Chapter 132: The Attraction of Pricing

"What... What did you say? 'Thanks, boss'?"

With half a pizza stuffed in his mouth, Trevor lifted his head, mumbling incomprehensibly.

"Or, is it, 'The wheat tortilla is really delicious'?"

"I'm asking about today's business!"

Seeing Trevor's greedy appearance, Carter felt a vein throbbing in his forehead.

"Never mind, just eat first. We can talk business after. Do you want something to drink? I'll go get it for you."

"No need, we've got it covered! Hey, Monty, stop dawdling, go get some beer from the kitchen fridge! Oh, and don't forget the soda!"

The "soda" Trevor mentioned naturally meant cola. After saying these, he finally turned to answer Carter's question.

"Today's business, didn't you see it for yourself? Oh, right, I called all our brothers' moms to help out this afternoon because business was too good. About their pay..."

"It's okay, we'll settle it at the bank tomorrow. $20 each for the moms, and the same for our brothers too!"

Although he hadn't had a chance to look at the accounts yet, based solely on the consumption of inventory, Carter could roughly estimate today's restaurant earnings.

In Carter and Trevor's previous plan, a basic burrito consisted of a corn tortilla, some meat, a few lettuce leaves, plus some dressing. A $1 bottle of dressing could satisfy the needs of nearly 100 burritos, with an average cost of just 1 cent. Lettuce couldn't even be counted as a cost, barely reaching 1 cent. The main expenses were the corn tortilla and the meat.

Supermarket beef, at around $5.50 per pound, could make about 8 beef burritos, averaging 68.75 cents per burrito. As for the corn tortilla, the cost was less than 4 cents.

This meant that the total cost of a beef burrito was approximately 74 cents. According to the restaurant industry's almost default doubling pricing method, a basic beef burrito should be priced at $1.48. But considering the market situation, Carter had slightly lowered the price to $1.35 per burrito.

The chicken burrito was even lower, generating at least 50 cents in revenue per sale. Initially, they planned to sell about two hundred burritos a day, which would bring in a thousand burritos in five days, with a gross profit of approximately $500...

$500 in gross profit might not seem like much, but don't forget, it was only the first day! Moreover, most of the customers were citizens of Douglas. The explosive sales period they had planned hadn't even begun yet!

The state sales tax exemption application was in progress, so Carter hadn't started lowering the prices at the gas station next door. Once the gas prices dropped, then...

With such profit prospects, Carter naturally wouldn't begrudge the part-timers' wages. Instead, he thanked the moms sincerely, making them a little embarrassed.

Free food, plus money... Even though it wasn't much, it was enough for the moms, who lacked productive power!

As Carter felt satisfied, his eyes softened. Under the kind gaze of the moms, he continued to inquire of Trevor:

"But these are minor issues. Quickly tell me, why is business so good? If it continues like this, I'll have to arrange for someone to negotiate supply contracts with the manufacturers, and then we can continue to keep costs down."

"Why wouldn't it continue? I told you before, we could go directly to the manufacturers to discuss supplies, but you didn't believe me. You said you wanted to test the waters first and see the reaction..."

Trevor deftly picked up the cigarette Carter had left on the table after eating and drinking his fill, lighting it up. As he exhaled a long plume of smoke, he casually continued:

"You! You've been living too well for too long, you don't know what it's like to have no money!"

"Think about it, our price is $1.24! That's 36 cents lower than the cheapest hamburger at McDonald's! Do you understand what that means? Maybe you don't..."

"Yes, I admit I don't."

Carter nodded repeatedly. In terms of restaurant costs or pricing attractiveness, he indeed didn't understand. First, he wasn't in this line of work, and second, in his previous life, he ate takeout; in this life, he ate Jenny's loving dinner or school lunch.

It could be said that he was lazy and clueless about worldly affairs, that's Carter. He didn't do this kind of work, nor did he deal with grains and oils. If he had a rough idea, that would be good enough...

Oh, right! I almost forgot to calculate the cost of oil, salt, and other things. But this wasn't a big problem...

Carter remembered seeing reports in his previous life about businesses in the United States selling Chinese doughnuts at high prices but not making much money. It was said that because of some strict regulations in the United States, all the oil used to fry the doughnuts had to be discarded after each frying, replaced with new oil. This was to highlight the advanced management and healthier diet in America...

Carter didn't know if future America would really do that. He only knew that in today's America, restaurants didn't change their oil unless it was absolutely necessary. Changing oil every two weeks was already Carter being conscientious, so this part of the cost didn't need to be worried about too much, along with the oil consumed when frying beef...

By the end of the month, he would tally up the overall consumption and include it in the cost!

"Let me tell you, McDonald's has over 3,000 stores nationwide. They have a relatively fixed menu, and the raw materials they need to purchase aren't complicated. So, they can purchase in bulk, and their costs can be said to be very, very low!"

"Plus, mechanization and automation in processing. The hamburgers they produce are priced significantly lower than the cost of making a regular home-cooked meal! Even in terms of selling price, $1.6 can fill up an average adult man. But if he were to cook for himself, buying groceries, oil, salt, etc., the final cost would be higher than $1.6!"

After exhaling a long plume of smoke, Trevor chuckled.

"The $1.6 Big Mac is the basis for McDonald's to have over 3,000 stores. Then think about it, their $1.6 price is already very attractive to the general public, very cost-effective, let alone we're even lower than them!"