New Gods of North America.

Chapter 588 Opening Business

Two days later, after several adjustments and formula selections, the workshop finally began its first attempt at relatively large-scale production.

Before dawn, a ring of braziers near the mill was already lit, and people of all skin colors, both dark and fair, had begun their work.
The purchased boneless meat chunks were poured from the wooden bucket into a metal trough. A winch rotated the abrasive blades, and after a while, the baffle was removed, catching the initially minced pieces below, and then poured back in until it was minced into usable meat paste.

Then comes the addition of various "ingredients": cheap ham to enhance the flavor, selected flour to promote binding, and then the chef's secret seasoning water. The red and white mixtures are blended into a relatively uniform pink color, which is then collected in batches on a square steaming tray. After a while, a large lid is placed on top, and the tray slides out of the mill along a chute.

At the end of the chute, in the "workshop" next to the mill, the steaming trays lined up are lifted one by one by a custom-made trolley, arranged in a row, and then lifted, pushed, and pulled into the large iron steamer, where they are all in their positions and steamed over high heat.

While the luncheon meat is steaming here, the mill is grinding the meat again. This time, it doesn't need to be ground into mince; once it's roughly ground, it's given preliminary seasoning and then placed in a wooden basin—this is the semi-finished product for restaurant hamburger patties.

Once the luncheon meat is steamed, the metal tongs are removed, the steaming tray with its lid is flipped over, and placed into a heat-resistant wooden rack. This pile of food, along with the "Western pasteurized" bottled sauce and the pre-made, finely sliced ​​reconstituted cheese, can then be loaded onto the truck and driven away.

The restaurant's signage clearly indicates a "new opening," with a brightly colored storefront and glass windows that allow a clear view of the interior.

Next to the entrance is a large promotional sign. The upper half of the sign depicts hamburgers, sandwiches, fries, and drinks, while the lower half features a striking set of red characters that read "Today's Special: Half Price to Free".

They didn't want the store to look too expensive, otherwise Wayne would have had to hold a whole ribbon-cutting ceremony and put up two rows of flower baskets on the side.

For Mr. Russell, the other shareholder of the restaurant, this was just a small business and didn't require much attention. Therefore, his previous reply in the letter was that Wayne could do whatever he wanted when the restaurant opened.

However, Mr. Russell still came over to take a look. When he arrived, the restaurant was already bustling with activity. Not only was it full, but there were also several circles of people surrounding the stalls at the entrance. In the end, he didn't even get out of the car and just asked his butler to go into the restaurant to inform them.

Fortunately, when Wayne chatted with him in the carriage, he sensed that Mr. Russell was actually quite surprised by the changes to the restaurant. From the store decoration to the on-site marketing and the business prospects, he seemed to have nothing but praise for everything.

It's likely that Mr. Russell originally just thought he was "doing it casually," and probably didn't have high hopes for the other businesses Wayne might create.

The restaurant's bustling atmosphere today is partly due to its marketing efforts.

The gimmick of a half-pound patty in the burger was already quite appealing. The restaurant's temporary manager and the freckled girl were regulars in the neighborhood, so even if it was just their first day, the customer flow wouldn't be too deserted.
Wayne, thinking that lottery tickets were selling so well in Virginia, figured that Southerners were also quite fond of gambling, so he had the temporary manager buy back one of the bar's old ball-cranking machines from a secondhand store.

Everyone can try their luck at the lottery without spending any money. The guaranteed prize is a 50% off coupon, followed by vouchers or coupons for various dishes, and there's about a one-twentieth chance of winning a free set meal voucher.
These coupons are only valid for today. Some people just want to try their luck. After getting the coupons or vouchers, they feel that they have saved half the money, so they are tricked into coming in and buying other things. If they win a prize, some may even go back and brag to their friends and family, which can be considered as advertising.

It doesn't matter if you don't make a purchase; the free gifts are mostly things like luncheon meat sandwiches, which aren't as expensive as they seem. In a way, it's a test of public acceptance of luncheon meat.
Anyway, someone like Wayne, who has been through the baptism of modern business, thinks that it's more cost-effective than spending a lot of money on advertising.

Moreover, lotteries are indeed eye-catching; just watching them is quite interesting.
Lina and Emma weren't supposed to be doing any work, but they volunteered to be the mascots for the ball-shaking machine, pushing the shop assistants who were originally responsible for watching the stall back to the restaurant to help out.

What made Wayne slightly complain was that he hadn't expected people these days to be so accepting of "food wrapped in newspaper."
Wayne initially thought this was unhygienic, but from the temporary manager to the customers, no one objected. Even before the restaurant offered takeout, some customers would simply wrap their food in newspaper and take it with them—it was fine for free, but for those who paid, it meant they truly didn't mind… Paper bags and similar items needed to be purchased separately and were more expensive than old newspapers, so it wasn't necessary for the time being, and Wayne had to give up on that idea.

We don't encourage it, but we respect it.

Because there were no refrigerators, the restaurant didn't have a particularly large stock of fresh meat on the first day. The half-pound patty burgers were sold out by the afternoon and were replaced with cheese luncheon meat burgers.

Customers who won the voucher either had to exchange it for something else, or they had to ask the staff to change the voucher and come back the next day to collect it.

Cheese is more popular than expected, and some customers don't mind spending a little more money to pour it on their fries or add it to their burgers or sandwiches.

Luncheon meat is readily available because there's no worry about it spoiling within a day, so while it's not wildly popular, no customers have given it any negative reviews.

Inesa didn't stay in the store for long today. After confirming that everything was alright, she went to Willie's place to investigate the case.
When she returned in the evening, the restaurant was already closed—the exterior walls were all glass, and it wouldn't look good if they were covered with wooden boards, but if they weren't covered, it would consume too much fuel to light up the interior, so they now close as soon as the sun goes down—not to mention the staff, even Emma, ​​who was the signboard girl at the door, had followed everyone else and sprawled out like a salted fish.

"How's the restaurant doing today?" Inessa's voice came from above Salty Wayne's head.

Wayne lay sprawled in a booth. "Things went fairly well, but the store only has bread and luncheon meat left. If you want to add a fried egg, you have to go to the store to buy it."

"I'm not hungry. But come upstairs for a moment, and Lina too."

Ok?
Besides the still energetic Lina, Doug was also called upstairs.

Once inside the room and behind closed door, Doug began to speak at Inessa's prompting:
"According to the message Connor sent back by pigeon, he should be returning at noon today with a few old friends from Kanx City. The total number was expected to be more than a dozen, but the first group traveling with him was only five people. However, I waited at the station from morning to evening, but they never came—the train he mentioned in his letter had already arrived long ago."

Wayne thought for a moment, "Could it be that they were delayed on the way and chose another train?"

Doug wasn't so sure: "I've thought about that possibility. But Connell contacted me because they ran into Liam and his group on the road and heard about the detective agency moving from the restaurant to the workshop. The workshop is quite a distance from the city, and he's not familiar with the route, so he wanted the detective agency to arrange a carriage to pick him up."

"Judging from the contents of the message, he probably released the pigeons sometime between yesterday evening and night, when they should not have been too far from Richmond. And according to Connor's usual style, the time he tells others to wait is usually later than the time he arrives."

Lying trough,

Connor is a top-tier fighter in the Detective Agency's arena; his fighting style is incredibly slippery, and he always has someone with him.
If something still goes wrong, what kind of thing must he have encountered?
(End of this chapter)