National Tide 1980.

Out of unwillingness and the resulting strong disgust, perhaps one also wants to find a sense of balance elsewhere.

Wang Dadong shifted his gaze away from the gingerbread man sculpture that was clearly superior to "Colonel Sanders" and instead focused on the exterior decoration style of the Gingerbread Man Fast Food Restaurant.

The chocolate-colored decoration used on the exterior of the Gingerbread Man Shop is actually just a simple layer of paint on the exterior wall.

In Wang Dadong's opinion, the first defect of chocolate color is that it is relatively dull, and is far less eye-catching than the bright red of Kentucky, which can stimulate people's vision.

Secondly, this kind of decoration material is cheap, the method is rough and simple, not detailed enough, and it is obviously suspected of being done to save money.

So even though the gingerbread man's shop has a fashionable blister light box as its store sign, it is still out of place compared to the exterior wall decoration, and the store's appearance still seems a bit low-end.

In particular, each industry has its own characteristics.

Any fast food restaurant in the United States knows that bright colors should be used to attract customers.

Only bright colors can catch the customers' attention at once.

Whether it is red, yellow, blue, green, or even pink, fast food restaurants have used them, but no one has used a color as dark and heavy as chocolate.

Where can one make people associate things like relaxation, happiness, convenience, hygiene and good taste?
It looks more like a stationery store, bookstore, or kitchenware store.

If I had to say something, the standard of exterior decoration is only suitable for a cafe at best.

Therefore, this was undoubtedly a failure. It was the first mistake made by my opponent, and it was a rather low-level mistake.

What’s even worse is that you can’t see into the store from the outside.

The original floor-to-ceiling glass windows were now completely covered by huge photos of Teresa Teng recommending fine wine and coffee and advertisements for the opening of a new store. Even the restaurant's entrance was hung with thick cotton curtains.

Only when people enter or exit the store can they feel the warm light coming from inside for a moment, but they still don't know what the inside looks like.

It is easy to imagine that with such a lack of ventilation, the room will definitely feel stuffy and make customers uncomfortable.

In short, in Wang Dadong's opinion, the exterior decoration of the Gingerbread Man Shop completely violated industry rules and must be deducted points.

And two points will be deducted!
Too bad!

That’s not all. Wang Dadong also noticed that the quality of the two waiters at the gingerbread man’s door who were responsible for directing the flow of people was far inferior to his own employees.

After all, Kentucky's employees are selected from two thousand people. Not only do they need to be good-looking and tall, but the people he selects also need good expressive skills, and it would be best if they have certain foreign language skills.

And what do the two staff members at the door of the gingerbread man look like?
Both the man and the woman were of ordinary appearance and short stature. It was a bit funny standing outside in their bulky cotton coats.

From the image point of view, it is not pleasing to the eye.

And it was obvious from their smiles that they had not received any training. The girl's grin was so wide that her buck teeth were exposed.

The key point is that the young man has a slurred speech and a bit of a lisp.

This is not a joke!

He really didn't know what the gingerbread man's boss was thinking. Why did he want everyone?

The selection criteria are too low, the training is inadequate, and the service is unprofessional, so I deduct two more points!

Just like that, Wang Dadong's mood finally improved a little.

It was as if he was back in the days when he worked as a "mystery customer" at KFC in the United States, inspecting subordinate restaurants, and felt the joy of finally catching his subordinates' mistakes.

Now he is more and more convinced that things will be as he imagined, and the famous "Gingerbread Man Fast Food" is just a paper tiger.

Next, when he enters the restaurant, he will definitely find more shortcomings and loopholes in his opponent's business management as he wishes.

Proves that this opponent may not even deserve to be called an “opponent”.

All of a sudden he had more motivation, walked to the door of the restaurant, and successfully deceived the waiter at the door by saying that "I had an appointment with a friend here, and my friend had arrived early", so he was able to enter the restaurant without queuing.

It's just a pity that he was happy too early, which was a bit arbitrary and wishful thinking.

Because as the cotton curtain opened, when he actually walked into the restaurant and saw the whole picture of the different world inside, he felt a warm, comfortable, elegant and stylish feeling as soon as he entered the door.

Only then did he realize that he was too happy too early and found that he had completely misjudged his opponent's true strength and underestimated his opponent's vision.

Unexpectedly, what was presented before him was a restaurant decoration that was in no way inferior to that of a formal Western restaurant, full of European classical style.

The store is obviously air-conditioned and heated. The air is hot and not cold at all, and all the light sources are warm lights.

And because there are chandeliers, wall lamps, and ceiling lights in various modes, the lighting in the restaurant is not as bright as that in the Kentucky store, but it is much softer, creating a warm and romantic atmosphere.

As you look further ahead, you can see that in addition to the extensive use of plain wood, the interior decoration is also matched with exquisite ceiling tiles with European colors, which may or may not be imported.

The entire store floor is paved with wood.

In addition to the wooden tabletops, wooden chairs with backrests, there are also long seats that almost wrap around the wall.

Those long seats are soft-padded and light green, and feel very comfortable to sit on.

Even the atmosphere in the restaurant is noisy but not chaotic.

Even though the restaurant is packed with guests and there are heads everywhere, it is only the dining atmosphere that is lively.

But there was soothing light music playing in the store and everything was in order.

The waiter looked very handsome in his uniform because he was not wearing bulky coats like the two people outside.

Both men and women wore long shirts, small vests, long pants and leather shoes. It was no less than a high-end Western restaurant, making people feel that this place was very classy.

Wang Dadong was almost confused in shock, because he never dreamed that he would see such a scene.

Only now did he suddenly realize that the rough style of the store's exterior, coupled with the cozy interior style, warm materials, and fresh green, was actually intentional.

Moreover, the contrast effect presented by this combination is actually very wonderful. The roughness of the outside makes the indoor environment appear more comfortable, more refined and richer. People can't help but admire the unique idea of ​​the designer of this restaurant.

Seriously, this doesn't feel like a fast food restaurant at all.

If it weren't for the waiting area in front of the bar counter at the entrance of the restaurant.

There were more than a dozen customers sitting on high stools, almost all of them holding a menu and concentrating on studying the contents of the menu. There was a waiter who was specifically responsible for taking orders for these people in advance.

There were also the entire restaurant's service staff, serving dishes and clearing tables, all of them were busy in a hurry.

This scene clearly shows that this store is also trying hard to make use of time in order to increase its table turnover rate.

Wang Dadong also noticed that this restaurant used napkins, no napkins, and no tablecloths.

Otherwise, he really couldn't see any fast food tendencies here.

Needless to say, this kind of interior decoration must cost a lot more money than his fast food restaurant.

Especially in daily operations, porcelain tableware and stainless steel knives and forks are used here, and the normal wear and tear and cleaning and maintenance are not small.

Although it can bring customers a more comfortable experience, it will undoubtedly increase costs.

In particular, the restaurant uses menus with pictures for each table of guests to order individually, rather than adopting the fast food restaurant model of queuing at the counter to order. This is simply a blasphemy to high efficiency and a huge waste of labor costs.

How could a fast food restaurant do something so stupid?
Unless this is not a fast food restaurant at all, but a real Western restaurant.

Wang Dadong's mood now became very conflicted again. Everything he witnessed after coming in made him waver in the contempt and self-confidence he had just felt outside the door.

He really didn't want to admit that his opponent was a catering expert who was not only powerful but also capable and creative.

Perhaps he is only willing to believe one possibility now, that this gingerbread man fast food restaurant and he are not on the same track.

It is a more formal western restaurant that sells a wide variety of dishes.

Apart from anything else, since the other party has invested so much, the price of the dishes will not be too low.

The menu seems to have a lot of dishes, so the kitchen's preparation time will not be too short and the turnover rate will be limited. If that's the case, it should be a blessing in disguise.

At least Kentucky, which sells fried chicken, and this gingerbread man can be distinguished in terms of business content and model, so they don't form a completely competitive relationship in terms of customer base.

However, Wang Dadong never thought that even this little bit of luck he had was just self-deception.

In fact, the high renovation costs he thought were not that high.

Because among the two bosses of Gingerbread Man, Shen Cun himself is a designer and is very familiar with the decoration techniques and materials.

And Ning Weimin is the local tyrant in the capital.

He has a very solid cooperative relationship with two higher art colleges in Beijing.

The design plans for these five stores were actually internship assignments he gave to the Sculpture Department and Decoration Department of the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts.

Then Shen Cun would select the most satisfactory adjustment and implement it.

So don’t be fooled by the good design and decoration effects. If you look closely, you will find that there is nothing complicated in the interior. It only reflects the European style and beauty through ordinary simple decoration and reasonable combination of material colors.

In this way, the cost of decorating the gingerbread man was really not much.

6◇9◇Book◇Bar

Even if the costs of the two stores are added together, they are not as much as one store in Kentucky.

After all, Wang Dadong is an outsider, so it is inevitable that he will spend some money in vain, not to mention that many things in his store are imported from the United States.

Even work clothes are the same. Pierre Catton is quite famous for its design of work uniforms.

Therefore, the Gingerbread Man's uniform is obviously better than Kentucky's in terms of wearing effect, and is closer to the level of luxury goods in terms of design and texture.

This is the real gap in resources between local residents and outsiders.

Fortunately, Wang Dadong didn’t know about these situations, otherwise he would be so angry about this "unfair competition" that he would vomit blood.

But even so, he was unable to verify the "facts" he expected.

Because even though he entered the restaurant on the pretext of "looking for friends", there was no reason for him to openly ask the waiter for a menu to read carefully like other guests who queued to enter the restaurant.

But when he walked into the restaurant and looked around pretending to "find friends" in order to complete the trick, the specific conditions of the restaurant and the reactions of the customers made him quickly realize the "terribility" of the gingerbread man.

Because the people who eat here are so ruthless that they don't care about their wallets and don't even want to live tomorrow.

There was a banquet on almost every table.

There can be ten plates in front of four or five people, six or seven in front of three or four people, and three or four plates of food in front of two people, not to mention the various colorful drinks.

Pasta, baked rice, pizza, chicken steak, steak, grilled sausages, cake, ice cream, bread, soda, beer, coffee...there is everything.

The aromas of various foods, drinks and alcohol are mixed together, which is particularly tempting.

What surprised Wang Dadong the most was that he saw guests at several tables actually ordered whole bottles of red wine.

In his impression, people in Beijing rarely eat and drink so lavishly in Western restaurants.

Let’s not talk about other places, just take KFC as an example. There are often parents who bring their children and only buy one meal set for their children, but don’t eat anything themselves.

Some children will hand a piece of chicken to their parents and say, "Mom, try it."

The mother would definitely wave her hand and say, "I don't like eating chicken, you can eat slowly, mom will accompany you."

The child might say innocently and regretfully, "Mom, it smells so good."

The mother would nod with a smile, and then advise, "Eat slowly, if you eat too fast you won't be able to taste the food."

From this we can see that Beijing residents have a consumption attitude towards Western food, but why does it change when they come here?

If you eat and drink so much, don’t you even want to live your life tomorrow?

At this time, Wang Dadong really wanted to take a good look at the contents of the menu. He was particularly curious about the prices.

He also remembered the female college students he had asked in the restaurant this morning, who said that they could feed four people for less than ten yuan.

Thinking of this, sweat broke out on his forehead, and he didn't know whether it was because of the heat or because of fear.

Anyway, his heart skipped a beat.

I couldn't help but wonder, this nonsense can't be true, right? This is not scientific!
As a result, just as he was looking around to see if he could get a menu from a table of customers who had already ordered their food.

He discovered another frightening thing, because the waiters in this restaurant seemed to serve the food incredibly quickly.

Next to him was a table full of a couple who had obviously just sat down not long ago.

Suddenly, the waiters piled food and drinks in front of them, and it seemed as if they were brought to them all at once.

"This is the spaghetti bolognese you ordered, and this is the sausage and cream bolognese risotto. This is the Italian garlic roasted chicken steak, and this is the Italian assorted pizza. There is also a dessert, cream pudding. Oh, and there are drinks for both of you, two glasses of Irish coffee with whiskey. Okay, your dishes are all here, please enjoy..."

However, what shocked Wang Dadong even more was that he heard the conversation between the customer and the waiter, which just proved all the most terrible facts.

"Ah, I want to ask, is our spending amount enough for ten yuan? The newspaper said that if you spend ten yuan, you can get a key chain, right?"

"Yes, we have this promotion for the newly opened store. Let me help you check, spaghetti bolognese is 1.5 yuan, baked rice is 1.8 yuan, grilled chicken steak is 2.2 yuan, assorted pizza is 2 yuan, pudding is 1.5 yuan, these are 9 yuan in total, plus the drinks recommended by Miss Teresa Teng, now there is a buy one get one free promotion, you only need to pay one yuan for two cups of Irish coffee, so your consumption today is 10.02 yuan. Congratulations, you have spent enough. When you pay the bill, we will give you a key chain."

"Ah, if that's the case, can I pay you now? Didn't you say that the number of key chains is limited? If I pay you now, can you give me the key chain right away?"

"OK."

"That's great. Here you go. Ten dollars, twenty cents..."

The young man was really decisive and immediately took money out of his pocket.

However, Wang Dadong felt a chill in his heart when he heard this.

He simply couldn't believe what he saw!
This is impossible! It's impossible!
How come there are so many dishes and it’s only ten yuan?
And also a small gift?

What kind of monster is this!

Are they trying to gain publicity by losing money?
And the food is served so quickly?

This is totally not the normal speed of a western restaurant!
No, no! If that's the case, how can I do this?

A full western meal, no matter the price, environment or speed, is much better than a fast food restaurant!
This is so weird!
If that's the case, then what's the advantage of my Kentucky Fried Chicken? Is it just the fried chicken recipe?
Standing in the bustling restaurant, looking at the diners gathered here to eat, Wang Dadong dared not give the gingerbread man any more scores.

At this moment, he felt like he had lost his soul. He was so depressed and helpless, a complete loser who was willing to admit defeat.

So much so that the waiter misunderstood that he had just had a meal here and had lost his wallet.

But to be honest, the mental blow Wang Dadong received here was still not the saddest thing for him.

Because he didn't know that when he stared into the abyss, the abyss was also staring at him.

In fact, just when he came to the Gingerbread Man Restaurant to investigate the situation, someone was also investigating his background, and did something even more ruthless than him.

If he went back to his Kentucky home right now, he might find it in the corner of the first floor of the restaurant.

A young man brought an old man to eat fried chicken, and their behavior was a little different from that of ordinary people.

The two of them easily revealed his last trump card.

"Master Zhang, please try this. Eat it while it's hot. It tastes best when it's freshly fried."

"Okay, even though I'm almost seventy, my sense of taste hasn't deteriorated much. My tongue should still be useful. Weimin, get a pen and take notes, right? I promise I can replicate the exact taste for you."

"Master Zhang, don't feel stressed. It's okay if you're not sure. Just think of it as a new experience. After all, the top-secret formula of Kentucky Fried Chicken is one of the most famous trade secrets in the United States. It's worth hundreds of millions of dollars."

"Haha, no, you can't waste these seven dollars. Let me tell you, in front of our Chinese chefs, no dish can be a secret. Just because he dares to sell it to ordinary people at this price, I can't indulge him. American fried chicken, cut! Well, let me try it... This is not simple. Listen, there are flour, salt, thyme, basil, oregano, celery salt, black pepper... Well, it's interesting, there are also white pepper, dry mustard, sweet paprika, garlic salt, ginger, and the meat is soaked in milk... Wait, write it down, it's not fresh milk, but milk powder..." (End of this chapter)