Liang Qianfan smiled. “Just relax.”

“When working at Tenda, you just need to fully utilize your intelligence and talents. If Mr. Pei chose you as the person in charge and handed the project to you, it means he’s already calculated that you can complete it successfully.”

“With Mr. Pei backing you up, what’s there to worry about?”

Zhang Yahui immediately nodded. “Right, right, with Mr. Pei’s support, the project can’t possibly fail.”

The two continued talking as they walked back to the entrance of the food court.

It was almost time for the official opening, and there was still a lot of follow-up work to handle.

For instance, following Mr. Pei’s requirements, they needed to modify all the food stall price lists, giving them a 60% discount.

Just as Zhang Yahui was about to continue with his work, he heard someone calling from behind: “Yahui!”

Turning around, he saw it was Qi Yan, the person in charge of Cold Noodle Girl, accompanied by a young man he didn’t recognize.

Zhang Yahui was somewhat surprised. “Oh, Manager Qi, weren’t you in Capital City? What brings you to Jingzhou?”

Qi Yan smiled. “I heard the food court was about to open, so I came to take a look and learn something.”

“By the way, let me introduce you. This is Rui Yuchen, the person in charge of Slackin’ Delivery.”

Zhang Yahui shook hands with Rui Yuchen. “Hello, hello. I’ve seen your name in the managers’ group chat but couldn’t put a face to it.”

Earlier, Rui Yuchen had also responded to Mr. Pei’s call to “advance into super first-tier cities” by expanding Slackin’ Delivery to Capital City, and had personally overseen it for a while.

Now that Slackin’ Delivery’s business in Capital City had basically stabilized, Rui Yuchen had found some time to return to Jingzhou and visit the food court, a project personally approved by Mr. Pei.

Liang Qianfan said, “You two have come at a bit of an unfortunate time. Mr. Pei just left. If you had arrived half an hour earlier, you could have met him.”

Qi Yan was somewhat disappointed. “Oh? That’s too bad! It’s been a long time since I’ve seen Mr. Pei, and I had a few questions about Cold Noodle Girl that I wanted to ask him.”

Rui Yuchen wasn’t too concerned about that, instead asking, “Did Mr. Pei just visit? Did he offer any suggestions or requirements for the food court?”

Zhang Yahui thought for a moment. “Umm… there weren’t any special requirements.”

“The only requirement was to set the prices at the food court even lower. All the snacks were already barely profitable, and now they’re all being sold at a 60% discount.”

“A portion of grilled cold noodles was originally going to be sold for 10 yuan, but now it’s only 6 yuan, the same price as street-side grilled cold noodles.”

“Oh?” Rui Yuchen rubbed his chin. “Just as I thought.”

Qi Yan also revealed a knowing smile. “Indeed.”

Zhang Yahui was a bit stunned. “Huh? Do you understand the deeper meaning behind Mr. Pei’s move?”

Rui Yuchen couldn’t help but show a veteran’s smile.

Obviously, Zhang Yahui had only recently become a manager and hadn’t been able to see Mr. Pei’s deeper intentions and exceptional vision.

As for Liang Qianfan… while he was professional in the field of construction, he was far from knowledgeable in the restaurant industry, so it was normal that he hadn’t caught on.

In fact, as soon as Mr. Pei determined this personnel change, selecting Zhang Yahui as the person in charge and having him prepare the food court, Rui Yuchen had already guessed Mr. Pei’s intentions and had discussed it in detail with Qi Yan.

That’s why Qi Yan had fully cooperated, continuously supplying those street vendors.

And today, hearing that Mr. Pei’s only guidance for the food court was to lower prices, Rui Yuchen became even more certain of his speculation.

Now, it was time to enlighten Zhang Yahui a bit.

Rui Yuchen explained, “Actually, when Mr. Pei arranged for you to be in charge of the food court, he had already created a very grand blueprint.”

“Just as Meng Chang, the original founder of Cold Noodle Girl, had planned, Cold Noodle Girl and Slackin’ Delivery are actually on two different tracks: one for daily food, and one for snacks.”

“The positioning of these two differs. Slackin’ Delivery aims for nutritional balance and health, while snacks aim for distinctiveness and sufficient deliciousness.”

“The combination of Slackin’ Delivery and Nameless Restaurant, although successful in the conventional food service industry, had not yet ventured into the snack field.”

“Unfortunately, Meng Chang was all talk and no action, and this theory was only used to fool investors, so Cold Noodle Girl never achieved this effect.”

“When Mr. Pei bought Cold Noodle Girl, he clearly intended to continue along this line of thought. He doesn’t mind helping to realize the grand vision that Meng Chang had boasted about.”

“The relationship between Cold Noodle Girl and the food court is equivalent to the relationship between Slackin’ Delivery and Nameless Restaurant.”

“One focuses on mass-producible, fast-food flavors, while the other focuses on authentic, high-end flavors. The two perfectly complement each other, and when combined with the influence of the documentary ‘Street Stall Life’… that’s a complete snack ecosystem!”

“Furthermore, gathering the vendors at the food court, allowing them to interact with customers from all over every day, is more conducive to improving flavors than being shut in a laboratory…”

Rui Yuchen repeated the theory he had previously explained to Qi Yan, now explaining it to Zhang Yahui and Liang Qianfan.

Especially when combined with the example of Slackin’ Delivery and Nameless Restaurant, and the experience of Slackin’ Delivery turning losses into profits and developing under Mr. Pei’s wise guidance, his words seemed particularly convincing.

Zhang Yahui nodded frequently as he listened.

So that’s how it was?

Indeed, the managers at Tenda each possessed exceptional skills, and after more exchanges, the benefits were immense!

Not only were they individually outstanding, but more importantly, because they had joined Tenda earlier, they had grown alongside various industries, so they had spent more time with Mr. Pei and understood him more deeply.

These valuable experiences of interacting with Mr. Pei allowed them to better understand Mr. Pei’s business wisdom and then guide subsequent business.

Taking this situation as an example, without communicating with Rui Yuchen, how would Zhang Yahui have known how significant a role Mr. Pei’s business wisdom had played in the development and growth of Slackin’ Delivery?

He probably wouldn’t have realized that the food court, which seemed to be poaching people from Cold Noodle Girl and appeared to be in competition, was actually in a perfectly unified, cooperative, and complementary relationship!

Rui Yuchen continued, “Knowing all this, the price reduction is not difficult to understand.”

“Let’s think about the positioning of the food court and Cold Noodle Girl.”

“Cold Noodle Girl is positioned as a chain, fast-food brand that can open stores nationwide. Once the number of stores increases, each store can make a lot of money.”

“The food court, on the other hand, is positioned for authentic, high-end flavors. Its existence serves as a showcase, letting customers know that the delicious snacks recorded in the documentary ‘Street Stall Life’ actually exist, and it can also give Cold Noodle Girl more high-end value.”

“Simply put, Cold Noodle Girl is a mass-produced product, while the food court is a concentrated showcase of samples.”

“If that’s the case, does it matter whether the food court makes money? It doesn’t matter at all!”

“Even if it’s purely losing money, once Cold Noodle Girl opens more chain stores, the money invested can be earned back tenfold or a hundredfold.”

“Setting low prices has at least three benefits.”

“First, such dramatic low prices will stimulate customer discussion, creating extremely high buzz online, which is equivalent to saving on promotional expenses.”

“Second, these low prices might not have much impact on customers from other cities, as their main expenses are airfare and hotels, so they won’t notice much difference from the few yuan saved on snacks.”

“But for local Jingzhou residents, cheap snacks will encourage them to visit more frequently, ensuring that the food court’s foot traffic remains consistently high, making it appear more bustling.”

“Finally, this ultra-low pricing strategy is a way to support new vendors.”

“If the snacks were expensive, most customers would be quite price-sensitive and would be selective when browsing the food street. With so many options available, they would choose to sample only the snacks with the best reputation.”

“But if the snacks are particularly cheap, their price sensitivity decreases, and they’ll more frequently purchase various snacks, thereby boosting sales across the entire food street…”

Although a person’s stomach has its limits, not all tourists who visit the food street eat until they’re completely full.

Some people are picky and eat until they’re about 70% full, then stop, preferring to wait until they’re hungry again to go to a restaurant for a proper meal.

There are basically two reasons for this: one is that the quality of snacks at the food street varies, with some good and some bad; the other is that the items at the food street are generally on the expensive side.

Customers are afraid of buying expensive snacks that don’t taste good, so they carefully scrutinize and filter when buying snacks.

But very few snacks at the food street are truly bad, so ultimately it comes down to feeling that the value for money isn’t high—the taste doesn’t justify the price.

And lowering prices is the most direct way to improve the price-to-performance ratio.

As long as the price is low enough, when customers eat especially delicious snacks, they’ll feel like they’ve hit the jackpot; when they eat snacks with average taste, they’ll still feel that it’s so cheap that they’re not losing anything.

This can comprehensively enhance the customers’ overall experience of the food street, improve their psychological state when shopping there, and make them drop their guard.

Experience affects reputation, and reputation will further impact Cold Noodle Girl.

Rui Yuchen summarized, “So, this pricing strategy completely aligns with Mr. Pei’s overall plan!”

“It’s a pity you didn’t comprehend this earlier.”

“If you had thought of it earlier, you should have set the prices at this level before Mr. Pei arrived. That way, Mr. Pei would have certainly been very impressed with you!”

Hearing this, Zhang Yahui couldn’t help but feel some regret.

“Ah, it seems I didn’t think deeply enough!”

“If only you had come two days earlier!”

Rui Yuchen smiled. “It’s alright, it’s not a big issue.”

“For a manager overseeing a project for the first time, having Mr. Pei only offer one suggestion is already excellent.”

“Just continue to work hard, and Mr. Pei will definitely take notice!”

Qi Yan nodded. “You’ve already successfully completed the task for the food court. Now it’s up to Cold Noodle Girl!”

“Don’t worry, I’ll definitely make good arrangements. I absolutely won’t let you or Mr. Pei down!”