Chapter 240 - 205: Holding Down the Fort and Riding the Wind and Breaking the Waves

Chapter 240: Chapter 205: Holding Down the Fort and Riding the Wind and Breaking the Waves

Seeing the Golden Dragon Braised Shop reminded him of the Golden Dragon Fast Food Restaurant, which in turn brought to mind the Hai City Delivery Association. From there, his thoughts drifted to the association’s president, Boss Ren of Yipin Xiang Fast Food Restaurant, and finally, to a conversation he’d overheard at Hai City Bank.

’I wonder if Boss Ren has managed to get that delivery platform he was talking about up and running.’ Some time had passed since then.

After sending a quick reply to Zhang Dezhen telling him not to worry, Xu An opened a group chat called "Hai City Delivery Ordering."

A girl named Lin Mengjuan from the "Xu’s Fast Food" group chat had added him to this one. She had most likely added the wrong person, but Xu An hadn’t left. He often lurked, reading the messages to see which restaurant they ordered from most frequently.

Unsurprisingly, the restaurant that appeared most frequently in their chats was Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant. Out of every ten comments about a fast-food joint, almost seven were about his.

He had just opened the group chat and hadn’t even had a chance to scroll up through the history when a member posted a "fresh off the press" photo and a message.

The photo was of a spicy, savory barbecue meal packed in a disposable container. What caught Xu An’s eye, however, was the simple delivery slip stapled to the plastic bag underneath the container.

The slip had only three lines of information: the name of the barbecue shop, the recipient’s name, and the recipient’s phone number. There was nothing else on it.

’Boss Ren really isn’t on the ball. A delivery slip is a great way to reinforce the brand with the customer, yet he didn’t even put the platform’s logo on it.’

He closed the photo and returned to the chat, where the group members were already in a heated discussion. Many were asking which platform had launched this service and if there was a link.

As soon as someone asked, an enthusiastic netizen immediately dropped a link into the chat.

’Well, that saves me some trouble. No need to hunt for the platform myself.’ Xu An clicked the link without hesitation. However, the webpage wasn’t optimized for mobile, making it a bit difficult to view on his phone.

The homepage looked normal, no different from any other delivery website. A large platform logo was at the top, with a list of participating merchants below.

Currently, there were forty-three merchants on the platform. Over thirty of them were members of the Hai City Delivery Association, while the remaining few sold all sorts of things—spicy hot pot, barbecue, and even hand-pulled pancakes.

He randomly clicked on a restaurant, and the page jumped to the merchant’s storefront. Suddenly, the expression on Xu An’s face faltered.

’Well, how should I put this... You couldn’t say it’s just similar. It’s an exact, pixel-perfect copy of my own restaurant’s ordering page!’

From the merchant logo at the top, to the menu display, to the fields for contact information, address, and phone number, and even the payment page—there wasn’t a single difference...

’Wait a minute. Weren’t you guys supposed to be referencing the "Let’s Eat" platform? How could you end up copying the product from my little workshop instead?’

Suddenly, a possibility occurred to Xu An. ’It’s not that the person in charge of this platform didn’t want to copy "Let’s Eat" completely. But time was tight and the task was urgent, so they could only pick on me, the low-hanging fruit. More likely, the person in charge found Ye Ning and directly bought the code from him.’

To confirm his suspicion, Xu An found Ye Ning’s contact information and sent him a message.

"God Ye, has anyone hired you to build a delivery platform recently?~"

"Not recently. What’s up? Does Boss Xu have a new project for me?" Ye Ning’s reply was as fast as ever, as if he lived inside his computer.

"I just saw a delivery platform in Hai City. Its pages and functions look a lot like mine, so I thought maybe they hired you to build it too (haha)."

"Really? Send me the link!"

Xu An sent Ye Ning the link to the "Speedy Delivery" website. About a minute later, a new message arrived from Ye Ning.

"It really is identical..."

"Now I remember. Not long after I finished your delivery page, Boss Xu... hmm, less than a week later, someone commissioned me for the exact same thing..."

’Less than a week? Doesn’t that mean Boss Ren started planning this more than two weeks ago? He must have had his eye on me the moment I launched the service.’

’Boss Ren has a good eye, but I wonder if his backer is powerful enough. Will he be able to survive the scramble for customers after the market has been carved up?’

In his past life, seven or eight delivery platforms, all backed by major investors and huge capital, had entered a war for customers. Their monthly statements were all in the red, and they threw money around like it was scrap paper.

How fiercely did they throw money around? Back then, Xu An had used a single phone number to eat free delivery for half a month across all seven or eight of those platforms...

In fact, when Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant first launched its delivery service, Xu An had considered creating a full-fledged delivery platform like "Let’s Eat," but he ultimately dismissed the idea.

’Even with my knowledge of the future, it would be difficult to go head-to-head with big capital unless I won a lottery worth hundreds of millions or found a major financial backer. But investors are capitalists, not philanthropists. They wouldn’t give me money for no reason. Even if I managed to build the company and the platform, it would be another question entirely whether I’d have any say in it later on.’

He had wavered occasionally at the beginning, but as Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant started earning more and more money, the thought faded.

This train of thought reminded Xu An of his conversation with Wang Fulong a few days ago about the Brocade Hotel.

Xu An couldn’t quite recall the beginning of their conversation, but he clearly remembered Wang Fulong saying that a full third of the Brocade Hotel’s annual revenue came from group meals!

What were group meals? It was exactly like what Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant was doing now, providing meals for the Aisha Clothing Company and the Hai City Machinery Equipment Exhibition. These all fell under the category of group meals.

Expanding the scope, things like government agencies, public institutions, large-scale events and conferences, schools of all levels, and major corporations—all of their bulk meal orders were considered group meals.

The current Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant had, almost without realizing it, already gotten one foot in the door of this market.

’Next, with the experience from these two catering contracts, plus an old hand like Wang Fulong who has extensive experience in bidding for group meal contracts, most bids should be a piece of cake for Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant—as long as the winner isn’t predetermined or an opponent plays dirty.’

’Considering the future market monopoly held by the two major delivery platforms, and analyzing the current situation, I can draw one conclusion: retail is a dead end. Group meals are the best path forward for Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant.’

’Of course, I can’t put all my eggs in one basket. While Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant will take the slow and steady route, Xu’s Braised Shop must try to expand—out of Hai City, and beyond Haiyang Province...’

DRIP—

A droplet of water, hanging from the faucet for a long time, finally gathered enough weight. It broke free from the surface tension and fell into the bright red plastic basin below with a crisp, clear sound.

The sound jolted Xu An from his deep thoughts.

’Heh, wasn’t I just thinking about what Zhang Dezhen said about the Golden Dragon Braised Shop? How did my thoughts wander so far off, all the way to the future business strategies for both of my shops?’

Xu An smiled and shook his head. He closed the chat window, took out a notebook, and wrote a line in it.

Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant, guarding the home front; Xu’s Braised Shop, braving the new frontiers!

"Big brother, it’s time for bed! You have to take us to kindergarten tomorrow!" Xu Kang and Xu Le were leaning against the bedroom windowsill, standing on tiptoe and waving energetically at Xu An, their faces full of excitement. It was impossible to say how much they were looking forward to it.

Kindergarten was so much fun last time! They had made new friends, and tomorrow they would get to see them and play together again!

"Okay, I’m coming!" Hearing their calls, Xu An put away his notebook, stood up from his rocking chair, and started walking toward the house.

A cool night breeze swept past Xu An and drifted into the distance. His steps faltered for a moment, and a thoughtful expression crossed his face.

’It’s September now, and the weather is gradually cooling down. It’s about time I put buying insulated food carts on the agenda...’

"Big brother! Hurry up!" Seeing Xu An pause, the two called out again.

"Coming, coming!" This time, Xu An didn’t stop, walking straight into the room to read a picture book to the two little ones.

To the sound of Xu An’s soothing voice, the two slowly closed their eyes and drifted off to sleep. Who knows what delicious things they were dreaming of, but their little mouths smacked contentedly, looking absolutely adorable...

’What a pair of little gluttons.’ Xu An reached out and pulled the cord on the bedside lamp, plunging the room into darkness. He too, under the gentle breeze of the fan, soon fell into a deep sleep.