“Little girl, your stall is doing pretty well. The two of us want to buy one to try as well, to learn a thing or two.”
The fried skewer vendor and the uncle selling fried potato slices standing next to him stood in front of Ning He’s stall, smiling insincerely.
Ning He’s hands paused as she was putting the items into paper bags, and then she flashed them an enthusiastic smile.
“Alrighty, I’ll make them for the two of you right now.”
She fried one chive and one radish pastry, and handed them to the two men. The fried skewer vendor fished out a few yuan coins and handed them over, but Ning He smiled and shook her head, refusing to take them.
“I’m new here and don’t quite understand some things, so just treat this as my treat to the two masters. If there’s anywhere I’m doing something inappropriate, I kindly ask the two of you to guide me.”
These two were clearly here to cause trouble, so Ning He decided to be softer at first and see how the situation developed.
Seeing her adopt this attitude, the expressions of the men opposite her improved significantly immediately, and the hostility in their eyes diminished quite a bit.
“I wouldn’t dare call it guidance, but since you’re new to this trade, it’s normal that you don’t understand some of the rules. We’ll just have a few words with you.”
Ning He nodded, maintaining her humble demeanor of eagerly asking for instruction.
“First of all, no matter which new stall location you go to, you cannot sell the same things as other people. Take a look at the stalls around here; everyone’s items are different. This minimizes the diversion of similar customers, gives customers more choices, and brings in more people, which is beneficial for everyone.”
Ning He nodded.
There were a total of a dozen small stalls here, and indeed none of them sold the same things.
Even when the raw material was potatoes, one stall sold fried potato slices, and another sold baked potatoes.
A diversified food category truly could attract more diners.
“Next is the price. The maximum gross profit allowed by the authorities for a tier-one small stall is 20 percent. Since we’ve been doing business here for many years, everyone has discussed it and set our prices according to this figure. This way, every family can make money, and we won’t end up starting price wars or causing vicious competition.”
At this point, the fried skewer vendor glanced at the prices on Ning He’s sign and twitched the corner of his mouth.
“Like your pricing, it’s obviously too low.”
As he spoke, he broke apart the radish-filled lantern cake in his hand, revealing the dense shredded radish filling inside.
“Although the purchase price for us small vendors is lower than supermarket retail prices, because the volume isn’t large, the discounts given by food companies can’t compare at all to those for large restaurants. I’m guessing your purchase price for chives and radishes isn’t lower than sixteen yuan coins per catty, right?”
Seeing Ning He nod with an awkward smile, he pointed at the filling inside again.
“If you press the water out of the radish and then sell it like you did, the cost is even higher. I see you even put scallions in there.” The fried skewer vendor frowned. “Scallions are a condiment and have always sold expensively, at least twenty-five yuan coins per catty. What you’re doing is completely messing around. Even if you sell them for four yuan coins each, how much can you possibly earn?”
The vendor selling fried potato slices next to him shook his head in agreement: “Lass, you can’t just copy the set of rules taught in culinary school when doing business, otherwise you won’t make any money. Look at you bustling about all day; your net profit is probably only about ten percent, and it even makes our business worse. Doing it this way is losing more than you gain!”
Ning He had originally just wanted to put on a modest attitude and brush this matter off. But after hearing what they said, she immediately realized that she had simplified things too much.
Since the official authorities of Beiluo City supported vendor businesses, they naturally had a complete management system. With years of industry development, there was bound to be an operating mechanism of its own to guarantee the interests of the vast majority of practitioners.
After all, food was a luxury item in this world, and the demand was huge. Without detailed rules and regulations to restrain such a massive market, it would definitely be chaotic.
She had barged in rashly, only thinking about making the food taste good without carefully calculating the costs. In the eyes of others, this was malicious competition and suppressing peers.
Although her current prices were set according to Kamu’s suggestions, the latter was not an insider after all, so miscalculations were normal.
Ning He was glad she hadn’t put any seasonings like pepper powder or five-spice powder into it. Otherwise, if that had been discovered, they probably would have suspected she was either a fool or a scammer.
“Then may I ask the two seniors what price range would be more appropriate?”
This time, Ning He was genuinely asking for advice.
The fried skewer vendor now assumed that Ning He was just a greenhorn who had just graduated from school and knew nothing at all. He had completely lost his hostility toward her and didn’t mind teaching her a little more.
“For this, you have to work backward from your monthly income. The average monthly income for tier-four small vendors around here is around twelve hundred, and the number of days you can set up a stall in a month is about twenty days. That means your daily income should fluctuate around sixty yuan coins. If it’s lower than this figure, setting up a stall isn’t worth it, and you’d be better off finding a regular job.”
“Twenty days? What about the other ten days?” Ning He asked.
The expressions of the two people opposite her suddenly turned strange. After exchanging a glance, the fried potato vendor spoke to Ning He in an indescribable tone:
“We have several natural disasters every month here, either large hailstorms, acid rain, cold waves, or heat waves. You can’t possibly set up a stall on days like that, right?”
Ning He scratched her head and smiled awkwardly.
By now, she must look no different from an idiot in the eyes of these two men, right?
But she couldn’t entirely be blamed for this.
Ever since she woke up, she hadn’t encountered any particularly extreme weather. Her luck during the previous days of setting up the stall had also been good, with only one rain shower that wasn’t very large. The stall market had been equipped with a rain canopy, which hadn’t delayed her business either, causing her to almost forget about this aspect.
“I understand. But if I raise the price again, won’t it be too expensive? After all, people can just go buy an egg pancake for five yuan coins.”
“That’s why you need to lower your costs. If you serve food according to the high standards taught in school, the taste is indeed great, but ordinary people simply cannot afford it. Like this, I’ll take you to look at other stalls, and then you’ll understand.”
There was still some time before the factory shift change, so Ning He nodded and followed the two vendors to take a walk around.
“Look at this flatbread. The raw materials are the cheapest mixed flour, water, and salt. The weight of the batter used for each piece is fixed, and only then can profits be guaranteed.”
The person making flatbread was a tall woman with a bold speaking style. She took over the conversation and said, “That’s right. If you sprinkle scallions, wrap it in sauce, and layer it with vegetables and sausages like you learn in school, the taste would be better, but the cost goes up too. Who besides those in the inner three districts can afford to consume that? We just make something simple. Even though the taste is a bit plain, it’s still more solid than eating that porridge paste.”
“My fried skewers are the same. It’s just vegetables wrapped in a layer of batter, sprinkled with a bit of salt and sugar. When the taste is slightly better, the price is higher, but there is still a segment of people who can accept it.”
Ning He nodded and tasted the fried potato slices handed over from nearby.
It was the crispy original flavor of potatoes, and occasionally she could taste a few grains of salt melting on her tongue, spreading a trace of salty fragrance.
It was simply incomparable to the tastebud-exploding potato chips of later generations.
The aroma was also dominated by the potato’s own flavor.
When she tried the signature item handed over by the fried skewer vendor—a skewer of fried long beans—it had the exact same flavor profile.
“I understand. When I go back today, I’ll think carefully about how to modify it. Sorry for causing trouble for everyone.”
“It’s nothing. It’s normal not to know since it’s your first time doing this business. But every trade has its own rules. If you follow the rules, even though you don’t earn much, it’s still stable. All of us have been doing business around here for over ten years, we won’t trick you.”
The person speaking was the flatbread vendor. Ning He gave her a grateful look, but a jolt went through her heart.
It seemed that it wasn’t just the fried skewer uncle and the other guy who had opinions about her; probably everyone felt that she had broken the rules, only they hadn’t stepped forward personally.
Once she packed up her stall and returned, she would have to carefully study the rules of running a stall here to avoid making this kind of mistake again.
Ning He thanked the three of them and returned to her stall in deep thought.
The fried skewer uncle looked at the lantern cake in his hand, which was still steaming, and casually handed half of it to the flatbread vendor.
“Everyone try that lass’s craftsmanship. I think she looks silly, and I don’t even know if the things she makes actually taste good or not.”
The uncle shook his head, tossed the remaining half directly into his mouth, clapped his hands, and prepared to return to his own stall.
The next moment, his footsteps halted.
The chewing motion of his mouth slowed down, as if the impact on his taste buds brought by every single bite was a bit too excessive, almost too much for a person to bear.
With much difficulty, he finally swallowed the half-piece in his mouth, turned around, and saw his old partners who were similarly intoxicated by the deliciousness.
The fried potato uncle still had half of the chive-filled one in his hand, and the fried skewer uncle didn’t hesitate to break off half of it and shove it into his mouth, falling into another trance.
They were both just fried vegetable batter—how could the gap be so huge?
The gazes of the three people fell squarely on the young woman not far away, their eyes complex.
Was this the magic of a culinary artist who put taste above all else?
Ning He was unaware of their psychological activities after eating the lantern cake. After packing up her stall and returning home, she began to ponder how to adjust the lantern cake recipe.