Food: Selling Boxed Meals at a Construction Site

Chapter 76: Chapter 76: Don’t Look at Me

Back in the restaurant, just as Xu An finished logging all the online orders and was about to close up, Xu Dongliang suddenly appeared at the door.

"Anzi, they just posted a notice over at the construction site." Uncle Dongliang was a little out of breath, having rushed across the street. "They’re switching their meal box supplier. The new one is the Brocade Hotel."

!

Alarm bells went off in Xu An’s head. He had a very bad feeling about this.

Xu Dongliang handed Xu An a crumpled flyer. Its top two corners were missing; it looked like it had been torn off a wall.

He examined the flyer’s contents. It detailed the daily meal box standards for the Brocade Hotel.

The menu for the entire next week was listed, with special emphasis that each meal box would contain a full pound of rice—a portion guaranteed to fill anyone up.

The other dishes were one thing, but the real kicker was the pound of rice. That would be enough to satisfy over ninety-five percent of the workers on site.

This meant the workers’ desire to buy extra food would plummet. For the shops across the street, including Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant, the market was about to get even tighter.

HISS!

Xu An felt a headache coming on. While the construction workers weren’t his only customers, they still made up a fifth of Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant’s clientele!

A subtle sense of crisis crept over him.

’Just one decision from the construction site has already hit me this hard.’

’When "EatUp" rolls into Hai City next year and expands its operations, won’t I be completely finished?’

’After all, the main customers for Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant are office workers, which partially overlaps with "EatUp’s" target demographic.’

’With the kind of capital "EatUp" has, they could devour my entire customer base in the blink of an eye.’

’Unless I’m willing to give up my own delivery service and join "EatUp". But their eventual high commission fees would completely erase any advantage Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant has.’

’Xu’s Fast Food is built on a high-volume, low-profit model, using low prices to attract customers. If I joined "EatUp," I’d have to raise prices to maintain my profit margin, and then I’d lose my competitive edge against other restaurants.’

’Alternatively, I could just abandon the delivery service and focus on running the small dine-in restaurant. That way, this wouldn’t affect me.’

’But, if I’m being honest with myself, can I really do that? No! I can’t!’

’I’ve worked so hard, building this business from the ground up. To just hand it over to someone else... who could possibly accept that!’

’There’s still almost a year before "EatUp" enters Hai City. I have to use this window of opportunity to build a solid foundation!’

’Before they arrive, I have to find my niche and perfect my own system!’

「The next day, at the entrance of the Zijing Garden construction site.」

At 10:30 AM, a silver van pulled up to the construction site entrance. A large Brocade Hotel logo was printed on its side.

Two people got out, opened the back doors, and began unloading baskets of meal boxes.

Several men who looked like foremen walked out of the site. They smiled and greeted the two people unloading the meals, looking as if they were old acquaintances.

At eleven o’clock, the lunch break began.

As usual, Qiao Xingguo was the first worker out the gate to get his meal. When he got to the van, he realized the person handing out the food had changed.

It used to be a tall, skinny young man; today it was a short, stout, middle-aged woman.

He signed his name with the foreman and took a meal box, immediately sensing a difference.

’This meal box feels much heavier than the old ones!’

Carrying the meal box, he walked over to the shade of a tree. Qiao Xingguo opened the plastic bag to see what was for lunch.

’Hey! Not bad at all!’

’Kung Pao Chicken, Sautéed Potato with Eggplant and Bell Peppers, and a loofah soup, plus a full pound of fluffy white rice.’

’What a portion. This will definitely fill me up.’

Qiao Xingguo put the lid back on the container and was about to head back onto the site when he glanced across the street at Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant. A little urge stirred within him; he wondered what was on the menu there today.

But then he looked down at the meal box in his hand. ’This is more than enough to fill me up. Going to Xu’s Fast Food now would be a complete waste of money!’

After hesitating for two seconds, Qiao Xingguo decisively turned and walked back onto the site.

The vast majority of the workers made the same choice as Qiao Xingguo.

Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant, usually bustling with customers, now had only a scattered few people eating inside.

Xu An stood at the entrance, watching the lively scene across the street before looking back at his own deserted restaurant. He sighed quietly.

’I’ll be lucky to get even thirty dine-in customers today.’

’Fortunately, Uncle Dongliang warned me yesterday, so I prepared less food for dine-in. At least I won’t have too many leftovers.’

This only strengthened Xu An’s resolve. ’I have to expand.’

But for now, the priority was delivering meals to the Hai City Library construction site. Xu An turned back to the kitchen, loading the packed delivery orders onto his tricycle.

The number of orders these past few days had surpassed five hundred, and one tricycle was no longer enough. He’d ordered a second one after closing up yesterday, and it had just been delivered this morning—perfect timing.

Xu An and Xu Heping arrived at the entrance of the Hai City Library construction site, their two tricycles laden with meal boxes.

Most of the scaffolding around the library had been dismantled, and the number of workers on site had plummeted to just over a dozen.

The "food street" that had sprung up to serve the workers had also become desolate. At its peak, this street had more than twenty stalls; now, including Xu An’s, only four were left.

The other three stall owners saw Xu An and Heping arrive and gave them a nod. When they saw the tricycles packed to the brim with meal boxes, they couldn’t help but look on with envy.

’We’re all doing business on the same street,’ they thought. ’How come his business keeps getting better, selling hundreds of meals a day, while we’re just scraping by enough to feed our families?’

But envy was one thing; they had no intention of trying to copy Xu An’s sales model.

After all, not many people ate snacks like scallion pancake wraps, fried skewers, or takoyaki for lunch. It would be impossible to get enough orders to make individual deliveries worthwhile; it would just be a waste of time and manpower.

Just as Xu An and Xu Heping came to a stop, Old Han and the others arrived.

The first order was for the Aisha Clothing Company: 37 meals, to be delivered by a team of four.

The second order was for a foreign trade company: 17 meals, delivered by a team of two.

With those two orders assigned, six riders set off.

The Aisha Clothing Company order was their favorite. It was close by, a large order, and quick to deliver—exactly the kind of job everyone loved.

The jobs nobody liked were, naturally, the ones that were far away and for only a few meals, like the order for Qingya District.

Qingya District was 1.2 kilometers away from the Hai City Library site, pushing the very edge of their delivery radius. And for what? A single order of just two meal boxes.

It meant a ten-plus-minute trip, followed by a climb up six flights of stairs, all to earn a single yuan.

Thankfully, they had a rotation system where the six of them took turns with all orders, both near and far. That was the only reason the Qingya District order ever got delivered at all.

Today, Xu An decided to deliver that order himself. He also planned to apologize in person, because this was the order that had been missed yesterday.

He grabbed two cans of soda, put them in the bag with the meals, and started walking in the direction of Qingya District.

Qingya District was one of Hai City’s earlier apartment complexes. At nearly twenty years old, it was definitely considered an old neighborhood.

It was a 1.2-kilometer walk, which he covered in about four minutes at a brisk pace, bringing him to the entrance of the complex.

The complex’s exterior walls were mottled and overgrown with moss and climbing vines. Two large, two-meter-wide iron gates stood wide open, covered in rust. From the entrance, a massive banyan tree was visible inside, its canopy so thick it blotted out the sky. Its root system was so extensive that it had cracked the concrete ground in many places.

Walking into the complex, he saw a dozen or so elderly men and women gathered on the stone benches under the great banyan tree, chatting, playing chess, and dealing cards. It was a lively scene.

’Qingya District, Building 1, Apartment 601.’

The three apartment buildings looked identical. Unable to tell whether Building 1 was on the left or the right, Xu An decided to ask the group under the banyan tree.

When he turned his head, he found that the elderly folks had, at some point, stopped their activities. All of them were staring intently at him.

Every pair of eyes seemed to convey the same message: "Young man, we’ve been waiting for you!"

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