Chapter 299 - Soft Opening Day (17)

After some time, the entire table was finally occupied with the corresponding customers that had reserved the first hour of their operation. These customers focused on eating their food, and only a few groups were having a casual conversation.

Danny refilled the serving dishes twice and sneaked his way to walk towards Sofia. He took a glance at each table on his way and looked astonished by how fast the customers had consumed their food!

"Miss Sofia, our customers eat like they have starved themselves for a week! I've refilled dishes twice, and this is just the first hour! I have instructed the cooks to prepare for another round of cooking, just in case all the food that we prepared earlier won't be enough for today," he reported in a low volume. He did not also bother to hide the concerned expression on his face.

"It's okay, Danny. This is one of the objectives why we have chosen this business and picked this location," Sofia replied with a gentle gaze to their customers. Even though the people were eating enthusiastically and consumed more than the normal meal of a person, she was actually delighted by the scene.

"I'm just worried. If all our customers consume like them... the business may not profit today?" Danny sighed and shook his head. 

"That's not how it works in business. If we think of it from the perspective of the ripple effect, it's really profitable," Sofia simply replied.

"B-but how? They are eating too much," Danny complained.

"Hahaha, why are you so uneasy about not being able to profit today? Don't worry, the agreed salary for all the staff here will be provided in full with no less than a cent," Sofia chuckled. Her tone was playful to make him feel at ease but Danny was not feel relieved at all.

"Hmmn, that's not what I mean. Miss Sofia, I just felt uncomfortable thinking of the amount that they are eating," Danny admitted uncomfortably. 

"Here is how I think of it, okay... We should not be frightened of having a lot of consumers. What's terrifying and fatal to us is when there are no more consumers paying attention to our business," Sofia stated and look at the man in the face. Then, she continued to explain, "With many consumers that we have, we will also need to buy plenty of local products. Then, the demand for these ingredients would definitely rise."

Sofia paused for a moment and took a glance at the entrance door to check if Jing Jing was already there. She had long wondered where Mr. Jonathan and Jing Jing had their discussion. And what took Jing Jing so long to return when she suggested to her to just have a brief conversation. Somehow, she felt worried for her more than the idea of profiting.

"Miss Sofia, based on my observation, even if the demand would rise, its cost might also follow? It's not beneficial to use either, right?" Danny questioned once more after noticing that Sofia had stopped talking.

"No, it's beneficial! Once the demand for local products becomes high because of us, we are indirectly helping the local farmers who are dependent on selling vegetables and livestock to feed their families.  And the same goes for the local fishermen peddling seafood products. In addition to it, we are promoting local foods which will soon boost our food culture. The young generation will learn to appreciate it. It's extremely beneficial to our district." Sofia explained. 

Danny listened attentively on the side, "So, the reason of your business is to help? Are you operating for charity more than profit?"

"Hahaha, it's for earning a profit, of course! But the reason why we should operate a business must not just mainly for personal gains. We also have to help uplift the image of our district. You might wonder what's the connection of our district's image to our business, right? Hehe," Sofia giggled. 

Danny only nodded his head as affirmation and did not speak a response.

"Because this place is where we start our progress. As long as the image of our district is great, it will easily attract investors. Then, with the right investors, we can expand our business. And after expanding our business, we will earn more profit! Right now, we just have to take one step at a time to achieve this goal. As long as there is proper circulation of our money, we won't incur losses. Just think of it this way... to be on the top of the corporate world, we must have a wide objective. Only when our impact to the community is big, we will have large profits!" Sofia finished.

"Ohh..." Danny trailed, feeling a little bit embarrassed of his initial concern. He was just focusing on their profit today. But, the young lady was actually looking at the entire impact of their business operation!

Sofia also sensed that the man felt ashamed. She raised her hand and tapped his shoulder. "Danny, we are lucky that we have a sincere employee like you who cares for our profit and not just go here and work to get a salary. This attitude is valuable to us. With your character, I'm confident that we will achieve our goals in no time. Thank you!"

Danny could not help but feel emotional by what Sofia had said. He lowered his gaze and clasped both his hands in his back. "Miss Sofia, you have greatly expanded my understanding of operating a business. Having crossed your path and work for you is probably the greatest fortune that my Double Sigma fraternity would ever receive. Now, I completely understand!"

Sofia took a deep breath and smiled at him. "The first time sister Jing and I wander around this place, I've realized the lack of local food business. Although there are other restaurants in the district, those establishments offered mostly expensive foreign dishes. Not all citizens could afford it. Even if they can afford it, they cannot eat to its content. Our objective is to serve quality and affordable food."

At the back of her head, she could not help but also think of her level of influence in someone's life before she died. 'Did I have a meaningful impact on someone's existence while leading the Summers Holdings?'

Perhaps, there was. She was not certain of how meaningful her influence was to them though. The only thing she was sure of was that, in her past life, no one had ever expressed such sincere care of gaining or losing profit as Danny had shown to her. Not even her family.

She had carried the burden of people's expectation that whatever decision she made would always lead to profit. Recalling such a situation, Sofia could only sigh and realized that her influence on the people around her during her past life had never reached a personal level. It was because she was surrounded by experts.

Her conversation with Danny felt very refreshing to her.

"Miss Sofia, I will go back to the kitchen," Danny excused himself.

"Okay," Sofia mumbled.

Minutes had turned into hours, the business operation went smoothly. Fortunately, all customers that they had served were well-behaved.

Sofia secretly observed the entire movement of customers and staff inside and smiled in contentment. 

She could tell that everyone in them was putting all their best effort into the responsibility that was assigned to them. Sofia checked her watch and saw that it was almost 11 AM. The customers for this time were already outside, waiting for the 10 AM reservation to finish.

At the same time, there were specifically four other hashtags that started to become the topic of the netizens in social media. It was not yet on the top trending topic but it had attracted a lot of views too.

#UnlimittedFood #WorthItCost #LocalDishIsTheBest #LocalDineDistrict7IntersectionStreet

Along with those hashtags were mostly pictures of plates full of food and a group photo grinning in the camera. They snapped a photo before eating their meals. Some took a selfie at the serving table area before they picked their food. Others even bragged about the before and after situation of their tables after their hour of eating!

Obviously, those were the individuals who were able to eat during the 9 AM and 10 AM. They have tagged their companions and their companions also shared their posts. 

Meanwhile, those people that reserved the 11 PM could only join the trend by taking a picture outside the establishment.

In this situation, when it comes to business advertising, Sofia did not need to pay anything for the promotion of her business. Her customers had done it for them!

Jing Jing's figure suddenly emerged from the entrance and marched towards Sofia.

"Sister Jing, how was your conversation with Mr. Jonathan?" Sofia quickly asked the lady.

"Ah... about him... he had left a long time ago. Our conversation was really brief and we just talked outside. It was a casual introduction and exchange of 'hi' and 'hello' only.. Hehe, I stayed in my car, answering calls for table reservations!" Jing Jing responded with full of excitement on her face. "This is crazy! Miss Sofia, you won't believe this but, we are fully booked for the entire day next week! I don't know what sorcery had happened that all those people suddenly texted me and asked me to book them for whatever is our available schedule!"