I met my whole family through Baidu Tieba.

Seeing Guo Pinyan's reaction, Shen Kang said, "Old Guo, if you don't believe me, I can take you to see it later. Anyway, I don't know much about coffee beans, so you'll have to pick them out yourself, and you'll definitely have to go and take a look."

Guo Pinyan was skeptical when he heard Shen Kang say this.

If what Lao Shen said is true, and Jule Foods really is his family's business, and they have many other businesses besides that, then Shen Kang's family business is quite large, and Shen Kang is a very impressive second-generation rich kid, but he doesn't seem like it...

Shen Kang could tell too. "You still don't believe me?"

Guo Pinyan didn't answer, but turned to look at Liu Jing, then pointed at Shen Kang, "Jingjing, do you believe that Lao Shen is on the same level as Wei Minglun, a rich second-generation?"

While Shen Kang and Guo Pinyan were talking, Liu Jing sat beside them the whole time, and was getting bored.

Hearing Guo Pinyan's words, Liu Jing stared at Shen Kang for a while, then shook her head with a smile: "I don't think so."

Shen Kang was puzzled. "Who is Wei Minglun?"

"A friend in the industry."

Guo Pinyan explained, "I met him at a friend's gathering. He's the eldest son of the Shuanglong Group..."

After listening for a while, Shen Kang understood what was going on:

Although Guo Pinyan is only the son of the deputy director of Yiyang Electronics Factory, and relatively minor, he has a fairly wide circle of friends.

In the latter half of last year, someone organized a road trip gathering, and Guo Pinyan was invited to join, along with Liu Jing. All the other friends who went along were also second-generation rich kids.

Among them, the richest second-generation heir with the strongest family background was Wei Minglun, the eldest son of Shuanglong Group. He arrived in a supercar and was the most prominent figure at the event.

"...If what you say is true, your family is probably not much worse off than Wei Minglun's, but Wei Minglun is dressed in luxury goods from head to toe, with a single piece of clothing costing thousands or tens of thousands, and he drives a supercar. You?... Sigh."

Guo Pinyan shook her head repeatedly.

It's just that Old Shen, that bastard, is so down-to-earth that he's really hard to believe that Shen Kang is a rich second-generation like Wei Minglun.

Shen Kang looked down at his outfit, which cost less than 500 yuan in total except for the bracelet. He scratched his cheek, knowing that his outfit was not very convincing.

This is all thanks to Guo Pinyan's understanding of her own abilities; otherwise, judging by her clothes alone, Guo Pinyan probably wouldn't even believe she was a rich second-generation.

"Well, every family has a different way of raising children," Shen Kang replied vaguely. "Anyway, Jule Foods really is my family's. I'll take you to see it later, and you'll see."

Guo Pinyan was still skeptical, but he didn't dwell on the topic any further. Instead, he brought up what he had wanted to say before: "Okay, even if you can get cheap beans, there's still a problem with what you said about drastically reducing the shop area."

Guo Pinyan then explained in detail.

"The model my Sanwei Bookstore follows now has a high average order value and considerable profits, so the number of customers needed per day to make a profit is relatively low."

"If we follow the model you described, although the costs will be reduced, the average order value will be too low, and the number of customers needed to make a profit each day will have to increase significantly. It's not quite about low profit margins and high volume, but it's getting close to that."

Guo Pinyan spoke more fluently and confidently as she spoke.

"Suppose we really have that many customers, then a contradiction will arise, namely the contradiction between the store area and the number of customers."

"The kind of small shop you described doesn't even have a waiting area, so it can only accommodate a very small number of customers at a time. But with so many customers, it inevitably leads to overcrowding."

"According to industry experience, this phenomenon will cause some customers to choose not to spend money in our store, reducing our customer base. So, the problem comes full circle—the decrease in customers means that the average transaction value of this business model cannot increase, but this business model requires a large average transaction value to support it."

At this point, Guo Pinyan slapped her thigh and concluded, "The shop is small, so it can only serve a few customers. Few customers mean no profit. No profit means it can't stay open. It's a dead end."

Hearing Guo Pinyan's analysis, Shen Kang was not discouraged at all; on the contrary, he was quite satisfied and even applauded Guo Pinyan. "Old Guo, I thought you just spent your days sunbathing and strolling around. I didn't expect you to actually have some talent for running a coffee shop. You even noticed that?"

Guo Pinyan was somewhat intrigued. "I call this 'governing by doing nothing.' It seems like I'm not involved, but I'm actually very skilled. It's the highest level of management art. If I were to follow Zhuge Liang's approach, wouldn't I just end up working myself to death like him?"

After saying that, she also flattered Shen Kang, "Actually, Lao Shen, you're not bad either. With so many stores and a website to manage, you seem to have a lot of free time every day. I even saw you riding a beat-up bicycle with He Qiuzhu on the back around the school the other day. Lao Shen, your management skills are quite impressive."

"Oh, you flatter me, we're in the same boat."

"To be honest, you're not flattering me. I think we're a perfect match, like the Crouching Dragon and the Young Phoenix."

"Uh, you can be the Crouching Dragon and the Young Phoenix, don't drag me into it."...

The two shamelessly flattered each other for a while, and were both very happy to praise each other.

Liu Jing, who was listening from the side, couldn't stand it anymore. She rolled her eyes and thought to herself that these two men were really childish.

After a while of flattery, Shen Kang got back to business: "What you said, Lao Guo, does make sense. If it were before, it would have been really difficult to solve, but things are different now. We live in the internet age."

Guo Pinyan thought for a moment, somewhat puzzled, "What's wrong with the internet age?"

"We'll first create an official website for Ruixing Coffee where customers can place orders online. Then, I'll add a small window and link to this Ruixing Coffee website on the Beiming Community to promote it. Beiming Community users can click through to Ruixing Coffee's homepage to place orders, or Ruixing Coffee can directly open a portal to the Beiming Community so users can place orders directly within the Beiming Community."

"The goal of both is the same: to complete the step of 'ordering online'."

At this point, Shen Kang looked at Guo Pinyan in front of him and said, "This is achievable, no problem, right?"

Guo Pinyan nodded, indeed not seeing any problem in doing this step.

Shen Kang continued, "The Beiming One-Card is becoming increasingly popular in the Beiming community, and many people have one. We can cooperate with Ruixing's official website so that users can use the ghost coins in their Beiming One-Card to place orders online, whether in the Beiming community or on Ruixing's official website."

"The ghost money is just a number of points stored in the Beiming All-in-One Card account. This consumption model doesn't even require online banking, which is very convenient."

"At the same time, we will also use Beiming Yikatong card readers in Ruixing's offline stores, and then do some corresponding software adaptation. When that happens, after users place an order online, they can go to the offline store and swipe their Beiming Yikatong again to verify their identity and then pick up the coffee they bought online."

Hearing this, Guo Pinyan finally understood. She seemed thoughtful and said, "Buying online and then just swiping your card and taking your coffee when you arrive at the store—no waiting time at all… From a workflow perspective, this is indeed very efficient and greatly increases the store's capacity…"

If Shen Kang's design is followed, the contradiction he just mentioned can indeed be resolved. It allows for a small store size while maintaining a high maximum number of customers that can be served.

But then, Guo Pinyan immediately thought of something else: "You've actually separated part of the 'customer reception' function from the store and transferred it to the customers. It's like a self-service laundry, where the process of putting clothes in, putting in detergent, and taking clothes is handed over to the customers to do themselves."

"So, why would a customer be willing to take on this functionality for free?"

Shen Kang answered Guo Pinyan's question: "That's right. But just like the self-service laundry example you just gave, it can be solved using the same approach."

"Why do many people choose to do some of the work themselves when using self-service laundry? It's because, for the same level of service, self-service laundry is cheaper than laundromats with staff. To save money, customers are willing to do some of the work themselves when using self-service laundry."

"The same approach can be used for Ruixing Coffee."

"We can set two prices: one for physical stores and one for online."

"Take a latte as an example. If a customer comes to a physical store to order it, it will cost 15 yuan. But if the customer orders it online, it can be 12 yuan."

"In this way, to save money, I believe many customers will choose to take over that part of the work and order online themselves. Of course, there will still be some customers who, for various reasons, will still order in person, but the number will be very small. As long as the store is well-designed, we can fully accommodate these in-person customers and even increase profits..."

Guo Pinyan listened quietly, already envisioning a scenario in her mind: 80% of customers would order online, and 20% would order in person. This way, a very small store could handle it, reducing the number of staff and further cutting costs.

Shen Kang hadn't finished speaking yet, he was still saying: "...Hmm, the online price is directly 12, two prices online and offline, something seems a bit off... Let's take the latte example again, the price is the same online and offline, 15. But online there are extra measures, issuing coupons."

"Instead of selectively distributing them, we distribute them to everyone, using 'coupons' to reduce the price to twelve. This way, users will feel like they've gotten a good deal."

Liu Jing, who was sitting next to her listening, chimed in with interest, "I feel that using coupons is better than directly lowering the online price as you just mentioned."

Seeing Liu Jing's words, Shen Kang looked at Guo Pinyan and asked, "Old Guo, what do you think?"

Guo Pinyan nodded, "I also think using coupons is better."

"What about the model I mentioned?"

Guo Pinyan thought for a moment and then spoke frankly: "Psychologically, I'm actually quite resistant to it. You should understand, my ideal coffee shop should be like this one, not just selling coffee, but also a haven, a sanctuary for the soul. The kind of model you're talking about... is like an industrial assembly line. Rough, unrefined, completely lacking in style, and devoid of the essence of coffee culture!"

After saying that, he paused, then added, "However, I also think that, logically speaking, it is indeed possible for it to work if we do it the way you suggested."

"It's fine as long as you agree with this," Shen Kang said. "As for coffee culture... what exactly is coffee culture? Is it only when it's like Starbucks, a third space, that it counts as coffee culture? Or is it like traditional Italian coffee, with bread and biscuits, to be slowly enjoyed?"

Shen Kang shook his head. "These days, many people drink coffee, ultimately, just to stay awake. They don't need those spaces, they don't need those cultural and artistic embellishments, they don't need leisure. All they want is that little bit of energizing effect from coffee, enough to keep them from getting sleepy during half a day of work or study, it's that simple."

"Coffee is to them what hay is to cattle and horses. Except that cattle and horses don't need to buy hay themselves, while these new-era cattle and horses need to spend their own money to buy coffee as hay."

"I think this kind of 'cow and horse coffee' is also a kind of culture. You can like the highbrow coffee culture, but you can't deny this kind of down-to-earth cow and horse coffee culture. In fact, I think this down-to-earth cow and horse coffee culture is the most widespread and mainstream culture that belongs to the working people."

"..."

Liu Jing was stunned. After a long while, she said, "Old Shen, you really know how to talk. You've even gotten to the level of values."

Guo Pinyan suddenly realized that it was indeed true.

After Liu Jing finished speaking, she added with great interest, "Old Shen, are you interested in the speech club or the debate club? I feel you have a talent for that."

Shen Kang quickly refused: "Forget it, you know how busy I am usually. I'm not going to join those clubs."

Liu Jing didn't say anything more.

Guo Pinyan had already accepted Shen Kang's explanation and began to seriously consider the model Shen Kang had described. She then asked, "So if you want to expand to other schools, the shops I open in the past are the kind of shops you're talking about?"

Before Shen Kang could answer, Guo Pinyan spoke first, reminding Shen Kang of something: "Old Shen, I think you have a point. This kind of 'cow and horse coffee culture' is indeed a culture. But I want to remind you that this approach is difficult to implement in the market on university campuses."

Guo Pinyan also shared some of his experiences: "Based on my experience as a customer, my experience surveying other stores, and my experience of running a store for a month now, are there any college students who drink coffee to stay awake? Yes, but relatively few."

"Many college students drink coffee not for the coffee itself, but for the atmosphere—most college students can't even drink an Americano."