Chapter 59 : Copycat

Since Liu returned to her parents’ home, without her causing trouble at home, the relationship between the sisters-in-law has improved a lot, and everyone gets along harmoniously, talking and laughing.

Xiao Mian, who was far away in Huaxi County, received the news brought by his father. He learned that his wife’s infertility could be cured, and he felt more energetic in his work.

He vowed to earn money for Zhou and use it to raise their children.

It was already late afternoon when Xiao Yi came back with the vermicelli. There was another small peak in business at noon, and many people came to eat lunch. By the time he returned, the last handful of vermicelli had been cooked.

The sweet potato skins they brought have been sold out. They didn’t dry many of them before, but they didn’t expect the sales of this mixed sweet potato skin to be so good.

It seems they need to blanch more potato skins and dry them for later use.

The Xiao family started working in the morning and didn’t have time to eat until the afternoon. It wasn’t until the hottest part of the afternoon, when there were fewer customers, that they had time to sit down and make something to eat.

Each person ate a bowl of noodles, and four people sat around a table.

Mother Xiao took a look and felt that her stall still had many shortcomings:

“Third son, when you go back, you should build a clay stove and chop more firewood. One pot of noodles is not enough. We are too busy to handle it. I think we should add another table. Otherwise, some customers will have to eat on the side of the road. That’s so embarrassing.”

This is the shortcoming Mother Xiao summarized after a busy morning.

Xiao Yi was assigned another task, and he accepted them one by one without reluctance.

On the contrary, Jiang Sui expressed her own opinion after hearing what Mother Xiao said: “Mom, we do need to add another clay stove, but there’s no need for another table. It will be a bit crowded if we add one. Besides, our business is good today because our meat noodles are only five cents. Many people are coming to take advantage of the deal and are just curious.”

“When the novelty wears off in a few days, the business won’t be this good. We should think about how to retain customers in the long term. What I was thinking is, since everyone loves a bargain and the weather is hot, we can buy some mung beans and make mung bean soup for everyone to drink for free. Mung beans are cheap anyway, so we can buy a bag and cook a pot with just a handful.”

“The noodles come with free mung bean soup to cool you down. Isn’t this a great deal for everyone? It’s also very thoughtful. This way, people will think we are good at doing business, and we’ll have more and more repeat customers.”

Jiang Sui’s thinking is the most practical. Having lived in the modern world for twenty years, these marketing methods are second nature to her. They are all practical, low-cost operations that come in handy.

This is called copying.

“Fourth sister-in-law, your idea is really clever. I think it will work. If I were a customer eating noodles, I would definitely want to come to your place often,” Xiao Yi said, expressing his thoughts from a customer’s perspective.

After hearing this, Mother Xiao also nodded in approval.

It must be said that her daughter-in-law is really smart when it comes to doing business, and she still has a lot to learn from her.

“You’ve really thought it through carefully. I was really blinded by today’s good business. If you hadn’t said anything, I would have thought that the business would be this good every day in the future.”

“Now that I think about it, people love to take advantage of bargains, so they go to whichever restaurant offers the best value for money or the best food. I think your idea of free mung bean soup is feasible, since it’s only hot for a few months, and mung beans are inexpensive, so it’s something we can afford.”

Mung beans are hard to sell in the grain and oil shops in the town. The only way to sell them is probably to make mung bean cakes in the pastry shops.

Ordinary people can’t buy mung beans to cook porridge every day. Eating mung beans doesn’t fill you up, so the sales volume is low, and the price is naturally low.

Just like Jiang Sui said, just grab two handfuls and add a little water to cook a big pot, which is cost-effective and can win people over.

In the afternoon, when the sun is bright, everyone can finally take a break. In summer, the days are long and the nights are short, so you can stay out later. It’s not too late after the afternoon sun, as long as you return before it gets completely dark.

The rented stall has a small house, only a few square meters wide, but when closing the stall, the pots, pans, and utensils can be locked in the small house, so they don’t have to worry about them being lost.

In the future, when setting up the stall every day, they only need to bring the ingredients with them, which is very convenient.

So the stall earns 800 wen a month, and the Xiao family makes a lot of money.

—

On the other hand, the small stalls at the street corner were not doing well, as most of the customers had been drawn away by the Xiao family.

The He family’s noodle stall, which used to have the best business, now has its quietest days.

Boss He only sold ten bowls of noodles a day, and his wonton stand wasn’t much better.

Some were happy while others were sad. Boss He had a gloomy face the whole day.

All the snack businesses on this street are led by him, and his business was the best. Seeing that their business had been taken away, several bosses naturally gathered together to discuss:

“Boss He, what should we do? This new stall is so powerful. They sells such a big bowl of noodles with meat for only five cents. Isn’t this obviously stealing our business?”

The owner of another noodle shop complained.

“I know, I’m not blind, but don’t they only sell it for the first three days? Maybe after these three days, everyone won’t get any bargains anymore.” Boss He consoled himself with an irritable look on his face.

“No way, didn’t we go and try it this morning? It’s really delicious. The prices of noodles sold on this street are all about the same, so who wouldn’t want to eat something tastier?” The person who spoke at this time was Mr. Xie from the wonton stand across the street.

When Boss He heard this, he wasn’t happy, but he also had an idea in his mind: “Hey, why are you trying to boost others’ morale and destroy your own prestige? Isn’t it just a price cut? Then let’s cut the price too. Let them brag for a few days, and after these few days are over, we can also lower our prices. We are all trying to get a bargain, so what’s the difference?”

Boss He really took it for granted, thinking that he could just follow suit, but he still underestimated how important delicious food is to people.

“Boss He, can we do this?” Everyone was skeptical.

Boss He saw this and looked at them with a disappointed expression, saying:

“Why not? Just do as I say. Let’s surrender one by one. We can’t let them take over the business, right? If we let them continue like this, where will we be able to live in the future? I tell you, you can’t catch a wolf without sacrificing a lamb. At most, you will earn less, but it is better than not earning anything at all.”

In Boss He’s opinion, if you don’t take any action, you are a fool.

But that’s all he could think of, showing his lack of experience.

In the past, whenever there was a new stall on the street, it would take some time to compete, but because there was nothing new, Boss He always won by relying on the good location of his stall, and he thought this time would be the same.