I Treat You as My Sister, But You Want to be My Wife?!
Chapter 117 Too Much_1

Chapter 117: Chapter 117 Too Much_1

"If I recall correctly, our half-month opening 30 percent discount ends today. If we extend the discount for another half a month, won’t we be able to keep the customers?" Dong Qikang said.

Xingwang Hotpot’s stores are often located very close to those of Shuidilao Hotpot.

As long as Xingwang Hotpot continues its discounts, it can attract customers, and Shuidilao’s business will surely take a hit.

Moreover, Xingwang Catering is a major brand in Hai City, with both affordable chain restaurants and high-end dining establishments, and it enjoys a very good reputation.

People were aware of Xingwang Hotpot’s presence, and they were quite receptive to it.

Shuidilao is a new brand that no one knows. Attracting customers is going to be much more difficult than it is for Xingwang Hotpot.

Even with loss leader strategies, they might not be able to draw in many customers.

"Great idea," Dong Junjie said with a smile on his face.

...

January 16th.

Shuidilao had its grand opening.

Shen Dong and Chen Yuyan arrived at the Shuidilao company.

All the employees were there.

Shen Dong called a meeting with everyone and then assigned tasks to the middle and senior management.

Each person was responsible for one hotpot restaurant, to address issues promptly and report incidents that couldn’t be handled, ensuring that there would be no problems on the opening day.

As for the store staff, they were to perform their respective duties.

After that, everyone went about their tasks.

Shen Dong and Chen Yuyan had no specific tasks; the task assigned to Chen Yuanxiang was to oversee the Kangde Road Store, which was his original Mr. Chen’s Restaurant.

Just before noon, the trio arrived at the entrance of the Kangde Road Store and saw several young and beautiful women distributing flyers.

They were Xingwang Hotpot’s waitresses, handing out flyers all the way to the entrance of Shuidilao Hotpot.

This tactic was actually quite effective.

Many people saw Shuidilao Hotpot and peered through the glass to see that the interior of the restaurant looked quite nice, which made them want to go in and try it.

But upon receiving those flyers, and hearing the women constantly promote that Xingwang Hotpot is part of the Xingwang Catering chain, with tremendous discounts and great taste,

dining at the hotpot restaurant felt as affordable as having a boxed meal.

As a result, many customers were drawn away to Xingwang Hotpot.

Since Shuidilao Hotpot had no discounts and didn’t advertise extensively, it naturally fell behind, attracting few people to dine in.

"That’s really outrageous, to come right to our doorstep and poach customers with flyers," Chen Yuyan said angrily.

"It is indeed a bit excessive," Chen Yuanxiang’s expression turned sour.

"Honey, there are hardly any customers in our shop, should we have our waiters go out and hand out some flyers too?" Chen Yuyan asked.

They did have flyers, merely placed on a table by the entrance, so if customers noticed and were interested, they could take one themselves.

On their opening day and with Xingwang Hotpot’s people distributing flyers right there, Shuidilao would surely be negatively impacted.

If they couldn’t make it on their opening, establishing a reputation afterward would be even harder.

"No need. This tactic of attracting customers through handing out flyers is rather low-level. If we’re going to promote and attract customers, we need to do something classier," Shen Dong said with a chuckle, shaking his head.

"Classier? What constitutes classier?" Chen Yuyan asked, full of confusion.

However, Chen Yuanxiang seemed thoughtful and asked, "Xiaodong, are you thinking of having the Dongyan Guild’s streamers promote Shuidilao?"

Shen Dong laughed and said, "Dad is so experienced, you guessed what I was planning right away."

Now the Dongyan Guild has over a hundred high-quality streamers. Their influence is truly formidable.

Promoting through them would definitely be much more effective than having people hand out flyers on the streets.

"Oh, right, why didn’t I think of that?" Chen Yuyan laughed.

With guild streamers promoting it, there would be no shortage of people coming through the doors to taste.

As long as people came to taste, with Shuidilao’s flavor and service, there was no worry it wouldn’t be a hit.

Just then, two cars pulled up at the entrance.

One was a Lamborghini, the other a Honda minivan.

Getting out of the Lamborghini was Li Kaiyao, while the minivan disgorged a filming crew.

Now, Li Kaiyao was a genuine super internet celebrity, with tens of millions of followers.

He was truly the number one food vlogger.

Many people wanted to imitate Li Kaiyao.

But those imitators, let alone becoming hugely popular, didn’t even manage to become slightly popular.

The main reason was that Li Kaiyao himself was wealthy and had a way of speaking that was witty and humorous, something that came naturally from within, very spontaneous.

Those imitators, driving very ordinary cars, not even owning a single luxury car, seemed completely out of place when visiting upscale restaurants, making for an awkward watch.

Some indeed rented supercars, but their entire presence simply couldn’t compare to Li Kaiyao’s.

They didn’t look like wealthy people who dined regularly at fancy restaurants.

Moreover, their personal style was indistinct, appearing very stiff.

That’s why those people were bound to fail.

People as wealthy as Li Kaiyao generally wouldn’t become internet celebrities.

Only a quirky one like Li Kaiyao would leave a perfectly good car detailing business to someone else to manage and go off to be an internet celebrity.

This led to Li Kaiyao being unrivaled in his field!

"Shen Dong, Uncle Chen, Yuyan," Li Kaiyao came up to the trio, greeted them with a smile, then looked up at the name of Shuidilao and said, "Shuidilao is a really good name, much better than something like ’Delightful Taste’. It rolls off the tongue— isn’t eating hot pot all about fishing stuff out from the bottom of the water?"

Shen Dong smiled, "Exactly, that’s the idea."

When he first saw the name, that was exactly the thought that had come to him.

The name really did sound much better than something like ’Delightful Taste’, and it was also easier to remember.

"Is that so? I didn’t think of that," Chen Yuyan said, looking up at the name after hearing Li Kaiyao’s words.

"That’s because you’re slow; you’ve stopped using your brain since being with Shen Dong," Li Kaiyao joked.

"Brother Yao, how can you say that about me?" Chen Yuyan pouted.

"Isn’t it true? I’m just stating the facts," Li Kaiyao laughed.

"Alright, Brother Yao, let’s go inside, I’ll show you around," Shen Dong cut in, ending their playful banter.

The group entered the restaurant.

The manager of this restaurant was a girl in her early twenties, with a delicate appearance.

She was the one who had given a satisfactory answer to Shen Dong’s question during the training, the girl named Wang Jing.

Shen Dong felt that this girl had the strongest sense of service, so he promoted her to manager right off the bat.

As for a lack of management experience, that wasn’t an issue—it would come with time.

As long as she focused on service, she could basically handle things well.

Shen Dong trusted his judgment; Wang Jing could manage the Kangde Road store well.

Shen Dong had asked Chen Yuanxiang to arrange for her to be in this store, hoping it would be the best performing one among all the stores.

This store was a transformation of his father-in-law’s, and no matter what it became, his father-in-law was sentimentally attached to it. So ensuring the best development of the store was also about living up to his father-in-law’s expectations.