***
"Why did sales suddenly drop like this? It keeps going down."
A food alley was formed in the area from the Southern District Court to Mokdong Station.
Oh Maeng-sik, who runs the Japanese pork cutlet franchise [Misokatsu] here, frowned as he looked at the receipt.
Pork cutlets are not seasonal. In spring and summer, pork cutlets are served with buckwheat noodles, and in autumn and winter, when you crave hot soup, udon noodles are served, so sales were guaranteed to be above average all year round.
However, for some reason, sales have been declining sharply lately.
It's not a vacation season or a holiday.
There was no trouble with the customers, and it was even more unlikely that the head office would have an issue that would cause customers to boycott the store.
'This is strange...'
A drop in sales for no apparent reason.
It's the same now.
It's just past noon, and normally the store would be full and there would be a waiting list. However, there are only 9 tables out of 15 filled, not to mention a waiting list.
'What's going on? Did everyone go on vacation together?'
Most of the sales in the legal district come from people working in the legal field.
High-ranking judges and prosecutors may go to high-end sushi restaurants or Korean restaurants, but other law firm employees, law firms, and accounting firm employees preferred franchise restaurants where they could eat cleanly.
After thorough market research, I was convinced that a pork cutlet restaurant would be competitive in this alley, so I opened a store.
And as Oh Maeng-sik expected, business went well for a few months.
Feeling strange, Oh Maeng-sik went outside the store.
In the alley where it was just lunchtime, dozens, if not hundreds, of office workers were looking for lunch menus.
"Team leader, how about a whole chicken today?"
"Chief, shall we go for kimchi stew?"
"Manager Kim, is the usual rice restaurant okay?"
"Did you see Captain's video last week?"
"The old Western restaurant that sells pork cutlets? Is that near here?"
Among the conversations of people choosing a menu, a conversation from a group of people caught Maeng-sik's ear.
"I think it's around here too. In the opening video, I briefly saw this road while filming the store."
"Then is it in the alley?"
"I don't think so. Isn't there a residential area inside? It's somewhere there?"
The woman pointed to the residential area at the fork in the intersection.
Maeng-sik, who had been eavesdropping on the story, followed the woman's finger.
A residential area located inside the alley of the food alley. There were occasional macaron or dessert shops in the small shops on the first floor of the piloti villa, but I've never heard of a restaurant.
'Was there a restaurant in the corner residential area?'
"Shall we go there?"
"Now? There will be a lot of people."
"Let's go anyway. The number of people is just right. Three."
"It was one menu per person there."
"Oh. I heard that you need three people to eat old pork cutlet, cheese gas, and omelet."
"Call. Let's go."
Maeng-sik hurriedly went into the store and told his wife, who was serving, that he would be back soon, and then secretly followed the group who had been talking about pork cutlets a while ago.
In the meantime, the women, who had finished figuring out the location by searching, quickly headed towards their destination.
'All the office workers in this neighborhood gathered here.'
Not just office workers.
Young housewives with strollers.
Couples taking pictures with selfie sticks.
Even a female college student who came alone.
'What. That customer is a regular at our house!'
Maeng-sik, who saw a real regular customer who visited more than twice a week, saying that pork cutlet was his favorite food, felt dizzy as if he had been hit hard in the back of the head.
Now I know why the number of customers has decreased for no reason.
"Are you here alone?"
When he was standing blankly, a woman who looked like a part-timer approached him and asked with a friendly smile.
Maeng-sik nodded,
"I'll put your name on the waiting list and call you when it's your turn. And, um... I think it'll be about 20 minutes."
I put my name on the waiting list as if I was possessed by something.
"Meow~!"
At that moment, a cat came out of the store.
"Oh, Mongchi."
"Mongchi? Why is Mongchi outside?"
"Did you come out to sunbathe because the weather is nice?"
"Oh my gosh~ I want to touch it."
The white cat, which walked out gracefully, went to a place where the sun was shining well under the eaves, puffed up its body comfortably, and lay down.
Then, the waiting customers surrounded the cat, like paparazzi, and took pictures happily.
Unlike his own store, which simply placed it in front of the store when there was a waiting list, here it was a system where you could wait comfortably in the yard.
The yard is also well-decorated, and there is a mascot cat. There is also a plausible mural painted on the outer stone wall, making it perfect for taking pictures and playing. Naturally, the customers seemed to have no complaints.
'I'm ruined.'
After eating the pork cutlet dish I received after waiting for 20 minutes, the word that came to mind was ruined. The head office of Misokatsu was also famous for its carefully selected ingredients and unique recipes. Thick meat, crispy fried clothes. And the sauce.
It wasn't bad here either. No, it's much better. The recipe seemed ordinary, but the taste of the ingredients themselves was excellent. I didn't spare the ingredients either.
"Hey, take a picture. Take a picture!"
"Wait a minute. Okay. I took all the pictures. Let's upload it to Instagram and eat it."
"It's really delicious here. Just like the rumors say."
"Have you ever seen Captain lying?"
"Well. He doesn't even receive back-up advertisements, and that person completely eats his own money."
While listening to the stories of the customers who were full of praise, Maeng-sik suddenly had a good idea.
'Yes. Publicity.'
In the first place, the reason he followed here was because of the story of the people passing by about Captain, a YouTuber.
The only way to attract stolen customers is through advertising.
No matter how delicious the food is, people can't find it if they don't hear about it.
When I first opened the store at the head office, I boldly advertised it through online and offline channels.
As a result, the restaurant was able to establish itself in this area with many restaurants and maintain good sales.
-Oppa. You should also put a back-up advertisement on YouTube. They say the effect is immediate. If you're lucky, you'll get recruited by a broadcasting station, and if you become famous, you won't have to worry about your sales for a year.
Not long ago, a close friend in the next store, who had been in a slump in sales, filmed a video with a popular YouTuber and his sales increased several times. Recently, he has appeared on several broadcasts.
When asked for the secret, he said that he paid money and made a secret deal.
Maeng-sik took out his phone without hesitation and made a call.
.
.
.
"So, you're saying that a Western restaurant called Sunflower appeared on Captain's YouTube and took away all the customers who used to come here?"
Oh Maeng-sik, who was introduced to the Youtuber called Hyun-soo, told all the circumstances that had happened so far.
The popular YouTuber that my next-door neighbor, Sam Gyeo-psal's younger brother, mentioned was too expensive, so I decided to go with another live streamer Meokbo.
[T/N: Meokbo is the channel name of Park Hyun-soo.]
He was also a YouTuber, and with 110,000 subscribers, his subscribers were not bad.
Above all, the price was cheap.
I was going to try it once and continue to promote it through YouTube.
This is because it would be a big failure if you spent a lot of money from the beginning and didn't see the effect.
"Yes. That's why I'm thinking of advertising our store a bit. You know? It's an advertisement, but it's not like an advertisement."
"Like you're eating your own money?"
"Yes! Please do it secretly."
"I have a better idea than that."
The Park Hyun-soo sitting across from him leaned forward and whispered secretly.
"An idea?"
"Yes. Before Sunflower, the store was doing well, right?"
"Yes. Even if it wasn't every day, there was a waiting list and business was good."
"So the key is to get rid of Sunflower, right? Then the stolen customers will come back. I'll do that for you."
"Yes? How?"
"Leave that to me."
The Park Hyun-soosmiled unpleasantly.
'How dare you ignore me just because you're doing well in business? I'll make you lose your business!'
***
"Table 4, one pork cutlet. Table 2, one pork cutlet and one cheese gas. And this is the last order."
Min-ju shouted as she put the order slip inside the kitchen.
Looking at the time, it was already 2:50 PM.
It is time for peace to come to the kitchen, which has been fiercely busy for 3 hours and 30 minutes.
Limiting business hours was truly a godsend. If I hadn't done that, I wouldn't have been able to handle the flood of orders.
"Brother Dong-sik. I'll do the dishes, so please finish cleaning up."
"Yes. Boss."
Dong-Sik, who took off his sanitary gloves, moved to the side and put on rubber gloves.
There are two main tasks for him as a kitchen assistant.
The first is to prepare soup and bread when an order comes in, and to put potatoes, coleslaw, and rice on a plate. When Dongsik finishes preparing, Hae-jun puts the finished food in a container and serves it to the customer.
And the second task is dishwashing. In fact, it's just a matter of wiping off the sauce in the bowl. Since most of the plates came back with the sauce completely empty, it was a very easy task to soak the plates in lukewarm water, wash them with detergent, and wipe them off.
"Huh? What is this? The plate didn't even come back half empty?"
Among the plates that Min-ju brought while receiving the last order, there was a plate that she had hardly touched.
This is the first time I've seen it since Dong-sik started working in the kitchen. Dongsik tilted his head, threw away the remaining food scraps in the food waste bin, and washed the dishes.
***
"Miss So-eun. Pork cutlet call today?"
Kim In-chul, who had a free schedule for a long time, asked So-eun while making a cutting motion.
So-eun, who couldn't even look at her chubby belly these days because of her busy schedule, smiled brightly and nodded at Lawyer Kim's words.
"What time does it open?"
"It's 11:30."
"Then should we go now?"
In-chul said, looking at the wall clock.
It was currently 11:20 AM. It was better to go early in case you had to wait until lunchtime at 12 o'clock.
"Let's go. I think we can go without waiting if we go now."
Lawyer Kim and So-eun hurriedly left the office.
"Wow, 1st place."
They arrived at Sunflower just in time for lunch, the first customers.
"Are you here, unnie? Hello, lawyer."
"Min-ju. Hello? But is it a little slow today?"
"Yes. It's been like that since yesterday."
"Since yesterday?"
"Yes. Come in first."
Min-ju led So-eun and her party to the most popular window seat in Sunflower with her characteristic leisurely smile.
So-eun, who ordered pork cutlet and omelet, approached Mongchi as usual and stroked his back.
"Meow."
Mongchi, who seemed annoyed, wriggled his body and changed his posture.
"Oh~ my heart. Why are you so cute today, Mongchi."
Usually, when I wanted to play with Mongchi, I had to be aware of the eyes of the people around me.
Mongchi, who is as popular as the food in this restaurant. Naturally, the customers lined up and waited their turn, and there was an unspoken rule that the time to touch Mongchi, including taking a selfie, was 20 seconds.
There are no customers today, so I can monopolize Mongchi.
"But it's strange. By now, the customers should be pouring in and I should be out of my mind. Thanks to that, I can monopolize Mongchi."
So-eun fiddled with Mongchi to her heart's content.
***
YouTuber Captain held an item meeting with his staff.
With over 1.6 million subscribers, 10 employees, including a PD, filming, and editing team, came together to produce videos.
"Where should we go next week?"
"How about a Hanwoo special? Let's go to Majang-dong, butcher a whole cow, and grill it on the spot."
"That's a bit boring. How about the trendy galbi mukbang? We rent a campsite, light a fire, and grill about 10 galbi."
"Galbi?"
"This is it."
The PD showed Captain a picture.
A terrific visual of the entire beef rib bone.
"It's killing me. You're saying you're going to grill this whole thing?"
"Yes."
"Okay. Let's do it right away."
After that, discussions were held on what concept to shoot.
The meeting progressed smoothly, as we had been working together for over a year.
"Is that all?"
"We got the gist of it. I'll take care of the rest."
"Oh. By the way, how many views did the last video get?"
Captain asked about the number of views for the video of the Western restaurant he had filmed a while ago.
"It exploded. It's over 2 million now."
"Wow. Are you crazy?"
"It's the best."
Even with 1.6 million subscribers, it's not easy for views to explode.
It is possible only if a famous celebrity appears or if you show a video that is difficult to see easily. The only time the number of views was this high recently was when an idol girl group who volunteered as a fan appeared.
Captain accessed the channel on YouTube and checked the video.
There were a lot of views, but there were over 3,000 comments.
Captain's face hardened in an instant with a satisfied expression as he read one by one.
-Didn't the restaurant in this video, Sunfl**, have a food recycling controversy? Go see Meokbo TV. I'll send you a link.
I went to the Meokbo TV channel through the link in the comment.
A video with 310,000 views among 50,000 views.
"Huh!? What is this?"
***
"Why did sales suddenly drop like this? It keeps going down."
A food alley was formed in the area from the Southern District Court to Mokdong Station.
Oh Maeng-sik, who runs the Japanese pork cutlet franchise [Misokatsu] here, frowned as he looked at the receipt.
Pork cutlets are not seasonal. In spring and summer, pork cutlets are served with buckwheat noodles, and in autumn and winter, when you crave hot soup, udon noodles are served, so sales were guaranteed to be above average all year round.
However, for some reason, sales have been declining sharply lately.
It's not a vacation season or a holiday.
There was no trouble with the customers, and it was even more unlikely that the head office would have an issue that would cause customers to boycott the store.
'This is strange...'
A drop in sales for no apparent reason.
It's the same now.
It's just past noon, and normally the store would be full and there would be a waiting list. However, there are only 9 tables out of 15 filled, not to mention a waiting list.
'What's going on? Did everyone go on vacation together?'
Most of the sales in the legal district come from people working in the legal field.
High-ranking judges and prosecutors may go to high-end sushi restaurants or Korean restaurants, but other law firm employees, law firms, and accounting firm employees preferred franchise restaurants where they could eat cleanly.
After thorough market research, I was convinced that a pork cutlet restaurant would be competitive in this alley, so I opened a store.
And as Oh Maeng-sik expected, business went well for a few months.
Feeling strange, Oh Maeng-sik went outside the store.
In the alley where it was just lunchtime, dozens, if not hundreds, of office workers were looking for lunch menus.
"Team leader, how about a whole chicken today?"
"Chief, shall we go for kimchi stew?"
"Manager Kim, is the usual rice restaurant okay?"
"Did you see Captain's video last week?"
"The old Western restaurant that sells pork cutlets? Is that near here?"
Among the conversations of people choosing a menu, a conversation from a group of people caught Maeng-sik's ear.
"I think it's around here too. In the opening video, I briefly saw this road while filming the store."
"Then is it in the alley?"
"I don't think so. Isn't there a residential area inside? It's somewhere there?"
The woman pointed to the residential area at the fork in the intersection.
Maeng-sik, who had been eavesdropping on the story, followed the woman's finger.
A residential area located inside the alley of the food alley. There were occasional macaron or dessert shops in the small shops on the first floor of the piloti villa, but I've never heard of a restaurant.
'Was there a restaurant in the corner residential area?'
"Shall we go there?"
"Now? There will be a lot of people."
"Let's go anyway. The number of people is just right. Three."
"It was one menu per person there."
"Oh. I heard that you need three people to eat old pork cutlet, cheese gas, and omelet."
"Call. Let's go."
Maeng-sik hurriedly went into the store and told his wife, who was serving, that he would be back soon, and then secretly followed the group who had been talking about pork cutlets a while ago.
In the meantime, the women, who had finished figuring out the location by searching, quickly headed towards their destination.
'All the office workers in this neighborhood gathered here.'
Not just office workers.
Young housewives with strollers.
Couples taking pictures with selfie sticks.
Even a female college student who came alone.
'What. That customer is a regular at our house!'
Maeng-sik, who saw a real regular customer who visited more than twice a week, saying that pork cutlet was his favorite food, felt dizzy as if he had been hit hard in the back of the head.
Now I know why the number of customers has decreased for no reason.
"Are you here alone?"
When he was standing blankly, a woman who looked like a part-timer approached him and asked with a friendly smile.
Maeng-sik nodded,
"I'll put your name on the waiting list and call you when it's your turn. And, um... I think it'll be about 20 minutes."
I put my name on the waiting list as if I was possessed by something.
"Meow~!"
At that moment, a cat came out of the store.
"Oh, Mongchi."
"Mongchi? Why is Mongchi outside?"
"Did you come out to sunbathe because the weather is nice?"
"Oh my gosh~ I want to touch it."
The white cat, which walked out gracefully, went to a place where the sun was shining well under the eaves, puffed up its body comfortably, and lay down.
Then, the waiting customers surrounded the cat, like paparazzi, and took pictures happily.
Unlike his own store, which simply placed it in front of the store when there was a waiting list, here it was a system where you could wait comfortably in the yard.
The yard is also well-decorated, and there is a mascot cat. There is also a plausible mural painted on the outer stone wall, making it perfect for taking pictures and playing. Naturally, the customers seemed to have no complaints.
'I'm ruined.'
After eating the pork cutlet dish I received after waiting for 20 minutes, the word that came to mind was ruined. The head office of Misokatsu was also famous for its carefully selected ingredients and unique recipes. Thick meat, crispy fried clothes. And the sauce.
It wasn't bad here either. No, it's much better. The recipe seemed ordinary, but the taste of the ingredients themselves was excellent. I didn't spare the ingredients either.
"Hey, take a picture. Take a picture!"
"Wait a minute. Okay. I took all the pictures. Let's upload it to Instagram and eat it."
"It's really delicious here. Just like the rumors say."
"Have you ever seen Captain lying?"
"Well. He doesn't even receive back-up advertisements, and that person completely eats his own money."
While listening to the stories of the customers who were full of praise, Maeng-sik suddenly had a good idea.
'Yes. Publicity.'
In the first place, the reason he followed here was because of the story of the people passing by about Captain, a YouTuber.
The only way to attract stolen customers is through advertising.
No matter how delicious the food is, people can't find it if they don't hear about it.
When I first opened the store at the head office, I boldly advertised it through online and offline channels.
As a result, the restaurant was able to establish itself in this area with many restaurants and maintain good sales.
-Oppa. You should also put a back-up advertisement on YouTube. They say the effect is immediate. If you're lucky, you'll get recruited by a broadcasting station, and if you become famous, you won't have to worry about your sales for a year.
Not long ago, a close friend in the next store, who had been in a slump in sales, filmed a video with a popular YouTuber and his sales increased several times. Recently, he has appeared on several broadcasts.
When asked for the secret, he said that he paid money and made a secret deal.
Maeng-sik took out his phone without hesitation and made a call.
.
.
.
"So, you're saying that a Western restaurant called Sunflower appeared on Captain's YouTube and took away all the customers who used to come here?"
Oh Maeng-sik, who was introduced to the Youtuber called Hyun-soo, told all the circumstances that had happened so far.
The popular YouTuber that my next-door neighbor, Sam Gyeo-psal's younger brother, mentioned was too expensive, so I decided to go with another live streamer Meokbo.
[T/N: Meokbo is the channel name of Park Hyun-soo.]
He was also a YouTuber, and with 110,000 subscribers, his subscribers were not bad.
Above all, the price was cheap.
I was going to try it once and continue to promote it through YouTube.
This is because it would be a big failure if you spent a lot of money from the beginning and didn't see the effect.
"Yes. That's why I'm thinking of advertising our store a bit. You know? It's an advertisement, but it's not like an advertisement."
"Like you're eating your own money?"
"Yes! Please do it secretly."
"I have a better idea than that."
The Park Hyun-soo sitting across from him leaned forward and whispered secretly.
"An idea?"
"Yes. Before Sunflower, the store was doing well, right?"
"Yes. Even if it wasn't every day, there was a waiting list and business was good."
"So the key is to get rid of Sunflower, right? Then the stolen customers will come back. I'll do that for you."
"Yes? How?"
"Leave that to me."
The Park Hyun-soosmiled unpleasantly.
'How dare you ignore me just because you're doing well in business? I'll make you lose your business!'
***
"Table 4, one pork cutlet. Table 2, one pork cutlet and one cheese gas. And this is the last order."
Min-ju shouted as she put the order slip inside the kitchen.
Looking at the time, it was already 2:50 PM.
It is time for peace to come to the kitchen, which has been fiercely busy for 3 hours and 30 minutes.
Limiting business hours was truly a godsend. If I hadn't done that, I wouldn't have been able to handle the flood of orders.
"Brother Dong-sik. I'll do the dishes, so please finish cleaning up."
"Yes. Boss."
Dong-Sik, who took off his sanitary gloves, moved to the side and put on rubber gloves.
There are two main tasks for him as a kitchen assistant.
The first is to prepare soup and bread when an order comes in, and to put potatoes, coleslaw, and rice on a plate. When Dongsik finishes preparing, Hae-jun puts the finished food in a container and serves it to the customer.
And the second task is dishwashing. In fact, it's just a matter of wiping off the sauce in the bowl. Since most of the plates came back with the sauce completely empty, it was a very easy task to soak the plates in lukewarm water, wash them with detergent, and wipe them off.
"Huh? What is this? The plate didn't even come back half empty?"
Among the plates that Min-ju brought while receiving the last order, there was a plate that she had hardly touched.
This is the first time I've seen it since Dong-sik started working in the kitchen. Dongsik tilted his head, threw away the remaining food scraps in the food waste bin, and washed the dishes.
***
"Miss So-eun. Pork cutlet call today?"
Kim In-chul, who had a free schedule for a long time, asked So-eun while making a cutting motion.
So-eun, who couldn't even look at her chubby belly these days because of her busy schedule, smiled brightly and nodded at Lawyer Kim's words.
"What time does it open?"
"It's 11:30."
"Then should we go now?"
In-chul said, looking at the wall clock.
It was currently 11:20 AM. It was better to go early in case you had to wait until lunchtime at 12 o'clock.
"Let's go. I think we can go without waiting if we go now."
Lawyer Kim and So-eun hurriedly left the office.
"Wow, 1st place."
They arrived at Sunflower just in time for lunch, the first customers.
"Are you here, unnie? Hello, lawyer."
"Min-ju. Hello? But is it a little slow today?"
"Yes. It's been like that since yesterday."
"Since yesterday?"
"Yes. Come in first."
Min-ju led So-eun and her party to the most popular window seat in Sunflower with her characteristic leisurely smile.
So-eun, who ordered pork cutlet and omelet, approached Mongchi as usual and stroked his back.
"Meow."
Mongchi, who seemed annoyed, wriggled his body and changed his posture.
"Oh~ my heart. Why are you so cute today, Mongchi."
Usually, when I wanted to play with Mongchi, I had to be aware of the eyes of the people around me.
Mongchi, who is as popular as the food in this restaurant. Naturally, the customers lined up and waited their turn, and there was an unspoken rule that the time to touch Mongchi, including taking a selfie, was 20 seconds.
There are no customers today, so I can monopolize Mongchi.
"But it's strange. By now, the customers should be pouring in and I should be out of my mind. Thanks to that, I can monopolize Mongchi."
So-eun fiddled with Mongchi to her heart's content.
***
YouTuber Captain held an item meeting with his staff.
With over 1.6 million subscribers, 10 employees, including a PD, filming, and editing team, came together to produce videos.
"Where should we go next week?"
"How about a Hanwoo special? Let's go to Majang-dong, butcher a whole cow, and grill it on the spot."
"That's a bit boring. How about the trendy galbi mukbang? We rent a campsite, light a fire, and grill about 10 galbi."
"Galbi?"
"This is it."
The PD showed Captain a picture.
A terrific visual of the entire beef rib bone.
"It's killing me. You're saying you're going to grill this whole thing?"
"Yes."
"Okay. Let's do it right away."
After that, discussions were held on what concept to shoot.
The meeting progressed smoothly, as we had been working together for over a year.
"Is that all?"
"We got the gist of it. I'll take care of the rest."
"Oh. By the way, how many views did the last video get?"
Captain asked about the number of views for the video of the Western restaurant he had filmed a while ago.
"It exploded. It's over 2 million now."
"Wow. Are you crazy?"
"It's the best."
Even with 1.6 million subscribers, it's not easy for views to explode.
It is possible only if a famous celebrity appears or if you show a video that is difficult to see easily. The only time the number of views was this high recently was when an idol girl group who volunteered as a fan appeared.
Captain accessed the channel on YouTube and checked the video.
There were a lot of views, but there were over 3,000 comments.
Captain's face hardened in an instant with a satisfied expression as he read one by one.
-Didn't the restaurant in this video, Sunfl**, have a food recycling controversy? Go see Meokbo TV. I'll send you a link.
I went to the Meokbo TV channel through the link in the comment.
A video with 310,000 views among 50,000 views.
"Huh!? What is this?"
