Chapter 7 - 6: The Rules of Street Vending

Chapter 7: Chapter 6: The Rules of Street Vending

"Young lady, your stall’s doing pretty well. The two of us will buy one to try, you know, learn a thing or two."

The fried skewer vendor and the uncle selling potato slices from the next stall over stood before Ning He’s stand, their smiles not reaching their eyes.

Ning He, who was in the middle of bagging an order, stiffened. She quickly turned to them with an enthusiastic smile.

"You got it. I’ll make them for you right away."

She fried one of each—chive and radish—and handed them to the men. The fried skewer vendor pulled out a few original coins to pay, but Ning He just smiled and didn’t accept them.

"I’m new here and still figuring things out. Please, consider it my treat. If I’ve done anything out of line, I hope you two can point me in the right direction."

The two were clearly here looking for trouble, so Ning He decided to take a softer approach first and see how things played out.

Her attitude immediately softened their expressions, and the hostility in their eyes subsided.

"’Guidance’ is a strong word, but you’re new to this line of work, so it’s normal not to know some of the rules. We’ll just tell you a couple of things."

Ning He nodded, maintaining her humble, eager-to-learn expression.

"First, whenever you set up at a new spot, you can’t sell the same thing as someone else. Look around at the stalls here. Everyone sells something different. That way, we avoid splitting the customer base. Customers get more variety, which brings in more people, and that’s good for everyone."

Ning He nodded.

There were a dozen or so small stalls here, and it was true that none of them sold the same items.

Even if they used the same ingredient, like potatoes, one stall sold fried potato slices while another sold roasted potatoes.

A diverse selection of food did indeed attract more customers.

"Next is pricing. The officially permitted maximum gross profit for a Level 1 stall is 20%. Those of us who’ve been here for years, we all agreed to set our prices based on that number. This way, everyone can make a living, and we avoid price wars and malicious competition."

At this, the fried skewer vendor glanced at the prices on Ning He’s sign and his lips twitched into a sneer.

"Your pricing, for instance, is obviously too low."

As he spoke, he broke open the radish-filled Lampshade Cake in his hand, revealing the dense shredded radish filling inside.

"Our wholesale prices as small-time vendors are lower than retail, but since we don’t buy in bulk, the discounts we get from the food companies are nothing like what the big restaurants get. I’m guessing your cost for these chives and radishes isn’t any lower than sixteen original coins a pound, right?"

When Ning He nodded with an awkward smile, he pointed to the filling.

"And you salt the radishes to draw out the water before using them, which drives up the cost even more. I see you’ve also put scallions in here." The fried skewer vendor frowned. "Scallions are a seasoning, and they’ve always been expensive—at least twenty-five original coins a pound. You’re just being reckless. Even if you sell these for four original coins apiece, how much can you possibly be making?"

The potato slice vendor beside him shook his head. "Kid, you can’t run a business by just doing what they teach you in cooking school, or you’ll never make a profit. Look at you, you work all day, and your net profit is probably only ten percent. On top of that, you’re hurting our business too. What you’re doing just isn’t worth the trouble!"

Ning He had originally planned to just act humbly and let the matter blow over. But listening to them, she immediately realized she had oversimplified the situation.

If the Beiluo City government was supporting street vendors, it made sense that there would be a complete regulatory system. After years of development, the industry was bound to have its own operating principles to protect the interests of the majority.

After all, food was a luxury in this world, and demand was enormous. Without detailed regulations to govern such a large piece of the pie, chaos would surely ensue.

She had barged in, focused only on making her food delicious without carefully calculating her costs. In everyone else’s eyes, this was malicious competition, an attempt to undercut her peers.

Although her current prices were based on Cam’s suggestion, he wasn’t an industry insider, so it was normal for his estimates to be off.

Ning He was thankful she hadn’t added any seasonings like pepper or five-spice powder. If they had found those, they’d probably think she was either a fool or a scammer.

"Then may I ask you two, what price do you think would be more appropriate?"

This time, Ning He was genuinely asking for their advice.

The fried skewer vendor was now convinced Ning He was just a clueless greenhorn fresh out of school. His hostility toward her vanished completely, and he didn’t mind teaching her a little more.

"For that, you have to work backward from your monthly income. The average monthly income for us small-time vendors in the Fourth Ring is about twelve hundred. You can probably run your stall about twenty days a month, which means your daily earnings should be around sixty original coins, give or take. Any lower than that and it’s not worth it. You’d be better off finding a regular job."

"Twenty days? What about the other ten?" Ning He asked.

The two men’s expressions immediately turned strange. They exchanged a look, and the potato slice vendor spoke to Ning He in a tone that was difficult to put into words.

"We have a few natural disasters every month here. It’s either massive hailstorms and acid rain or cold snaps and heat waves. You can’t run a stall on days like that, can you?"

Ning He scratched her head, laughing awkwardly.

’Now they must think I’m a complete idiot, don’t they?’

But it wasn’t entirely her fault.

Since she had woken up, she hadn’t encountered any extreme weather. She’d had good luck with her stall for the past few days, with only one light rain shower. The market had awnings, so business wasn’t affected, causing her to almost forget about that problem.

"I understand. But if I raise my prices, won’t it be too expensive? I mean, for five original coins, people can just buy an egg crepe."

"That’s why you have to lower your costs. Making food to the high standards they teach in school tastes great, sure, but ordinary people can’t afford it. Come on, I’ll take you to see the other stalls. You’ll get it."

There was still some time before the factory shift change, so Ning He nodded and went with the two vendors to look around.

"See this flatbread? The ingredients are the cheapest mixed flour, water, and salt. The grams of batter used for each one is fixed to guarantee a profit."

The pancake vendor was a tall, outspoken woman. She picked up the thread, "Exactly. If you sprinkle on scallions, spread on sauce, and add vegetables and sausage like they teach you in school, it tastes better, but the cost skyrockets. Who can afford that, other than the people inside the Third Ring? We just make something simple. It might be a little bland, but it’s more substantial than eating that nutrient paste."

"My fried skewers are the same," the first vendor added. "Just vegetables coated in batter and sprinkled with a bit of salt and sugar. They taste a little better, so they cost a little more, but some people can still afford them."

Ning He nodded and tried a fried potato slice someone offered her.

It was crispy, with the plain flavor of potato. Occasionally, she could taste a single grain of salt, a faint savory note blooming on her tongue.

It was nothing like the flavor bombs that passed for potato chips in her past life.

The aroma, too, was mainly just that of potato.

She then tried the fried skewer vendor’s signature item, a skewer of fried green beans. It had the same simple flavor profile.

"I understand. I’ll go home today and think hard about how to make adjustments. I’m sorry for causing everyone trouble."

"Don’t worry about it. It’s your first time in this business, so it’s normal not to know. But every trade has its rules. Stick to the rules, and while you won’t get rich, you’ll have a stable living. We’ve all been working this area for over ten years; we wouldn’t trick you."

The pancake vendor was the one who spoke. Ning He gave her a grateful look, but inwardly, she felt a jolt.

’It seems it wasn’t just the two uncles who had a problem with me. Probably everyone felt I’d broken the rules, they just didn’t come forward themselves.’

’When I pack up and go home, I need to properly research the rules for running a stall here to avoid making this mistake again.’

Ning He thanked the three of them and returned to her own stall, lost in thought.

The fried skewer uncle looked at the still-steaming Lampshade Cake in his hand and casually passed half of it to the pancake vendor.

"Here, try the kid’s cooking. She seems a bit ditzy, who knows if her food is any good?"

The uncle shook his head, tossed the remaining half into his mouth, dusted off his hands, and started walking back to his stall.

But in the next moment, he froze.

His chewing slowed, as if the impact on his taste buds with every bite was almost too overwhelming to bear.

He finally managed to swallow the piece in his mouth. Turning around, he saw his old friends with the same look of pure bliss on their faces.

The potato slice uncle still had half of the chive one left. The fried skewer uncle unhesitatingly broke off a piece of that and popped it into his mouth, and was once again lost in a daze.

’It’s all just fried vegetable batter. How can the difference be this huge?’

The three vendors’ gazes fell in unison on the young woman not far away, their expressions complicated.

’Is this the magic of a cook who puts flavor above all else?’

Ning He was oblivious to their internal reactions after eating her Lampshade Cakes. After packing up and heading home, she was already focused on figuring out how to adjust her recipe.