Courtyard House: Is Xu Damao a childless man? Let me help.

Fast food restaurants make money by quickly turning over tables, so the prices of the food they sell are actually not too expensive.

So Ye Jianchuan quickly came up with a new way to promote the product: distributing coupons!

That's right, it's about issuing coupons. Ye Jianchuan actually learned this trick from competitors like KFC. In the early 21st century, these Western fast food restaurants gradually entered various cities.

Once they opened stores in these cities, their promotional methods were all very similar: hiring people to distribute coupons on the streets and alleys, allowing customers to purchase their products at a seemingly 'affordable' price.

What Ye Jianchuan remembers most vividly is that he once received a coupon for 9.9 yuan that could buy a hamburger and a Coke.

Back when this fast-food chain opened, Ye Jianchuan would pass by it every day after school, and his classmates would often have their meals there with their parents. This made Ye Jianchuan develop a certain 'craving' for this fast-food restaurant...

So after getting the coupon, Ye Jianchuan immediately made up his mind to save up money to experience it! In the end, Ye Jianchuan saved up for two and a half days before he finally got to taste the 'legendary' hamburger.

Therefore, coupons are an absolute killer weapon for people who already have a certain desire to consume!

Moreover, another very important point is that coupons can also serve as an advertisement and a menu.

Advertising, naturally, is because when someone distributes coupons, they will mention the store's name, which is actually a form of advertising. And since the coupons are covered with logos, the advertising effect is actually not too bad.

This is similar to how some businesses hire people dressed in bizarre costumes and holding signs to attract customers at the store entrance for promotional purposes, except that the 'performance' of the people handing out coupons isn't as overtly dramatic.

As for the role of the menu, it goes without saying, because the coupons basically cover all the products in the store.

For example, Ye Jianchuan's 2.5 McDonald's coupons mainly list items like fried chicken legs, fried chicken cutlets, fries, hamburgers, and cola.

Of course, if coupons want to 'attract customers,' they also need to let customers know how much of a discount they received, or in other words, let customers know how much of a bargain they got.

Therefore, Ye Jianchuan would thoughtfully mark the original price XXX next to the prices on the coupons. In this way, if others see that using the coupon can save so much money, even if they were not very interested at first, they might come in just to get a small discount.

And so, Ye Jianchuan's coupon plan quickly began. However, this plan had barely started when it encountered a problem—a big problem!

Chapter 345 The Less-than-ideal Fast Food Business

This trouble stemmed from the 'regulations' from above. Ye Jianchuan overlooked a very important point: although we have reformed and opened up at this stage, we have not actually reached the level of 'openness' of later generations.

While distributing coupons is indeed a very good and easy marketing tactic to succeed, your behavior of standing on the streets and handing out flyers to people can easily evoke other, less positive thoughts.

For example... You're handing out flyers on the street? Are you promoting something bad? Are you here to spread anti-Japanese ideology? Are you a spy?

Then... the coupon program had only been running for a day when the four employees distributing coupons on the street were all arrested by government officials. In the end, Ye Jianchuan had to step in and explain the situation before they were released.

However, while releasing these people, the higher-ups also told Ye Jianchuan that issuing coupons would not be allowed in the short term.

It's impossible for the higher-ups to set such a precedent just for Ye Jian 27 Chuan. After all, if you post it now, what will happen when others post it? Will you take care of it or not?

If you intervene, you'll be abusing your power for personal gain, giving Ye Jianchuan preferential treatment and opening the door for him. But if you don't intervene, what if some guys take advantage of this opportunity to distribute inappropriate leaflets and spread harmful ideas?

So, with no other choice, Ye Jianchuan had to temporarily abandon the coupon plan. But that's okay. While distributing flyers on the street might not be the most effective method, Ye Jianchuan could still find other ways to promote the product.

For example... Although this coupon can't be handed out on the street, Ye Jianchuan can still print it directly in the newspaper!

This is just a routine that Western fast food chains have come up with anyway. Ye Jianchuan is just borrowing it in advance, which can be considered as seizing the market ahead of time.

Although printing it in a newspaper might not be as effective, it still attracts many people to cut out the coupon and make a purchase.

The final result was self-evident: with the help of coupons, the fast food restaurant's business, while not booming, was still able to generate a decent income.

Moreover, this profit was achieved even with all the broiler chickens being purchased directly from farmers. If all the chickens used were replaced with chickens raised by themselves, the cost would definitely decrease further, and the profit would be even greater.

Of course, the 'success' of this fast food restaurant was not as successful as Ye Jianchuan had imagined. After all, although the fast food restaurant was still open and made money, this time it was not as successful as he had imagined.

However, the profitability did not meet Ye Jianchuan's expectations, because he anticipated that if the fast food restaurant did well enough, it would be extremely popular.

After all, when fast food restaurants first entered the domestic market, they were incredibly popular for a while. Back then, not only did kids pester their parents for food after school, but even some companies would order these Western fast food meals when they held events.

However, the McDonald's I created is barely profitable, but the level of profitability is obviously not very impressive.

However... there are reasons for this. On the one hand, the current consumption power of Chinese people is far from reaching the level it will be in a decade or two.

To put it bluntly, not every family in China can afford to eat meat these days, let alone things like fried chicken and hamburgers.

So even if they see so-called coupons and a relatively affordable price, most people will only come once at most to try it out.

If you can't attract enough repeat customers, it's actually quite difficult to maintain a good business.

Fortunately, Ye Jianchuan quickly figured out the problem. Since the Western fast food model was not so applicable at this stage, he decided to create a fast food restaurant that combined Chinese and Western styles!

So, in addition to the standard items of those Western fast food chains, Ye Jianchuan also created chicken rolls, crispy chicken leg rice, and the soon-to-be-ubiquitous 'Korean fried chicken'.

That Korean fried chicken is actually just regular fried chicken, except that it's sold with some rice cakes, purple sweet potato balls, and other similar ingredients.

The technical content of these things is quite limited, so Ye Jianchuan simply shared his ideas with the 'shop manager' he had recruited, and these things were quickly produced.

This makes the store's products more diverse and more down-to-earth. Even if they don't understand what a hamburger is or what "original recipe chicken" is, they can still understand chicken wraps, chicken leg rice, and the like, right?

In addition, there were some French fries, fried rice cake strips, and other items, which were relatively cheaper. So, these products quickly attracted a group of customers.

Of course, the final result won't be that good, since current spending power is still limited. And fast food isn't like dining out, where people know what's what and can order whatever they want.

Although your restaurant has a much wider variety of products, it's still a bit lacking compared to stir-fries. Besides, people who eat out usually do so in groups, chatting and having a few drinks at the table.

However, this rule doesn't apply to fast food restaurants, so these factors still affect their business.

However, Ye Jianchuan felt that this was already quite good. Although the money earned was not much, it was still a profitable business!

Moreover, as time goes by and people's spending power increases, Western fast food chains that have already captured the market and established a reputation naturally have a greater appeal to Chinese consumers than later entrants like KFC or McDonald's.

So, Ye Jianchuan quickly started promoting this not-so-profitable Western fast food restaurant in several major cities. As for the chicken farm, he naturally followed the principle of proximity and set up a supporting production facility.

Chapter 346 Bang Geng's 'Foreign Trade Journey'

After successfully venturing into the aquaculture and fast food industries, Ye Jianchuan still couldn't stay idle. After all, for people of later generations, this era could be described as a land of opportunity!

So in Ye Jianchuan's mind, it was as if he could spew out two 'golden ideas' with a mere sneeze. Since that was the case, Ye Jianchuan naturally wanted to make good use of these ideas.

So Ye Jianchuan quickly began researching the future 'luxury goods' industry: tea!

Making money in this industry is not easy, especially at this stage, where it is even more difficult.

After all, at this stage, most people have just solved the problem of food and clothing. It seems very difficult to get them to squeeze out a lot of money to buy some tea to "enjoy" and "savor".

However, Ye Jianchuan entered this industry not to make money, or rather, not to make money in this industry now, but to establish his own 'tea industry chain' at this stage.

Moreover, Ye Jianchuan is aiming for the high-end market, which means that as long as he can revive this industry chain, he won't have to worry about finding high-end tea for business or gifts in the future.

On the other hand, if a 'high-end tea' industry chain can really be built, it may not be profitable for the time being, but in twenty years, the price of tea will skyrocket.

Considering profitability later is acceptable to Ye Jianchuan, since he doesn't lack profitable projects at the moment.

So finding a few less profitable projects won't really have a big impact.

And most importantly, if we want to build a tea industry chain, then shouldn't we find a 'feng shui treasure land' to lease a mountain and start planting tea?

So... this hilltop we've leased might become a development zone in the future, right? Then the tea plantation could be converted into commercial land... Thinking about it, it seems like a disguised form of 'property speculation'.

. . . . . .

Just as Ye Jianchuan's business was becoming more and more successful, after a period of 'hard learning', our classmate Banggeng also embarked on his own foreign trade journey.

However, from the very beginning, the child failed to accurately define his goals. He was quite greedy and liked to eat, so he set his export products as food items.

This is also the conclusion he came to after this period of 'learning', because during the learning period, the 'seniors' would tell him that it is best to start from the direction he is familiar with, so that it is easier to find the rhythm.

The words are indeed good, and the actions taken are indeed correct, but it depends on the individual.

Others who enter the foreign trade industry are either long-time employees of this factory or even leaders. They are very familiar with the prices of many goods, and some can even tell at a glance whether the goods they buy are defective.

But what about Bang Geng? After thinking it over, he finally realized that the only industries he was familiar with before, apart from stealing, were the restaurants he opened later.

I'm quite familiar with restaurant operations, and I also really enjoy food, so I'll definitely pursue a career in the food industry!

Then... Bang Geng realized that his choice was incredibly 'precise', because compared to others, besides being far inferior in terms of education, Bang Geng was also far less capable in terms of start-up capital.

Others who want to start in the steel or manufacturing industry need tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of yuan in start-up capital, but Banggeng only needs a few thousand yuan in start-up capital.

This amount of money is definitely not enough to play with those kinds of things, but playing with food products seems pretty good! After all, the price per unit weight here is relatively lower.

Bang Geng was overjoyed, feeling that his 'career' was going better than ever before! The direction he chose not only perfectly matched his current situation in terms of funding, but it was also the area he was most familiar with.

And then... and that was it. Although Bang Geng thought he was very familiar with the so-called 'restaurant industry,' in reality, when he opened the restaurant, apart from collecting some money, he didn't actually do anything.

Therefore, there is a very important characteristic of food that he overlooked, which is... Unlike things like iron ore, most food products have a relatively short shelf life.

So if you want to do business along this route, you will naturally need certain methods for preserving food.

Therefore, generally speaking, food and most of the foreign trade ships used by those people are completely different.

At this point, if Bang Geng can find someone who is also on this path to cooperate with, and latch onto their coattails, he might be able to benefit from their success and earn a little money.

But this guy was looking for cheap deals, so he directly followed his "predecessor" and operated the food business using the same methods as those who import and export minerals. The result was predictable.

In the end, Bang Geng gloriously lost everything, not only losing all his original capital but also incurring a lot of debt.

Ye Jianchuan had heard about Bang Geng's (good) ending to some extent, after all, he had quite a few 'friends'. However, Ye Jianchuan felt no sympathy for Bang Geng at all.

After all, before he went into the foreign trade business, Bang Geng did something that could be described as "outrageous" and "unpopular," which was... he once again "abandoned" Jia Zhangshi.

As mentioned before, before the gangsters came knocking on her door, Jia Zhangshi had already embarked on the path of 'turning over a new leaf'. While we can't say she was doing good deeds, she had at least begun to support herself.

But what happened after Banggeng came to her door? At first, Jia Zhangshi thought that Banggeng should find a proper job, go to work, and support himself.

Unfortunately, Bang Geng came up with another way. He obtained 'start-up capital' through petty theft and then went to open a restaurant.

Chapter 347 Jia Zhangshi Passes Away, Banggeng Enters the Palace for the Second Time

Originally, Bang Geng's restaurant had little to do with Jia Zhangshi, but the restaurant's business was not very good. In the end, in order to save costs, Bang Geng conscripted Jia Zhangshi to help him wash dishes and do other manual labor.

You should know that Jia Zhangshi originally got her job at the neighborhood office because they took pity on her. Now that you're going to help your grandson wash dishes, it's basically the same as resigning.

In this way, Jia Zhangshi was essentially without any source of income. However, since Bang Geng had dragged Jia Zhangshi to wash dishes, Bang Geng should naturally be responsible for Jia Zhangshi's three meals a day, right?

If things had continued like this, it would have been a normal situation, as the two generations of the family were simply willing participants. However, the restaurant owned by Bang Geng soon went out of business.

With the restaurant closing down, Jia Zhangshi naturally lost her job washing dishes. It was at this moment that Bang Geng kicked Jia Zhangshi away, using the excuse that he was going to "study" foreign trade-related knowledge, and simply disappeared, not caring whether Jia Zhangshi lived or died.

In this way, Jia Zhangshi instantly lost her livelihood. As for wanting to go back to the 330 street office? That's called the street office, not a public toilet, where you can come and go as you please.