Chapter 90: The Milk Tea Shop

Lying on the sofa, reading a novel and scrolling through short videos, time passed quickly.

Until Xiao Ya came home from work.

She was clearly tired, but seeing Chen Feng at home, she was still very happy and came over to give him a big hug.

Then, she said with a smile, “You didn’t come home yesterday, I couldn’t sleep well all night.”

Chen Feng, however, said with a smile, “I slept very well.”

Xiao Ya was stunned for a moment, then she looked up, rolled her eyes at him, gently pushed him away, and lowered her head with a sigh, “It seems you still don’t have me in your heart.”

Chen Feng laughed, hugged her, and said, “Alright. You’ve had a long day. Go take a shower quickly, then come down to eat. By the way, have you eaten yet?”

Xiao Ya shook her head. “I rushed back as soon as I got off work. I was afraid you’d scold me.”

“You’re working so hard, why would I scold you? I ate out for lunch and packed up a lot of leftovers. They’re all good dishes. If you don’t mind, let’s eat them together.”

“Why would I mind? I’m overjoyed. I’ll go take a shower right away.”

Xiao Ya said happily and hurried upstairs to take a shower.

Seeing this, Chen Feng shook his head and went to the kitchen to start cooking the rice.

Then he took the leftover dishes from lunch out of the refrigerator and heated them in the microwave.

He was already hungry by this time, so he didn’t wait for Xiao Ya to finish her shower. He started eating some of the dishes himself.

Anyway, there were six dishes packed from the restaurant, two of which were main courses. The portions were generous, and Chen Feng definitely couldn’t finish them all by himself.

After eating until he was about a third full to tide himself over, Chen Feng temporarily stopped eating.

After waiting for another ten minutes, Xiao Ya came downstairs, and the rice was just cooked.

Only then did Chen Feng bring the dishes to the dining table, and the two of them started eating together.

Xiao Ya thought Chen Feng had waited for her to come down before eating and felt a little touched.

The Xiuzhou cuisine from this restaurant tasted quite good. In any case, Xiao Ya was full of praise as she ate.

And it was clear she was really hungry. She rarely ate two bowls of rice, and she also ate a small half of the dishes, her stomach bulging. Only after she finished eating did she regret it, afraid she would get fat.

During the meal, Chen Feng also got a general understanding of the milk tea shop where she was now working. It was a nationally franchised internet-famous shop with very good business. They operated both a physical store and online, with business split about half and half. She even heard from the old employees that sometimes online orders were higher than in-store sales.

The shop she had just joined had five employees. She was currently mainly assisting one person. There were specific procedures and various machines and equipment, so it was relatively easy to learn.

In a few days, she should be able to start making various flavors of milk tea herself.

Besides that, of course, there was the specific management of the shop, the business process, and so on.

With hands-on experience, she would be very familiar with the specific operating procedures of such a milk tea shop in one or two months at most.

She also learned about the start-up costs today. Besides the shop rent and transfer fee, the initial investment for such a milk tea shop would be at least 300,000 yuan.

This was much higher than she had initially imagined. She had previously thought that besides the shop rent and transfer fee, franchising a milk tea shop and making some initial investments, including decoration and raw materials, would only cost about 100,000 to 200,000 yuan.

But when she asked, it was at least 300,000, double her estimate.

As for the shop rent, if it were opened in Xiuzhou, it would of course not be cheap. For a slightly better location, a space of about ten square meters would have an annual rent of over 100,000 yuan.

And in her opinion, a milk tea shop needed to be at least 20 square meters. In that case, the annual rent would often be over 300,000 yuan.

If it were larger, or in a better location, a 20-square-meter space would definitely cost fifty to sixty thousand a month. That would be six to seven hundred thousand a year.

Adding in other miscellaneous extra expenses, Xiao Ya roughly estimated that to open such an internet-famous milk tea shop in Xiuzhou, a principal of one million yuan would be needed to feel secure.

She certainly didn’t have that much money herself and could only get it from her sugar daddy, Chen Feng.

“The business of internet-famous milk tea shops is very good. Many young people drink it every day, they’re addicted. If you open a shop like this, as long as the location isn’t too remote, you won’t lack business. Besides, even if the in-store business isn’t great, the online business usually won’t be too bad. Many people order online starting from two cups, and many orders are for several cups, even a dozen cups.”

After clearing the table and washing the dishes, Xiao Ya came and sat down next to Chen Feng, continuing to talk to him about the milk tea shop.

It was clear that she was very optimistic about this business.

Chen Feng didn’t pour cold water on her enthusiasm. According to his limited understanding, if an internet-famous milk tea shop was run well, it was indeed very profitable.

However, the most profitable ones were always the brand owners who collected franchise fees. In the end, even if they declared bankruptcy, the shareholders would have already made a fortune.

Of course, Chen Feng wouldn’t go into the details of the capital operations of these internet-famous milk tea brands with her; he didn’t understand it very well himself. But this kind of scheme had been common for years.

They would create a “famous brand,” for example, by claiming it was reported in some authoritative newspaper or magazine, or even advertised on CCTV, and had won some major award. In short, they would hype it up as much as possible.

Once they had the fame, of course, they would advertise everywhere to recruit franchisees. They would dig many pits in the contracts and sign with those franchisees who took the bait. When it became difficult to recruit more franchisees and they had collected enough franchise fees, these “famous brands” would gradually stop promoting and advertising. When the franchisees discovered they had been deceived, there was nowhere to appeal. Even if they filed a lawsuit, the other party wasn’t afraid, because the contract had been designed to be favorable to the brand owner.

This was considered one of the better scenarios. Some would just run away with the franchise fees after scamming enough people, or simply declare bankruptcy.

Among today’s internet-famous milk tea brands, while not 100% were this kind of scheme, there were many who were just there to make up the numbers.

And the reason they were called “internet-famous” was, of course, because the brand owners promoted them on the internet and various short video platforms.

There were many tricks involved. The most common one at the beginning was to hire people to queue up, creating the illusion that their milk tea was extremely popular, a bestseller, and in short supply.

This could instantly attract the attention and curiosity of the public, and even the media, creating news hotspots and topics.

In this way, even if some people saw through their tricks, their goal was achieved.

This trick of hiring shills to queue up for a “buying frenzy,” although simple, was very effective, and many people were fooled.

They thought that franchising such an internet-famous milk tea shop would definitely be profitable.

In addition, many young people frequently watch short videos and are prone to following trends. They don’t have a high ability to discern and are easily tricked, gradually forming a so-called trend and fashion.

As a result, many young people and students would rather skip a meal than not buy a cup of internet-famous milk tea.

To sum it up, there were people who made money opening milk tea shops, but there were also many who lost money. Even more were scammed.

Moreover, with more and more of these internet-famous milk tea brands and franchise stores opening, it would inevitably lead to fierce competition, and the market would sooner or later face a reshuffle.

At that time, as the franchisees at the bottom, they would inevitably be harvested.