Currently, in most rural areas, there's no such concept as food delivery.
Mom is great at cooking. Previously, people would invite her to be the head chef for weddings in the village. Now, with the grain farming in rural areas mechanized, during non-farming seasons, besides handling household chores, there's not much work to do.
If we could tap into the lunchtime business opportunity with the anglers by the Wen River, it would be a considerable income!
By then, Zhang Yang could sell Rice for Making Wine bait while also arranging affordable and delicious homemade meals for the anglers coming to fish. It would significantly boost the efficiency of making money!
Thinking about this, Zhang Yang kept his head down and pondered while Old Zhao and the others were eating.
After everyone had eaten and returned to their fishing spots, Old Zhao was about to pull out a cigarette from his pocket.
Zhang Yang saw Old Zhao's action and quickly took out a freshly opened pack of White General cigarettes from his own pocket and handed it over: "Smoke mine!"
The two of them lit their cigarettes, cupping the flame, and Old Zhao took a slow drag and said: "What? Got a thought from my suggestion before the meal? You haven't said anything!"
Zhang Yang nodded: "Yeah, I went to a job site this morning, couldn't stay more than half the morning! The noise gave me a headache, and I couldn't manage the maintenance work!
I went home and discussed it with Dad and Mom. If we manage the business of selling Rice for Making Wine well, the income would be as good as having a job! And since you mentioned lunch, it got me thinking!"
"You, smart as always when it comes to money-making ideas!
We talked about this last year at our fishing friends gathering! It's highly feasible, just no one executed it, and it got delayed.
Most of the regular anglers are either salaried workers or small independent business owners. They have time to fish but handling food delivery isn't realistic!
It's not stable, and the distance is too far! Doing it specifically, the profit is too low to be worthwhile!
But these downsides are not an issue for you. Picking up side jobs and combining tasks, as long as the meals are good, earning a hundred or eighty a day is easy!
Plus, with the income from selling Rice for Making Wine, it's surely more than a salaried job!"
"Yeah, I'll mention it to Mom when I get home! Start small-scale to test it out! If it works, we'll go full scale!"
"Haha, I think this has potential. Old rules, count me in first. When we're out fishing, spending an extra five or ten for timely and hot meals isn't a problem!"
"Alright, I'll remember that!"
...
After a brief chat, Zhang Yang rode his bike home. He didn't bring fishing gear today, so taking a break from fishing, he decided to go home and settle this idea first.
Zhang Yang is a very action-oriented person. Once he feels an idea is reliable, he'll execute it immediately without delay.
When he got home, his father had already gone to work, and his mother was home alone.
When Zhang Yang shared his idea with his mother, her eyes also lit up!
"Will those anglers by the Wen River really be willing to spend money on meals?" his mother asked.
"Not if it's too expensive, but around ten yuan per person for sure! Yesterday and today's lunch, I helped them buy from Peng Lin's deli in the village, and today's average was 15 yuan per person!"
"Fifteen yuan per person? Just for a meal, how could it cost so much? Did they eat all pig ears?" Upon hearing this price, Zhang's mother shook her head.
As the household's financial manager, Zhang's mother is in charge of daily expenses. She knows the prices of vegetables, grains, and oil very well.
Even counting for Zhang Guofu, an adult doing heavy physical work, having meat and vegetables with two meat dishes and one vegetarian to fill up, a meal's cost wouldn't exceed ten yuan, and bulk purchasing would further lower costs.
Calculating by this standard, selling a lunch for 15 would result in at least a five yuan profit per single; if selling ten, income would equal that of a construction laborer!
For rural women who cook daily meals, cooking for ten more people is just two or three more hours of work, not affecting normal family life.
Seeing his mother's enthusiasm, Zhang Yang said: "How about you prepare your specialty dishes, calculate the cost, and I'll organize it in the fishing group?"
"Sure! You ask around; leave the cooking to me! It's best to order in advance in the morning, so there's no worry about eating it up or wasting if overcooked!"
The mother and son easily came to an agreement, and Zhang Yang immediately took action.
First, for individual meals, they couldn't use plastic bags, at least disposable foam lunch boxes. Zhang Yang asked around, went to the town wholesale store, and bought 100 large foam boxes, costing only 50 yuan at fifty cents each.
Next were the specialty dishes: Stewed Chicken with Potatoes, Tomato Braised Beef, Sweet and Sour Ribs, Braised Pork, Salty Mackerel with Tofu, all mom's signature dishes, along with various seasonal vegetables, offered around ten dishes, allowing them not to repeat dishes for three to five days.
With dishes settled, arranging the staple was easier; the deli had large white buns and hard-crust bread readily available, with options to steam rice at home, flexible with any preference.
That afternoon, Zhang Yang sent the drafted menu with prices to Old Zhao via QQ. The two ensured there were no mistakes, and that night, Zhang Yang advertised the delivery service around the Wen River on QQ group chat.
Two meat dishes, one vegetable, individual serving with rice or bun, fifteen yuan per meal directly delivered, fresh and affordable! Orders must be placed by 10 a.m.; no same-day call-ins.
On the night of advertising, Zhang Yang received twelve orders.
The anglers by the Wen River had a good catch today, and those free tomorrow planned to come fish again.
Upon seeing that Zhang Yang only fiddled with his phone a bit and received twelve orders, Zhang's mother was overjoyed and decided to buy vegetables at the market early the next day to support her son's business.
When Zhang Yang delivered the plentiful and tasty lunch meals to the Wen River, those anglers who hadn't heard about it were amazed by the service.
Is there food delivery by the Wen River? This service beats the city's level!
Intrigued, many inquired, and several even asked for Zhang Yang's order number on the spot, asking if more meals could be delivered, even if later was fine!
Just on the first opening day, during lunch alone, Zhang Yang sold over twenty portions of homemade lunch meals, with everyone satisfied with the meal quality and value!
The following week became a period of rapid growth for Zhang Yang's "Wen River Meal Delivery" business.
Recently, the fish have been plentiful; with simultaneous Rice for Making Wine and meal delivery sales, in downtime, Zhang Yang even brought gear for nighttime fishing to sell fish, maintaining a daily stable income of over three to four hundred. On weekends when fishing friends flock in, it exceeded six to seven hundred.