Mr. He: "You've already opened! That's good. Take your time, business will definitely be good."
Grandma He cautioned, "But never sell inferior goods as superior ones. Linlin was right when she said something: once your reputation is ruined, it's very difficult to recover."
"Then we definitely won't."
Soon after, He Lanying and He Yongping also arrived.
They lived nearby and were already acquainted with each other. Now that they were in the same area, and He Wenhua had opened a shop, they naturally wanted to come and support him.
Around 9:30, Xia Lijuan went to two factories to pick up orders. Since it was her first day doing business, business was pretty good.
At noon, we received a total of 31 orders for fried noodles, 13 orders for egg fried rice, and 39 orders for fast food. However, none of them included rice. The price was the same as He Wenlin's, 2.8 yuan per serving without rice.
The total sales at noon amounted to 175.2 yuan.
Xia Lijuan was not satisfied with this sales figure.
Her goal was to achieve a daily turnover of 900, with 300 each for lunch and afternoon, and 150 each for breakfast and late-night snacks.
But now it seems we are a long way from our goal.
When He Wenhua returned to his shop, he was washing and chopping food and hurriedly asked, "How's it going? Do you have three hundred yuan?"
Everyone else also stared at Xia Lijuan.
Xia Lijuan looked unwell, shook her head, and said, "The turnover was only 170."
He Yongping said, "That's fine too. It's your first day of business, and many people don't know what it tastes like. But gradually, word will spread, and business will definitely be good."
Mr. He: "When Linlin first started, she couldn't sell this much in one meal. You're doing well now. Take it slow."
He Lanying also said, "That's right. If you sell four meals a day at 170 yuan each, you can make 700 to 800 yuan a day. If you make half, you can earn more than 10,000 yuan a month, which is equivalent to other people's annual income."
“It’s not like you can make half the profit, but the profit margin is so high,” Grandma He laughed. “If this business were available every day, it would be better than working for someone else. Don’t be discouraged, young couple. Once word spreads, things will get better.”
That's all I can think about now.
Since the new store opened, Mr. and Mrs. He didn't go home for lunch. They stayed here to help out. He Ling and her daughter also came over at noon, and everyone had lunch together at He Wenhua's store.
Around 1:30 pm, everyone dispersed, and Mr. He drove Mrs. He back to Caijiang Village.
At 3 p.m., Xia Lijuan went to various factories again. The sales in the afternoon were about the same as at noon, at 178.2 yuan.
With no one to help in the afternoon, the couple was extremely busy, washing and chopping, cooking, packing, and serving meals. They basically didn't stop.
At 5:45 PM, I finally finished.
The couple breathed a sigh of relief.
Xia Lijuan wiped her sweat and said, "It would be great if your grandma could stay and help us."
"My grandma is so old, what are you thinking? Besides, if we're paying my grandma a salary, what's the point of our business?"
"This is your own mother, why would she want your money?"
He Wenhua looked at her incredulously: "You can't be serious, you still want my grandma to work for us for free at her age!"
Even if you offer a salary, Linlin and my uncle won't agree. Linlin's six-story building is almost finished, and they've already started preparing for renovations.
There's a storefront downstairs that's supposed to be used to open a small supermarket. Linlin said she'd pay for it, and Grandma could just sit there collecting and giving change. All the profits would go to Grandma. Do you think she'd agree to Grandma coming here and working so hard?
Hearing this, Xia Lijuan was taken aback, never expecting such a thing to exist.
Immediately, Xia Lijuan's face lit up with excitement as she asked, "Are you serious? Linlin really going to open a small supermarket for Grandma?"
“Of course it’s true.” He Wenhua rolled her eyes at her. “So even if you’re willing to offer a high salary, my grandma won’t come, and Linlin and my uncle won’t agree to her coming either. You think you can make my grandma work for free? Hmph.”
"I was just saying that."
Grandma He now owns a supermarket, which means she'll definitely make a lot of money in the future. She thinks this is a good thing for her.
Xia Lijuan felt that He Wenhua was the eldest grandson, and that the money the old lady was saving now, if not all of it, would at least be divided among them, with each of the three grandsons receiving a share, which would amount to one-third.
This is much more worthwhile than helping her with chores.
He Wenhua was unaware of Xia Lijuan's ulterior motives. After the couple finished their meal, they began to settle their accounts.
In the end, after deducting the cost of raw materials and the commissions for the team leader and workshop director, their profit for the day was about 2600!
He Wenhua was very satisfied and excitedly said, "If I could do this business every day, I could earn more than eight thousand a month. I could pay back the money I owed Linlin in half a month."
“Linlin has money. These few thousand yuan are nothing to her. We don’t need to worry about her debts. We should save some money and buy a house.” Xia Lijuan said, “We haven’t even calculated the rent and utilities yet. Linlin told me that when she first opened the shop, she didn’t have an air conditioner. Her utilities were about 340 or 350 yuan a month. Let’s calculate it as 350 yuan. Then add the rent of 180 yuan, which makes it 530 yuan. That’s 17.7 yuan a day. Let’s say 20 yuan. So our profit today should be about 240 yuan.”
"That's not bad. I can go out to the factory gate at night and sell snacks for a while. I should be able to earn 30 or 50 yuan. A profit of 8,000 yuan a month shouldn't be a problem."
He Wenhua is full of hope for the future.
He then said, "Cooking is too hot, we still need to buy an air conditioner. Let's save up 2,500 yuan and buy an air conditioner first. The weather is getting hotter and hotter, and the fan is blowing out hot air."
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