He immediately packed up his stall.
Just then, the manager of the Silver Crane Tower happened to be bowing and scraping as he saw off a richly dressed nobleman.
Back at the roadside stall, he sneered at the owner, Liu. "Business's gotten this bad? No wonder, you're even planning to sell these low-class things. Brother, let me give you a piece of advice: in our line of work, connections and smoothing things over are the most important things. You... tsk tsk tsk..."
The shopkeeper gave Yin Lan and Chen Yourun a disdainful look, then rolled his eyes and left.
Manager Liu looked embarrassed and tried to comfort Yin Lan and Chen Yourun, saying, "Don't take it to heart."
Yin Lan felt that this Manager Liu was quite kind; even though he was the one being looked down upon and ridiculed, he actually turned around and comforted them.
Once inside the restaurant, the three of them sat down.
Manager Liu then explained that his Jiqinglou business had initially been very successful. They had all worked their way up from apprentices in the same restaurant. When the master chef passed away, Manager Liu had been taking care of him. The old manager had originally intended to give him the restaurant, which was called Yinhelou. At that time, Yinhelou was not that big; it was just an inconspicuous little restaurant. However, Manager Wang had to support his family, so he came crying and said that he could not survive and that his children were going to starve to death.
Manager Liu couldn't bear it, so he let Manager Wang, who was also an apprentice, work at Silver Crane Tower with him. However, gradually, Silver Crane Tower became Manager Wang's private property. He tricked Manager Liu into signing some receipts. Somehow, since none of them knew anything about these things, Silver Crane Tower was swindled away. By then, Silver Crane Tower was no longer what it used to be.
Having no other choice, Manager Liu used all his savings to open Jiqinglou, but the already large and successful E Yinhelou secretly suppressed him in various ways.
"That Manager Wang is a real scoundrel," Yin Lan said, equally indignant.
Chen Yourun merely glanced at Manager Liu indifferently.
Jiqinglou's business is not good. Even if the food is similar to Yinhelou's, it will not sell. But once they try new dishes, if they are even slightly good, Yinhelou will sell the recipes to them at a high price within a few days and then compete with them at a lower price.
Manager Liu didn't really want to talk about these things, but he really had no other choice.
Yin Lan and Chen Yourun were only there to sell their own things; as for other matters, they were powerless to help.
Shopkeeper Liu rubbed his hands together. "Look at me, I accidentally said too much. This thing you two are selling..." He didn't know what it was called, but the taste was really, "It tastes excellent."
"I wonder, is it possible to sell the child?"
Yin Lan was a little unhappy. "Manager Liu, firstly, we absolutely will not sell the recipe. Secondly, even if we were to sell it, with the money you have left, you definitely can't afford it. Thirdly, even if I give you the recipe, you still won't be able to make it taste like this. This is a new method, and it has a new name: braised food."
Shopkeeper Liu looked embarrassed. "I...I was just asking. I wonder if it would be possible to sell them in my shop? Consider it as getting supplies from you."
That was exactly what Yin Lan and Chen Yourun had planned.
However, some things need to be clarified. Chen Yourun stood up and said, "Of course, but we have a condition. If Manager Liu agrees, then the deal can be done."
He was tall, and his imposing presence when he stood up made even the seasoned shopkeeper Liu feel somewhat intimidated.
Chen Yourun said, "First of all, we will also sell this ourselves. Since we are not offering dine-in service for the time being, the price will be relatively low. Your price cannot be lower than our price."
"No problem."
Since dining in also offers other services, customers generally accept that the prices are a bit higher.
"We may not only supply you with one supplier, but we can guarantee that everyone who buys from us will get the same price."
"That's good, of course." Manager Liu had no objections.
"Also, you can supply goods to others, and you can add any markup you want."
Manager Liu's eyes lit up.
Yin Lan stepped forward and said, “The most important thing is that all our braised dishes must be served on specific plates, and you will need to pay for that.”
Zhang Zirui's request was a piece of cake, and it wouldn't affect Manager Liu at all, so he agreed without even thinking about it.
Yin Lan and Chen Yourun exchanged a glance. The deal was done just like that? They hadn't expected it to be so easy.
Both parties also brought in a clerk to write down all the agreed-upon terms in black and white, sign and seal them, and the matter was considered settled.
The two parties agreed that the next day, Yin Lan and Chen Yourun would deliver twenty catties of braised food to Jiqinglou, with a purchase price of two hundred wen per catty.
This price is actually not low at all, but it is very cheap for Jiqinglou. After all, a serving of their braised food costs about two coins, but they can sell it for one hundred and fifty coins. One jin is ten liang, which means five fen of braised food can be sold for seven hundred and fifty coins. The purchase price is two hundred coins, so they can make a profit of five hundred and fifty coins directly, which is a very good profit.
However, they also have to pay for rent, labor, and other expenses.
As for what Yin Lan sells herself at her stall, it's 100 coins for half a catty, which is much cheaper than the price in restaurants, but more expensive than the purchase price.
After all, this requires her to sell some labor, so it will naturally be more expensive, but still cheaper than restaurants. After all, she needs to build a reputation for being the source of goods, so she needs to offer certain discounts so that people will know and recognize her.
This is equivalent to standing on the head of a "giant" to promote oneself, having one's own products in various restaurants, and others having to pay for them to purchase these products.
Of course, not many restaurants are ordering from them right now, since it's just the beginning and things will have to take time. However, Yin Lan is confident in her braised dishes. It's all thanks to the fact that this place in this era doesn't have spices yet, and the people here don't understand branding at all, that they were able to agree so readily. If it were in Yin Lan's previous modern times, how could such a good thing have happened?
As for the plates, Chen Yourun didn't quite understand why it was necessary to go to such lengths; this is a typical example of how people here don't understand branding.
The plates made by Yin Lan all have uniform requirements, such as the logo, slogan, and even the color scheme must all be consistent.
When the two of them returned home that evening, Yin Lan took out the writing brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones she had bought for the children at home and pulled Chen Yourun to work on these things together. First, they needed to come up with a design. Yin Lan herself was not good at painting, and while Chen Yourun could write, he had never studied painting.
So, in the end, we simply used a pig's tail or something that looked like pig intestines, drawn by Yin Lan, and made it go around in a circle. Okay, let's just use it as a slogan. As for the color, since it's food, it's best to use warm colors, so we chose orange.
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