Chapter 243: Li Xiaoyan is Happy, Jiang Liu’s Shop Has a Competitor
Chapter 243: Chapter 243: Li Xiaoyan is Happy, Jiang Liu’s Shop Has a Competitor
"The food we make every day might not be perfectly consistent. The ingredients can vary for all sorts of reasons, so the taste will be a little different..."
"But it doesn’t really affect anything! Anyway, I’m making everything according to our restaurant’s standards!"
The restaurants he used to work at were never this much trouble; everything was just assembly-line production.
After listening to the chef’s explanation,
Li Xiaoyan sneered.
"Then why were we making over 10,000 in profit every day for the past few days, but today it’s only 3,000? You tell me what’s going on. Are you stupid, or am I?"
The chef was speechless.
"How should I know?"
"’How should I know?’ I think you must have left your brain at home!"
Li Xiaoyan was furious.
"Do you have any idea how expensive the rent is for this place? It’s a 200-square-meter restaurant! I paid hundreds of thousands for the renovations alone, and the monthly rent is over 110,000! Add in all the other costs, and we’re losing five or six thousand a day. Are you here to play house with me?"
She now had three restaurants. One was losing 6,000, and if all three were in the red, that would be nearly 20,000 a day.
Who could possibly sustain losses like that?
An assistant chef to the side analyzed the situation. "President Li, could it be because of the rain? Also, a new steamed bun shop opened about two kilometers away. I was outside having a smoke when I heard a few of our customers saying they’d brave the rain on their electric scooters just to go eat there."
"They’re probably the ones who stole our customers, which is why our business has gotten so bad!"
The new shop was two kilometers east of Jiang Liu’s old restaurant, and Yang Yixue’s restaurant was two kilometers away from that new shop.
"A new bun shop opened? And it stole our customers?"
Li Xiaoyan looked skeptical.
She was in a group chat for local business owners.
It covered all the goings-on, big and small, in the area.
How could she not know about a new store opening?
The assistant chef said, "That’s right. I think it just opened today. It’s not far, just over on Huaidong Road, in an alley with a utility pole."
Without another word, Li Xiaoyan grabbed her bag and walked out.
She had to see it for herself.
She absolutely had to.
She got in her car. The roads were clear, and in less than five minutes, Li Xiaoyan arrived in front of Xiaotong’s Restaurant.
She parked on the side of the road, rolled down her window, and peered inside. The sight almost took her breath away.
Rage!
She was absolutely livid!
"On what grounds?!"
"How does this place deserve so many customers!"
From Li Xiaoyan’s vantage point, she had a clear view of the entire restaurant interior.
Dozens of tables were packed with people, and a dozen more customers were lined up at the kitchen window.
Some customers, unable to find a table, had spread paper on the floor and were sitting on the ground, using their laps as tables.
Li Xiaoyan was fuming with jealousy.
Her location was better, her decor more luxurious.
On what grounds was her business worse than theirs!?
Moreover, the sharp-eyed Li Xiaoyan recognized a few familiar faces.
They were clearly her customers!!!
Li Xiaoyan pulled out her phone and furiously messaged Yang Yixue. "Did Jiang Liu screw you over? Why is the third restaurant’s business so terrible??"
"Today, I heard from one of my workers that a new shop opened two kilometers away. I skipped lunch just to come check it out. Who knew their business would be so much better than ours? A lot of our customers have been poached! It’s pissing your mother off to no end!"
"(Photo)"
On the other end, Yang Yixue was shaking hands with a middle-aged man.
"To a smooth partnership!"
"I wish you swift success!"
Leaving the restaurant, Yang Yixue couldn’t stop the corners of her mouth from curling up.
Just moments ago, she had sold one of her well-established beauty salons—one she had been running for several years—to a Mr. Li, handing over the machines, facilities, employees, and daily chemical supply channels all in one go.
Total proceeds: 13 million!
After all, the salon was making hundreds of thousands a month. When you factored in the real estate, renovations, staff, and other miscellaneous assets, it could all be liquidated, which was why it sold for over ten million.
’Right, tomorrow I need to go to the bank and see how much I can get for mortgaging the properties...’
Yang Yixue took out her phone and was slightly surprised to see her mother’s message.
She hadn’t expected that besides Jiang Liu’s restaurant, there was another one so formidable.
Just today, business at her first restaurant hadn’t been great either, with overall sales dropping by a third, but Yang Yixue hadn’t paid it much mind.
It was a rainy day, after all; it was normal for sales to dip.
One of her restaurants could make 10,000 a day, which was hundreds of thousands a month. If she had twenty restaurants, ten million a month wouldn’t be a dream!
Yang Yixue casually replied, "This place must be something special, to have so many people in this weather."
Li Xiaoyan: "You’re telling me. A lot of our own customers went there. It makes me sick to my stomach just looking at it."
Yang Yixue: "It’s fine. You have to be patient in business. You’re only seeing the surface. Could it be they’re running a promotion? Or using some special marketing tactics?"
"Don’t worry, Mom. You said yourself it’s a new store. This kind of thing is common for grand openings. There’s a very high chance their traffic will drop off sharply in a couple of days!"
Li Xiaoyan felt a sense of relief. Watching a competitor make money was more painful to her than death.
"You’re right, I was getting ahead of myself. Our new stores will also attract a huge crowd when they open."
"I noticed this place is pretty close to that Jiang Family pauper’s shop. To be honest, I’m actually happy to see someone competing with that pauper. It’d be best if they fought to the death."
Ever since she saw Jiang Liu making money, and especially after his daughter had cut ties with her,
Li Xiaoyan had grown to despise the Jiang Family more and more.
One was cruel and ungrateful, and the daughter he raised was just the same.
She was the grandmother, yet that unfilial granddaughter wouldn’t even say a single word to her.
It was infuriating!
She was now desperate to crush the very same family of paupers she used to look down on.
Yang Yixue replied: "Don’t even think about it. It’s no exaggeration to say Jiang Liu’s steamed buns are world-class. Even if this new shop is good, there’s no way it’s on a level to compete with him."
Yang Yixue hadn’t been idle these past few days either.
Whenever she had free time, she would drive by Jiang Liu’s restaurant.
To her astonishment,
Jiang Liu’s customer traffic was growing more exaggerated by the day.
She had even specifically assigned an employee to count the people at the entrance.
Just yesterday, they had returned with a shocking number: a customer flow of 5,000 people!
Of course, that 5,000 wasn’t the number of people who entered the shop, but the number of people who came to Jiang Liu’s storefront wanting to buy his buns.
That’s how Yang Yixue came to understand that no one could defeat Jiang Liu. Only he could defeat himself.
Yang Yixue sat down in her BMW, casually tossing the contract onto the passenger seat.
She sent another message to Li Xiaoyan: "Mom, how about this: you go inside, get in line, and buy one of everything they sell. Bring it back so we can analyze it."
She didn’t dare compete with Jiang Liu, but was she supposed to be afraid of this ordinary little shop too?
Li Xiaoyan replied, displeased, "It’s raining outside, and I’m wearing a dress. It’s so cold! You really don’t care about your poor mother at all."
Forcing her to squeeze in with a bunch of working stiffs to buy buns was just too degrading. If any of her friends saw, they’d think she, Li Xiaoyan, had gone broke.
Yang Yixue frowned.
’Mom is so stupid and lazy.’
She had sold the flagship beauty salon she’d poured her heart and soul into for the sake of these bun shops. Now that a competitor had appeared, her mom was going to pass up the chance to analyze them just because it was cold?
"Sigh..."
Letting out a sigh, Yang Yixue didn’t insist. "Fine. I see delivery drivers at their door. I can probably figure things out by checking what they sell on the platform. What’s the name of the restaurant?"
Li Xiaoyan: "Never mind, I’ll look. I can’t let you handle everything."
Li Xiaoyan opened a food delivery app and searched for "Xiaotong’s Restaurant."
Sure enough, it popped up.
She scrolled through it casually.
Li Xiaoyan typed:
"Daughter, I’ve looked at it. Their shop seems to be a copycat of Jiang Liu’s, with steamed buns, ’nutritious’ congee, and a few common stir-fried dishes. Besides the cheap prices, there’s nothing special about it."
"I see on the delivery app that the buns are two yuan each, and they have a ’buy more, get more free’ deal. The delivery fee is eight yuan for up to three kilometers."