Chapter 40

“Little Brother, don’t be in such a hurry to chase me away. You can try our food first. If you think it’s good, then keep some; if not, you can just send me off.”

The young waiter, feeling impatient, replied, “You say you sell sausages, so let me ask you, can your sausages be tastier than those from the Yun family in our town? If they were really that good, would you need to go around promoting them? You could have opened a shop like Yun’s and just sat there counting your money, instead of running around everywhere.”

Zhou Jing reiterated, “I don’t know whether Yun’s food is good or not, but I definitely have a spicy flavor that he doesn’t. Plus, I also have duck delicacies; this dish is unique in the town and is just as good as sausages as a snack with drinks. To be honest, many customers who have tried my sausages and duck delicacies say my food is tastier than Yun’s. Of course, if you don’t believe me, you can give it a try; I’ll consider it free for you.”

The young waiter opened his mouth, about to refute something, when a middle-aged man in a blue shirt at the neighboring table said, “What’s the name of your food?”

Zhou Jing didn’t expect that while the waiter looked down on him, one of his customers was interested instead. He wondered if this counted as stealing business.

Zhou Jing glanced at the young waiter, thinking that if the waiter didn’t allow him to stay, he would just leave. No matter what, he wouldn’t engage in stealing business from someone else’s shop.

To his surprise, the young waiter glared and said, “He’s asking you a question; why aren’t you responding?”

Zhou Jing was momentarily confused about the waiter’s intention. Assuming he was too carefree to care, he replied, “My family runs Zhou’s Sausages at the market. I wouldn’t dare claim our food is the best delicacy in the world, but in terms of flavor, it’s definitely unique.”

The middle-aged man nodded. “Bring me half a catty of sausages and a few duck delicacies for me to try.”

“Okay.”

Zhou Jing observed that the middle-aged man was dressed quite well, and seeing the young waiter’s respectful attitude toward him, he knew that this man was a wealthy guest whom the waiter wouldn’t dare offend easily.

Otherwise, if he continued selling food in this tavern and even stealing customers, this business would be doomed.

Zhou Jing served the middle-aged man sausage and various duck delicacies, including duck necks, duck feet, duck heads, and duck gizzards, along with some potato slices and kelp.

The middle-aged man seemed very interested in the spicy flavors and took his first bite of the spicy sausage.

Not everyone likes spicy food; those who can handle spice not only don’t find it hot but actually crave more, while those who can’t handle it might take just a tiny bit and then need to drink a whole cup of water.

However, this middle-aged man seemed to truly enjoy the spicy flavor.

When he bit into the sausage, it didn’t make him hiss or laugh from the heat; instead, he remained calm and collected as he moved on to savor the next dish.

Zhou Jing brought out all the dishes he had, and the middle-aged man began to sample them one by one.

“You can handle spicy food really well. Most of my customers who tried my spicy sausages and duck delicacies for the first time, end up losing their composure.” Zhou Jing remarked.

The middle-aged man responded with a light chuckle, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

“How do you plan to sell your food?” he asked.

“20 copper coins per catty for the sausages, and for the duck delicacies, it depends on what you want; the prices vary according to different dish…”

Before Zhou Jing could finish, the young waiter interrupted him.

“This is my boss, surnamed Cai. If you want to do business, don’t lie.”

Zhou Jing quickly apologized, “I didn’t recognize the esteemed Manager Cai. I thought you were some wealthy gentleman from elsewhere.”

Manager Cai didn’t take it to heart and casually waved his hand. “No problem.”

Zhou Jing continued, “Since Manager Cai is personally tasting it, you’ll know that our food’s flavor is definitely not inferior. It has a fresh taste as well, making it a perfect appetizer with drinks. You might as well keep some to try; we can do a trial sale.”

“Trial sale?”

Zhou Jing explained: “Right, let’s do a trial sale, Manager Cai can estimate how much food can be sold in a day based on the sales volume at the restaurant. I can provide you with an estimated quantity.

There will be a three-day trial period, meaning for the first three days, you don’t have to put up any capital.

Just sell as you like. In the end, you’ll settle the account based on what you sold. As for the leftovers, whatever you can’t sell is on me. Just make sure nothing goes to waste due to spoilage or other reasons, or else I won’t be able to balance the accounts.”

This arrangement was a guaranteed profit for the restaurant.

In three days, the popularity of the food would be sufficient to prove its worth.

Manager Cai said: “You have a lot of confidence in your food.”

Zhou Jing was straightforward and nodded in agreement. “The food we prepare is cooked with care and includes unique secret recipes. Not to mention, the spicy and fragrant flavors we offer are something Yun Ji doesn’t have; it’s a first for the town.

If Manager Cai is interested, I won’t hide anything. The sausages are priced at 18 copper coins per catty, and the duck heads at 10 copper coins per catty… The seaweed and potato slices are a small side dish for drinking; the profit is slim, priced at 4 copper coins per catty.”

“You can keep some for a trial. If it sells well, we’ll sign a long-term contract. If it doesn’t sell, the loss will be on me; your restaurant won’t lose a single coin.”

Manager Cai replied directly, “I’ll take this guaranteed profitable deal. Give me 5 catties of each of the 3 flavors of sausage, 3 catties of each type of duck product, and 2 catties of the potato and seaweed slices. I’ll sell them as side dishes. But we need to agree on one thing: once you sell to me, you can’t sell to any other restaurants.”

Zhou Jing understood that in the restaurant business, exclusivity was important. However, he was not aiming for exclusivity; he wanted to sell in bulk. His goal was to turn all the restaurants into his sales points. If this strategy worked, with so many restaurants in town, even if just a fraction agreed to sell his products, the sales volume would be considerable.

Zhou Jing hesitated. “Manager Cai, I’m afraid that won’t be possible. I’ve already signed long-term supply contracts with several restaurants that I recommended along the way.”

Manager Cai instinctively asked, “Which ones?”

“I’m afraid I can’t disclose that,” Zhou Jing replied. “But I can assure you that they are all significant restaurants and a few are about the same size as yours. I wouldn’t lie about this because the food itself can’t be hidden. Before long, you’ll know whether my food is being sold at other establishments. You can find out the specifics; I just can’t tell you myself.”

In reality, there were no such restaurants. Zhou Jing’s words were merely a roundabout way of informing Manager Cai that his food was quite popular and that others had already placed orders.

He wanted to push Manager Cai to place his order quickly to avoid being left behind in sales. As for the larger restaurants, he could use the name of a guest to recommend his products. While he couldn’t say much, he was certain that his competitors would definitely want to place orders.

Because Zhou Jing spoke with such conviction, Manager Cai genuinely believed that a few restaurants must exist, and he repeatedly speculated that they must be his own competitors.

Knowing that those competitors had already placed their orders, Cai felt compelled to secure his own; otherwise, he risked falling behind in the market.

After struggling with his decision for a while, Manager Cai finally said, “Alright, I’ll take some and try selling them.”

“Great, I’ll get them for you right now,” Zhou Jing replied, following the waiter to the scale. He left the food without asking for a single wen in return.

“Manager Cai, just wait and see; it’s sure to sell well. I’ll come back at this time tomorrow, and you can settle up with me for what you’ve sold. As for what you haven’t sold, as long as there’s food left, any food that goes bad is on me.”

After leaving the restaurant, Zhou Jing felt his basket was already half empty.

In high spirits, he whistled as he continued on to several more restaurants.

Zhou Jing, noticing a slight interest from some, introduced the idea of trial sales.

Many restaurants found his proposal intriguing, believing it to be a worthwhile venture, and thus agreed to carry out the trial sales.

Zhou Jing did not blindly accept whatever amount the restaurants suggested for trial sales; instead, he assessed the size of each establishment and made his own judgment regarding the potential sales volume.

After mutual agreement, he ultimately settled on a number that satisfied both parties.

Under the pretense that he had collaborated with Kelaiju, both large and small restaurants found the arrangement to be very effective.

The 50 catty of sausages and 20 catty of duck products Zhou Jing brought were not only insufficient to meet the demand, but he also fell short by 10 catty of sausages for one large restaurant.

This restaurant was a competitor of Kelaiju, and upon hearing that Kelaiju had placed an order, they immediately placed their own order without hesitation.

Zhou Jing rushed back to the market, just as the lunch crowd was dispersing, and found that there were exactly thirteen catty of sausages left in the stall.

Zhou Jing: “No need to sell these; it just so happens that I’m short by 10 catty of sausages for one large restaurant. Let’s take the remaining ones to them.”

“You… you sold out all of yours?” Shen Mo was surprised by how smoothly the sales had gone.

In his mind, restaurants were also in the food business and could prepare their own dishes. Why would they spend money to buy from them when they could just make it themselves?

Zhou Jing smiled and nodded, “Yes, they’re all sold out.”

Shen Mo’s face was glowing with excitement. “Did you sell them at our market price, or at the wholesale price you mentioned before?”

“Uh… it should be considered the wholesale price.” Zhou Jing replied.

Shen Mo asked, “Should be? Does that mean you sold them at both prices?”

“No, it’s not that. I did a trial sale, which means I didn’t charge them a single cent to promote our sausages in their shop. The next day, they will settle accounts with us based on how much they sold.”

“What?” For the first time, Shen Mo doubted Zhou Jing. He looked at him as if he were crazy and said, “What if they don’t sell a single catty? Wouldn’t we be the ones to take the loss?”

“Theoretically, yes,” Zhou Jing replied, “but trust me, they will definitely sell at least some.”

“But what if they only sell one catty? We would still take the loss on the rest. Unless they can sell everything, we’re the ones who will end up losing!”

No matter how foolish Shen Mo thought this idea was, he still delivered the ten catty of sausages promised to the restaurant for the trial sale.

Zhou Jing repeatedly assured him, “If I can’t recover the costs by tomorrow, we’ll stop the trial sale.”

Only then did Shen Mo agree.

When they arrived at Butcher Wu’s stall, Butcher Wu noticed that the Shen brothers looked as wilted as frostbitten eggplants. He asked, “What’s wrong with the Zhou family’s wife and Shen Mo’s little brother? You both look so down. Zhou Jing, you’ve been increasing your meat orders with me these past few days, doubling the amount you used to get. Yet, despite that, your stall is closing this early today. You should have sold everything by now. Why aren’t you happy?”

As soon as it was mentioned, Shen Mo became frustrated.

“It’s not that we sold out; it’s that Brother Jing set up a three-day trial sale, which is basically like consigning the food at the restaurant. They can buy as much as they want, and when it’s time to settle up, they only pay us for what they sell. Anything that doesn’t sell counts as our loss.”

To his surprise, Butcher Wu responded, “Brother Zhou, your idea is brilliant! Sure, you might take a small loss in the first few days, but using this method to draw them in means they’ll see how well your sausages and duck products sell. In the future, the profits could be large!”