Chapter 186 - 170: What to Do When Employees Slack Off? Waiting Online, Urgent

Chapter 186: Chapter 170: What to Do When Employees Slack Off? Waiting Online, Urgent

A slight smile touched Xu An’s lips as he watched. The receptionist noticed his gaze and, assuming he was curious about where the lunch boxes came from, explained, "These are lunch boxes our employees ordered from Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant. Three dishes and a soup for eight yuan, and they even deliver. The guy who was just here is a rider from Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant, responsible for bringing the lunch boxes right to us."

"That’s really nice," Xu An said, nodding as he held back a laugh.

"Yeah, it’s so convenient. We don’t have to go out in this heat, there’s no need to queue or wait, and we can eat as soon as we get off work..." the receptionist chattered on, every word a compliment for Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant.

About half an hour after Xu An left, Wei emerged from the photo studio. He took off his protective suit and gas mask, walked straight to the front desk, picked up the last remaining lunch box, and casually asked, "Has the owner of Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant left already?"

"The owner of Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant?" The receptionist looked up, bewildered. "You mean the rider from Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant?" ℴ

"No, the young man who came to see me this morning, the tall one..." Wei briefly described Xu An’s appearance and clothes. The receptionist felt like she was about to fall apart. To think she had just chattered on and on about Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant right in front of its owner. Thank goodness she had only said good things, or she’d be freaking out right now.

Then, the receptionist made a mental note against Wei. ’He had a guest over but didn’t give me a heads-up or tell me who it was. For your afternoon tea today, you’re only getting fries. No Coke for you! No hamburger either! Just plain water with your fries, you jerk!’

Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant.

It was already past twelve when he left Wei’s company. The bank was on its lunch break and had suspended service. So, Xu An pedaled his bicycle back to Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant and started on the third item on his agenda for the day: finalizing the menu for the braised shop.

He pulled Zhang Dezhen in to brainstorm for an hour. Soon, a blank A4 sheet was covered in dense writing, listing at least seventy or eighty different dishes. With four flavors for each dish, that was over three hundred different combinations! They had to trim the list. Otherwise, prepping a few kilograms of this and a few kilograms of that every day... just thinking about it was enough to make his head spin.

Braised goods shops like Zhou Baiya usually offered fewer than ten items on their counters. And aside from the main duck products, which might have two or three flavor options, all other braised dishes came in a single, fixed flavor. Currently, at Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant, the best-selling items were the various vegetable dishes. There was an audience for meat dishes, but it was smaller, and sales weren’t high.

Although the vegetable dishes had a low selling price, their profit margin was not low. Once sales volume increased, they could earn just as much as, if not more than, the meat dishes. Besides, Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant was known for being affordable and high-quality, a legacy that Xu’s Braised Shop naturally had to inherit. Therefore, the star products of Xu’s Braised Shop would be braised vegetables!

Following that, Xu An and Zhang Dezhen cut the vast majority of items from the dazzling list. But when they got it down to twenty-six, they felt that every single remaining one was indispensable. The pen hovered over the list, moving back and forth, but it wouldn’t come down.

’Ugh! This is so hard!’

Xu An put down his pen and stared blankly at the un-crossed-out items on the A4 paper. ’If I were a customer, I’d definitely want as many dishes and flavors to choose from as possible. But I’m the owner. I have to consider costs, logistics, storage, and all those other issues.’

’More dishes with the same total volume means a smaller quantity required for each. Smaller quantities mean higher purchasing prices, and increased costs mean lower profits. I’ve already invested so much money into the braised shop; of course I hope to earn as much as possible. Once Xu’s Braised Shop is established, maybe I can consider gradually adding more dishes, but preparing so many right at the grand opening is not a good idea.’

’But... every one of these twenty-six dishes sounds mouth-watering just from the name. It would be a shame to cut any of them. How sad it would be if customers couldn’t taste such delicacies!’

As he pondered, a notebook lying open nearby caught his eye. The wind had flipped through several pages, and it just so happened to stop on the page where he had outlined a challenge event for the grand opening of Xu’s Braised Shop that afternoon. A thought suddenly struck Xu An. ’What if I hold a warm-up event for the grand opening? Let the customers vote for their ten favorite braised dishes, and the ones with the most votes will be officially sold in the shop?’

Following this line of thought, Xu An found the idea more and more feasible. ’The cost wouldn’t be very high, and it would also serve as a pre-launch promotion, letting our regulars know that Xu’s Fast Food has a sister shop specializing in braised foods. The event could also be a way to give back to our loyal customers. It kills several birds with one stone! And the cost would be less than a thousand yuan!’

Xu An took out a new sheet of A4 paper and began to plan the event, which was another spur-of-the-moment decision. ’Twenty people is a bit too few, but the shop can’t fit a hundred. Let’s go with a lucky number, sixty-six sounds good. The theme will be—Xu’s Braised Shop is about to open, and you decide what we sell! As for the time, the main customers of Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant are office workers with nine-to-five jobs. From Monday to Friday, most of them are only free in the evening. To be safe, Saturday evening would be best.’

’Even people who work on Saturdays will be off by then. They can come over for the event in the evening, go home for a good night’s sleep, and still have a day off the next day. So, let’s set it for nine p.m. on Saturday. That’s prime time for a late-night snack...’

After some scribbling and sketching, Xu An quickly finalized the time, place, number of participants, and format for the event. He reviewed the plan from start to finish and, seeing no issues, took out his phone, opened QQ, and wrote a new post.

’A branch of Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant—Xu’s Braised Shop—is opening soon! And you get to decide what we sell! This Saturday at 9 p.m., gather at the Zijing Road South Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant to taste twenty-six different braised dishes! If you want to join, reply "1" to this post. The first sixty-six replies will be selected! Spots are limited, first come, first served!’

Xu An also attached a picture: a white background with the word "Event" in black text—simple, direct, and clear. There were just as many people slacking off at work today as ever. The moment the post went live, while Xu An was still checking for typos, five replies had already come in. Xu An was very familiar with the five names: Liu Tong, Liu Zhaowen, Luo Min, Ding Nan... Nanny He?

’What do you do when you catch an employee slacking off? Waiting for answers online, urgent!’