National Tide 1980

"Delicious! So delicious! I give this dish a hundred points!"

Such a wonderful change of mind.

When Zou Guodong tasted the hot spring egg and meat sauce Doria rice in the store, he finally expressed his heartfelt praise.

And this is exactly what Ning Weimin is happy to see.

"Not bad, right? Lao Zou. Now you understand why I asked you to come, right?"

"I understand, I understand."

Zou Guodong, who was still immersed in the taste of the food, wiped the corners of his mouth with satisfaction while expressing all his feelings about the ups and downs of his mood, from black to pink.

"Okay, really okay! When I came here, I was worried that there wasn't a decent restaurant here. After all, everyone's usual thinking is - Western food = Western = Modern = Noble = Affordable. But I didn't expect that although the location of this restaurant is terrible, the restaurant The environment inside is actually okay, comfortable, with a small atmosphere, and the smell of rotten fish and shrimp outside seems to have been isolated. After I sat down to order, when I saw the menu, I was worried that it was too cheap and that I would not be able to eat decently. The food. I didn’t expect it, it tastes really good! Especially this dish, I have to say I’m quite satisfied. I’m really not sure whether it’s Italian food, but I like the taste of this dish very much!”

"Haha, Mr. Zou, you've got it right. The core advantage of this restaurant is its excellent value for money! Western food that's better than it is not as cheap as it is, and the ones that are cheaper than it are not as delicious as it. So don't look at this restaurant. The location of the restaurant is so bad, but there are still a large number of customers who come to the door, even climbing over piles of vegetables, and become loyal repeat customers here. Another thing I don't know if you have noticed? The customers here span age groups and occupations. Broadband for customer groups, suitable for all ages..."

"Yes, yes, not only students, employees, but also the elderly, housewives, even single people, friends gatherings or family dinners can come here. And the key is that no one here will feel that consumption is not enough. Come on, I think that although the number of dishes we ordered is a bit exaggerated, it is not lacking for others. Every table is not a pair of cups and plates. Especially those who are married and bring their children, even if they don’t have any in their pockets. How much is it? You can also wave your hand here and say "whatever you want". As a father, and as someone who once walked home in order to save a few cents on bus fares. I can understand that this should be the biggest of happiness.”

This time, before Ning Weimin could finish his words, Zou Guodong agreed again and even added something.

However, he also focused the issue on the most sensitive area.

"... But the question is, how does this restaurant do it? For one thousand yen, you can have a hearty meal, for two or three thousand yen, you can party with friends, and for five thousand yen, you can order a variety of dishes. One table of dishes. How can this restaurant make money? The price is low, the environment is good, and it’s Western food. This is great news for diners. Why do I feel that the owner of this Western restaurant is not just trying to make money? This is clearly what he is doing. Charity! What Salia, just call her Virgin Mary..."

"Haha!" This was the first time for Ning Weimin to fully feel Zou Guodong's sense of humor, and he couldn't help laughing.

But after laughing, he had to work hard to peel off the cocoon and reveal the secret to Zou Guodong very patiently.

"Mr. Zou, you are actually not the only one who is curious about how Salia can make money while maintaining such prices and quality. To be honest with you, I was also very strange at first. Because I only work in catering. Well, the purpose of coming here is also to open a restaurant. But like you, I didn’t understand the cost at first. Or it should be said that it’s precisely because I work in catering that I didn’t understand it. An account. For no other reason than because according to a report issued by Japan’s professional evaluation agency, the average profit of Japan’s catering industry is only 10%..."

"Ah! What? So low!"

Zou Guodong couldn't help but exclaimed in surprise, "If that's the case, why are you still staying in Japan? You might as well go back with me..."

"Don't be anxious, just listen to me. I never fight with uncertainty. I investigated these situations clearly before going abroad."

Ning Weimin waved his hand to tell Zou Guodong to calm down. He picked up the red wine and toasted him. After drinking it, he continued to talk.

"It's true that the Japanese catering industry is fiercely competitive. Especially in Tokyo, labor, rent, and ingredients are all cheaper than in our country. And there are many choices for customers. Because there are so few restaurants in the capital, there is no shortage of customers. But not in Japan. There are all kinds of restaurants from all over the world, including high-end, mid-range and low-end. If you want a restaurant to be profitable, the location of the restaurant must be good, it must have good decoration and service, and the taste of the food cannot be bad. , and often do promotional activities, advertising and so on. These are all costs."

"As far as I know, in Japan, the industry's largest average cost for catering is food ingredients. Food in Japan is relatively expensive, and this item accounts for at least one-third or more of the operating cost. The second largest part, accounting for One-quarter of the cost is labor. The third-ranked one is marketing expenditure, including advertising and preferential activities, which is about one-fifth. Then add 10% of the rent, so the calculation is not Only a dry single-digit profit was left. But later, I came more often and visited other branches of this restaurant, and gradually I figured it out."

When he said this, he found that Zou Guodong's eyes were obviously paying much attention.

I was relieved that I didn't want to talk too much about it, and just told the core content directly.

"The easiest thing to figure out is the cost of housing. As you can feel when you arrive, Salia's store location is extremely poor. The owner of this restaurant never chooses a prosperous store in a prime location. He even goes the other way. When choosing In terms of address, most of his stores are located in third-rate corners of third-rate shopping malls, and the rents are super cheap. They are also good at picking up lost restaurants, and they especially like to accept restaurants that have closed down. Then they just changed the signboards, and opened with simple interior changes. , greatly reducing the decoration cost and decoration time. So in this item, Salia saved 5%."

"The second thing that is also very intuitive is marketing expenditures. Salia will occasionally do some activities, but the expenditures are limited. And they almost never advertise. Since the customers this store is targeting are ordinary people who can't afford Western food, they don't want to make high-end profits. Customers' money depends entirely on word-of-mouth to spread the name of the store. Therefore, the customers are all repeat customers who come here because of the high quality and low price. They don't care about the bad location of the store, and they are indeed happy to actively promote the store. And People who have never eaten often become repeat customers after eating once. Therefore, Salia can also save 15% on advertising and marketing."

Zou Guodong nodded and calculated the numbers in his mind.

"Then... plus the due profit, this is 30%. It is basically close to the domestic situation. But it is not enough to support such a cheap price. You just said it is the average situation in the industry, I think In this way, Salia will not pay any compensation at most. From this point of view, the bulk of the savings lies in the last two items."

"Yes." Ning Weimin nodded first, then suddenly asked. "Mr. Zou, have you ever counted how many waiters there are in this restaurant?"

Zou Guodong was immediately stunned by this guy.

He quickly turned around to look, and after a while he looked back, and then confirmed with Ning Weimin in an extremely shocked tone.

"No way? There are actually...only three people! Such a big restaurant! According to common sense, if there are not ten people, there must be seven or eight!"

"Hey, this is the strange thing. It's also Salia's biggest business secret. To tell you the truth, I just figured it out recently. It's also a coincidence. For the first time, Fuji TV happened to be because Salia was incredible. Because of the low price, I went to Salia's main store to do a program. In addition, in order to appease the customers' concerns about the low price, Salia's boss made a special appearance to introduce the restaurant's business. Only then did I learn about the customers' concerns. There are things that cannot be seen from different angles. I figured out how Salia worked so hard and finally saved money on her teeth through various methods."

At this point, Zou Guodong's eyes were obviously more urgent, and he couldn't help but urge, "Stop talking nonsense and speak quickly."

"Haha, okay, I'll tell you."

Ning Weimin smiled, "In order to achieve this, Salia has taken a different approach in terms of business model, adopting the model of 'self-built supply chain + central kitchen'. Salia has many chain stores, all of which are operated by The company uniformly distributes semi-finished products, that is, pre-made dishes. When it is open, the kitchen of each restaurant only needs to perform simple processing. Salia's boss said in the program that "Salia's kitchen does not have a kitchen knife"... "

"What? Not a kitchen knife? Then...is this still a kitchen? Wait, wait...and what you just said about the supply chain, the central kitchen, and each restaurant has its own kitchen, what on earth is this? What do you mean? Please explain it more clearly to me. Why do I feel like the cost has increased with the addition of an extra kitchen? "

It was completely unimaginable to see Zou Guodong, and he seemed a little unable to digest such information.

Ning Weimin suddenly realized that this was the age gap.

Terms that everyone will know in the future are still relatively unknown knowledge in this era.

For this reason, he thought about it carefully and finally found a fairly suitable angle and example.

"Let me tell you this. This central kitchen is the real kitchen. It is responsible for frying and frying. It is the place where the chef works. It is also the only kitchen for Salia. So the things made in this kitchen are not for a The restaurant is made for the restaurant owned by Salia. As for the kitchen of each restaurant, it has actually been simplified. Not to mention that there is no chef, it does not have many kitchen functions. It only needs to have refrigeration storage function and The heating function is just fine. To put it bluntly, Salia's store can basically achieve fool-like operation. Even during the busy lunch period, the entire restaurant can be served with only two or three people. By the way, have you ever eaten airplane food? You Just think of Salia’s model as airplane food…”

"Ah! Airplane food? So that's what it is!"

Needless to say, Zou Guodong suddenly became enlightened. "I finally understood that all the dishes are prepared in one place and then distributed to other restaurants. If there are customers to eat, the waiters are like stewardesses, just heat the food and bring it out. Well, a plane is so big Even the two stewardesses can take care of multiple guests. Not to mention, this saves trouble, and there is really no need for a chef in the kitchen. What a brilliant idea! It's a bit like a food factory. This is Salia's boss That’s awesome!”

"Where else!" Ning Weimin saw that Zou Guodong finally understood and was able to continue.

"The Japanese's refined operations are admirable. Salia's boss racked his brains to figure out how to eliminate time waste and save money. In order to control labor costs, Salia implemented a full-time and part-time employment model, focusing on The assessment of 'person-hour turnover' is the turnover that an employee can achieve in one hour, focusing on labor efficiency per unit time."

"The boss also boasted about a series of tips for efficient work in the show. For example, he specially designed a mop that can automatically discharge water to improve mopping efficiency. His waiters do not use trays to serve dishes because the trays can only serve one at a time. Two plates of food, and if you use your hands, you can serve three or four plates at a time. After serving the food, you have to take away the empty plates when you return to the kitchen. He also invented a homemade cutting machine specifically for cutting tomatoes. Put the tomatoes on the machine and it can be eaten immediately. The whole process of cutting takes only a few seconds.”

Hearing this, Zou Guodong couldn't help but exclaimed again.

"Oh, why does it sound like an assembly line to me? The Japanese are really smart, they actually use people as machines. This is to extract the value of labor to the maximum extent! This Japanese capitalist can exploit people to this extent. It’s no worse than Zhou Papi in “The Chicken Crows at Midnight.”

"No, no, your metaphor is a bit inappropriate. The Japanese pay wages, and they don't ask employees to work overtime for free. You can only say that they are smart..."

Ning Weimin said, "Just like in terms of material supply, the Japanese boss's calculations are also very good. Since Salia modeled her Western food business on Kentucky and McDonald's, she started a chain store operation. This It can not only let more people know about their brand, but also effectively reduce the cost of purchasing ingredients. The owner of this store took advantage of the fact that his restaurant has become popular and consumes a large amount of ingredients, so he got a certain bargaining power. Successfully reduced The supply chain is eliminated. The ingredients used by Saria are either directly supplied by the manufacturers or provided by their own farms. Even the things that have to be imported are purchased in large quantities at preferential prices. In this way, labor costs are saved by 100%. Fifteen, the cost of ingredients was saved by 15%. On the contrary, Salia’s table turnover rate was twice that of other restaurants. The turnover was not less than that of other restaurants. If you do the math, this profit How high is it?”