Rebirth: Starting from the Cafeteria

Liang Meiqin is not the kind of person who likes to exaggerate, so her words immediately attracted Du Shaojie's attention.

"Oh? Then tell me what our fatal flaw is?"

"In fact, you know very well that our labor costs are too high. I have inquired about it. The salary and bonus of our kitchen staff, service staff, and even my manager are much higher than that of [Shuxianglou]."

Only Liang Meiqin would say such words to Du Shaojie. She would not even consider her own personal gains and losses, and would only consider the issue from the other person's perspective.

And this kind of thing can only be said in private, otherwise it will cause people to be uneasy.

Once income goes up, it is difficult to bring it down.
"Mikoto, thank you for your reminder! However, [Nishikawa Restaurant] belongs not only to me, but also to everyone.

I promised them that I would give them a good life, so I cannot save on this salary."

Du Shaojie has always emphasized the need to give employees generous treatment and to use the best ingredients.

He said it and did it, so everyone believed in him and were willing to work hard for him.

The restaurant is facing fierce competition now, but he will not make a fuss about the employees' income. At worst, they will earn less, but he is not short of money anyway.

"Just be aware of it. I'm just reminding you."

Liang Meiqin admired this man from the bottom of her heart. Not only did he pull herself and her family out of the darkness, but he also built more families.

This is the other party's advantage and disadvantage at the same time.

The business world is like a battlefield. Under fierce competition from rivals, the level of cost is undoubtedly an important factor in determining victory or defeat.

Du Shaojie is unwilling to reduce costs and is actually at a disadvantage.

[Xichuan Restaurant] Once it loses its advantage in the fierce competition, the pressure of cost will become its fatal weakness and it will not be able to last long.

Of course, if Du Shaojie is willing to continuously "transfuse blood" with his personal funds, that would be another matter.

"Don't worry too much. I have five [Xichuan Restaurants] in total. Unless [Shuxianglou] intends to fight against me in an all-out way, otherwise, the local loss will not shake my foundation."

Du Shaojie knew what Liang Meiqin was thinking and told her his plan directly.

To put it bluntly, even if the Yangcheng store of Xichuan Restaurant does not make money or even makes a loss, he can make up for it with the profits of other stores.

Many times, victory depends on who has the last laugh.

"I see. I was worried for nothing. I'm going to take a shower. Please come up early."

Liang Meiqin smiled sweetly, cleaned up the mess, and went upstairs.

Du Shaojie sat in the yard and drank a cup of tea, then went to practice cooking a few dishes in the simulated scene before going upstairs to rest.

In the following period, Shuxianglou came up with various tricks one after another. Taking advantage of the opening ceremony to reward customers, there were waves of preferential activities.

At the same time, the other party also put forward the slogan of "eat healthy, new-style Sichuan cuisine", attracting many customers who pursue fashion and like novelty.

"Damn it, after all this, the end result is still a price war?"

Liao Yongxin and Zhou Huai'en are both old foxes. Although Shuxianglou shouts out various slogans, its actual means of attracting customers are still various discounts.

It is essentially a low-price promotion.

To be honest, whether it is the taste of the dishes or the quality of the ingredients, Xichuan Restaurant is slightly better. Relying on novelty and marketing can only be strong for a while, and when the novelty wears off, it will still be beaten back to its original state.

But the price advantage may become the key to victory or defeat.

"Should we also do some promotional activities?"

Liang Meiqin had applied several times and planned to have a discount promotion, but was rejected by Du Shaojie, Liao Yongxin and Zhou Huai'en every time.

Seeing that the business was being affected more and more, she could no longer sit still and once again came up with a preferential promotion plan.

Liao Yongxin and Zhou Huai'en didn't say anything this time, which was considered as tacit agreement with Liang Meiqin's idea. This is called the situation is stronger than the person, no matter how much they cursed, they had to compete with the other party on price.

"We can organize some activities, but we definitely won't engage in a price war. Mikoto, I've also written a promotion plan, take a look at it, and then we can discuss it."

Du Shaojie is only against price wars, but not against promotional activities.

Liang Meiqin was very anxious. She took the other party's plan and read it on the spot. After she finished reading one page, she handed it to Zhou Huai'en and Liao Yongxin. It was obvious that she had made up her mind to settle this matter today.

It took a long time for the three of them to finish reading Du Shaojie's plan.

"Since you have all read it, let me briefly explain it. Rather than saying it is a promotion, it is more like a long-term business strategy. The focus is not on price cuts, but on increasing customer stickiness."

Du Shaojie briefly explained the contents of the plan.

The first is to implement a "membership system". Members can join for free, and points will be calculated for each consumption. When the points accumulate to a certain amount, they can be exchanged for small gifts.

Secondly, members are divided into different levels, such as "Bronze Member", "Silver Member", "Gold Member", "Diamond Member" and so on.

According to different levels, you enjoy different rights and interests.

For example, the highest level "Diamond Member" enjoys 18 privileges including "priority for reservations", "birthday wishes", "chef's cuisine", and "New Year gifts".

In addition, if you activate the member deposit function, you can get free consumption money by depositing money. For every 100 yuan recharge, you can get 10 yuan consumption money. The consumption money can be spent normally in the store.

There are many other small tricks, such as setting the 6th of every month as Member's Day, on which day several discounted dishes will be launched at very low prices and all members can enjoy them.

These marketing methods, which became commonplace in later generations, shocked Liang Meiqin and others at the time.

"I don't know what's wrong with your brain, these ideas are absolutely amazing!"

Liao Yongxin gave a thumbs up and Zhou Huai'en nodded repeatedly.

They finally realized that Du Shaojie's plan was undoubtedly much more sophisticated than simply engaging in a price war.

The core of it is the "membership system", which binds customers through stored value discounts and then impresses customers with high-quality services.

Liang Meiqin was very excited. She spent two days perfecting the plan and then started to implement it.

It didn't take long for the effect to gradually show up, at least the turnover was temporarily stabilized. But it didn't return to its peak so quickly, after all, [Shuxianglou] was determined to fight a price war, and without a price advantage, it would definitely lose some customers.

Du Shaojie was very confident in the cooking skills of Liao Yongxin and others. He focused on the service and ingredients for a while, and then went to Shenzhen.

The competition between two restaurants of similar level and strength cannot be decided in a day or two. It is a long process that requires patience and perseverance.

His visit to Shenzhen this time was mainly at the invitation of Cai Jing to attend the delivery ceremony of buildings 1 and 2 of the residential community project.

There are not many commercial houses for sale in the Special Administrative Region at present. As soon as Cai Jing’s “Nanshanyuan” community was launched, it was warmly sought after.

Most of the houses were bought by people from Hong Kong, and the unit price of houses was raised to around 1200 yuan per square meter.

Despite such a high price, it is still difficult to find a room.

"Ajie, I will convert the money you paid me into 8% of the company's shares. Take a look at these documents. If you have no objection, sign here."

Du Shaojie arrived at Cai Jing's office in advance, and the other party took out a document for him to sign.

He then flipped through it and signed the document without hesitation.

"Sister Cai, you go ahead and do your work. I'm leaving now. I will be there on time for the delivery ceremony tomorrow morning."

Seeing that Cai Jing was very busy, Du Shaojie left quickly.

At that time, he helped the other party only for the sake of friendship, and did not think about the pros and cons. As a result, Cai Jing's operation turned the loan into shares, and his profit was not small.

What made him happy was not how much money he made, but that his friend Cai Jing was very kind.

the next day.

Du Shaojie attended the delivery ceremony of the new building.

The ceremony was brief. He went to the cocktail party afterwards, tied his hair up, and then went to Xichuan Restaurant.

At present, the new management system of various stores is being piloted in Yangcheng. After it is perfected, it will be fully promoted. Du Shaojie came here this time to explain the new system to everyone first, and will send people to Yangcheng to learn later.

"Boss, there's a customer over there who said she was your friend. I told her you weren't here, so she ordered a few dishes by herself, and she hasn't finished eating yet."

Du Shaojie was discussing the next arrangements with Feng Bin when the lobby manager knocked on the door and walked in.

He had just come in from the back door, so he didn't notice this. After hearing about it, he went to the lobby and saw Yu Mo at a glance.

"Momo, why are you eating alone?"

"I just happened to have nothing to do today, so I came out for a walk. Shaojie, you are a very busy man now, and it is harder than climbing to the sky to see you. Tell me, how long has it been since we last met?"

Yu Mo raised his head and couldn't help but complain a few words.

In fact, her relationship with Du Shaojie is just that. If there was no Wang Liwen, the two of them probably couldn't even be called friends.

"It's my fault! Feng Bin, bring me a bottle of red wine."

Du Shaojie laughed and didn't care about the other party's complaints.

He then sat down, opened a bottle of red wine, and drank a few glasses with Yu Mo.

Yu Mo was drinking gloomily, and it was obvious that he had something on his mind. However, Du Shaojie and her relationship was not that good yet, so he could only pretend not to see it and did not ask.

"I may not be able to stay in Shenzhen for much longer. It's a headache. My uncle's business has run into some problems and he can't continue to support the factory in Shenzhen. I plan to sell the factory."

After Yu Mo drank a few glasses of wine, a blush appeared on his face.

She put down her glass and began to talk about the problems she had encountered. Her uncle's business had gone wrong, so a large amount of funds were withdrawn from the factory in Shenzhen.

She could have held on by gritting her teeth, but her uncle died of a sudden cerebral hemorrhage, and Yu Mo became the object of ostracism.

Fortunately, she owned 45% of the shares of the factory, so she was not completely penniless.

But the factory's working capital had been drained, and my uncle's family decided to sell the factory's shares, which would undoubtedly make the situation worse. (End of this chapter)