Xia Jin continued, "Sister Xiaohua has always been with me at the stall, so this time I gave her the position in the kitchen. She'll be boiling vegetables in the kitchen, and the salary will be thirty-five yuan a month. But Sister Xiaohua, you must pay attention to your personal hygiene."
Aunt Liu said, "Okay, okay, thank you, Xia Jin. If it weren't for you, I don't know what would have happened to our Xiaohua."
Xia Jin looked at the shy Xiaohua standing beside her and said, "Xiaohua is very good and has helped me a lot." Xiaohua felt even more embarrassed when Xia Jin praised her. She lowered her head and whispered, "Thank you."
Fortunately, Xia Jin was paying attention to Xiao Hua, otherwise she wouldn't have heard the thank you. Xia Jin said, "Don't thank me, Xiao Hua, be bolder. You are capable and hardworking."
"Aunties, I'd like to trouble you for a moment. I need two more people. Do you know anyone who's capable and willing to take risks?"
Aunt Liu said, "The Yang family in our area is pretty good."
"The Yang family is indeed good, and the daughter-in-law of the old man Yu is also very good."
Xia Jin said, "Can you bring them over to me tomorrow?"
"Okay, call them over tomorrow and take a look."
Xia Jin finally decided on these two people. Xia Jin signed a simple contract with them and then stated all the requirements. Xia Jin also gave each of them two sets of aprons and two sets of clothes. The aprons were printed with the five big words "Xia Ji Mala Tang". Xia Jin went to buy vegetables and meat every day. Thanks to the fresh-keeping function of the space, Xia Jin bought a lot at a time and put some in the store every day. Not to mention the vegetables, which were produced in his own space.
After everything was prepared and the sign of "Xia Ji Malatang" was hung up, Xia Jin chose a Saturday to open the store on October 18th. Early in the morning, the store employees were all dressed neatly and busy in the store. Xia Jin had introduced to everyone on the last day of the stall that he had opened a store here and it would be open soon.
At 10:00 AM on October 18, 1982, Xia Jin's first Malatang restaurant officially opened. Outside, Xia Jin hung a cardboard sign with a message in red pen: "Three days before opening, special opening promotion! 20% off for orders over 10 yuan, 10% off for orders over 5 yuan."
The first to arrive were Boss Du and Boss Liu from next door. As soon as Boss Liu came in, he congratulated Xia Jin, "Congratulations, Boss Xia, on the opening of your first store."
"Congratulations, business is booming."
Xia Jin said: "Thank you, bosses."
Boss Liu said, "Your store is really well decorated. It's spacious and bright, and your employees are so pleasing to the eye."
Xia Jin smiled and said, "Isn't this all for the sake of making customers feel comfortable eating?"
Boss Liu said, "Come on, come on, I want to be the first customer of your new restaurant. Serve all the dishes to both of us."
Xia Jin said, "Okay, as you're the first customer today, I'll give you a 50% discount."
Boss Liu said, "Then I'll take advantage of you."
Xia Jin thought about it and the employees were doing their jobs. Soon, Boss Liu and Boss Du's things were delivered. However, apart from these two customers, no other customers came for a long time.
This made the two new aunts very anxious. Xia Jin had no business, and their hard-earned livelihood was gone. However, Xia Jin was not anxious at all. She knew that her customers were all workers from the nearby factories. They were still working, so it was normal for them to have no customers.
Aunt Liu and the others were not in a hurry either. They had worked with Xia Jin before and knew how prosperous her business was.
As the clock neared eleven, people began to arrive, drawn to the aroma wafting from the shop. Looking at the prices, they seemed a bit pricey, but the aroma was so good I couldn't bear to leave. In the end, I paid for some, and who knew I couldn't stop eating.
The service is really good. The waiters are polite. After choosing your dishes, you just need to sit there and wait. Someone will bring the dishes to you. You can add sesame paste, chili oil and other seasonings as you like. The food in the store is also very clean and hygienic.
Gradually, more and more people came, and after the factory closed, Xia Jin's shop was even more crowded. Old customers who had originally not planned to eat in, seeing the discount notice outside, also came in to join in the fun, eating more and earning more. What do you mean one person can't eat for less than five yuan? Isn't it because I have colleagues?
With three or five colleagues, that's ten yuan. With a 20% discount, that's a profit of two yuan. As the crowds gradually increased, the kitchen staff and the wait staff were fine, but Aunt Cuihong was the one who was getting flustered. She could count, but she wasn't very fast, and as she watched the crowds grow, she began to panic.
Seeing Aunt Cuihong making more and more mistakes as she became more anxious, Xia Jin had no choice but to replace her. He asked her to help the waiters while he settled the bills for the customers.
The climax didn't end until after two in the afternoon. Seeing that the crowds had thinned out, Xia Jin let them take turns having lunch. They could choose to have spicy hot pot or go to the next door for noodles. Xia Jin would cover both costs, but they all chose spicy hot pot. It was simply too delicious. Xia Jin wanted you to soak in this flavor every day. In less than two months, you won't want to eat it anymore.
Xia Jin checked the kitchen and found it was almost empty, even the items on the outer cabinets were gone. She'd bought a little less on the first day, so she took advantage of the lack of customers and went to get some more meat and vegetables to bring to the store. She planned to talk to the butcher about having meat delivered to the store on a regular basis once the daily turnover stabilized.
After Xia Jin brought the things back, the kitchen became busy again. Customers came sporadically in the afternoon. They were all old customers who came here after hearing about the discounts. There were several customers at a time.
At dinner time, the whole family and the kids come here to eat. Before, Xia Jin sold it at noon, but it was hard to take away, which was very inconvenient. Now that we have a restaurant, we bring the family and the kids here to eat, and there are discounts if the meal exceeds a certain price. Generally, a family of three will spend around 7 or 8 yuan, and if there are more people, it will cost more than 10 yuan.
Looking at this situation, Xia Jin estimated that once the news of the discount spread tomorrow, more people would come, and he would have to prepare more dishes and meat.
Business has always been good. Since Xia Jin only hired five shop assistants, they get off work all day long. It is already nine o'clock when they get off work. At around eight o'clock, Xia Jin saw that it was too late, so he asked them to pack up and get ready to go off work. He was afraid that more customers would come, and he didn't want to let go of any customer. No one wanted to leave.
Finally, Xia Jin said, "Let's go home. It's so late. We won't work if someone comes. We still have to open tomorrow. We're so tired these past few days. What will we do if we can't open tomorrow? Go home, go home."
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