Chapter 1840: Just Like This?
“The second floor is the cold storage. All the freshly frozen goods are stored in the storage on the second floor. We can access the cold storage through the freight elevator. Let me bring you all there to take a look.” Mag led the elves to the freight elevator, and demonstrated how to use the freight elevator.
The freight elevator opened straight into the cold storage. The lights came on as soon as the elevator’s doors opened.
Octopus tentacles of different sizes were displayed on the rows of shelves. They were displayed with one square meter as the basic unit. The spacious second floor was completely opened up, and it was almost 200 square meters wide. Octopus tentacles of various sizes were displayed everywhere.
The small octopus tentacles that were as thin as a thumb and the big octopus tentacles that were as thick as a thigh were all densely stacked together, making people feel oppressed.
“These octopus tentacles are displayed according to sizes: small, large, and extra-large. You simply drag one square meter of them away. You place them into the one-button deicer to unfreeze them before replenishing the stocks on the first floor through the freight elevator.” Mag pointed at the squarish deicer next to the elevator. This thing was also a fool-proof one-button operation.
“Boss, there are no medium-sized octopus tentacles?” an elf asked softly.
“Yes. There’s no medium-sized. There are only the small, large, and extra-large.” Mag nodded.
“What if the customers want to have the medium-sized?” that elf asked again.
“It’s fine, let them slap themselves across the mouth then.” Mag smiled, and said to all of them, “We will do a trial operation this afternoon, and we’ll most likely welcome our very first sales explosion tomorrow. All of you will familiarize yourselves with your work such as accounting, giving back the change, and replenishing the goods. The hectic pace of the work is most likely going to exceed your expectations.”
All of them began to move under Alia’s instructions after hearing that.
The small trolley sent the frozen octopus tentacles into the deicer, and deicing was done in three seconds. The octopus tentacles that were stuck together were instantly separated, but they were still in the frozen state.
Everyone’s sales area was separated into three squares that were used to hold the three different sizes of octopus tentacles. Each slot could hold one square meter of octopus tentacles each perfectly.
These display squares had a refrigeration effect, and could maintain the octopus tentacles’ frozen state, preventing the octopus tentacles’ texture from turning bad.
Alia asked Mag, “Boss, our shop doesn’t have a signboard yet.”
“I’d forget if you didn’t mention it.” Mag was stunned when he heard that. He actually almost forgot such an important matter. After a brief moment of pondering, he said, “Then, let’s call it Little Sys Seafood Shop.”
“Little Sys Seafood Shop?” Alia repeated it, feeling that this name sounded rather strange. However, since this name was given by the boss, she couldn’t oppose it, so she simply nodded.
“Host! This System objects to this shop’s name. Why is this System little?” The system’s unhappy voice sounded.
“System, isn’t this shop our collaboration? I used the word ‘little’ from Xiaomi[1] and combined with your ‘sys’ to form the shop’s name, showing your importance to me. It’s very difficult to find such a meaningful and purposeful shop’s name now,” Mag replied sincerely.
Mag actually had his own considerations regarding this shop’s name. After all, the origin of this octopus tentacle wasn’t nice to explain. If anything happened in the future, he would definitely push the blame on the system. After all, this was “Little Sys Seafood Shop”, and it had nothing to do with Amy.
Everyone displayed the octopus tentacles in the stall orderly. The mounds and mounds of octopus tentacles looked rather spectacular.
However, to those people who had trypophobia, it was rather alarming.
The seafood shop was located at the main entrance. The people walking around in the square and the people going into the market could see this shop immediately.
Mag had priced the octopus tentacles at 50 copper coins per 500 grams regardless of size. The minimum purchase was 250 grams
This price was rather attractive for seafood. Any price lower than that would attract suspicion about its source. Furthermore, this wasn’t simply seafood, but also a fresh Great Old One.
The cost price that the system gave to Mag was five copper coins per 500 grams, and that was inclusive of logistics costs. According to the system, this thing could be harvested again and again, which was even better than harvesting chives[2].
They had to wait for a few days before they could harvest chives again, but they didn’t have to wait to harvest the octopus tentacle. It would regrow immediately after it was cut off, and they didn’t have to consider the Great Old One’s feelings at all.
After deducting all the costs, the net profit of 500 grams of octopus tentacles was around 40 copper coins. According to the system’s 100 tons of output per day, in the best-case scenario which was to sell all of them, this octopus tentacle shop could bring him a net profit of 8,000,000 copper coins per day.
Of course, this was the best-case scenario.
It was obviously impossible to sell 100 tons per day just depending on this shop located at the marketplace’s entrance alone. After this shop was established, Mag decided to open branches at all the marketplaces and areas where the people congregated in Chaos City. He wanted to consume the entire seafood market of Chaos City.
This was a piece of virgin land that had never been claimed before. He was going to swing the first hoe and dig up the gold.
The shop’s location was excellent, and the octopus tentacles on the shelves were eye-catching enough. However, most of the people who walked by only took a curious look. In the situation where no one knew what it was and how to eat it, almost no one approached to ask about it.
Although the business was bad, Mag wasn’t concerned. Today’s trial operation was to let the employees familiarize themselves with the sales procedures.
“I will hang up the signboard tonight. You all can get off work at 5 pm today. Come punctually to work at 6 am tomorrow morning.” Mag gave Alia a few simple instructions before he returned to the restaurant.
The Delicacy Extravaganza’s organizers only provided the venue; each exhibitor was responsible for the specific layout.
It was a good thing that Mag only decided to do four dishes, and one of them was even the octopus sashimi. Hence, he only needed two stoves, one octopus balls’ grilling plate, and two frying woks.
As taking part in this exhibition was to promote the “Little Sys Seafood Shop”, Mag decided to split the venue in two. Half of it would be given to “Little Sys Seafood Shop” to exhibit and sell the octopus tentacles.
Mag recruited two orcs on the spot, and made them carry the kitchen equipment and the freezer showcase. He set up the venue within one hour.
Compared to the surrounding booths which had individual seats set up, Mamy Restaurant’s booth didn’t even have a single chair.
Mag’s objective was very clear. It was to prevent the customers from lingering. He wanted to maximize the number of customer orders so as to achieve the purpose of promotion.
Furthermore, the public dining area officially set up by the Delicacy Extravaganza was nearby, so the customers could take food away, and have it over there. Their dining experience wouldn’t be lowered too much.
Robert happened to be overseeing the work on location, and he came over with a smile after seeing Mag. “Have you already begun to set up the booth, Boss Mag?”
“It’s already all set up,” Mag replied smilingly.
“Just like this?” Robert couldn’t help but feel shocked when he saw the simple setup and empty booth.
Mag smilingly said, “Yes. I will only make four dishes for this Delicacy Extravaganza. Two of them will be the new limited-edition products for the Delicacy Extravaganza, and will only be sold during the Delicacy Extravaganza. Furthermore, I will share the recipes of these four dishes, and conduct on-the-spot teaching.”
[1] Xiaomi literally means ‘Little Rice’.
[2] A self-deprecating description of individual investors who reinvest in the stock market after initial losses; also used to address youth disillusionment and endemic government corruption.