The next day, Ye Chen received a call from Xia Yingluo and rushed to the Hot Pot Restaurant.

When he saw Xia Yingluo and Song Yuyu, both of them looked very anxious.

"What’s wrong?"

Ye Chen noticed that there were significantly fewer customers in the shop today than usual.

Song Yuyu said angrily, "The Hot Pot Restaurant that’s copying us has reopened, and they’re running a half-price promotion recently."

Xia Yingluo also frowned and said, "Ye Chen, our customer count is clearly much lower today. What should we do?"

Since the target audience in this area consists mostly of students from the nearby University,

price cuts are extremely tempting to them.

Especially with Hot Pot—while the flavor at Ye Chen’s Hot Pot Restaurant is excellent, if the price is halved elsewhere, that slight difference in taste doesn’t matter as much anymore.

After all, when you’re paying half the price for Hot Pot, a tiny gap in flavor is negligible.

Originally, the competitor’s prices were already cheaper than Ye Chen’s restaurant.

Ye Chen’s Hot Pot Restaurant could compensate for that with its superior taste and flavor. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

But this time, Jiang Tao had clearly made a ruthless move by slashing prices by half all at once.

Song Yuyu grit her teeth and said, "Maybe we should offer a discount too."

In truth, Song Yuyu was the one who least wanted to give discounts because she received a share of the profits.

Selling at a discount meant losing money, which meant Song Yuyu wouldn’t get any profit dividends.

Despite this, she still proposed a plan that was disadvantageous to her.

She looked at Ye Chen, wanting to hear his opinion.

Ye Chen didn’t speak, but instead looked at Xia Yingluo beside him.

"No, we absolutely cannot discount. If our prices drop, it will be hard to raise them back up later."

Xia Yingluo directly rejected Song Yuyu’s suggestion.

Hearing Xia Yingluo’s words, Ye Chen nodded with satisfaction.

As expected of Xia Yingluo, she really does have a mind for business.

Clearly, Jiang Tao wanted to use his deep pockets to fight a price war with Ye Chen.

He would start with a wave of price cuts to crush Ye Chen’s shop, then raise the prices back up later.

But Ye Chen understood that doing so was very difficult.

The prerequisite for winning a price war is to defeat and exhaust your competitor through low prices, then monopolize the market.

However, it was simply impossible to monopolize the Hot Pot market in Kyoto.

There are many Hot Pot Restaurants in the Capital, ranging from high-end to low-end.

So, once you lower your prices, it gives consumers the illusion that your Hot Pot is only worth that much.

Therefore, the method of losing money just to gain attention is very irrational.

The final result is just losing more and more money.

By the time you raise prices, no one will eat there anymore.

Thus, Ye Chen didn’t think much of Jiang Tao’s price war strategy.

If Ye Chen’s Hot Pot Restaurant followed suit and lowered its prices, its brand prestige would plummet.

Ye Chen was very pleased that Xia Yingluo could realize this issue.

Seeing her suggestion rejected, Song Yuyu looked at Ye Chen and Xia Yingluo.

"Then what do we do?"

Song Yuyu was completely out of ideas.

Although she didn’t understand Xia Yingluo’s reasoning, Song Yuyu always listened to her on matters big and small.

She felt that Xia Yingluo’s decisions were surely never wrong.

In reality, Xia Yingluo didn’t have a solution right now either, so she could only turn her gaze toward Ye Chen.

Ye Chen said, "Since the opponent is fighting a price war, we must respond. A discount is necessary, otherwise our shop really will be dragged down by them."

Right now, the loss of customers at the Hot Pot Restaurant was already significant, so a discount was imperative.

Xia Yingluo said, "So you also agree to a discount?"

Ye Chen replied, "Of course, but we can’t just do a simple discount. We can organize an event. Even if we discount, we need to maintain some class."

Hearing Ye Chen’s words, both Xia Yingluo and Song Yuyu were stunned.

Does a discount need ’class’?

Ye Chen smiled. "We can plan an event, like ’Buy one, get the second half-off for couples.’"

"Half off the second Hot Pot for couples?" Song Yuyu and Xia Yingluo were taken aback.

Ye Chen nodded and said, "We can stop this kind of event at any time. Moreover, the way customers feel about a direct discount versus an event-based discount is different."

"Also, we can use the theme of ’couples’ to plan some promotional activities. I think we could do something like: kiss for thirty seconds and get two Hot Pots entirely for free."

As soon as Ye Chen spoke, Xia Yingluo’s eyes lit up beside him.

As expected of Ye Chen, the method he thought of was simply too creative.

This activity would be incredibly tempting for University students.

Xia Yingluo looked at Ye Chen, her eyes filled with admiration.

Seeing Xia Yingluo’s admiring gaze, Ye Chen actually felt a bit embarrassed.

These weren’t his original ideas, but very common marketing strategies from his previous life.

The characteristic of such events is their strong viral potential, but in 2008, this kind of activity hadn’t become popular yet.

Meanwhile, in the knock-off Hot Pot Restaurant, Jiang Tao and his partner were personally overseeing things.

This time, Jiang Tao didn’t dare be a hands-off manager.

Because Ye Chen was truly too formidable.

They were worried that the employees they had worked so hard to recruit would be snatched away again.

This time, with the previous experience in mind, the benefits were much higher than before, and they all provided non-compete agreements to prevent job-hopping.

Consequently, the costs had risen significantly.

Jiang Tao had suffered at Ye Chen’s hands last time, and he was determined to get even this time no matter what.

Although they were losing money, the effect was excellent; more and more people were coming to the Hot Pot Restaurant today.

Now, Jiang Tao understood that competing with Ye Chen didn’t require complex tricks.

It was just about throwing money at the problem.

Ye Chen was just a High School graduate; Jiang Tao didn’t believe a college student like Ye Chen could hold out against a barrage of money.

...By noon, the business results were quite good, but Jiang Tao noticed that by the afternoon, the crowd had thinned out significantly.

Just then, a pair of young lovers walked over.

The two were students from Jingda University who had just started dating.

The boy and girl walked to the front of the Hot Pot Restaurant.

Seeing the advertisement at the door, the boy’s eyes lit up. "Let me treat you to Hot Pot."

The girl nodded. "But I prefer eating at that Hot Pot place further ahead."

The boy cast a reluctant glance at the discount sign at the door.

This time, the boy didn’t have much money on him.

Furthermore, he wanted to save some money for a hotel room.

Though the possibility was slim, what if there was a chance?

Right then, there was a sudden burst of commotion from the Hot Pot Restaurant ahead.

The girl’s attention was immediately drawn toward it.

Seeing the girl’s curious gaze, the boy grit his teeth.

"Forget it, even if it’s a bit expensive. I can’t let her think I’m stingy."

The boy said to the girl, "Then let’s go to the place you mentioned."

The girl nodded.

The two of them reached the shop entrance and turned to walk toward Ye Chen’s Hot Pot Restaurant.

Sitting at the door, Jiang Tao was stunned by this scene.

What kind of trick was this Ye Chen playing now?