Chapter 504

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Protagonist:

Lu Feng

In the center of Jiang City, skyscrapers in the CBD core area thrust straight into the clouds.

Inside one 40-story premium office building, the 20th floor is the office area of the Jiangcheng Branch of a fairly large domestic chain catering group.

In the company's innermost spacious General Manager's office, behind a brown solid-wood desk, sits a man in his forties, very capable-looking — Guo Mingyi.

He wears a tailored dark gray suit that perfectly accents his steady build; behind the gold-rimmed glasses on his nose, a pair of deep eyes flash with a sharp light.

At this moment, he is holding a document, reading it word by word, his brows slightly furrowed.

"Manager Zhou, this is the result your Market Department spent a month investigating?"

In the quiet office, the middle-aged man's voice is not loud, yet it carries a very imposing leadership presence.

His tone holds a hint of questioning, as if he is dissatisfied with the content of the document.

Standing opposite the desk, the short-haired woman is named Zhou Li, the Director of the company's Market Department. Hearing the questioning in Guo Mingyi's tone, her face shows no trace of panic; on the contrary, she is full of confidence and says firmly: "Yes, General Manager Guo. Over the past month, our Market Department team has conducted comprehensive research on Jiang City's core business districts, wealthy residential areas, and tourist zones, carrying out detailed investigations across multiple dimensions including customer flow and consumption levels. After comprehensive evaluation, we believe that opening our first high-end chain catering outlet in Jiang City in this area is currently the optimal choice."

Upon hearing this, Guo Mingyuan's brows furrow even tighter. He pushes up his glasses, his gaze sweeping over the words "Garden Road Food Street" marked on the document, his tone full of doubt: "The conclusion you ultimately reached — how could it be a food street in an old city district? Manager Zhou, don't you know our brand positioning is mid-to-high-end chain catering? Can the consumption level of an old city district food street compare with a wealthy residential area?"

"General Manager Guo, rest assured. Every set of data on this report has been cross-checked at least five times; there absolutely will not be any problems."

Zhou Li steps forward, her gaze firm, and says very affirmatively: "According to our investigation results, this old city district food street has now become a hidden high-consumption area in Jiang City; its consumption level is not lower than that of wealthy residential areas and tourist zones."

Guo Mingyuan picks up the teacup on the desk, takes a sip of tea, looks up at Zhou Li, and asks in a very serious tone: "I need you to give me a reasonable explanation. How could the consumption levels of those few wealthy residential areas in Jiang City, and the tourist resort areas, possibly not match up to this old city district food street?"

"It's like this, General Manager Guo."

Zhou Li picks up the document, turns to the regional analysis section, points at the regional map above, and begins to explain seriously: "Jiang City's tourism industry itself is not developed. The few tourist zones in the eastern city area actually have a very sluggish catering market. The customer flow there is mostly concentrated on holidays, and consists mainly of one-time tourist consumers; user loyalty is extremely low. More importantly, the catering market there has already been monopolized by several long-established local restaurants. If we rashly enter, the development prospects are not optimistic."

"Mm, continue."

Guo Mingyuan listens quietly, his face revealing no emotion, signaling Zhou Li to continue.

Zhou Li turns to the wealthy residential area analysis section in the document, points at the few high-end residential zones marked on the document, and continues: "As for those few wealthy residential areas in Jiang City, the residents' consumption level is indeed very high, but if we only look at the catering segment, the proportion of consumption from this part is not large."

"According to our research, wealthy residential area residents tend more toward dining at home or hiring private chef services. Dining out is mostly for business entertaining, and their first choice is always the well-known domestic high-end chain restaurants that have already established brand effects nearby."

"Those brands have already deeply cultivated the local market for many years and have already monopolized most of the high-end catering market share. Their supply chains, service systems, and customer resources are all long mature. We have no obvious advantage competing with them; the development prospects are equally not optimistic."

"I acknowledge all the things you said, but that still isn't the reason your Market Department chose a food street in an old city district."

The man points at Garden Road Food Street — the very area where Lu Family Restaurant is located — and says with furrowed brows.

The area where Lu Family Restaurant is located belongs to Jiang City's old city district. Although there are also some high-rise buildings around, compared to the city center, the quantity is still much less.

Inside those towering office buildings, there are also many companies occupying entire floors, but most are medium-scale private enterprises.

The surrounding environment here is mostly mid-rise residential buildings; the people living here are ordinary office workers, and the general standard of living is not high.

The restaurants around here are also the same as those on the food street — mainly street-front small restaurants, all of the scale of hole-in-the-wall eateries, with no decent large chain restaurants.

Although there is a local commercial plaza next to the food street, its foot traffic compared to the large shopping malls in the city center is simply a case of the small witch seeing the great witch.

Guo Mingyuan believes that their company operates high-end chain restaurants; opening in such a place, the customer group match degree is really too low.

Zhou Li's face wears a confident, composed smile throughout. After Guo Mingyuan finishes speaking, she smiles and points at the food street area on the document.

However, the place she points to this time is precisely the location of Lu Family Restaurant: "General Manager Guo, the core reason our Market Department chose this area is because of this restaurant."

"Oh?"

Guo Mingyuan's eyebrows raise slightly, as if a bit of interest has been hooked: "Speak specifically."

"Our Market Department conducted nearly three weeks of in-depth research on this small shop named Lu Family Restaurant."

Zhou Li turns to the pages in the document recording data: "According to the data we investigated, this small shop's per-capita consumption level can stably stay above three hundred yuan."

"Three hundred yuan?"

Guo Mingyuan lets out a cold laugh: "Manager Zhou, do you think a consumption level of three hundred yuan is high? In other cities, which of our brand's outlets has a per-capita consumption lower than this number?"

"General Manager Guo, looking at the figure alone, three hundred yuan indeed does not count as a very eye-catching number."

Zhou Li is not thrown off rhythm at all, and continues very steadily: "But the point I want to make is, this is just the consumption for one meal. Actually, this restaurant's pricing has already approached that of high-end restaurants in the city center; some dishes' prices even exceed those of the same-category dishes in those high-end restaurants."