National Tide 1980.

It’s not surprising that the Gingerbread Man fast food restaurant, which was copied by Ning Weimin using the Saizeriya model, became popular.

Who can blame this already fully proven business model for making Western food so cost-effective?

Just take a look at the Gingerbread Man's menu and you'll see that most dishes cost no more than two dollars, and more than three dollars is considered a luxury.

Two people can eat and drink their fill for ten dollars. If one person is willing to spend ten dollars, he can eat so much that he has to lean on the wall.

And the plating is as good as that in formal Western restaurants.

This price makes those Western restaurant peers who sell high-priced food tremble with fear, but ordinary people feel shocked and at ease.

Although this model uses the method of heating pre-prepared dishes in order to reduce costs, the taste of the heated food is only so-so.

But for the Chinese people who are almost completely unfamiliar with Western food, and who just want to satisfy their desire to try something new, this level of food is enough to satisfy them.

What’s more, gingerbread men don’t just sell food, they also satisfy people’s yearning for a refined life.

The seemingly high-end western restaurant decoration, the atmosphere created by the knives and forks, plates, and background music are all enjoyments that customers never expected. They will naturally exclaim that the food is delicious and feel that they have gotten great value for money.

To put it bluntly, even for Chinese food, in Beijing, the prices are affordable but the environment is not elegant in a small restaurant, and two men wanting two dishes and a meal will cost at least twelve or thirteen yuan.

Gingerbread Man sells Western food at a price of only five yuan per person in a restaurant with this level of decoration. How could such a conscientious company that is able to strike such a good balance between price and performance not be popular?

Not to mention high-end Western restaurants like Lao Mo and Maxim's, even compared with Kentucky Fried Chicken, which costs 7.30 yuan for a single meal, and Beef Noodle King, which costs 6 yuan for a bowl of noodles, the Gingerbread Man seems to be cheap and good value for money.

Some customers even worried about the gingerbread man, thinking that the price was so low that the gingerbread man might go bankrupt.

But then again, even so, the speed and extent to which the gingerbread man became popular was beyond everyone's expectations, including the person who created the brand.

Not to mention Shen Cun, even Ning Weimin did not expect that their chain brand would be able to directly win the crown of Beijing's fast food industry since its opening, and dominate the list for a long time, becoming the "queue king" sought after by countless fans.

Regardless of whether it is a weekend or a weekday, there are long queues in front of their five stores before they open every day.

And the number is increasing.

In fact, although the central kitchen responsible for pre-prepared meals has a team of up to hundreds of chefs, they have been working hard to increase the number of semi-finished products produced every day.

Even the two small vans responsible for delivering goods are constantly restocking five stores and delivering raw materials to the central kitchen during business hours.

However, due to insufficient anticipation of such popularity and the limited area and staff of the Gingerbread Man's central kitchen, the production capacity has temporarily reached its ceiling.

Whatever they make every day will be sold out before the business closes at 10pm.

When it comes to the business performance of the five stores, they are basically the same.

Usually after 8:30 p.m., and no later than 9 p.m., the shop assistant responsible for directing the crowd at the door has to gently persuade and refuse customers who want to join the queue.

What does this mean?

This shows that cost-effectiveness is the real core competitiveness.

To be honest, Shen Cun and Ning Weimin originally thought that the rush of customers was just a temporary phenomenon, a short-term impact brought about by the opening publicity and promotional activities, and it would be gone after the opening ceremony was over.

But they were completely wrong, because even after a week-long opening, the gingerbread man's popularity remained unabated.

The enthusiasm of Beijing residents has not diminished. On the contrary, due to the positive fermentation of word of mouth about the restaurant, its reputation has become better and better, and its number of customers has increased.

And because the promotional activities were no longer available, sales also increased further.

On average, within one week of opening, the five stores were able to generate more than $125,000 in operating income almost every day. Who could have imagined this at the time?

Ning Weimin had once imagined the best possible scenario, which was that he would be satisfied with a daily revenue of 80,000 yuan.

Shen Cun expected even lower, thinking that if there were 50,000 yuan, it would be good if each restaurant could earn 10,000 yuan a day.

But in reality, their business is incredibly good.

Not only did it set a new record for daily revenue, but it also attracted complaints from customers and traffic management departments.

Some customers think that it is too difficult to queue up to eat the gingerbread man. It is really not easy to queue up for more than an hour.

Moreover, the key chains given away at the opening event with purchases over ten yuan were all given away by the fifth day. Many people who came to eat on the sixth and seventh days did not receive a key chain, so they were naturally very disappointed.

So some people suggested that the Gingerbread Man could remain open during the Spring Festival and give out another batch of key chains to take care of those who cannot queue up on weekdays due to time constraints, so that they also have the opportunity to get a key chain.

The traffic management department was troubled by the long queues in front of the gingerbread man, which had become a common sight in major downtown areas of Beijing. It caused great trouble to their daily work and also created hidden dangers to traffic safety in downtown areas, which was quite a headache.

Especially in places like Dongdan and Xidan where the streets are originally narrow, they have to add a permanent post to direct congested traffic and pedestrian flow at any time.

The traffic management department’s opinion is that it would be better to move the gingerbread men in these two locations to places with wider roads, or reduce the number of people queuing, otherwise everyone will regret it if an accident really happens.

So one can imagine what kind of existence the gingerbread man has become in the eyes of ordinary people in Beijing.

That’s even more popular than the internet celebrities decades later.

Nowadays, if any young person in Beijing doesn’t know that there is a gingerbread man in Beijing, or has never queued up in front of the gingerbread man, it can only mean that you are “OUT”.

There is nothing new about having eaten Kentucky fried chicken and California beef noodles. Anyone who has tried all the twenty or so dishes on the Gingerbread Man menu is a real rich man.

For children, the thing they look forward to most every weekend, besides going to Beijing Amusement Park with their parents, is probably going to Gingerbread Man to eat Western food.

Even Hasbro's Transformers don't seem as rare as gingerbread man keychains in the eyes of Beijing children.

Because gingerbread man keychains are not only liked by boys, they have a wider audience and are limited edition.

Any child who has this thing will hide it tightly as if it were a rarity, and will not show it to other children but only to his best friends.

And I absolutely dare not hang it on my schoolbag, otherwise if I bring it to school, it will be lost within a day at most.

This was not all. Soon, celebrities in the Beijing literary and art circles also knew about the gingerbread man, and even the city government leaders were alarmed.

As a result, the people of Beijing began to accidentally discover their favorite actors and stars in the gingerbread man, and even occasionally encountered city leaders accompanying foreign guests on a visit and meal.

As a result, not only did the Gingerbread Man become a place for national gatherings and a place that everyone longed to visit, but reporters from all walks of life also regarded the Gingerbread Man fast food restaurant as a hot topic in social news.

Whether it is television, radio, newspapers or magazines, interview requests are pouring in.

To be honest, this kind of coverage is more intense than the exposure Ning Weimin had tried his best to create by paying people before the business opened.

How much marketing money can be saved by this? They are getting the upper hand again! Moreover, these media are no longer satisfied with superficial reports.

They all hope to talk to the owner of Gingerbread Man face to face and dig deeper into the stories behind the company.

I also want to find out whether the gingerbread man, who doesn’t seem to make much money on the surface, actually makes money?

How do they manage to provide such a nice restaurant environment, such delicious food, and such affordable prices?

Will they go bankrupt due to lack of profits as ordinary people worry?

Needless to say, Ning Weimin would not do these tasks of dealing with the media, so he naturally pushed them to Shen Cun.

As a result, Chairman Shen became a popular international friend and business star, appearing frequently in the media. For a time, he even overshadowed popular film and television stars, and his exposure rate was not much less than that of Teresa Teng and Fei Xiang who participated in the rehearsal of the Spring Festival Gala.

But to be honest, how to speak and how to express oneself in front of the media is something worthy of discussion.

They can't just tell the media everything that's really in their mind.

If we really tell the media, they can still make nearly double the gross profit at such a price, because the most expensive imported raw materials are not brand-name products, and they compare prices from multiple suppliers and reduce costs to the lowest level through large-scale purchasing.

Even the restaurant's decoration, tableware, wine glasses, and even the gingerbread man key chains were provided by Ning Weimin's connections, and the price was arguably the lowest in the city.

The main reason is that domestic rents are low, labor costs are low, and joint ventures enjoy tax-free preferential policies, so they can achieve such prices. They rely on price advantages and scale advantages to seize the market, and actually make a lot of money.

Then their personal image and corporate reputation will collapse.

So Chairman Shen listened to Ning Weimin's advice and did not talk about interests or business when facing media interviews, but only talked about feelings.

"In fact, the positioning of Gingerbread Man is not pure Western fast food, but a family restaurant that can satisfy the whole family. I have lived in the United States for many years, so I know very well that Western food is not noble, but ordinary food. Therefore, it is completely possible to meet everyone's needs at a price that most people can afford. Therefore, the reason why I returned to my hometown, my hometown in Beijing, to open a restaurant is that I hope to make Gingerbread Man a Western restaurant where "not so wealthy fathers can walk in confidently and tell their children to order whatever they want."

"Of course, there's not much I can do. At most, I can satisfy everyone's curiosity about Western food and help everyone gain some understanding of it. Because all of us Chinese know that the most delicious food in the world is not delicacies from the mountains and the sea, nor is it exotic, but the food cooked by our mothers."

"As for the opinions of customers, I am very happy to accept them with an open mind. So I can tell you here that the Gingerbread Man Restaurant will be open as usual during the Spring Festival holiday. As for the keychain giveaway activity, it will be restarted in the near future. In addition, new activities will be launched during the Spring Festival to the Lantern Festival. As for the problem of long queues reported by everyone, I don't have any good solution for the time being. I can only try my best to open more restaurants this year."

These words undoubtedly fully take into account the emotional needs and practical needs of the mainland people.

Especially in the Republic at that time, it would obviously be given a different meaning.

As a result, the social response was particularly strong. Not only did the gingerbread man become more popular among the people, but Shen Cun, the apparent chairman of the board, also became more popular. He became one of the people's own and a business celebrity in the eyes of the officials.

In particular, in order to thank the traffic management department in private, Shen Cun also donated two jeeps to the traffic brigades of Dongcheng District and Xicheng District in the name of gingerbread men, which not only resolved the conflict between the two sides, but also perfectly established the image of a patriotic overseas Chinese.

In this incident, the only ones who really suffered losses were other fast food restaurants and Western restaurants in Beijing.

Russian restaurants like Lao Mo and Dadi are pure bad luck.

Business, which had already been declining, accelerated, but at least there were still some elderly customers holding on.

Pierre Cardin's restaurant business has also been affected to some extent. High-end French restaurants like Maxim's are still okay, after all, the customer base is different, but Menim's is not so good.

It was originally disliked due to its unclear positioning, and now it is almost deserted.

I don't know if this should be considered an accidental injury.

I don’t know if Zou Guodong, who made the decision to sell the fast food restaurant, feels any regret.

However, the fast food industry that has been hit the hardest is definitely the one that hates the Gingerbread Man the most.

Because of the pricing issues, the reputations of California King and Kentucky in the United States suddenly collapsed under the conscious or unconscious comparison of the people.

No matter how they explain it, the outside world's doubts about inflated prices are always eroding their reputation.

The turnover of the two restaurants also gradually began to be adversely affected, and more and more people believed that eating at their restaurants was the behavior of "stupid people with a lot of money."

By mid-February, the sales of California Beef Noodle King had dropped by half. The restaurant could no longer sustain the pressure and decided to lower the price by one dollar to five dollars a bowl.

As for Wang Dadong in Kentucky, although the rate of customer loss is relatively slow and he still has the energy to hold on, the pressure he is under is extremely great.

Because now it is not just the American headquarters that is questioning his ability, even the partner he found in the Republic - the Municipal Animal Husbandry Bureau is putting pressure on him.

"Mr. Wang, we can't just consider the profits, we also have to consider the social impact. What's the problem if you lower the price appropriately now?"

"But my prices are very reasonable. Many products need to be imported, as you know. My costs are so high, how can there be any room for price reduction?"

"Oh, don't say that. Think about it again. Some things can be cut. Do you have to import salt and potatoes as well?"

"What's so strange about this? Domestic salt is too coarse. Mixing it with seasoning powder will cause uneven coarseness. Domestic potato starch content is also insufficient and does not meet Kentucky standards, so it can only be shipped by air."

"I know, but ordinary people don't know. They will only compare the price of your fried chicken with the gingerbread man. I have to remind you that this place is not like America. Some things cannot be determined by your own will. If you don't express your opinion, I can't speak for you at the Price Bureau..."

"What? Lao He, are you threatening me? Are you mistaken? We are the cooperative partner. You should ask the Price Bureau to investigate that gingerbread man. And we agreed that your Animal Husbandry Bureau would not interfere with my business."

"Mr. Wang, you misunderstood. How could I threaten you or interfere with you? I was just giving you a friendly reminder. Of course, I hope your store gets better and better. Only when you do well can we get dividends. But to be honest, our position in this matter is also very difficult. Because you use our chicken, and the gingerbread man also uses it, and their quantity is twice as much as yours..."

After finally hanging up the phone, Wang Dadong was already panting with anger and felt like he was about to have a coronary heart disease.

He really didn't expect that in such a short period of time, the gingerbread man had forced him to lower the price.

And even his partners are unwilling to stand up for him.

So, looking at the newspaper on his desk and the photo of Shen Cun smiling smugly, Wang Dadong couldn't help but feel angry.

He tore up the newspaper containing the interview with the gingerbread man in a few seconds, as if he could vent his anger by doing so.

But even so, some things are still hard to change.

"Chairman, a customer wants to hold a wedding on the third floor here on Sunday, with about sixty guests, but...but..." The store manager came up from downstairs.

"This is a good thing, but what..."

"He has a special condition?"

"Well, the customer is God, we will try our best to satisfy him as long as we can."

"He said we had too few food options and asked if...if we could buy some more food and drinks from the gingerbread man and host a party with our fried chicken..."

"........."

Wang Dadong said nothing, because he was angry again... and began to pant. (End of this chapter)