Chapter 38 Chapter 38: Opening a shop is not easy
With the opening of Jinming Lake next month, business in this cold food platter might even improve. After all, it's a royal garden, open only one month a year. Ordinary people can go in and witness the excitement for a month, so there will undoubtedly be a lot of people, and with more people, business will be good.
This cold spring dish has been on sale for seven or eight days. Only six portions were sold on the first day. Later, more and more people bought it, and more than thirty portions have been ordered in advance to be given away for the Flower Festival tomorrow.
There was a lot to do today, so Baozhu got up as soon as the rooster crowed. She didn't sleep much last night, and she woke up as soon as she closed her eyes. She simply got up to pack the food boxes. Her eldest brother heard the noise and got up to help. Soon Aunt Cui also came, and her eldest brother fried the filling for the spring pancakes.
Baozhu and Aunt Cui put the prepared ingredients into the food boxes one by one.
Since her cost was high, the price she set was naturally high as well. Many people still thought it was cheap at one guan (one yuan) per box.
It wasn't until daybreak that all thirty or so food boxes were packed, waiting for Brother Wang to come and collect them. I had already written down the destinations for them to be delivered to him yesterday, and he just had to deliver them one by one in order.
Baozhu also told Aunt Cui about the daily work to be done at the stall. She said that she would be paid more for selling lunch boxes these days, and that the stall was busier only recently and that the spring dishes did not need to be sold all year round.
Aunt Cui didn't care. She didn't sign a life-long contract, and many employers treated her like a mule. She could get more wages just by doing more work. She really wished she had more work to do every day.
Aunt Cui is very strong. It was really difficult for Baozhu to push the cart to the street by herself before. Aunt Cui took the task of pushing the cart by herself. She held the handle with her rough hands and walked briskly and steadily. Baozhu had to jog to catch up with her.
The tasks assigned to him were to collect bowls, wipe the table, and light the fire. Baozhu also taught her how to make vermicelli soup and fried skewers. When she was familiar with them, they could take over. The rest of the tasks such as collecting money and giving change were done by Baozhu herself. If they were busy, it was normal for both sides to support each other and lend a hand.
After the old lady from the Pei family next door came, Grandma Zhen often went to chat with her. Over time, the two of them got along very harmoniously. The two old ladies were about the same age, so having someone to talk to made them feel less lonely at home.
Pei Yanqing gave a gift before leaving. Madam Xu secretly sent it back and asked the maidservant next to Grandma Pei to send it back. Xu felt embarrassed and Grandma Pei also took good care of her.
Merchant ships traveled more frequently in the spring, as the Mingqian tea was being roasted and shipped to Bianjing at top speed. In this dynasty, tea, like salt, was controlled by the government. If a tea merchant sold tea without permission, he would be sentenced to death.
For this reason, if one can obtain a tea voucher, becoming extremely wealthy is just around the corner.
Thieves would naturally pay attention to such a way to make money. It was said that if the merchant ships carrying tea were unlucky, they might be robbed by pirates on the way. Therefore, many merchants traveled together and paid for escorts from the escort agency. If they were lucky enough to avoid the pirates on the road, they still had to watch carefully, because tea was precious and could not withstand moisture and mildew. The journey would be bumpy. If the tea was successfully transported to the destination, they would become extremely rich.
Besides tea, there's also aged ginger. Ginger farmers meticulously nurture it to protect it from pests and diseases, harvesting it in the autumn of the previous year and selling it to merchants. Winter prevents shipping, so these merchants rush north to sell their ginger in the spring. If young ginger is still available in July or August, harvest it at its peak tenderness. It lacks the pungent flavor of older ginger and lacks the chewy root. Eaten raw, it's sweet and crisp, almost like fruit.
These merchants brought tea into the capital, spending it on food, clothing, and other necessities. They hid from pirates and sold the tea for money. These tea merchants could often be seen in Qinlou and pleasure boats.
When Xu Niangzi was taking people to look at houses, she had dealt with a ginger merchant. The ginger merchant knew that there was a flood in the Bian Jing area last year, and selling ginger was profitable. He took a boat with ginger and silk. The ginger was produced in his own ginger garden. Most of it was sold before the New Year, and there was still a lot left. When he heard about the flood, he simply stopped selling it locally and brought the rest to Bian Jing to find a market.
The silk was collected from weavers in the countryside, so it was naturally easy to sell and a market had been found. However, he had never been to Bian Jing before, so he couldn't find a market for the silk. He asked Madam Xu to help her find a way to sell it. If she could sell half of it, he would give her a 10% profit. If she couldn't sell even half of it, he would give her three cents per pound as a reward for her hard work.
Last year's flood soaked and rotted the local ginger, and the price of ginger went up a lot. It used to be only ten cents per catty, but now it sells for thirty or forty cents per catty in the city. Although the price has gone up, it is still far less expensive than spices like star anise and pepper. But ginger is already a seasoning that ordinary people can afford. Putting one or two slices in stewing meat will make the soup much less fishy.
Many people in Bianjing sell drinks, and they drink ginger honey tea for health in spring.
The market in Bian Jing is huge. Anyway, I am just helping to ask. I can get the money for one pound of goods sold. It would be best if I can help sell them all. If I can't sell them, it won't be a problem for her.
After coming back and discussing it with her family, Baozhu looked at the ginger and ordered fifty kilograms. She needed ginger to remove the fishy smell when making soup base. Buying it from A Niang was cheaper than from the store, and A Niang could also make some money, so it was the best of both worlds.
Xu simply asked around in the alley and sold about a hundred pounds in total. The maid from the Pei family next door also came to buy twenty pounds after asking around. Madam Xu also asked the merchant Jiang to give her ten pounds.
After asking about Fanlou's purchases, Zhen's father also bought about a hundred pounds. Xu Shi didn't go directly to places like Yinzipu and the restaurant to ask. Even if they wanted it, the suppliers who originally supplied them would find out and make trouble for her.
She went directly to ask the local vegetable vendors. The price was already high this year, and she could make money just by reselling the vegetables. These vendors were not stupid. After asking several places, they were all willing to buy them. Xu did not dare to take all the vegetables herself, and only helped sell more than half.
In addition, the merchant distributed the goods himself and asked others to help sell them, and in less than half a month, several thousand kilograms of ginger were sold out.
The big merchant who distributed ginger gave her twenty strings of cash. Calculating that the merchant earned three or four hundred strings of cash from selling ginger, not counting the money from selling silk, he made a lot of money just from selling ginger. The merchant then started to do business, and said with satisfaction that he would come again in the autumn when he sold young ginger, and then he would ask Madam Xu to help sell it.
After Xu came back with the money, she said that this business was viable. She just asked a question in passing. The profit was not much worse than buying or renting a house. Now that she was an official agent, the fees she had to pay to the agent were much less.
Originally, this private transaction did not need to go through the brokerage firm, but Madam Xu felt that this buying and selling business could last long, and was also afraid of something going wrong, so she talked to the brokerage firm's manager and gave the brokerage firm a share of the profits from the money she earned.
It was only after distributing the money to the pawnshop that I realized that if the pawnshop owner used his official identity card to do things privately, if something went wrong, it would have nothing to do with the pawnshop, and if he was found out, he would go to jail. Madam Xu took the initiative to clear the way, and although she would have to pay a portion of the money in the future, it did provide an extra layer of protection.
Having made some money this time, Madam Xu asked Liu Si'er to help introduce her to some individual merchants who were selling soup at the dock. If she could let her try, it would be great if she could make some money, but if she couldn't, neither side would lose anything.
Xu's small business of helping merchants buy and sell is booming.
In the past, it was always difficult for women to be dental practitioners, but now, not long after, she has become the best in the dental industry and has also obtained the status of an official dental practitioner, which makes things easier for her.
The longer Fang Ya worked as a housekeeper, the more people she knew. Most of the people who could buy and sell houses in Bian Jing were rich people. As she knew more people, she also knew their financial situation. She would connect the traveling merchants with the local merchants and mediate between them. She only took a small profit.
Traveling merchants always have to sell the goods they bring, and more and more merchants come to see Xu Niangzi. When she is busy, she takes people to see houses, and when she is free, she trades with people. For a while, she became the one who earns the most in the family.
Baozhu knew that her mother was cautious, so she only reminded her to carefully check the goods before helping others sell them. Otherwise, if there was any mistake in the future, the merchant would have run away and the Zhen family would be dragged down.
Xu nodded. "Of course I know. When you're paid to do something for someone, the payment and goods must be exchanged. Buying on credit is never acceptable. I inspect the goods carefully. I'm only the middleman in the signed contract, not the guarantor. Since the buyer is paying for the goods, he or she has to inspect them carefully."
In March, Jinming Lake was open to the public. After all, it was a royal garden. The emperor came once to see the imperial guards riding and shooting. The scene was grand and the people welcomed them. Baozhu took the opportunity to make a fortune and was very busy throughout March.
There are many merchant ships in spring, but vermicelli soup is a bit expensive for ordinary people, and it is better to eat rice. Baozhu thought about it and asked her elder brother to sell mixed grain rice bags at the stall as well.
Mix some glutinous rice with miscellaneous grains and spread it flat, then add perilla leaves, egg skin, meat floss, pickled crispy radish, brush it with chili sauce or sweet bean sauce and roll it up. Such a rice ball is sold for fifteen cents each. If you want other meat dishes, you have to pay extra money.
Mixed grains and glutinous rice are enough to fill you up. This lunch pack doesn't make much profit, but it has the advantage of being bought by many people. You don't have to sit at the stall to eat it; you can just wrap it in bamboo leaves and take it away.
Now that the family has some extra money, she really wants to save some more to rent a shop to open a restaurant. Originally, she was afraid of the Sun family, but there are so many families like the Sun family in Bianjing, and Baozhu feels that there is nothing to be afraid of.
Even if you lose money setting up a stall, you won't make much money. But if you open a restaurant, the rent for the shop is not small. Nowadays, most shops sign leases for one or two years, and the rent has to be paid in one go. You also have to pay for hiring employees in the store, and the monthly taxes are more than when you set up a stall. If you lose money, it will be a huge loss.
I thought I needed to have a plan first, and calculate how much money I needed to save before I could open a restaurant in Bian Jing.
If you want to open a restaurant, you naturally have to choose a good location, preferably the inner city. There are many restaurants in Bianjing City, and it was not well-known at the beginning. There are many restaurants for people to choose from. Except for those idle people, who would go to the remote streets to look for food?
Since they had to find a busy area in the inner city, even the smallest shop would cost at least 20 to 30 strings of cash a month. Baozhu was stunned after asking her mother.
A Niang waved her hand calmly, "That's nothing. The shops along the stretch from Imperial Street to South Gate Street must earn three to five hundred strings of cash a month."
"This money is really worthless to rich people." Baozhu was shocked. If she wanted to rent a shop, the rent would be at least two or three hundred strings of cash a year, and she only had two hundred strings of cash left. Even if she and her elder brother pooled the money together, it would still cost money to run the business, so she decided to save some more.
"Even at a high price, it's still hard to find a shop. When one finally becomes available, it's immediately snatched up by someone else. This is because most of the shops in this area are privately owned by high-ranking officials, and ordinary people don't dare to cause trouble when renting a shop." Madam Xu continued, "Anyone who opens a shop usually needs to find someone to rely on. Otherwise, if your business takes away someone else's business, they're bound to cause trouble behind their backs. Although your uncle is an official in Bianjing, he's not an all-powerful figure. He can protect you once or twice, but if you really cause trouble, you might drag them down with you."
People don't care about the little money earned from the stall, but if the business is to be expanded, people who are jealous will provoke trouble. Even if you set up a stall now, you have to build good relationships with the big guys in the street department. In the past, the Zhen family's restaurant in Gusu City was able to operate peacefully for many years because they had a regular relationship with the chief officials of the yamen during the New Year holidays.
Xu taught Baozhu her skills in dealing with people one by one, and Baozhu nodded in agreement.
After hearing this, Baozhu put her mind at ease. Her family couldn't afford the hardship now, so she should just live peacefully and save more money. If she had enough money, it wouldn't hurt to lose some and she wouldn't have to think about this matter anymore.
Xu had just taken someone to look at the house, and now that she had nothing to do, she came to Baozhu to help.
After finishing the drink Baozhu handed him, he saw Zao'er, the maid from the Dong family, hurriedly getting off the sedan chair not far away. She almost fell when she reached the stall. Before she could catch her breath, she hurriedly said, "The eldest daughter has given birth! Our wife is in a hurry to go to the eldest daughter and asked me to tell the old lady and aunt the good news!"
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