You Promised Me, Mr. Lee San-ha - Chapter 74



Only Noblemtl

Episode 74: Even a rice thief can be a thief (4)

A few days after Baek Jong-woon left.

The closing time for Sanghwa Snacks is approaching.

The lights in the hall are off.

The lights are only on in the kitchen area.

Two people are seen standing in an open kitchen with a counter.

The two of them giggled as they looked at the amount printed on the POS machine.

The lady manager says.

“How much did you earn in just a few days?”

Her husband answers.

“I’ve also placed ads on the delivery app, so now I’ll be making more money.”

The profits made by stealing other people’s technology are endless.

Just like their greed.

The manager says, putting a wad of cash into her pocket.

“Then, all I have to do is sue that original snack shop and fine them a lot, and it’s all over?”

In fact, I had planned to sue from the beginning even if the original owner of the rice cake did not come looking for me.

This is because only then can the effects of being on air be monopolized.

The husband asks back, sounding worried.

“But wouldn’t that make public opinion worse? Suing the original seems a bit risky… … .”

The lady replies, closing the bag containing the wads of cash.

“The public is like pigs and dogs anyway. They’ll bark at you for a bit… … and if they like it, they’ll come back for more.”

“Right. Even now, people still don’t recognize the original and flock here. Hehehee.”

at that time.

Daughter-

The doorbell rings.

Someone appears from the dark hall.

A man dressed neatly in a suit.

Discrete.

It’s me.

* * *

I had a chance to meet the female president.

I tried to disguise myself a little so as not to be caught.

Full suit, slicked-back hair, and thick-rimmed glasses.

He seems like a completely different person than a few days ago when he hurriedly put on his hat and ran.

‘The question is whether this will work.’

Meanwhile, the owner and his wife of Sanghwa Snacks are staring blankly at me.

‘… … Is it a failure?’

At that moment, the president’s husband broke the short silence and spoke.

“Can’t you see that the lights are off? We’re closed for business.”

I let out a sigh of relief inside.

It seems like they think I’m a guest who came to the wrong place.

I answered, lowering my voice as much as possible.

“i know.”

“If you know, you should go out. What did you see? Why are you just standing there blankly?”

This time, the lady answered.

This is the first time I’ve seen a CEO treat people so rudely.

Even if your business is over, you must be kind to those who cross the store door.

If you plan to continue doing business tomorrow.

But their tone was basically filled with annoyance.

‘Is this why the ratings were so inconsistent even though I stole my mom’s recipe?’

SNS reactions checked before coming.

Reviews of ‘Sanghwa Bunsik’ were sharply divided.

Reviews of the rice cake menu itself were very good.

[Sinception_9: (★★★★★) America cried. The biggest hit of the year!]

[A dog that barks when something tastes good: (★★★★★) Woof woof woof woof woof woof woof woof! Kroong! Woof! Kyaaaah!]

[Hardy Gourmet: (★★★★☆) The visual of a white snow field descending on the lava called tteokbokki passes the test. But the important thing is the taste, right? Hmm? Oho… … Indeed… … Is it as rumored? I have now entered the buffer zone of taste. It is an intensity that continuously seeps in like a discontinuous Mohoro Bichi Bichi noodle. Is this the thing called a tteokbokki? I can’t help but keep eating it!]

It’s only natural since I used my mother’s recipe as is.

Of course, some reviews expressed regret about the quality of the materials.

Anyway, it is true that the taste is overwhelmingly positive.

However, none of the reviews that mentioned service received more than half a star.

[Go Mal-soon: (★☆) The person serving me slammed the tteokbokki down too hard and the tteokbokki soup splashed on me,, but he ignored me and just left,,, I came here because my daughter liked it, so I’m so disappointed,,]

[Sweetian: (☆) They always speak informally to young customers. I don’t think I’ll ever go there again.]

[Garbong-dong Undertaker: (☆) I said something because the portions were clearly different from the next table, but he got angry and said, “Why are you complaining so much?” When he was leaving, he even said rude things about young people being greedy.]

A store like this will never last long.

There are many reasons why people are willing to pay more to eat out.

Because it’s easier than what I make.

Because I don’t want to bother cleaning up.

Because it tastes good.

All of these reasons come down to one bigger reason.

‘To have a pleasant meal.’

Whether it’s for your health or your taste buds, you’re spending the money you’ve worked hard to earn to enjoy a meal.

But they respond in a messy way?

It is safe to say that this behavior is a lack of basic business common sense.

Even though we only exchanged a few words, I could tell.

‘They’re just people who are full of money.’

These were not people selling ‘food’ and ‘happy times’.

They are just people who trade goods that match supply and demand.

In the long run, it was a store that was doomed to fail anyway.

But I didn’t intend to look at them for that long.

I bowed my head politely in greeting.

“Sorry for the late introduction. This is Park Yoon-sik from the Daehan Chain Business Division.”

The business card is not mine.

He briefly showed me the business card he received while working as a reporter and continued talking.

“The momentum for the rice cakes is good… … It would be a shame to let this opportunity go to waste, right? You two should open a large chain store, right?”

The faces of the Sanghwa Snacks owner and his wife brighten.

The manager held out her hand to take the business card.

But I couldn’t just hand it over as is because it wasn’t my business card.

I put the business card back in my wallet and said this.

“There are so many people starting businesses these days. Today, there were so many people coming to me for consultation that I ran out of business cards. These are for personal use, so I can’t give them to you because they’re dirty. I’ll bring you a clean new one tomorrow.”

The lady manager said with a deep frown.

“Then how would we know who that person is? He could be someone who thinks he can make money by swindling us―”

“Eomddal, shark tteokbokki, temple tteokbokki, three meals… … . Have you heard of them?”

“Don’t you know that guy selling snacks?”

“Then do you know who developed it into a chain business?”

Both people’s eyes widen.

I looked at them and smiled.

‘I don’t know either, you guys.’

I asked because I didn’t know.

anyway.

Bringing out the names of famous brands was a very useful strategy.

I feel like the arrogant attitude of the CEO and his wife has changed slightly.

The owner said as she pushed the menu in.

“Why don’t you eat something and figure it out? Should I just whip up a rice cake and bring it over to you?”

I glanced into the kitchen.

The kitchen is so messy that you wonder if it is really a food store.

I didn’t plan on eating it in the first place… …but my stomach hurts so much I really can’t eat it.

I came up with an excuse.

“I’m an analyst. I’m not someone who appears on TV and picks things up and decides what’s going to happen.”

I didn’t mean to put down Baek Jong-woon.

However, they currently have antipathy towards Baek Jong-woon.

In order to give the impression that we are on the same side, I had no choice but to say this.

The lady manager hesitates.

“But what should I eat… … .”

“A person who knows only by eating is an amateur. A professional sees the flow of money. Only capital can tell you the truth. This is booming. It will make money in the future. You can tell this right away with numbers. For example… … .”

Go up to the kiosk and print out the last receipt.

“Things like these waiting numbers.”

“Why is that?”

“The receipt you just pulled out is the last number, right? Then, with just this one receipt, I can figure out the average number of customers per day.”

“Oh my! Oh my! That’s true! You must be a genius!”

The Sanghwa Snacks owner and his wife looked at each other with surprised expressions.

It’s a really trivial inference, but it seems to be an unfamiliar method to them.

‘Isn’t it basic to figure out the average daily sales and number of customers…?’

Perhaps this data is not particularly necessary for money grubbers.

Because all that matters to them is total sales.

‘Just saying something obvious increases trust. These people are really messed up.’

I pulled up a brass-plated chair and sat down.

Knock knock-

When I checked the menu, I couldn’t help but furrow my eyebrows at the shocking prices.

[Tteokbokki 12,000 won]

It’s more than twice the price of Sanhaene snacks.

The other menus were more serious.

To put it simply, for the price of one menu here, you could probably order two or three menus at Sanhaene Snack Bar.

I couldn’t stand the question and asked.

“… … The prices are a bit high for a snack?”

The CEO’s husband answers with a proud attitude.

“It’s a menu that was on TV, so it’s reasonable to expect this price.”

“Well… … It’s not wrong to say that College Food succeeded by upgrading its fast food menu. But if you sell such high-end menu items cheaply, young people won’t open their wallets. Do you know about the Veblen effect?”

“What, what are you full of?”

“The Veblen effect refers to the fact that consumers only consume so-called luxury goods because they want to stand out from others. It is similar to spending money to show off your ability to buy expensive items such as foreign cars or jewelry.”

For now, both of them nod.

An expression of complete incomprehension.

But the economic terms he recited sounded quite plausible.

‘Are you almost there?’

The trust-building phase is over.

Now it was time to throw them a little sweeter bait.

I said, looking at the receipt again.

“Let’s see… … If today’s sales are like this, you must be taking home more than 5 thousand on average per month, right?”

I pretended to calculate something and just threw out random words.

To begin with, these are people who don’t even know the average daily sales or number of customers.

It has only been about two weeks since they started selling the rice cakes.

There was no way they could have estimated a month’s worth of data.

The lady nodded with surprised eyes.

“That’s right! That’s right! It’s somewhere around there! Isn’t it? That must be right!”

“Think about it. You’re making $5,000 a month from just one place. But if you expand that to 100, how much more do you think your revenue will increase?”

The CEO’s husband’s eyes widened as he tapped on the calculator for a moment.

“Oh, five hundred million… … !”

No, that’s not it, you punk.

Why are you trying to take away all the sales from other branches?

No, it’s okay.

It doesn’t matter how you calculate it.

What’s important now is that their eyes have completely turned around.

“Do you understand now? We are chain store consultants. We are in charge of nationwide distribution networks, material management, and such. From now on, all you have to do is just receive the money from the nationwide chain stores and stack it up.”

The boss and his wife became excited and started chatting with each other.

“Then I don’t have to make any more tteokbokki? Oh my~ I was already so annoyed because the smell of gochujang soaked into my clothes!”

“Tteokbokki is so delicious that you’ll die if you eat it. Why cook it? We can just buy it and eat it when we travel to Southeast Asia or anywhere else!”

I should start giving gifts to these two people who are full of hope.

I thought I’d throw some colder water at you than the outdated Ice Bucket Challenge.

“But looking at SNS, there’s a rumor that the menu called Deoptteok is copied from a restaurant called Sanhaene Bunsik? Is that true?”

The lady boss jumped up and answered.

“How could that be?! What kind of crazy bitch would do that?!”

“I asked to confirm the facts. If there is a plagiarism issue, it will be difficult for us to support the chain business… …. Is it really unrelated to Sanha’s snack bar?”

“If I copied it, you can take all the profits from this store and I have nothing to say! But I’m telling you, that’s not true!”

Thanks to the strong denial by the CEO, things seemed like they would be resolved easily.

I took advantage of the momentum and tried to sneakily ask the CEO’s husband for his consent.

“Does your husband agree?”

“that…….”

It’s an unexpected reaction.

It seemed that he was worried that the chain business would fail.

‘It would be difficult if even one of the two people objects… ‘

Since it was a situation where I couldn’t back down, I decided to go in and thrust hard.

“Why can’t you answer? Could it be that you have something on your mind?”

A slightly provocative tone.

Then the response came immediately.

“Oh, no way! We’ve done a lot of research on this. Yes.”

“Then I guess there’s no problem if I proceed as my wife says. Right?”

“No!”

The CEO’s husband nods his head vigorously.

Okay.

The answer was that the subject of ‘I will do as my wife says’ was omitted.

My intention in speaking was to get his consent, not to talk about the chain business.

Having achieved my goal, I answered with a gentle smile.

“Okay. Honest people should make a lot of money. Isn’t that a proper society?”

What I just said was the only true thing I’ve said since coming in here.

Does sincerity get through?

The owner and his wife of Sanghwa Snacks also nodded in agreement.

I put down the menu, picked up the Sanghwa Bunshik business card, and put it in my inside pocket.

Knock knock-

The moment I got up from my cheap brass-plated chair.

The owner of Sanghwa Snacks tilted his head and asked.

“But I feel like I’ve seen you somewhere before. Have we met before?”

“Probably so. I am so… … excellent in this field.”

I answered, maintaining the same tone of voice.

Kim Nak-su (Owner of Sanghwa Snacks): If the menu item ‘Ddeok-tteok’ is plagiarized, all profits from will be transferred to .

Jeong Seong-gu (husband of the owner of Sanghwa Snacks): If the menu item ‘Ddeok-tteok’ is plagiarized, all profits of will be transferred to .

Especially when it comes to keeping promises.