RDD 82

RDD 82

Because Santiago was responsible in the kitchen while I was taking care of the customers, he was the one who cooked their burgers.

As a guy from the province who usually ate common food, Santiago thought that burgers were the food of the rich people. Well, burgers can be the food of the rich people.

Because of this reasoning, Santiago felt like cooking burgers was an honor.

He cooked the patties on the wide burger griddle/griller. We are using a gas tank because there's no available electric burger griller in the Philippines. At least that's what I think.

Electric cookware was still not famous, not even the rice cooker.

He cooked the buns as well. Then, he combined the buns, patty, one slice of tomato, and a leaf of lettuce.

What? One slice of tomato is too small? Heh, why don't you start a business on your own and give them tons of tomato slices?

It only took more than five minutes to cook their orders.

"Here's your order."

"Here's our payment."

"Thank you."

I accepted the money, which was 30 pesos cash.

Then, I gave them the burgers served in a small box.

Just like Steve Jobs said, "Packaging is everything."

Or was it "Unboxing is an important part of products"?

I don't know.

But we wanted to make sure that the customers feel like our business is high class so we decided to go with paper box.

"As so this is the reason why it's 15 pesos. Well, papers are expensive these days."

... The price of 100 paper boxes was only 10 pesos. So I think papers are not that expensive.

The two men opened the box. They felt like they were privileged men who have found treasure.

"They sure look beautiful and tasty."

The grumbling man answered.

I just smiled and waited for their first bite.

The two took their first bite and chewed the food.

"Hm, this is actually tasty."

"... They are good."

"McDonald's and Jollibee don't add tomatoes and lettuce on their regular burgers. So I think spending 15 pesos is worth it."

The two nodded at each other.

The one who actually set our price was Penelope. She said that our price should start low... So that we can adjust it later.

She said next year I can increase the price by one or two pesos.

She was smiling the whole time as she explained her plan to me. I felt like she was the real businessman between the two of us.

"Thanks for your honest opinion, guys."

"I want to buy another one."

"Me too, no, I want to buy two."

I smiled and accepted another 45 pesos.

Then, Santiago started cooking three burgers for them.

"Excuse me? Are you guys selling burgers?"

A woman who was wearing a factory uniform asked me.

"That's right Ma'am."

"I want to buy two."

"That should be 15 pesos."

I replied.

"15 pesos? Well, make it three then."

She gave me a 50 peso bill and I gave her a 5 pesos change.

So Santiago added another three burgers to cook.

In our first hour in the business, we already sold 25 burgers. I think it's not that bad.

"Santiago, how many patties do we have there?"

"475 patties."

"Okay."

30 kilograms of beef meat gave us 500 patties. The reason why there were so many was because we added flour.

We will lose our business if we cooked pure beef minced meat. We're not doing charity here.

Heck, even Coca-Cola changed its recipe because they want to cut costs. Even McDonald's and many restaurants do this kind of thing just to make sure that they will earn more.

This is business.

"Do you think we can finish 500 patties today?"

"Actually, I bought 30 kilograms of beef knowing that they can last for two days. 500 burger patties are worth two days."

"I see."

Both of us felt like 500 burger patties would never be sold in just a day... We are both fucking wrong.

The next hours arrived and more customers showed up. They started buying burgers when they caught the smell a few meters away.

They said that our burgers have a good aroma. I'm thankful to hear that.

Around 7 am in the morning, when the sun was just starting to rise, we already sold 63 burgers.

Santiago and I looked at each other. We had a premonition that this day might bring a big surprise.

When 9 am arrived, our remaining burger patties were 322.

We opened our shop around 5 am. That means that in just four hours, we already sold more than 150 burgers.

Now, I don't know if this kind of result is normal. But our expectations were exceeded.

We thought 500 burgers would last for two days.

"... Brother-in-law, when are we going to close the shop?"

"... Santiago, I'm actually thinking of closing it before 5 pm."

"I see--"

"Excuse me, can we buy twenty burgers? Our coworkers asked us to buy them. If you don't remember us, we're the two men who bought early in the morning."

"Ah, yes. I remember you guys. You two are actually our first customers."

"Is that so? Haha, I'm Pedro and this is my friend Juan."

"Hello, guys."

Because more customers were showing up, Santiago and I didn't have the time to talk or rest. We were busy with our job.

I was dumbfounded as I witnessed money entering the cash register.

"..."

I swallowed.

Is making money this easy

When I was a taxi driver, I had to circle Manila just to find passengers. It was a tough job and my ass was always on the seat.

"Thank you."

While I was manning the cash register and accepting customers, Santiago was getting drowned in the kitchen.

I felt bad to be honest. If I thought that our job would be well received, I would have hired another worker.

Some customers ate in the shop while most ordered takeouts.

When 11 am arrived, both Santiago and I were hungry.

"Santiago, are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I can do this every day, haha!"

Despite having no lunch, both of us were smiling. Considering that we sold more than 300 burgers within 6 hours made us happy.

Santiago had strong stamina because he worked on the farm. As for me, I have the Energy Pill to lean on.

"Hahaha!!"

"Hahahahaha!"

The customers looked at us with confusion because both of us laughed without any reason.