Qin Yang’s eyes were brimming with a smile as he tugged her arm, “Master has said I will recover, so don’t worry.”
Lin Chuxia knew she was being impatient, but every time she thought about the possibility of Qin Yang not being able to hold a pen, her heart ached for the loss of such an outstanding designer for the country.
“I get it, I get it. Just asking a few more questions, why are you in a rush? Hurting our master-disciple relationship, you’re becoming stingier as you get older.”
Despite her words, her hands were continuously busy.
She opened a can of food that she had brought and handed it over, “Hurry up and eat some canned food to quell the fire and calm down.”
Qin Yang’s eyes twinkled with a touch of amusement seeing the way these two interacted.
His wife was like a little sun, warm and passionate.
He probably understood why Old Sir He had taken her as a disciple.
Old Sir He promptly performed acupuncture on Qin Yang. Watching the Master take out the silver needles, Lin Chuxia couldn’t bear to watch, so she chose to leave.
Letting Qin Yang undergo acupuncture here, she decided to check the store first. Out of sight, out of mind.
She went straight to the cooked food courtyard to find Su Wensong. During her absence, she had left the shop in the care of Qin Han and Su Wensong, but Su Wensong was generally more capable with the shop’s affairs.
“What was it that you wanted to tell me yesterday?” Lin Chuxia got straight to the point.
“There has been an issue, Mr. Lin. After entering the twelfth lunar month, the Food Store lowered their cooked food prices by twenty percent. Initially, we also made an appropriate adjustment, but the next day they lowered it by another ten percent. Now, our prices have only been reduced by ten percent, but they have gone down by thirty percent. We’ve lost the majority of our customers. Since then, we haven’t changed our prices again, instead we’ve reduced the production.”
After entering the yard, Lin Chuxia had noticed that there was indeed less cooked food being made than usual, and had assumed that it had already been delivered to the store. Now she understood there was a reason for it.
“You did the right thing. Engaging in a price war is not a wise choice.”
The cost of raw materials for cooked food is low, but labor and processing costs are not, reducing prices by thirty percent would leave almost no profit.
However, Su Wensong was not as optimistic, “But it’s almost the end of the year, and it’s precisely the time when people like to buy cooked food. Now, we can’t even sell one-third of what we used to. This situation can’t go on.”
From the experience of the Mid-Autumn Festival, their cooked food had capitalized on the market trend tremendously. They had planned to increase production for the Spring Festival, even adding two more chicken farms, but now…
“Come on, let’s go to the branch and take a look.”
Their cooked food sales were mainly driven by the branch, and it was precisely for this reason that they were competitive with the Food Factory.
When the two arrived at the restaurant, it was the busiest time of the day for selling cooked food.
In the past, long queues would have formed at the cooked food counter, but now there were only two or three people scattered around buying food.
By contrast, not far away, the Food Factory’s cooked food store had long lines of customers, similar to when their Bun Shop first opened.
A passing Aunt Shen, recognizing the familiar face at their store’s entrance, greeted, “Old Shen, why are you still buying cooked food here? The Food Store over there is very cheap, they’re having some sort of pre-festival promotion.”
“Really? Why didn’t you tell me earlier,” Aunt Shen said, then turning to Qin Wu inside, “Young man, I’m sorry, but I don’t need this anymore.”
“Aunt, look at this pig’s head meat, I’ve already cut it for you. The lower jaw and the pig’s ears you wanted are all the best parts, I’ve already weighed them…”
“Give it to me to weigh, not for me to eat, just sell it to someone else.”
“But cut like this, no one else would want to buy it…”
“Do you want to blame me now? Your cooked food is so expensive, and yet you force people to buy? That’s cheating customers, watch out or I’ll report you to the Public Security Bureau.”
Aunt Shen left these words behind, cursing and rushing off with another lady to the shop across the street.
Qin Wu felt utterly helpless and could only set the cut items aside, then warmly welcomed the next customer, “Would you like anything else?”
“Yes, I’ll have a smoked chicken, young man. Don’t take it to heart, the Food Store across the street is cheaper, but the taste isn’t as good as yours. Ever since my old man tried your Qin’s Cooked Food, he won’t let me buy from anywhere else, saying ’you get what you pay for,’ and that’s the truth.”
Lin Chuxia had already arrived at the cooked food counter, smiling sincerely at the lady, “Thank you for your support of Qin’s Cooked Food, Xiao Wu, give her an extra piece of stuffed intestine.”
Qin Wu perked up as soon as he saw Lin Chuxia, quickly packed the smoked chicken and stuffed intestine for the lady.
After serving a few customers, Qin Wu said, “Sis-in-law, you’re finally back. Did you see the Food Store over there? Who does business like them?” They were almost ruining Qin’s business.
“It’s competition, you always have to have some tactics, which is very normal,” she said nonchalantly.
Price war is the lowest form of competition, it harms your competitors but also yourself. Lin Chuxia truly disdained competing with them.
But Qin Wu was very anxious; he was responsible for the daily sales of cooked food. There used to be long queues every day, but now just a few customers trickle in, leaving lots of unsold food, which really worried him.
Lin Chuxia looked towards Su Wensong, “Has anyone from the machinery factory been by while I was away?”
“Someone did come, two days ago a young clerk came looking for you from the machinery factory. When they learned you wouldn’t be in the shop for a few days, they asked you to go see Director Xu when you’re back.”
Lin Chuxia nodded, “Let’s go, have Houzi drive the tricycle, we’re heading to the machinery factory.”
Just as Lin Chuxia had anticipated, when they reached the machinery factory, Xu Changping showed her two food packaging machines.
These were the compensation she was promised, and although there were some minor details needing improvement during production, it was still completed two days ahead of schedule.
Seeing Xu Changping beaming and exceptionally enthusiastic, Lin Chuxia knew that the production of these food packaging machines was even more satisfactory to the factory than the meat grinders.
No need for excessive pleasantries, Xu Changping called a production worker over to explain the operation and precautions of the machines to Su Wensong and Houzi in detail.
Su Wensong always had a keen interest in machinery and listened very attentively. Houzi, scratching his head beside him, looked like a real monkey.
The machines were large, and the tricycle could only carry one at a time. After dispatching the first one, Lin Chuxia stayed a bit longer in Xu Changping’s office.
“I heard that the Food Factory is challenging Mr. Lin to a competition, are you planning a new approach?”
Speaking of which, Xu Changping had never admired a woman as much as he did now. Outsiders only knew about the price war between the Food Factory and Qin’s which just started a week ago, while Lin Chuxia had booked the food packaging machines with him half a month ago.
Lin Chuxia feigned a sigh, “Being a small business owner is hard, Director Xu, if you have any connections in this area, please take care of your sister here.”
Initially, it was just casual chit-chat, but Xu Changping pondered after hearing Lin Chuxia’s words.
“I’ve been on a business trip to several cities, I know some people, but those I know might not be much help to your business, Mr. Lin. However, there’s someone you could try. Here, I’ll give you an address. When you get a chance, go see this person. If it works out, the market in Yuan City should be easy to conquer.”