Chapter 108: Chapter 108: Everything is difficult at the beginning
Feng Zhenchang and Mei Qiuping stood in the kitchen, wearing white chef's coats and awkwardly wearing tall hats.
Next to the large stainless steel stockpot, a fragrant chicken broth is simmering on a low heat, making a 'gurgling' sound. On the cutting board, the noodles are ready to be put into the pot, one portion after the other, in the colander.
Through the open back door, you can see a row of briquette stoves in the back corridor, where wheat cakes are being fried and a unique, burnt aroma is wafting out.
The kitchen and the dining room on the first floor are also separated by glass, so that customers can see inside clearly when they come to collect their food.
Feng Yuxuan has a red headscarf tied on her head, and is wearing a waitress uniform that is also white, with a red apron over the top. She is standing behind a small counter on the left, her eyes fixed on the door.
There are quite a few people passing by outside, and quite a few of them stop and stare. Some put their hands on the ledge and lean against the glass to look inside, but so far, no one has come in.
'Go out and greet them!' Mei Qiuping said from the kitchen.
Feng Yuxuan went out with a smile on her face. Before she could say anything, the people immediately walked away quickly, leaving her standing there in shock.
After entering the door, she said angrily, 'It's just strange, a noodle shop, but it has to be decorated like this, more upscale than many clothing stores. People walking by will think that a bowl of noodles is expensive, so who will come in?'
Feng Zhenchang and Mei Qiuping were also anxious, but they had already experienced a period of time when they first started selling fried chestnuts, so they had some idea of what to expect. 'It's like this for the first day or two, there's no rush.'
There were still people eating crabs. They had been waiting for more than an hour when a young couple holding hands stopped in front of the door. The two of them exchanged a few words with a smile, and Feng Yuxuan saw her chance to go over and open the door politely, 'Welcome!'
It's not good to be like this, so they found a small compartment against the wall to sit and wait for Feng Yuxuan to serve them. Feng Yuxuan, however, went back behind the small counter and said, 'Please come over and order.'
They looked at the menu hanging on the wall and ordered a bowl of vegetarian noodles and a bowl of egg noodles. They felt a bit cheated. Outside, a bowl of noodles usually costs one to two yuan, but here the vegetarian noodles cost two yuan and the egg noodles cost 2.5 yuan. "Why are they more expensive than other places? You're not trying to rip us off, are you?" the girl asked.
'You'll see the difference once you try it. Unlike other restaurants, our noodles are cooked in chicken stock.'
'Oh,' the two of them, still doubtful, took the receipt and went to the food collection counter as Feng Yuxuan had indicated. Mei Qiuping took it warmly. 'This young man, will you be full with this bowl of noodles? We also have handmade wheat cakes with dried vegetables and meat filling. Do you want one?'
'How much?'
'It's not expensive at all, just one yuan each,' Mei Qiuping went to the coal stove in the back and got one for them to see.
'Then let's have one,' the boy said, not caring about the extra yuan.
When the noodles were ready and they went to collect them on a tray, they immediately noticed the difference between this restaurant and the others. The soup was milky white with a yellow sheen on top and a few small pieces of shiitake mushroom in it.
As soon as they took a bite, they realised that the soup was indeed chicken broth, and it tasted better than the one they made at home. The noodles were chewy and the cooking was just right.
The wheat cakes were browned on both sides. When they broke it open, they found that it was filled with dried pickles and minced fat. One bite and the dried pickles were especially tasty, and the fat was not greasy at all. Not only was the taste excellent, but it also tasted a lot like the wheat cakes that their grandmother made when they went back to their hometown in the country.
It was obvious that they were very satisfied with the food. Anyway, when they left the stall, they never mentioned being ripped off again.
Even so, they only sold less than 30 bowls of noodles and a dozen or so wheat cakes throughout the morning, and the three of them were a bit down when it was lunchtime.
The next day was slightly better, with nearly 100 bowls sold throughout the day. Although this added up to nearly 300 yuan in revenue, it certainly did not meet their expectations. When the chestnut stall was doing well, it could also make hundreds of yuan a day. Now they have invested so much and only made this much, how can they be satisfied?
Feng Yuxuan even said, 'If I had known it would be like this, I would have rather stayed with the small stall!'
Then she was immediately scolded by her parents, who were also worried. They wanted to find someone to vent their anger on, and Feng Yuxuan self-consciously stepped forward, and she was just asking for it.
After closing up for the night, Mei Qiuping was a little worried, 'Should we give Yiping a call?'
'Forget it, I don't want to worry him too,' Feng Zhenchang stubbed out the cigarette in his hand on the ground. "Tomorrow is Saturday, you two are at the store, I'll pull the stalls, go to the university and wait for Li Jia, didn't Yiping say he learned a lot from them during the summer and ask them for advice?'
On Saturday afternoon, Li Jia and Gao Zhiyi, along with a few classmates, walked all the way to the noodle shop. Feng Yuxuan hurriedly opened the door, but they were in no hurry to go in. "This is a noodle shop? It's really not bad!'
Feng Zhenchang and Mei Qiuping also came over to greet them. 'It's all decorated according to the drawings by Yiping. We still have to thank you. Yiping said that you helped give a lot of advice during the summer vacation.'
'Oh?' Li Jia and Gao Zhiyi were a little puzzled. You looked at me, I looked at you, and it occurred to them after a while that Feng Yiping was just looking for an excuse again.
'Oh, it's nothing, auntie. We just said a few things off the cuff.'
They served the noodles and flatbreads, one serving for each person. None of the six people who came with them said anything bad about it. Li Jia even said, 'That's great. After eating your noodles, how can we eat plain boiled noodles from other people's homes?'
Feng Zhenchang rubbed his hands together and pointed at the empty noodle shop, telling them about his frustration. Gao Zhiyi went outside the shop again for a while, and also went up to the second floor. 'Uncle, I have an idea. It may cost a bit of money. Do you want to hear it?'
'If it works, it's worth spending the money,' said Mei Qiuping.
'The main reason is that passers-by, seeing this decoration, will think it must be expensive. There are not many people eating here these two days, and there has been no publicity yet, so it's very simple: just step up the publicity.'
'Publicity?'
'Didn't you hire an advertising agency to make the lightbox outside your shop? Go back to them and ask them to print some leaflets and make two big ones to stick on the glass on the first floor. Put photos of our noodles and wheat cakes on them, write the name and address of the shop, and a few lines of advertising copy, and also the price. That way, people will know.'
Feng Zhenchang and Mei Qiuping looked at it and thought it made sense. Feng Yuxuan had also said yesterday that they should get a loudspeaker and put it by the door to shout, 'Two yuan for a bowl, one bowl for two yuan!'
This fat classmate's idea is still a bit more classy.
'Also, when the store is not busy, you guys can go outside and hand out the small flyers to anyone you see. Give us some too, and we'll take them to school to help you hand them out.'
Feng Zhenchang and Mei Qiuping thought he was right. They had already spent so much money, and they didn't care if they spent a little more for the sake of good business.
They found an advertising company that did shopfront lightbox ads, and spent a fortune to have four large ones and a thousand small ones printed on the best coated paper as soon as possible.
The four large ones were stuck on the ground floor glass, and after closing at night, the lights in the store were not turned off, so passers-by could see them clearly. For the small leaflets, they gave Gao Zhiyi two hundred, and the three people in the store also took turns to hand them out to passers-by on the street when they were free. Feng Yuxuan was more daring, and in the morning when people were going to work, she stood near the entrance of a residential area and handed them out to everyone.
The effect was quick. The day after the flyers were distributed, the restaurant was full in the morning and evening. By the third day, business was also good at lunchtime. By the third day, Feng Zhenchang didn't even have to ride a tricycle to buy fried chestnuts. The restaurant was so busy that by the fourth day, some people had become regulars, coming every day. Although it was a bit more expensive, they were afraid that if they didn't compare, they would never know that the food at his restaurant was better than the boiled chestnuts from elsewhere.
Li Jia's publicity also played a role, and many people from the surrounding schools came. From morning till night, on the fifth day, Mei Qiuping had to bring her second son, Guoping, and her fourth son, Yiliang, to help in the shop. Feng Zhenchang went to find Wang Changning's parents and asked them to bring their daughter Wang Chang'an to the province as well.
When they took out the till and drawer containing the money at the end of the day to settle the bill, they calculated that they had sold nearly 400 bowls that day, and the revenue had finally passed the 1,000 threshold for the first time.