Cooking bookstore

A middle-aged woman has opened a "cookery bookstore" in Guangzhou, netting 20,000 yuan every month! Is a cookbook a restaurant or a bookstore? What on earth had she done to make a small shop so prosperous?

Customer complaints inspire startup ideas

In January 2006, Pang Hongyan used her savings of 20,000 yuan to open a small restaurant near the bookstore where her husband worked. I was so busy every day, but my monthly profit was only about two thousand yuan. Half a year later, Pang felt discouraged and wanted to sell the restaurant. Her husband, Li Jun, suggested, "How about we turn the restaurant into a bookstore? I'll run it!" But when Pang did the math, she found that redecorating was not cost-effective. Besides, bookstores make money more slowly and are riskier than restaurants.

In a dilemma, her husband, Li Jun, suddenly had a good idea. When he worked in a bookstore, he found that books about cooking were popular with urban women. Once, a female customer bought a book in this respect, choose for a long time also did not choose satisfactorily. As soon as Li Jun inquired, he learned that although there were many books of this kind, the introduction of raw materials production, raw materials dosage, and appliance usage was relatively vague, such as "a little", "right amount" and other words were difficult to grasp. The woman complained, "Every time I do what the book says, it doesn't taste good. Can you bring in some cookbooks with CDS? You can watch and cook at home. It's easier to learn and doesn't waste time or ingredients."

At the suggestion of customers, the bookstore owner brought in a large number of cookbooks with CDS, and as expected, they sold very well! Inspired by this, Li had a bold idea: Since cooking, DVDs are so popular, what about opening a specialty store that sells books and teaches customers how to cook? If the wife who is good at the craft demonstrates in the shop every day, it will be more popular with customers!

Young couple create 'cookery bookstore'

After nearly two months of preparation, Pang bought more than 1,000 cookbooks. She divided the shop into three areas: the first is the "leisure reading area", where the tall bookcase stands against the wall and the comfortable sofa and reading table are built in, where customers can sit and rest and read. If you are interested in one of the recipes, you can write it down in your notebook without interference. Two is the "cooking demonstration area", inside equipped with a set of modern kitchenware, the owner in this demonstration, customers can also practice in this; The third is the "gourmet dining area", where customers can quietly enjoy the food made by the owner or themselves.

Ms. Pang's store also has a 3-square-meter computer console that can be used to buy cookbooks online and to offer future services like membership and online sales to customers. When her cookbook opened in March 2007, the couple distributed 2, 000 fliers on the street and ran subtitled TV ads for a week. Three days later, curious customers flocked to the cookery bookstore to pick up books or learn arts on site. If a customer doesn't know much about how to cook a dish, Ms. Pang will demonstrate it herself to make sure the customer learns. Of course, customers have to pay extra for ingredients, and the delicious food is eaten on the spot or packed to take home. If the customer can't learn the book after buying it, he can always come back to the bookstore and ask the owner to demonstrate cooking until he learns it.

Successively launched cooking training services

At first, Pang Hongyan aimed her cookbook at white-collar women and housewives, but she gradually found that this was too narrow a target. Soon after opening, she found a young man in his early 20s who came to read books every night and offered to talk to him. It turned out that the young man surnamed Liu worked in a nearby restaurant, but he was not willing to be just an ordinary vegetable washing worker, so he went to a bookstore after work, read about cooking books, want to teach himself to become a chef. Pang Hongyan decides to accept Xiao Liu as an apprentice now. When TEACHING SMALL LIU TO COOK, PANG HongYAN THINKS OF AGAIN: WHY NOT face THE WORKER TO roll OUT THE SERVICE THAT COOKS training? You can't get a professional certificate yourself, but for kids who are too young to afford culinary school, it's a good way to get a job at greasy tacks and fast food restaurants.

Another 17 - or eighteen-year-old girl was also a regular visitor to the cookery bookstore, visiting from time to time to read and buy books. That girl A look is from the countryside, and even speaks very carefully, Pang Hongyan will take the initiative to know her. It turned out that the girl, named Yanzi, was a nanny for a family in a nearby community. She had just turned 18 and had left her hometown in Hunan province to work after graduating from junior high school. Can see, swallow is a diligent, capable and clever girl, but because she does not touch the eating habits of the city dweller, is often blamed for cooking badly. That's why she came to the bookstore to read and learn more about cooking. However, studying in the employer's home is ultimately inconvenient, or you may get fired. Pang Hongyan learned that swallow difficult, then let her take time to learn in the bookstore. Ms. Pang soon launched a culinary training service for young nannies and migrant workers who wanted to learn to cook.

One day in August 2007, Pang came across a newspaper report saying that the first hurdle for many young men and women after marriage was their inability to do housework, especially cooking. Therefore, after marriage, they still "mooch meals" at their parents' home; However, if the couple both work away from home, neither of them has the elderly around to "help", pass on some skills of living at home, that will cause a lot of trouble for their newlywed life. As a result, the domestic market is in urgent need of a batch of "newlywed nannies," whose duty is to help newlyweds run the house and teach them life skills such as cooking hand in hand. After reading the report, Pang thought to herself: her cookery bookstore can provide this service! So, soon after, she launched the "newlywed cooking training" service, customers can not only come to the store to learn but also call the chef to teach.

Pang Hongyan did more and more comfortable. She found that as long as she kept trying to find new market needs, her customers would increase and her business would flourish.

Order "buffet" cooking with ingredients

"Cook BOOKSHOP" AFTER OPERATING HALF A YEAR, PANG HONG YAN DISCOVERS, ARRIVE EVENING OR WEEKEND, OFTEN HAVE A FEW WHITE-COLLAR CLASS MEN AND WOMEN PRESENCE. They are all cooking lovers and have their own "specialties". In their spare time, they would like to show off their cooking skills to their friends -- not only do they have all the tools and materials, but they also don't have to clean up the kitchen afterward. After noticing this, Ms. Pang offered a self-service cooking service for such customers: If they wanted to cook their dishes, they could call the bookstore in advance to order the ingredients and ingredients. Then, she would cut and prepare the required ingredients and ingredients in advance, and customers would come to the bookstore to cook the dishes themselves. After the dishes are cooked, customers can enjoy them in the "gourmet dining area". In this way, the customers who like cooking not only show their cooking skills, but also have a sense of accomplishment, and the form is very fresh and unique. The customers enjoy the fun of "DIY, abundant food and clothing"!

While Ms. Pang continues to offer more and more varied services, the focus of her store, called a cookbook, is, of course, on selling books. In fact, by asking customers to cook for themselves, she not only whetted their appetite but often also their desire to buy books. The store is full of bookshelves and bookcases, with a variety of cookery books in different categories. Pang Hongyan divides THESE BOOKS into Chinese famous dishes, local flavor snacks, modern family recipes, Western food culture, health preservation recipes, diet, beauty recipes, baby recipes, medicated food recipes, kitchen art, and wine series