Chapter 328: Chapter 171: Small Restaurant_1
Past the second watch, requesting pink.
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Lian Manman had no experience in running a restaurant, so she had to figure things out as she went along. However, she knew that some important matters needed to be decided in advance.
"What are we going to sell in this little restaurant of ours?" Wu Lang asked.
"Let’s just sell breakfast." Lian Manman replied. What Wu Lang asked was indeed one of the important things that needed to be decided.
Xiao Tanzhi mentioned that a meal was provided at noon for those working up the mountain. In the evening after work, these people had many more dining options. The workers were required to start early on the mountain, so if they could get a simple, practical breakfast nearby at the foot of the mountain, there should be a market for it. Xiao Tanzhi had also mentioned that these days, the most people came to the temple to ask for water early in the morning.
Moreover, since they were just starting out with a small restaurant, it would be best to start with something simple. Of course, this didn’t mean they couldn’t expand their operations later.
"That’s what I’ve been thinking too." both Lian Shouxin and Lady Zhang nodded. They were both down-to-earth people, and after weighing it in their minds, they felt that while selling breakfast might not bring in as much profit as the big taverns and restaurants, it was definitely something they were confident they could handle at the moment.
"So what should our breakfast shop sell?" Lian Manman asked.
Narrowing the scope of the business to only selling breakfast was one thing, but what specifically to sell still required some thought.
Only by catering to the needs of consumers could they make money. The consumers they were currently facing were precisely the people working on the mountain. Lian Manman recalled what she had observed outside the Earth God Temple and in the town, grouping the workers coming to the mountain into two general categories.
One category was the relatively wealthy, who preferred to eat in town. Their meals generally consisted of meat-filled buns, fried dough sticks, oily cakes, or noodles in meat soup, and they would spend about ten Wen Money on a meal.
The other category was the poor and frugal. They brought their dry food as much as possible and hoped to ask for a bowl of hot water from kind-hearted people’s homes.
Comparing the two, the latter group was more numerous.
"If that’s the case, then if we open a breakfast shop, won’t nobody come?" Lian Zhizhi couldn’t help but ask after hearing Lian Manman’s analysis.
"It seems like that on the surface, but it’s not absolute." Lian Manman said, "I heard that the wages for working on the mountain are higher than elsewhere, and they pay promptly.
After all, it’s money directly allocated from The Emperor’s treasury for Empress Shen’s construction projects, and some of the supervisors of the projects are from the Shen Family, and this area is under the Shen Family’s domain. Therefore, nobody dares to shortchange the wages; on the contrary, the working conditions here are quite favorable. Both the Royal Family and Shen Family people are after prestige, creating a good reputation for generosity in the countryside.
"Starting with these folks who are reluctant to spend money, the wages on the mountain are high, but the work is tiring. Once they have money, they can’t always treat themselves poorly; if they don’t eat well, they won’t have the energy to work. If what we sell is affordable, there will definitely be no shortage of customers." Lian Manman said. She targeted the second category of people as the basic consumer group for their breakfast shop.
These people were reluctant to eat rice and fine flour, but they definitely wanted to.
"Mother, how about we sell three-mixed flour buns?"
The so-called three-mixed flour buns are made from millet flour, mixed bean flour, and a little bit of white flour, steamed to perfection. This was an invention by Lady Zhang (at the Lian Family it was, and Manman said she didn’t know if other families ate this too), and since they split from the main family, their situation improved day by day, but they still couldn’t afford to eat rice and fine flour at every meal. Lady Zhang came up with this method, and the three-mixed flour buns, because they contained white flour, were very appealing in appearance and taste, and because the main ingredients were millet flour and mixed bean flour, they were filling and suitable for those doing heavy physical labor.
"I haven’t seen any restaurant selling these three-mixed flour buns..." Lady Zhang was a bit uncertain.
"If no other family is selling them, and ours is, won’t everyone come to us to buy them?" Lian Manman smiled. "Dad, if you were working on the mountain, would you buy our buns, or go to town to buy white flour buns?
"Of course, I’d buy the three-mixed flour ones." Lian Shouxin replied without hesitation.
Lian Shouxin, Lady Zhang, Lian Zhizhi, Wu Lang, and Xiao Qi all liked these buns very much. The vast majority of people coming to work, whose family circumstances were probably similar to theirs, would buy them as long as the price was right.
"I think this will work." After discussing for a while, the family decided to sell the three-mixed flour buns.
"Just having buns won’t do, we’ll also need soup." Lian Manman added.
