National Tide 1980.

In this world, there are always people who are happy and people who are sad.

Just as the global capital market was experiencing turbulence and the Guo Group was anxious and worried about the reputation of its hotels, Wang Dadong, a Chinese-American businessman far away in Beijing, was excited and extremely happy.

It was not for any other reason, but because after he became the president of Kentucky Far East, he wanted to open a store in Beijing as soon as possible and introduce the American fast food Kentucky to Beijing.

Not only did he invest all the money he earned in the mainland, he even sold all his stocks in the U.S. capital market to invest in businesses in the mainland.

This inadvertently allowed him to avoid the stock market crash that swept the world.

In addition, his work on opening a store in Beijing was indeed progressing smoothly.

Because Best's president, Jane Doyle, fully authorized him, he was given money and people when he asked for them, and he also helped him obtain approval from the top leaders of the Republic and obtained certain policy support.

The first store that Wang Dadong is planning to build in Qianmen, the most prosperous area in the capital of the Republic, is basically ready.

As long as the new store in Qianmen opens successfully, his own career will begin a new journey.

His current expectations for his future career are no longer as simple as opening a few thriving medium-sized fast food restaurants in a second-tier city like Tianjin and earning one million RMB a year from mainland China.

With the strong backing of Best Inc., he is gearing up to conquer the fast food market in all first-tier cities in the Republic.

Presumably, with his "profitable" business philosophy and his understanding of the mainland's situation over the years, Kentucky will surely become the future overlord of the mainland's fast food industry in the next few years, and successfully help PepsiCo open up the mainland's beverage market, which has been reluctant to open up.

And he will definitely become a hero in the American fast food industry. With this achievement, he will prove to Jan Doyle, who promoted him, that he has lived up to his belief and is definitely a qualified president of the Far East region.

And he is respected by his American colleagues and emulated by future generations.

…………

In 1987, the first snow in Beijing came earlier than usual.

As early as October 10, the first snow fell in Beijing, setting a record for the second earliest snowfall in the city's history.

November 11th was the day when the first Kentucky fast food restaurant planned by Wang Dadong opened in Beijing.

The temperature in the capital city dropped suddenly that day and became very low, and snowflakes began to fall from the sky again.

Needless to say, in such cold weather, it is best to stay indoors.

So when Wang Dadong came out of the hotel in the morning, he regretted that the advertising was not strong enough. He only broadcast the advertisement on the radio station for a few days in advance. He was worried that the new store might not be well received when it opened today and might not be as successful as expected.

But when he took a taxi to Qianmen West Street, he immediately felt at ease.

Because he hadn't gotten off the car yet, he could see from the car window that a crowd of people were gathering in front of the new store at No. 1 Zhengyang Market.

The opening ceremony has not yet been held, but people who have come to watch the fun are almost crowding under the big red "Kentucky Chicken" restaurant sign.

The taxi driver was still puzzled, talking to himself that it was strange, as he had never seen so many people gathered here.

What happened next was just as Wang Dadong had expected.

Before the opening ceremony officially began, the number of onlookers continued to increase. They seemed to be residents living nearby, as well as some people from other places who were on business trips to Beijing.

Anyway, the most attractive Western scene was the photo of American fast food and a big balloon with Colonel Sanders' portrait on it, which was enough to help those who wanted to watch the fun overcome the cold wind and snow.

When the opening ceremony officially began, the US Ambassador to China Lord and representatives of the Beijing Municipal Government cut the ribbon for the first Kentucky restaurant in Beijing, and the invited Yangko team performed a festive performance in accordance with local customs.

The ordinary people who were watching the fun became even more excited, and their passion to participate increased.

In fact, before the opening ceremony items in front of the store were removed, thousands of people began to surround the store door, so much so that Wang Dadong was scared and had to shout to stop, preventing the staff from opening the door and letting people in.

It was all thanks to the presence of a city leader today, who called the police from Qianmen Police Station to come and maintain order.

A temporary rule was also made on the spot that customers could only queue outside and only a few people were allowed in at a time.

Finally, with the assistance and supervision of the public security personnel, two male KFC employees opened the door and used two metal poles to pull a rope to stop the crowd from queuing at the door to prevent anyone from cutting in line, thus ensuring the restoration of order.

So after a delay of nearly an hour and a long queue of several dozen meters outside the door, the Kentucky fast food restaurant finally opened its doors and started business.

Unexpectedly, the first few groups of guests that came in were really a mix of people.

Ordered the finger licking original chicken and asked the waiter for chopsticks.

Customers are not used to self-service food, and many of them sit at their seats waiting with their food trays in hand.

And there was actually someone who came in carrying a pot.

He came in without looking around, and the first thing he said was, "Hey, give me two Kentuckys!"

To be honest, this old man Jing's behavior made Wang Dadong laugh.

At this point, all the panic and worry disappeared, and what remained in his heart was only inexplicable excitement and surprise.

Because he never expected that the actual situation of the new store opening today would be even better than he expected. Such weather could attract so many people. This is a really good start.

And that’s not all. The price and taste issues that worried Wang Dadong the most did not even arise.

To be honest, due to the limitations of the supply chain in mainland China, the newly opened KFC actually didn't have much to sell.

For the time being, only eight products can be provided, including original chicken, mashed potatoes with chicken gravy, shredded vegetable salad, bread, Best Cola, 7UP, Mirinda, and beer.

At that time, Kentucky didn't even have hamburgers, only four kinds of food and four kinds of drinks.

In terms of the richness of product categories, it is not as good as the Hu Jihua fast food restaurant opened by Wang Dadong in Tianjin, not to mention that the prices are quite expensive.

A plate of original chicken costs two dollars and fifty cents, and a set meal of two original chickens + mashed potatoes with chicken sauce + shredded vegetable salad + a small bun costs seven dollars and thirty cents.

Compared with the annual income of only a thousand yuan for residents in mainland China at that time, Kentucky was definitely considered a high-consumption city.

There is no other way. Even the fine salt and potatoes in mainland China do not meet Kentucky's demand standards, so they can only rely on imports.

The key is that the cost of a single store is high, and if we don’t open more stores, the cost cannot be reduced at all.

To put it bluntly, Kentucky fast food has become a high-end consumption for people in Beijing.

If a family of three eats a big meal in Kentucky, half a month's salary of a section-level cadre will be gone.

Originally, Wang Dadong just wanted to make money from those who wanted to try something new. He thought that although the prices were a bit high, people in Beijing loved to follow fashion. As long as one-tenth of the people in this city were willing to patronize the restaurant once, the restaurant would be successful.

Even for most people in Beijing, it doesn’t matter as it will not become regular consumption.

Unexpectedly, few of these Beijing customers complained that the food was expensive. They seemed to like the "American" food. They thought that it was not too much to spend this price to taste American food. When they left, many of them said they would come again and would introduce it to their relatives and friends.

After tasting the food, customers gave very good feedback on the taste. They all felt satisfied, as if they had tasted a full and happy flavor.

In particular, many people seem to like food packaging and cartons.

After the meal, in order to continue the happiness they had here, they actually took the menus, paper boxes and paper cups back home.

Everything is much better than Wang Dadong had imagined, which shows people's satisfaction with this place.

It was even more terrible at five o'clock in the afternoon. Although the wind and snow became stronger and the weather became worse, more and more customers came.

After a while, the entire restaurant was full, and the line outside was getting longer and longer, with more and more people gathering.

It was not for any other reason, but because the "Beijing Evening News" that day published a brief news about the opening of KFC. The newspaper said "You can have a serving of American fried chicken for 5 yuan", which has been noticed by many people who live near Qianmen or need to pass by here.

Especially since this is the time when people get off work and go home, there are suddenly a lot of people. The queue in front of the store is so long that you can't even see the end of it. It is no longer comparable to the opening time in the morning.

And you have to know that this Kentucky store in Qianmen has three floors and a total area of ​​1,460 square meters.

The first and second floors are open to the public, with a total of 505 seats, and the third floor is used as an office.

6◇9◇Book◇Bar

In this era, this is the largest Kentucky restaurant in the world, and no one has ever done it.

Wang Dadong had estimated that when the restaurant became famous in the future, he would be happy as long as 70% of the seats were occupied at mealtime every day. However, the restaurant was fully occupied so easily on the first day. How could he not be shocked?
When Wang Dadong went out for a stroll in the wind and snow, he was even more surprised to find that the line was like a long dragon, circling outside and all the way to Zhengyang Tower before going east.

According to his own estimation, these customers have to wait almost two hours for a seat.

However, the people in the queue were only curious about what the American fried chicken sold in Kentucky looked like, and they were willing to move slowly in the wind and snow.

But is this chicken really that delicious?

Is Kentucky chicken really the best in Beijing?
Even Wang Dadong himself had to shake his head at this question.

Of course he knew that these people could also eat chicken at home, in many ways and at a very cheap price.

But in front of Kentucky's door, customers still came in droves and formed a long line outside the store, so police had to be dispatched to maintain order.

It's incredible that you have to stand outside for two hours in such a cold day just to eat this chicken.

All we can say is that his American fast food successfully aroused the curiosity of the people in Beijing. Most of the people here are not very knowledgeable and are attracted by the exotic customs, which is why they enjoy it so much.

However, does Wang Dadong really understand how attractive his fast food restaurant is to the people of Beijing?

That would be when the financial accounts are reviewed after closing time that evening.

KFC Qianmen restaurant only opened for the first day, and its daily sales reached more than 4 yuan, with fried chickens sold every day!

This achievement is unprecedented and ranks first among the 7700 KFC chains in the world.

Wang Dadong was so happy that he went crazy after getting this data from the report made by the accountant.

After everyone got off work, he couldn't help dancing in his office on the third floor.

At this point, he had no doubt that his career was really going to take off.

Especially the Qianmen location, he rented it for ten years, which was definitely a very cost-effective deal.

You know, at the beginning of his business, he once calculated a financial account.

He estimated that the rent of one thousand yuan a day would be profitable if it accounted for 20% of the turnover.

And with today's business performance, his rent has become 2% of his turnover!
what does this mean?
This means that he can make up to ten times or even twenty times the profit from this store alone.

This means that he has monopolized a huge consumer market that no one can imagine, and it will take less than three years to make a profit. Maybe one year will be enough.

After that, as long as he expands Kentucky stores across the mainland and opens them up in the streets and alleys, he will be able to soar to the sky, become a true billionaire, become a respected person in the industry, and even have the possibility of becoming a director of Best Inc.

What does it mean to be stupid and have a lot of money?
This is.

He really regretted it now, regretting that he was too petty at the beginning.

Why is the fast food restaurant located in Tianjin?

The customs and habits of Beijing are so generous, people don't care about details, but also like to find new things and are willing to spend money openly. Isn't that great?
I am still too conservative. Now it seems that opening an American fast food restaurant in Beijing is a risk-free thing.

There is nothing that can restrain him here. Who can compete with him?

He could have used all his tricks to make money and squeeze the wallets of the people in Beijing.

This is truly a treasure land.

To be honest, Wang Dadong was so happy at that time, and his self-confidence was rapidly increasing.

In his heart, he is one of the few smart people in the world.

Why invest in stocks? Those who speculate in stocks are all fools. How can they make as much money as he does by opening a gourmet restaurant in Beijing?

In the following days, the sales volume increased instead of decreased, and the unprecedented large number of people queuing up every day since the opening gave Wang Dadong enough confidence.

He became increasingly convinced that the popularity of his Kentucky business had a mass base and was by no means a flash in the pan.

In his eyes, he has obviously seized the opportunity for success and is about to ascend to the throne of the father of fast food in mainland China.

However, he didn't know that he was actually too optimistic.

Because there is actually a fast food chain in Beijing that was planned earlier than him. It not only has stronger financial strength, but also has more abundant products and lower prices than his, and its network of contacts is better than his.

Even the business model that he was proud of was no secret to the other party.

The reason why the other party has not opened for business yet is simply because they are temporarily short of qualified staff. They don't want to rush into it, but want to make the fast food restaurant into a real brand.

Even its head is counting the profits from shorting Lazard Investment Bank in the United States and will soon return to Beijing with millions of dollars in capital.

By then, his good days would most likely be over, and if things go wrong the other party might make him know the pain of a fatal blow as soon as the business opens.

What's more, when Wang Dadong was feeling fortunate for his current situation, he seemed to be too lacking in sympathy and didn't care enough about other people's feelings.

He successfully avoided the damage caused by the stock market crash by luck, but what about those who did not?
If he knew that among those who were hurt, even his nephew Zhao Hanyu was included, how would he feel? (End of this chapter)