Spring Breeze Twenty Years

Chapter 304 It really is a price war

Xiao Wei glanced at his watch; it was past noon. It seemed these laborers had a good relationship with the bearded man. He nodded and said, "Yes, there's no one here at lunchtime. Come on over, go straight to the second floor. Shall we order, or should I arrange it for you?"

The bearded man leaned closer and whispered, "A large, affordable portion is fine, just enough to fill me up. I don't have much money."

Xiao Wei said, "How about stewing a few pots of home-style dishes and stir-frying a few meat dishes? It won't sound good if you make it too shabby."

The bearded man nodded and said, "We still have to drink, and to be honest, I'm a little overwhelmed. Three tables, 150 yuan per table, can you manage?"

Xiao Wei said, "It's okay, we'll be neighbors from now on. Just bring the wine over yourself, go through the back, and I'll have someone take it up to you. I'll help you decide on the dishes."

The bearded man patted Xiao Wei on the shoulder and said with a smile, "Okay, then I'll trouble you. My surname is Sun. Just let me know if you need anything in the future."

Xiao Wei asked, "Brother Sun, what are you planning to do? I see there's a stove inside."

Brother Sun turned his head and looked over there, saying, "Actually, I haven't really thought about it yet. Now that I'm asked to do something, if I don't do something, with my meager fixed salary, it's not easy to make anything at home. Let's see. I'm planning to try making breakfast first, like fried dough sticks, soy milk, or tofu pudding. If that doesn't work, I'll think of something else."

Xiao Wei said, "It's alright. There aren't many places selling fried dough sticks around here. We could also make some flatbreads. They don't make those, so business should be good. We can sell them by the piece all day long. It'll just take a bit of work, but it's worth hiring people to do it."

Brother Sun thought for a moment, then asked hesitantly, "Making pancakes? Is that feasible?"

Xiao Wei said, "I think it'll work. Sugar pancakes, fried pancakes, sesame seed cakes, and some egg drop soup—they can eat here or buy them to go. It should work; I'll definitely buy some. Let's bring out all the fried dough sticks and pancakes, get them all ready, and see what sells well as we adjust accordingly."

Brother Sun nodded and said, "Okay, I'll go back and tell my wife. Thanks, brother."

Xiao Wei said, "Okay, I'll make the arrangements for you. Come over in about twenty minutes." Brother Sun nodded and went back, talking to the workers.

Xiao Wei came in and said, "Come eat across the street, 150 yuan for three tables, drinks not included."

Sister Zhang stood up and walked towards the kitchen: "One hundred and fifty yuan a table? There's nothing good to eat here."

Master Zhai said, "150 yuan per table for a private wedding is quite generous; this person is considered generous." Don't be fooled by the fact that company banquets cost hundreds of yuan; a large portion of that is spent on alcohol, and seafood is always a must. These days, it's rare for private individuals to book wedding banquets for 150 yuan per table. In the early 1990s, the purchasing power of the RMB was quite strong.

There were only three tables at lunchtime, and Xiao Wei wasn't stingy; he served two main dishes to each table, which greatly pleased Brother Sun.

In the afternoon, Xiaowei went to the cake shop to practice cake decorating. He was lucky today and sold five more birthday cakes, plus some cookies, pastries and bread. It was the best day since the shop opened. Xiaowei said to Li Wenhe and Li Wen, "This Xiao Wen seems to be quite lucky. Should we let him come over for a while every day?" Li Wen laughed.

The next morning, after listening to the baking class, Xiaowei took a walk around the factory, where the new varieties of pastries had already started baking.

As soon as they arrived at the cake shop, Li Wen came over and said angrily, "Boss, half of their cakes look almost identical to ours, but their prices are all cheaper. That shameless jerk!"

Xiao Wei rubbed his hands together. The area in front of the cake shop wasn't heated and was a bit chilly, but once he got to the back, it felt like entering a whole new world. He took off his coat and changed into his white work clothes. Xiao Wei asked Li Wen, "Did you go check it out?"

Li Wen said, "Yeah, I went to check it out. They've changed the design quite a bit, and it's still not finished. It looks like they went back yesterday and threw away the old design to redo it. The prices are basically ten yuan cheaper than ours, and the bigger ones are more than twenty yuan cheaper. Boss, how can he make a profit with prices so much lower? Is the profit margin on this stuff really that big?"

Xiao Wei said, "How could he? The base material he uses is different from ours. If you don't believe me, go buy one and try it. It's much worse than ours."

Li Wen nodded, then frowned and said, "But other people won't know either. What difference does it make from the outside? Aren't we just getting the short end of the stick?"

What Oguri Min didn't know was that this situation of bad money driving out good money was all too common in the domestic market.

In the domestic market, good products, whether they are fruits, snacks, daily necessities, bags, clothing, or tools, are being eliminated in this way. Ordinary people are spending money to help unscrupulous manufacturers eliminate good products, and then they complain every day that they can't buy good things. This is a common phenomenon.

Lamb skewers, fish balls, meatballs, bacon, hamburger patties, roast duck, roast meat, sausages, gluten, packaged food, donkey meat sandwiches—are you sure you know what you're eating? You only know how to complain about who's expensive and then walk away dismissively, and then a restaurant that uses real meat goes out of business.

Anyway, Lao Ning doesn't dare eat any of these things now, including hot pot. Lao Ning isn't ready to die yet, and he doesn't have the money to go to the hospital. He'll just make do with what he has; there's no other way. He'll just buy more when it breaks. As for food, he's confident it doesn't have the ability to detoxify. The so-called regulatory departments are just a joke; they only care about us registered users, pretend to be important, and then censor us with 404.

Several coastal provinces played a crucial role in this. In the 90s, in addition to the disappearance of a number of brands due to foreign investment, even more brands were ruined by these provinces, which then monopolized the market, making it impossible for ordinary people to buy even a usable pair of pliers.

Li Wen poked at the cream with a piping spatula and asked, "What should we do, boss? How about we lower the price and see what he does?"

Li Wenhe lit a cigarette and leaned against the workbench, watching Xiao Wei. These people from Jiangsu and Zhejiang can't get into eastern Guangdong when it comes to pastries. Even if they did, it wouldn't make a difference. Price wars don't happen there. Even if they did, the people from Jiangsu and Zhejiang would lose money and run away. They value technique, taste, and quality there. That's the advantage of being ahead. The market is mature and will automatically resist some unethical tactics. If you want to challenge me, go ahead, but first surpass me in technique.

This is why our light industrial products are irresistible, but we can't break through in heavy industrial and automotive technology.

Xiao Wei shook his head and said, "Just do what you're supposed to do. Why lower prices? You think you can just raise them back up? People will know who's good and who's bad eventually. They're not stupid. Why bother with them? You could use that time to practice cake decorating. Don't you want to be the shop manager?"

Li Wen pouted and angrily poked the cream a few times.

Sure enough, it was affected. I didn't notice it in the morning, but in the afternoon, apart from selling some cookies and bread, I didn't sell a single birthday cake. I rolled my eyes and left after seeing the price, heading straight for Baolilai across the street. Xiaowei even saw Xiaowen standing at the entrance of Baolilai with a cigarette in his mouth, smiling and looking this way.

Huang Laowu ran over, entered the house without saying a word, grabbed a piece of cake, spread some cream on it, and ate it. Li Wen's eyes flashed with sharp glares as she glared at Huang Laowu.

After eating half a piece of cake and drinking a few sips of hot water, Huang Wu said, "Ours is still much better, not much different. His is only worth that price." Li Wen's eyes immediately lit up with joy, and she said, "Of course, you have good taste."

(End of this chapter)