The NO.1 Food Stall in the Wasteland novel Chapter 206

Chapter 206: Chapter 206: Not Making a Profit, Running a Charity?

Wang Daguo admired Shen Lu from the bottom of his heart.

To this day, he had never seen Shen Lu truly stumped by a problem. She could always find a solution with ease.

After lunch, the staff got to work—some cleaning, others prepping ingredients. By five-thirty in the afternoon, the four trial employees and Wang Daguo had clocked out one after another.

Meanwhile, Master Luo had been hauled by Boss Jin’s men to a small Western-style house. He trembled as he showed Boss Jin the message from his apprentice.

Apprentice: A government logistics truck came and delivered a ton of ingredients. I have no idea what kind of connections they used.

Boss Jin’s face darkened, and an even more furious Jin San knocked over the ashtray.

"Damn it! How the hell could a little broad like her know government officials?!"

Boss Jin said, "Old Luo, tell your apprentice to investigate, and fast. The sooner you get us the information we want, the better it will be for you."

Master Luo nodded profusely. "I know. I’ll pressure him every day."

"Alright, you can go now."

After Master Luo left, Boss Jin resumed smoking his cigar, his expression growing even more menacing.

It had been the Commerce Association’s decision to have the Lower City District’s food suppliers deliberately cut off Shen Lu’s stock.

The Lower City District had its own Commerce Association. Without it, everyone would be at each other’s throats, using dirty tricks to steal customers, which would only drive business into the ground for everyone.

So, the more affluent bosses had sat down and established the Commerce Association, primarily to ensure that all the shops in the Lower City District could make money peacefully and steadily.

However, not just anyone could join the Commerce Association. There were standards, and someone like Boss Cao, for example, didn’t qualify.

Shen Lu had started with a street stall, then bought an unfinished building on Gold Street. It looked like a venture doomed to fail, so the Commerce Association hadn’t bothered sending anyone. ’Why send an invitation to a shop that’s bound to go under anyway?’ they thought.

Then Little Deer Cuisine opened, and its crawfish competition created a huge buzz, but the Commerce Association still didn’t bat an eye.

It was just a standard marketing ploy. ’What new business doesn’t run a promotion to attract customers?’

Besides, it was perfectly normal to be busy in the first few days. A shop’s long-term survival isn’t determined by its grand opening but by whether it can maintain its footing after the initial hype dies down.

Then the great storm hit, forcing all shops to close, and the members of the Commerce Association dismissed Little Deer Cuisine completely.

’Needless to say, that little shop was finished for sure.’

Who could have predicted that after the storm, Little Deer Cuisine wouldn’t just survive, but would thrive, its business getting better and better?

At the same time, many of the restaurants owned by the Commerce Association’s members started to feel the impact.

Before, they might go a whole year without hearing more than a few customer complaints. Lately, the number had risen significantly.

The complaints were all along the same lines: their prices were too high, and the food wasn’t as good as the dishes at Little Deer Cuisine.

After hearing this enough times, someone inevitably went to investigate, only to discover just how low Little Deer Cuisine had set its prices.

They were all in the restaurant business; they knew the profit margins by heart. At the prices Little Deer Cuisine was charging, once you factored in the costs of labor, utilities, rent, and ingredients, there was basically nothing left over.

’Who on earth does business like that?’

’If you’re not making a profit, are you running a charity?’

’Inviting such a bleeding-heart business owner into the Commerce Association would be a joke, wouldn’t it?!’

Besides, if she kept running her business this way, she was bound to fail. A restaurant needs normal income and expenditures to stay afloat.

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