Chapter 41 Peer Competition
Chapter 42: Peer Competition
On the first day of school at Jingtan No. 1 Middle School, my uncle organized a group of friends to stand at the school gate and hand out flyers to passing students one by one. The name and location of the small restaurant, as well as a variety of dishes, were written on the red paper.
The students were very curious about the flyers and said they would go and take a look.
At 10 a.m., the restaurant, which was ready, lit the fireworks to celebrate its opening. As the red silk was unveiled, the large gold-plated characters on the plaque - "Youth Restaurant" were revealed, and the crowd couldn't help but praise it!
Since Mr. Fang was a public official, he could not do these things privately, so the small shop was opened in the name of Ms. Fang.
On the first day, most people came to watch the fun, but not many came to eat. Although many students did come to taste the food during the lunch break and thought the food was good, after two or three days, the number of students actually decreased.
My aunt felt heartbroken when she saw the leftover food, but they had to clean up the leftovers every day, and gradually they couldn't eat any more.
After school, Fang Qing went to the restaurant to understand the situation and finally discovered the problem.
"Mom, how much food do you give to people every time?"
Fang's mother recalled, "About half a spoonful for each dish. If it's meat, it's a little less. What's the matter? Is there a problem?"
Fang Qing sighed, "Mom, that's too little. We set the price quite high. No one will come to eat here."
But Fang's mother felt that the price couldn't be too low. Finally, when they were at a stalemate, Fang Qing came up with a new idea.
The price was lowered, but the set meal was changed. In addition to a meal, a free bowl of soup was added, and side dishes were served. At the same time, because students did not want to wait in the store for a long time, a batch of lunch boxes were customized, and various rice bowls were introduced, which could be conveniently taken away by students at any time.
But since the last attempt, many students are unwilling to try again. Except for a few repeat customers who occasionally come in to try, the customer flow is still very small. The surrounding restaurants laughed when they saw this, knowing that they didn't have the ability. Now they can rest assured that this store will have to close soon.
Just when Fang's mother and aunt were at a loss, Wen Ning came with a group of students.
"Auntie, I heard you opened a shop, so we came to try it out." Wen Ning greeted politely and found a seat to sit down.
Fang's mother was very happy and busily recommended delicious options to them. After each student finished ordering, the aunt-in-law quickly served the rice and dishes and brought them up neatly.
After tasting it, the group of children said it was delicious and started to eat it voraciously. Fang's mother also gave each of them a bowl of egg drop soup, and the group of students ate comfortably and full.
Before leaving, Fang's mother said that it was her treat today and she wouldn't charge any money. Wen Ning declined several times but secretly left two dollars.
Unexpectedly, the next day, the group of students came again. This time they did not eat in the store, but packed up and took away, and ordered ten boxes at once. This made my aunt very happy. She added a lot of dishes to each lunch box, and the students took it away happily.
The rice with gravy quickly became popular on campus. Many students were tired of the same old potatoes and cabbages in the cafeteria and rushed out of the school to taste it. For a while, there was a long queue at Fang's restaurant, and many people even ended up regretting that they came too late and didn't get to buy it.
The next day, Fang's mother prepared twice as much food, but it was all sold out before the afternoon! This made my aunt and Fang's mother very happy. This was the first time they felt so happy selling things! That night, Fang's mother went home to count the sales and found that she had sold more than 50 yuan that day. After deducting labor, water, electricity and rent, she actually made a net profit of more than 10 yuan!
Fang's mother was so excited that she didn't expect that running a restaurant could make so much money. So the next day she went to buy more ingredients with great enthusiasm, preparing to increase the stockpile again. But Fang Qing stopped her mother from doing so.
"Mom, you can prepare more ingredients, but you don't have to make all of them into dishes. Besides, the store is crowded right now because students still think it's new. Once the novelty wears off, the customer flow will be much less. It would be a waste to prepare too much."
But Fang's mother had just tasted the sweetness, so she wouldn't listen to Fang Qing's words. She still increased the amount of ingredients the next day. Although most of them were sold out that day, this didn't last for a few days and the number of students suddenly decreased.
Looking at the dark sky outside the window, but there was still half a pot of food left in the pot, Fang's mother suddenly regretted her decision.
"It's all my fault. If only I had listened to my kids that day, it would have been a shame to leave so many dishes behind."
In the end, Fang's mother and aunt packed up all the food separately, gave away what could be given away, took some home to eat, and gave the rest to beggars on the street.
After this period of training, Fang's mother and aunt finally figured out the students' preferences. They removed some dishes and focused on making the popular ones. The store's income gradually stabilized.
However, as Fang's Restaurant became better and better, the surrounding merchants gradually began to have opinions, but they couldn't say anything about fair competition. They could only visit the store and say a few sour words.
After class that day, Fang Qing quickly ran to the store to help, but there were obviously fewer students today than in the previous few days. Fang Qing thought it was because the dishes were too monotonous and the students didn't like them anymore. But after asking around, he found out that the neighboring stores saw that Fang's rice with gravy was selling well, so they quickly imitated them. They turned a series of common dishes into rice with gravy, such as scrambled eggs with tomatoes and rice with shredded potatoes and hot peppers. The dishes were simple to make and cheap, so they quickly attracted a large number of students, and naturally there were fewer people at Fang's place.
My aunt saw that several restaurants next door still had one person at the door, inviting students passing by to come in and taste the food. This time, even fewer students came to Fang's house to eat. My aunt was so angry that she threw away her apron and was about to go up to argue, but Fang Qing quickly pulled her back.
"Aunt, don't get excited. Competition among peers is normal. They are stealing our sales model, and we can't stop them."
My aunt sat down angrily. "But how can they be so shameless? They even stood at the door to snatch people away. Many students originally wanted to come to our place, but now they have all been taken away by them. Bah! Shameless!"
Fang Qing looked at the waiters outside the door who were trying to attract customers. They were waving their handkerchiefs proudly and glancing over at them from time to time. Their expressions were conceited and asking for a beating. Fang Qing sighed.
"Aunt, don't worry. If they want to learn, let them learn. If we can't sell rice with toppings, we'll just change to new dishes. I don't believe they can learn anything I make!"
Then the surrounding businesses found out that the "Youth Restaurant" was closed for three days, which made the surrounding restaurants very happy, because they knew that these new country bumpkins were no match for them.
In the next few days, Fang Qing asked her mother to stay at home and study how to keep the braised noodles from clumping together in the lunch box for a long time. She also asked her eldest brother to taste the noodles many times to determine the appropriate amount and flavor. Until the whole family could no longer eat a bite of braised noodles, Fang Qing's new product was finally ready.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com