What is the most important thing when opening a store?
That means you need to have a shop. Jiang Yilu has been walking around the streets these days to find a suitable address for opening a shop. The current per capita consumption level is not high. Even in the capital, many families are just in a state of satisfying food and clothing and having a little surplus. They may be happy to spend a few cents to eat a pancake occasionally, but it would be a bit painful to ask them to spend a few yuan or even ten yuan to eat in a restaurant.
Therefore, when choosing the address of a restaurant, you must take into account the surrounding spending power and mentality.
The pharmaceutical factory and the Municipal Party Committee Office are both state-owned units, and all of them receive high salaries, especially those in the Municipal Party Committee Office, whose family conditions are far above the middle and upper levels of this era. These people are all potential consumers of the hot pot restaurant, they have ample incomes, and a certain desire for a petty-bourgeois lifestyle, which is why Jiang Yilu would rather spend a large sum of money to buy this shop.
Don't think that eating at a hotpot restaurant is too noisy and there is no romance. Nowadays, as long as you go to a restaurant, no matter whether it is a foreign or Chinese restaurant, it is a kind of style.
After choosing the venue, it’s time to decorate it.
There are still a lot of laborers in the city now, but Jiang Yilu's decoration of the hot pot restaurant is not limited to the ordinary lime plastering of the walls and putting up a few tables. If he wants to expand the scale of the store, the initial layout cannot be dealt with so simply.
But where can we find talented people for design and decoration now? Jiang Yilu is almost in trouble. He can still think of the design himself, but he can't train a group of decorators all at once.
He searched for a long time before he found two old carpenters who specialized in making furniture for high-ranking officials, and he also found a master stone carving master, but he was still at a loss as to the design and decoration of the house.
Fortunately, by chance, Jiang Yilu met a group of students from Huaqing University's Department of Architecture.
It was fate that college students nowadays are very enthusiastic and often hold exchange activities. One time, when Jiang Yilu was attending an exhibition at the School of Architecture, he fell in love with one of the models with antique design. The whole model was built with bamboo and wood, and all the joints used the oldest mortise and tenon structure. The whole design was antique and had some characteristics of the times, which was exactly the element that Jiang Yilu wanted to incorporate into his hot pot restaurant.
He was so fascinated by the design that he couldn't help but talk to Jiang Wencheng next to him, expressing his appreciation for the design. The owners of the design were standing behind him at that time.
That’s right, that design was not the work of one individual, but the joint work of five seemingly young men.
A group of passionate young people who have not yet entered society heard others praising their designs generously. At that moment, Jiang Yilu was recognized by those boys.
People who like their own designs must be good people. I don’t know how this magical train of thought came about.
Today's students have an unparalleled enthusiasm for learning, especially those studying architecture. They have so many inspirations and ideas, but they can only realize them in small models or in their own drawings. They cannot put them into action, which is really frustrating for them.
The same is true for Li Quan and others, but they are only first-year students now, and there is no way they can enter the workplace and display their skills like their seniors.
Jiang Yilu was actually already moved when he saw the model. Later, at the enthusiastic invitation of Li Quan and others, he looked at their other works. Although they were still very immature, he had some ideas of his own, which further strengthened Jiang Yilu's determination.
After Jiang Yilu proposed to pay them to design the hot pot restaurant he was about to open, Li Quan and his friends were so excited that they almost fainted. In their opinion, this was recognition from others and they didn't care about the money, which was an insult to art. Not only did they take on the design, the five strong boys also participated in the actual decoration of the house. After all, the decoration workers might not understand some of their design concepts and needed their assistance.
"Ichiru, do you think this design is satisfactory?"
Two months passed, and Jiang Yiliu was busy with the ingredients and pots during this period, leaving the decoration to Li Quan and his friends. Perhaps it was because of their enthusiasm that Jiang Yiliu didn't care much about the final result of the house. After all, Jiang Yiliu saw their efforts. They lived at the construction site day and night, lost weight, and their eyes were almost like rabbits. If Jiang Yiliu hadn't persuaded them, they would have forgotten to eat.
It was also through Li Quan and others that Jiang Yilu discovered that some people's love for their profession can transcend everything.
The outside of the room was blocked by a large dark green canvas, so Jiang Yiliu couldn't see what was inside. When the design was nearing its end, Li Quan and his team stopped him from coming to the store, saying they wanted to give him a surprise. Jiang Yiliu was also very curious about what kind of results they had created in the past few days.
"Three, two, one."
Although Li Quan and his companions had stubble on their faces and looked unhealthy, they were full of energy when they shouted the countdown. The result of so many days' hard work would come to fruition on this day.
When the number "one" was shouted, the green canvas was pulled down by the worker nearby, and the whole house appeared in Jiang Yilu's sight.
The outer layer of blue bricks is simple and elegant, and the stone walls are inlaid with hollow stone carvings. The patterns of the stone carvings are very lively, with pictures of people eating hot pot together, cute dolls, kind old people... Jiang Yiliu remembered that these were all hand-painted by Li Quan and others and then carved by the stone carving master. This requirement almost made the master's hair fall out.
The main body of the house is made of wood. Pushing open the quaint wooden folding door and walking into the house, you will see that the floor is paved with polished stones, which retain the original color and texture of the stones. Because the restaurant is not very large, a semi-open mode is adopted in the partition treatment. The wooden and bamboo screens play a certain role in privacy, but unlike walls, they do not take up too much space and become too crowded in reality.
Of course, there are only two or three areas with screens, and most of the space is in the open lobby. The tables are the most simple square tables, which can seat four to eight people. The dining table blocked by the screen is a little bigger, a large round table that can seat about twelve people, and can be used for large family gatherings or department gatherings.
What amazed Jiang Yilu the most was the other party's modification of the lamps. Nowadays, most electrical wires are exposed outside the walls. Li Quan and others cleverly covered the lines with bamboo tubes split in half, and cleverly arranged the bamboo tubes of different lengths in a staggered manner, hiding the light bulbs inside the bamboo tubes, making distinctive lamps.
Jiang Yi walked around the room inside and out and was so satisfied that he decided to give the other party a big red envelope.
"What do you think?"
Li Quan was still a little nervous, fearing that Jiang Yilu would be dissatisfied.
"It's perfect. I really don't know what else needs to be improved." Jiang Yilu praised repeatedly, "I finally understand why several old masters said they were driven crazy by you." Jiang Yilu pointed to the wood and stone carvings that looked inconspicuous at first glance but were actually full of details, and said that with such a large workload, the extra wages he paid to the old masters were not a loss at all.
When the renovation was halfway done, several old masters hired by Jiang Yiliu came to complain to Jiang Yiliu, saying that the students he hired were too picky, and some of their ideas were even things they had never tried before. Only a month had passed, and they were almost half exhausted. Jiang Yiliu increased the wages by half to keep the old masters.
Li Quan and his companions scratched their heads in embarrassment, obviously aware of the complaints of the old masters.
"What is this place used for? It's decorated so beautifully."
It was broad daylight now, and such a loud commotion attracted quite a few passers-by. A few of them were curious and came in to inquire.
"This is a newly opened hot pot restaurant. It will be open in a few days. All dishes will be half price in the first three days." Jiang Yilu took the opportunity to promote it.
“Half price.”
An old lady narrowed her eyes. She had never seen any activities held by state-owned restaurants before. When she heard Jiang Yilu's words, she was immediately tempted. She planned to come and see the price of this restaurant. If it was a good deal, she would bring her whole family to have a meal.
Jiang Yilu's voice was loud and many people outside heard it. Looking at this restaurant that was decorated like a wealthy family's mansion in the old days, they felt that even if it was not half price, it would be worth it to have a meal in such a place.
This is the effect that Jiang Yilu wants.
Ten days later, the hot pot restaurant named "Jiangwei" began business.
The door was open, and five or six young girls and boys wearing the same red cotton-padded jackets and white aprons tied around their waists were standing at the door. When someone walked in, they would enthusiastically shout "Welcome".
These were all things Jiang Yilu had been trained on in advance. Compared to the current supply and marketing cooperatives and big shopping malls with those sales clerks who looked down on others, everyone who walked into the store couldn't help but feel flattered.
"Comrade, are all the dishes in your restaurant half price today?"
A young woman in a Lenin suit asked, looking around the room and nodded with satisfaction at the restaurant's environment.
In her hand was a colorful piece of paper, which was stuffed into her hand by a child when she got off work a few days ago. It was from this paper that she learned that a hot pot restaurant had opened here, and all dishes were half-off for the first three days of opening. Thinking of her son at home who was crying and asking to eat Lao Mo's food, she was excited and brought her family here.
She didn't have much hope at first. After all, there were one or two restaurants around the Municipal Party Committee Office these days, but the decoration was not much different from that of state-owned restaurants, with white bricks and cement floors. It was no different from eating at home, and it was even less cost-effective than eating at home. But this restaurant was far beyond her expectations.
In terms of decoration, it is not much different from Lao Mo.
Lao Mo is the Moscow Western Restaurant in the capital, and it enjoys a supreme status in the hearts of the people in the capital. In the past few years, Lao Mo was not accessible to everyone, except for some government officials and diplomats. Now the conditions have been relaxed, and as long as you are dressed in formal attire, you can go to Lao Mo for a meal.
Unfortunately, the high price of seven or eight yuan per person is still unaffordable for most families. For ordinary people in the capital, a visit to Lao Mo is enough for them to brag about it in front of people around them for a long time.
"That's right. Our boss said that we need to build the reputation of this store. We can make a loss but gain publicity. As long as the food is delicious, they will naturally become repeat customers." The young waiter said sweetly and handed over the menu.
"I want to eat canned beef stew and cream of mushroom soup. I don't want to eat hot pot."
The chubby little boy next to him was having a tantrum, and the little girl sitting next to him was looking at the young woman with her big eyes flashing.
"Forget it, why don't we take the kids to eat at Lao Mo's?" The young father couldn't stand the child's pleading and said to his wife. At most, he would just spend a little more money and the child would be happy.
"A trip to Lao Mo's will cost at least twenty or thirty dollars." The woman glared at her husband and took the menu from the waiter.
It is the instinct of a housewife to be careful in calculations. The most important thing is that the child should not be spoiled like this. In case his temper is fostered, he will ask for Lao Mo's food every day in the future. The money taken from the family can't be afforded.
The woman made up her mind to ignore the child's noise and picked up the menu to look at it.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
