Chapter 63 Restaurant Competition
Chu Yichen entered his own restaurant. It was time for lunch, but there were only a few tables of guests eating in the restaurant. He couldn't help feeling a little worried.
Shopkeeper Zhou was probably in the kitchen supervising work, as he was not seen at the counter.
Chu Yichen went straight up to the second floor and entered a private room in the attic that he often visited. He instructed the servant Yuan Ji behind him, "Tell Manager Zhou to come to the room to see me immediately after he finishes his work."
"Yes, young master." After receiving the order, Yuanji immediately went downstairs to find Manager Zhou.
A quarter of an hour later, Shopkeeper Zhou finally finished the work at hand.
"Young Master, what do you want me to do for you?" Shopkeeper Zhou walked into the private room and asked respectfully.
"Our restaurant's sales dropped significantly yesterday, and the number of customers eating lunch today seems to be much less than yesterday. The newly opened Jixiang Restaurant across the street has a great impact on us. Do you have any good suggestions?"
As soon as Shopkeeper Zhou entered the private room, Qianhuan followed him upstairs. She came to deliver chestnuts to Chu Yichen. The waiter took her to the second floor, pointed to a specific room, and went downstairs to do his own thing.
Qianhuan walked to the door of the private room by herself. Just as she raised her hand to knock on the door, she heard the voice of the young master complaining about the declining performance of the restaurant.
Qianhuan put down her hand that was about to knock on the door. The people inside were talking about something, and it might not be appropriate for her to go in at this time.
She wanted to wait a little further away, after all, eavesdropping was not a good thing. But when the other party mentioned the Jixiang Restaurant, she couldn't help but move closer to the door, wanting to hear more news.
"Young Master, I've asked someone to find out. The restaurant across the street has all the dishes we have. They also have many new dishes we don't have. And for the same dishes as ours, each one is two or three cents cheaper. How about we try lowering the price as well?"
"What if we lower the price and they follow suit? Can we continue to lower the price? Is there no other way?"
Chu Yichen feels that lowering prices can only suppress competitors in the short term, but it is not a long-term solution.
Furthermore, if vicious competition occurs, the two restaurants will keep lowering their prices, and there will not be enough profit margins, then the quality of the dishes will be affected, and the losses will be even greater. Price wars cannot solve the fundamental problem.
"If we can't lower the price, we can only think of researching new dishes. However, it is not easy to research a new dish. I have discussed it with several chefs today, but unfortunately they haven't come up with any good new dishes yet." Shopkeeper Zhou said with a frown.
"Old Zhou, I'll leave it to you to work with the chefs to research new dishes. You must come up with a few new dishes as soon as possible. The impact of the Jixiang Restaurant across the street on our business is really too great. If it continues like this, our restaurant may have to close down within a month."
"Young Master, I understand. I will ask the chefs to come up with new dishes as soon as possible."
Shopkeeper Zhou felt a lot of pressure. How could it be easy to research new dishes? But he still agreed despite the pressure. He was the son of the Chu family. He would prosper and suffer together with the master family. Only when the Chu family was well, he would be well.
"You go and do your work first. Let the waiter provide more considerate service and make sure to keep our old customers."
"Yes, Young Master, I will take my leave now."
Hearing Shopkeeper Zhou's voice as he was leaving, Qianhuan quickly took several steps back. When Shopkeeper Zhou opened the door, Qianhuan pretended to have just gone upstairs and said, "Shopkeeper Zhou, is your young master in the room? I came here specially to deliver chestnuts."
"Yes, please wait a moment, I'll go in and report first." Manager Zhou was about to turn back to the room to report.
"Old Zhou, let her in." Chu Yichen had heard the noise outside a long time ago, and he recognized it as the voice of the small vendor.
"Young Master Liang, our young master will let you in."
"Okay, thank you, Manager Zhou."
Qianhuan entered the room and saw a young man in white sitting at a table by the window sipping tea. He had a slightly frown on his face and looked like he was worried about something. It was obvious that the existence of the restaurant opposite had caused him considerable pressure.
The servant Yuanji stood beside him, holding a teapot and pouring tea into the empty teacup next to his master.
"Young Master, I'm here to deliver chestnuts. These are the ten kilograms of chestnuts you asked for." Qianhuan said in a deliberately hoarse voice.
"Yuanji, give her the money." Chu Yichen's mind was full of ways to improve the restaurant's business. Without even looking at Qianhuan, he casually told Yuanji behind him to pay.
"Yes, sir." Yuanji put down the teapot, took out a purse from his arms and counted out 100 copper coins to Qianhuan.
Qianhuan took the copper coin and handed the chestnut to Yuanji.
She couldn't help but secretly look up at the young man in white in front of her, only to see that his handsome face was full of worry. Although he was only about fifteen years old, he exuded a maturity that was inconsistent with his age.
Qianhuan suddenly felt like helping him. Although her cooking skills in modern times were not very good, she had been to many high-end hotels and five-star restaurants, and had eaten many high-end and exquisite dishes. She knew a lot about the theory of cooking, but she had rarely put it into practice.
This Jixiang Restaurant smashed their stall today, and Manager Zhou stepped forward to help them. He researched new dishes to help the young master of the Chu family. On the one hand, it was a way of repaying a favor, and on the other hand, it was also like helping his family to get revenge, killing two birds with one stone.
Qianhuan stared at Chu Yichen's direction, lost in thought, and forgot to leave after taking the copper coins.
Seeing him staring at his young master in a daze, Yuanji couldn't help but remind him, "Young Master, the money has been given to you."
"Oh, okay, thank you. I'll be leaving now."
Qianhuan came to her senses and quickly said goodbye and left the private room.
"Sir, this little vendor is really interesting. He was staring at you in a trance just now. Although you are as handsome as Pan An, it is usually women who stare at you in a daze. This is the first time I have seen a grown man staring at you in a daze like this. Could he be a rabbit god?"
Yuanji said with a smile. He also knew that his master was in a bad mood, so he deliberately changed the subject to tease him.
Unexpectedly, when Chu Yichen heard it, he immediately scolded unhappily: "Yuanji, don't make such jokes again in the future, otherwise, I will punish you to copy books."
"Yes, sir, Yuanji knows he was wrong." Yuanji immediately lowered his head and admitted his mistake. He hated copying books the most. It seemed that the joke he made today was a bit inappropriate.
Qianhuan came down from upstairs and asked the waiter for a menu of Zuixianju. After reading it, she had a rough idea of which modern dishes were not available here.
When she returned to the stall, she said to Liu: "Mom, we are closing the stall today. Let's go to the fishmonger and buy some fish to eat at home. I want to eat fish."
"Okay. If you want to eat it, we can buy it."
Business in the afternoon was not as good as in the morning, mainly due to the big price cuts at Boss Liang’s stall. Fortunately, there were still some old customers who cared about the quality and taste of chestnuts and came to patronize the business.
After closing the stall, Qianhuan and Liu went to the fishmonger and chose a big grass carp. Qianhuan also bought a lot of red peppers and ginger and garlic.
"Mom, let's go buy some more flour and go home. I learned a new dish in my dream, and I plan to go back home tonight to make it for you and dad to try."
In ancient times, no one sold ready-made noodles, so people could only buy flour and make their own hand-rolled noodles.
"Good." Liu was very happy to hear that her daughter had learned something new in her dream.
The two bought dozens of kilograms of flour and then took a ox cart home.