Vol. 1 - Ch. 28 - The Root of the Problem

After arranging matters with Liu Chang to have a late-night snack and discuss investments after nine o'clock tonight, Li Han continued his work in the cake shop, cleaning up and moving various types of flour and raw materials for making cakes into the kitchen.He really liked this leisurely feeling, which is probably what people called slow living.

As it was almost noon, Li Han prepared to go to Liu Chang's shop for an early observation.

After all, he was going to invest in this shop next, so he definitely needed to understand the situation first.

"Where are you going? Aren't you eating?" Wang Man asked curiously when she saw Li Han was about to leave.

"I have something to attend to, need to meet a childhood friend," Li Han explained. "Don't worry, I'll be back before one-thirty." 

"It's okay if you have something to do and can't come, there's not much business in the afternoon." Wang Man said curiously as she looked at him.

Li Han smiled, "That won't work, I'm the security guard here, in case of danger, I have to come back to protect both of you."

"Who's protecting whom... " Wang Man chuckled and gave him a playful glare, then turned back to the kitchen.

Li Han soon arrived at the Carmez Handmade Burger Shop, which was a classic example of "sparrows could fly through the door". It was clearly past twelve o'clock, which was the peak dining period.

In other shops, there's a constant stream of delivery guys and customers. But in this particular shop, the employees were idle, busy playing King of Glory. It took several minutes for a delivery guy to come in and collect an order.

No matter how you put it, it was really strange for it to be so quiet during the peak hour.

So before Liu Chang found him, Li Han first pulled out the Big Customer Data of this shop.

As a result, he found that among the customers of this shop, 47% of people consumed no more than three times, and 72% of all customers were adults, with 84% of orders coming from takeout.

47% of people only consuming three times indicated that this shop has no repeat customers, but 72% of consumers were adults...

This data was too strange.

As we all know, the main customers of junk food are children, but most of the customers of this shop are actually adults.

Li Han decided to experience firsthand what caused this phenomenon.

After entering the store, one of the clerks lazily said, "Welcome," and then continued to play Glory of Kings.

Li Han looked at the menu in the shop. The main selling point of this shop is "whole wheat handmade bread", which was to simply to change the bread in the burger to whole wheat. The other fries and fried chicken are no different from Burger King.

"One Angus Burger, one Chicken Burger, and one Cod Fish Burger combo, please," Li Han said as he glanced at the menu. He continued, "Can I choose the sides? If so, mix and match them for me, and include a portion of each type of snack."

"Please wait a moment," said the clerk at the counter, jotting down a note. Then they replied, "The total here is one hundred and twelve yuan."

The price was actually on the same level as McDonald's. Li Han pondered, and then found a corner to sit down in the shop.

About fifteen minutes later, the counter notified him to pick up his meal.

"Your service here is a bit slow," Li Han frowned. "At McDonald's, you can almost grab your order and start eating right away. But here, I have to wait for fifteen minutes!"

"Oh, our burgers here are made on the spot, and they are handmade burgers, which are different from the burgers made from semi-finished products at McDonald's." The clerk explained.

Li Han nodded, carried the burger back to his corner, and then looked at it.

There is no doubt that the portion was very large, the thickness of a beef patty was equivalent to two at McDonald's, and the chicken leg in the chicken leg burger was also more substantial.

"Let's see the reason then." Li Han muttered to himself, took a bite of the burger, and then frowned.

The whole wheat bread had a very hard and dry texture, and it also had a hint of bitterness. He really didn't understand why they used this kind of bread.

In fact, because the processing of whole wheat flour was more complicated, the price was more expensive than ordinary flour, and the taste and flavor are not good.

This kind of bread is mainly aimed at people who are dieting, but people who are dieting would not come to eat fried chicken burgers.

Then he tasted a few other kinds of burgers and found another problem: the taste was too monotonous.

All the burgers in this shop use similar sauces, because there were cheese, garlic sauce, and egg yolk sauce, so they all taste sour, sweet, and salty. It feels like three burgers with the same taste but different textures.

No wonder most customers don't eat more than three times.

As for snacks like chicken wings, chicken nuggets, and chicken strips, although they were not the kind of semi-finished material packages from KFC, the meat was marinated with the same marinade, so chicken nuggets, chicken strips, and popcorn chicken all taste the same, and were just different in shape.

In this way, Li Han basically understood the problem with this shop.

Li Han's critique is quite insightful. Let's discuss the two points he mentioned: sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ NøvᴇlFirᴇ(.)nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

Self-contradiction of gimmicks: Indeed, sometimes businesses use unique selling points to attract customers. However, if these points contradict each other, it can leave people puzzled. As mentioned, it's like adding an antidote to poison -- not only pointless but also increases unnecessary expenses.

Monotony in taste: While emphasizing "handmade" by avoiding pre-made ingredients was commendable, having a consistent flavor across both burgers and snacks means that trying one item was akin to experiencing the entire menu.

Of course, the most important problem was still the price.

Adding too many unnecessary costs for the sake of gimmicks had caused the price to soar to the level of McDonald's, but it did not have the rich variety and taste of McDonald's and the price is not as affordable as KFC either, so it naturally had no competitiveness with similar shops.

As for why most of the customers were adults, it was determined by the price, portion, and variety. The portion was too much for children to finish, and the price was expensive and the variety was small, parents would definitely prefer buying McDonald's instead.

Now that the cause was clear, the next step was the solution.

At this time, a man with a round head, big ears, and thick lips passed by Li Han, curiously glanced at him, and then exclaimed with surprise: "Yo, Xiao Han? Why are you here now? Didn't you say nine o'clock in the evening?"

This was Liu Chang, Li Han's childhood friend. He was honest and smart, but the combination of these two was not necessarily a good thing.

It's not surprising that he was noticed by the other party, after all, he was the only customer eating in the restaurant.

But then Liu Chang looked at the meal he had ordered and immediately understood: "Are you here to gather information?"

"Don't worry, if I say I will invest, I will definitely invest." Li Han replied, "I just came to see where the problem lied."

A trace of shame flashed across Liu Chang's face: "Well... actually, my idea at the time was that everyone is worried about getting fat from eating junk food, so why not develop some low-calorie junk food? But..."

"It doesn't seem to be going well." Li Han nodded.

"So," Liu Chang sat down opposite him, "how much are you prepared to invest? As long as there is enough funding, we can do a good job of publicity, and we will definitely be able to turn the situation around."

"About 500,000," Li Han replied with a smile.

Liu Chang was shocked at the time. "Where did you get so much money? Do you make so much money as a salesperson at the Mercedes-Benz 4S store?!"

"Lottery Prize Second Place" Li Han explained. At this moment, the advantage of the second prize became evident, it could perfectly explain the source of funds without arousing excessive envy.

"Ah, no wonder..." Liu Chang suddenly realized.

"But," Li Han changed the topic, "how this money is used will be up to me. Your approach clearly won't work, so why not try my method next? What do you think?"