It’s not surprising that Ning Weimin used the Salia model to copy the Gingerbread Man fast food restaurant and it became popular.

Who allowed this business model that has been fully proven to make Western food so cost-effective?

As long as you look at the Gingerbread Man's menu, you will understand that most of the dishes cost less than two yuan, and more than three yuan is considered a luxury.

Two people can eat and drink enough for ten yuan. If one person is willing to spend ten yuan, he can eat enough to support the wall.

And the presentation is not inferior to that of a formal Western restaurant.

This price makes those high-priced Western food colleagues tremble with fear, but the common people feel shocked and kind.

Although in order to reduce costs, this model uses the method of heating pre-prepared dishes, the taste of the heated food is only marginal.

But for Chinese people who are almost completely unfamiliar with Western food, and they just need to satisfy their desire to try something new, this level of food is enough to satisfy them.

In addition, the gingerbread man not only sells food, but also satisfies people's yearning for exquisite life.

The seemingly high-end western restaurant decoration environment plus the atmosphere created by cutlery, plates, and background music are all experiences that customers have never expected. They will naturally praise the delicious food and feel that it is worth the money.

To put it bluntly, even for Chinese food, in a small restaurant in the capital that is affordable but has an unsightly environment, two gentlemen would have to pay 12 or 3 yuan for cooking and drinking.

Gingerbread Man sells Western food in a restaurant of this level of decoration at a price of five yuan per person. How can such a conscientious enterprise that can grasp the cost-effectiveness not be popular?

Not to mention comparing it to high-end Western restaurants like Lao Mo and Maxim, but comparing it to Kentucky, which costs seven yuan and thirty cents for a single set meal, and compared to Beef Noodle King, which costs six yuan for a bowl of noodles, Gingerbread Man also seems cheap.

Good quality and very kind.

So much so that some customers are worried about the Gingerbread Man, thinking that if the price is so low, the Gingerbread Man might go out of business.

But having said that, even so, the speed and extent of the gingerbread man’s popularity were unexpected by people, including the person who created the brand.

Not to mention Shen Cun, even Ning Weimin did not expect that their chain brand would directly win the crown of Beijing's fast food industry since its opening, and dominate the list for a long time, becoming the "King of Queuing" sought after by countless fans.

”.

Almost regardless of weekends or working days, there are long queues of people waiting in front of their five stores every day before they open.

And the number of people is increasing.

In fact, although the central kitchen responsible for pre-cooked dishes has a team of hundreds of chefs, they have been working hard to increase the number of semi-finished products produced every day.

Even the two small vans responsible for transporting goods continuously restocked the five stores and delivered raw materials to the central kitchen almost during business hours.

However, due to insufficient anticipation of this popular situation, and due to the limited area and personnel of the Gingerbread Man's central kitchen, the production capacity has temporarily reached the ceiling.

Whatever they make every day, no matter what, they will be sold out in advance before the business closes at ten o'clock in the evening.

When it comes to the business conditions of the five stores, they are basically the same.

Often after 8:30 pm, and no later than 9 pm at the latest, you have to ask the clerk at the door who is responsible for guiding the crowd to persuade you to refuse those customers who still want to join the queue.

What does this mean?

It shows that cost-effectiveness is the real core competitiveness.

To be honest, Shen Cun and Ning Weimin originally thought that customers were flocking to the store in such an influx, and that this was just a temporary phenomenon, a short-term impact caused by the opening publicity and preferential activities. They would just wait until the new store opening event passed.

But who knew that they were completely wrong, because even after a week-long opening event, the popularity of the gingerbread man has not diminished.

Not only has the enthusiasm of people in the capital not diminished, but because of the positive fermentation of the restaurant's reputation, its reputation has become better and better, and has increased in number.

And because the discounts are no longer available, sales have further increased.

On average, within a week of opening, the five stores could stably generate more than 125,000 yuan in operating income almost every day. Who could have imagined this at the beginning?

Ning Weimin once imagined the best situation, that is, he would be satisfied with a daily revenue of 80,000 yuan.

Shen Cun thought even lower. He thought it would be good to have 50,000 yuan, and each restaurant could earn 10,000 yuan a day.

But in reality, their deal is frighteningly good.

Not only did it set a new daily revenue record, but even customer groups and traffic management departments expressed their opinions.

Some customers find it too difficult to queue up for a Gingerbread Man. Queuing for more than an hour is really not easy.

Moreover, the keychains that were given away for every 10 yuan spent at the opening event were all sold out on the fifth day. Those who came to eat on the sixth and seventh days did not receive the keychains. Naturally, these people were disappointed.

So someone asked if the Gingerbread Man could keep its business open during the Spring Festival and send out another batch of key chains to take care of those people who can't wait in line due to time constraints on weekdays, so that they can also have the opportunity to receive key chains.

For the traffic management department, the long queues at the door of the Gingerbread Man have become a scene in major downtowns in Beijing. It has brought great trouble to their daily work and also caused hidden dangers to traffic safety in downtown areas.

, it’s quite a headache.

Especially in places like Dongdan and Xidan, where the streets are not originally spacious, a permanent post has to be added to divert congested traffic and people at any time.

The opinion of the traffic management department is that it is best for the gingerbread men in these two places to move to places with spacious roads, or reduce the number of people queuing up, otherwise everyone will regret it if there is an accident.

So one can imagine what kind of existence the gingerbread man has become in the eyes of the people in the capital.

That is really more popular than the Internet celebrities in a few decades.

Nowadays, among the young people in the capital, if you don’t know that there is a gingerbread man in the capital, or if you haven’t queued up in front of the gingerbread man, it only means that you are “OUT”.

Having eaten Kentucky Fried Chicken and California Beef Noodles, there is nothing new. Anyone who has eaten all the more than 20 dishes on the Gingerbread Man’s menu is truly wealthy.

For children, the most anticipated thing every weekend, apart from a trip to the Beijing Amusement Park with their parents, is probably going to the Gingerbread Man to eat Western food.

Even Hasbro's Transformers don't seem to be as rare as the Gingerbread Man's key chain in the eyes of Beijing children.

Because the gingerbread man key chain is not only liked by boys, but also has a larger audience, and it is a limited edition.

Any child who has this thing will hide it tightly as if it is rare. It will not be shown to ordinary friends, only to the best friends.

And you absolutely don’t dare to hang it on your schoolbag, otherwise you’ll probably lose it in a day at most if you take it to school.

This was nothing. Soon, celebrities in the capital's literary and artistic circles also knew about the Gingerbread Man, and the leaders of the city government were alarmed.

As a result, people in the capital began to unexpectedly discover their favorite actors and stars at the Gingerbread Man, and even encountered city leaders who accompanied foreign guests to visit and dine.

As a result, not only has the Gingerbread Man become a place where everyone wants to gather for dinner, but journalists from all walks of life have also regarded the Gingerbread Man fast food restaurant as a hot spot in social news.

Whether it's a TV station, a radio station, a newspaper, or a magazine, requests for interviews come in like a snowflake from all walks of life.

To be honest, this kind of coverage is higher than the exposure that Ning Weimin spent money to hire and tried his best to create before the opening.

How much marketing expenses will be saved by this? I’ve been ripped off again!

And these media are no longer satisfied with superficial reports.

Everyone hopes to talk to the owner of the gingerbread man face to face and dig deeper into some of the stories behind the company.

I also want to find out whether the gingerbread man, who seems not to make much money on the surface, does make any money?

How do they achieve such a good restaurant environment, such delicious food, and such affordable prices?

Will they go bankrupt because they are not profitable, as people worry?

Needless to say, Ning Weimin did not want to do these errands of dealing with the media, so he naturally had to pass them on to Shen Cun.

As a result, Chairman Shen became a very popular international friend and business star. He frequently appeared in the media. For a while, he was even more popular than popular film and television stars. His exposure rate was not much worse than that of Teresa Teng and Fei Xiang who participated in the Spring Festival Gala rehearsals.

But to be honest, how to speak in front of the media and how to word it is very debatable.

It's hard for them to tell the media exactly what's on their mind.

If we really told the media, their gross profit would be nearly double at such a price. This is because the most expensive imported raw materials are not brand-name products, and the cost is minimized by shopping around and purchasing on a large scale.

Even the restaurant's decoration, tableware, wine glasses, and even the gingerbread man's key chain are all provided by Ning Weimin's connections, which can be said to be the lowest price in the city.

More importantly, because domestic rents are low, labor is low, and joint ventures have tax-free preferential policies, they are able to achieve such prices. They rely on price advantages and scale advantages to seize the market, and actually make a lot of money.

Then their character and corporate reputation must collapse.

Therefore, Chairman Shen listened to Ning Weimin's suggestion and did not talk about interests or management at all when being interviewed by the media, but only about feelings.

"Actually, Gingerbread Man's positioning is not purely a Western-style fast food, but a family restaurant that can satisfy both young and old. I have lived in the United States for many years, so I know very well that Western food is not noble, but also an ordinary diet. So. It can completely meet everyone's needs at a price that most people can afford. So this time I returned to my hometown, my hometown in Beijing, and the reason why I opened a restaurant is that I hope that I can make gingerbread men into a restaurant. Even a wealthy father can walk in confidently and tell his children which Western restaurant they can order."

"Of course, I can't do much. The most I can do is satisfy everyone's curiosity about Western food and help everyone increase their understanding of Western food. Because all our Chinese descendants know that in fact, the most delicious food in the world is not It’s not a delicacy from the mountains and seas, nor an exotic flavor, but the food cooked by my mother.”

"As for customers' opinions, I am very willing to accept them with an open mind. So I can tell you here that the Gingerbread Man Restaurant will remain open during the Spring Festival holiday. As for the key chain gifting activity, it will definitely be restarted in the near future. And in From the Spring Festival to the Lantern Festival, new activities will also be launched. Regarding the problem of difficulty in queuing that everyone has reported, I have no good solution for the time being. I can only try my best to open more restaurants this year."

These words undoubtedly fully consider the emotional and practical needs of the people in the mainland.

Especially in the Republic at that time, it would obviously be given a different meaning.

As a result, the social response was particularly strong. Not only did the gingerbread man become more popular with the people, but Shen Cun, the apparent chairman, also became so popular that he became one of the people in the eyes of the people and a celebrity in the business world in the eyes of the government.

Especially in private, in order to thank the traffic control department, Shen Cun also donated two jeeps in the name of the gingerbread man to the traffic brigades of Dongcheng District and Xicheng District. This helped to resolve the conflicts between the two parties and perfectly established a patriotic The image of overseas Chinese.

In this incident, the only real losses were other fast food restaurants and Western restaurants in Beijing.

Russian restaurants like Lao Mo and Dadi are just out of luck.

The business, which was already declining, has accelerated, but at least there are still some older customers who are holding on.

Pierre Cardon's restaurant business has also been affected to some extent. High-end French restaurants like Maxim's are fine because the customer base is different, but Menimus is not.

Originally, I was disliked because I didn't have a clear position, but now I'm almost in disgrace.

I don't know if this should be considered an accidental injury.

I don’t know if Zou Guodong, who made the decision to sell the fast food restaurant, has any regrets.

But the fast food industry that has been hardest hit must be the one that hates the Gingerbread Man the most.
To be continued...