Chapter 239
Chapter 239
Why did Chae Myung-ho come all the way here?
I can only guess what happened.
I was going to tell him to just send me back, but when I saw Jaehak Kim next to me, I changed my mind.
“I’m in a meeting, so tell me to wait.”
“Okay.”
After team leader Jeong Ki-hong left, I continued to listen to the store owners.
Franchising has obvious advantages.
As a founder, you can learn the business methods and recipes of companies that have already been certified, and you do not have to worry about purchasing food materials. The head office is also responsible for interior design, advertising and marketing.
The head office helps franchisees start up, and receives franchise fees, education fees, and store interior expenses. Here, royalties, various commissions, and margins are added to exclusively supplied materials to earn another profit.
The problem is that the head office extorts excessive profits from existing franchisees or is only focusing on attracting new franchisees.
Chicken prices and pizza prices have been skyrocketing, but the amount of money that franchisees can hold in their hands is limited.
While franchisees were dying in small stores, the headquarters grew in size day by day.
The profit margin of MCK Group is as high as 20 percent. Considering that most franchises have profit margins of 10 percent or less, that’s almost double.
But, ironically, both sales and profits of franchisees are falling.
Even so, the head office’s sales increase as the number of branches increases, but from the point of view of the franchisee, it is inevitable that a decrease in sales is inevitable because there is a competitor in the vicinity.
When the selling price rises, the sales volume decreases, and the price of materials supplied by the headquarters also rises, but never goes down.
However, it is difficult to properly protest. This is because you may receive various disadvantages or the contract may be terminated.
These people didn’t go into self-employment with the intention of making a ton of money. If there was another way to make a living, I would not have chosen the path of starting a franchise.
In a word, the MCK group is stalking franchise owners who work for their livelihood.
After hearing everything, I told the store owners.
“I listened to what you said. We will make sure that these problems can be improved.”
they said earnestly.
“I beg you, please.”
* * *
The franchisees stood up, and Ellie went back to work.
I left the conference room and went down to the meeting room with Taek-gyu and Kim Jae-hak.
Taek-gyu asked.
“Who have you been looking for?”
“Chae Myung-ho.”
Kim Jae-hak’s expression seemed to harden a little at my words.
“No worries.”
When I entered, Myeong-ho Chae, who was sitting in the meeting room, jumped up from his seat. But he was bewildered when he saw Taek-gyu and Kim Jae-hak who followed soon after.
I sat down and said.
“What did you come here for?”
“Ah, that… … I want to apologize for what happened last time. Sorry.”
Unlike the first time I saw him at school, he looked like a gentle sheep.
I threw the material I was holding in front of Chae Myung-ho.
“It’s good to be here. After that day, I did some research on the MCK group, and they did well. They put a supplier called MCK Whole Sale in the middle to impose a toll, pass all the cost of the discount event to the franchisees, walk unfairly on advertising and publicity costs, and conduct sanitary investigations or unilaterally terminate contracts with affiliates who do not listen. As it turns out, some of the interior and publicity expenses were received through a borrowed-name account. It seems that there are not one or two possible charges such as embezzlement, breach of trust, and tax evasion, what do you think?”
Chae Myeong-ho looked at his documents with a surprised expression.
When a person is driven into a corner, his nature is bound to be revealed. The boy couldn’t stand it and screamed.
“Why are you doing this to me? What did I do so wrong to you?”
Sadness was evident in his face and voice. If someone you don’t know sees you, they’ll know you’re the victim. I’m sure you really think so.
I nodded.
“right. you didn’t do anything wrong with me But why are you saying sorry to me? There must be someone else who needs to ask for forgiveness.”
Chae Myung-ho’s gaze turned to Kim Jae-hak.
Everything was revealed in his hesitant expression.
If I had any regrets, I would have gone to Kim Jae-hak instead of me.
Chae Myung-ho thinks I am a strong man with a lot of money. So, you can bow your head and apologize. However, Kim Jae-hak, the owner of the franchise, is weak.
So, even if he thought of apologizing to me, he didn’t mean to apologize to Jae-hak Kim.
They are typically weak to the strong and strong to the weak.
Well, there are bound to be people like this in the world.
Looking at his face, I don’t think we need to talk any more.
“Go to school or drop out.”
Having said that, I got up from my seat, and Chae Myung-ho rolled his eyes and ran towards me.
“Fuck, Jinhoo Kang!”
Before I could react in surprise, Jaehak Kim, who was next to me, moved first.
Whoops!
“Big”
Jae-hak Kim’s fist was pierced precisely in his chin. After an unexpected blow, Myeong-ho Chae sat down on the spot.
I saw Jaehak Kim. He looked astonished as if he was even surprised.
okay. He was originally a person with a bit of personality. He is happy to see him again.
I tapped his shoulder.
“Very good.”
Taegyu said.
“If a person commits a sin, it is the way of the world that he should be punished. did you know I will punish you from now on, so take it sweetly.”
What is this all of a sudden?
Taek-gyu, who said the words, made a moved expression on his face.
“I really wanted to try this line too.”
“… … .”
Stop it now.
He can’t make a living doing everything a man wants to do.
* * *
The data collected from the franchisees were reported to the media and a complaint was also filed with the prosecution.
Another incident occurred at this point.
When a store owner couldn’t stand the abuse of the head office and canceled the franchise contract and replaced it with a private chicken restaurant, Master Chicken opened a large directly managed store right in front of it.
It was, in fact, a point of retaliation. In the end, the store owner, who was driven to the crisis of closing again, could not bear it and took his own life.
Although it is small compared to this, it was also revealed that Chairman Chae Dae-ho habitually assaulted the security guard and the driver.
Public opinion stirred.
-Chicken prices kept going up, delivery fees were paid separately, and the franchisees were hitting the back of the head.
-The franchisee beats the store in retaliation, the security guard beats him with his fists, and the driver beats him with his feet.
– If this is enough, I think Conor McGregor and I can play one game in the Octagon.
– Even if you don’t know your fists, it seems like it’s hard to distinguish between superiority and personality. Both are garbage… … .
– Let’s not eat whole chicken.
– The above is correct. The answer is not to buy it.
– The problem is that you only like branded chicken. Let’s patronize the local chicken restaurant in the future.
-There are many chicken franchises that coexist.
– I’ll just buy raw chicken and fry it.
MCK Group Chairman Chae Dae-ho stepped forward and apologized, but the situation showed no sign of easing.
The prosecution conducted a search and seizure on the MCK group. As the situation worsened, MCK Wholesale announced that it would lower the supply prices of essential items such as salted chicken, dough, and cheese, but it was already too late.
The backlash from franchisees grew stronger, and the number of existing franchisees also increased. In the case of Meister Pizza, the situation was even more serious, so inquiries for membership were cut off altogether.
There were too many charges and public opinion was not good, so the prosecution eventually arrested Chairman Chae Dae-ho. Although Chae Myeong-ho avoided arrest, he was placed under investigation while not in detention.
* * *
After the construction was completed, the main store of M Pizza was only about to open.
Dough, cheese, and sauce were all supplied from the US headquarters, and the rest of the ingredients were self-supplied.
As Ceylon Hotel operates buffets and restaurants in each hotel, there was no problem in procuring food materials for one or two branches. Later, if the number of branches increases, the number of suppliers must also increase accordingly.
Stores in the Ceylon Hotel do not deliver, but offer room service. Delivery is also available at the Ceylon State store, a business hotel.
President Lim Su-mi is recruiting store managers and managers of directly-managed stores, and announced that she would prefer to hire military and police officers who were injured during her service. She didn’t care if she had a disability, such as amputation or burns. And part of the sales will be used to help with the treatment and rehabilitation of disabled military and police officers.
When a reporter pointed out that customers using the store could feel uncomfortable, President Lim Su-mi cut it off.
“People who feel uncomfortable are not allowed to come.”
The Internet was full of compliments.
– Haha, don’t come if you’re uncomfortable.
– Show Sumi noona’s enthusiasm. nah that’s cool
-Look at what the guinea pigs are saying. People with disabilities are uncomfortable, why is it uncomfortable for those who see them?
-I don’t like Seoseong Group, but this is a really good thing.
-What did the state do to the soldiers who were injured while serving for the country?
-I heard that Jin-hoo Kang made an offer to President Lim Su-mi.
– He’s also been on active duty, so he knows something.
– Please reward the soldiers properly.
As the criticism poured in, the media secretly published the article.
It was customary for most Korean franchises to pay high margins for food and subsidiary materials instead of cheap royalties (in some cases, not at all), and to collect money for events and marketing.
However, like in the US, M Pizza decided to focus on royalties. The number of essential items supplied by the head office will be minimized and the price will be set reasonable. And franchisees formed an association so that they could negotiate on an equal footing with the head office.
As soon as this fact became known, membership inquiries poured in like rain.(Read more @ wuxiax.com)
* * *
Finally, M Pizza’s main store opened at the Ceylon Hotel in Namsan.
President Lim Su-mi as well as Chairman Im Jin-yong attended the opening ceremony.
“I didn’t know that even pizza would work together.”
“Iknow, right. How did it happen?”
At M Pizza headquarters, Max flew in instead of Milo, who had a schedule.
After all, it was a long time since we met, so we greeted each other warmly.
In addition, Hyun-joo’s older sister and Eli, Sang-yeop senior and Henry also attended. Surprisingly, the ambassador to the US also visited.
This is to celebrate the entry of American franchises into Korea.
President Ronald also tweeted, “Congratulations on M Pizza’s entry into Korea with the White House staff holding M Pizza in hand. I expect that healthy pizza made with American wheat flour and cheese will capture the taste buds of Koreans.”
Ambassador Thomas Jang spoke in fluent Korean like a Korean-American.
“Personally, I really like pizza, do you have any plans for a branch in Gwanghwamun?”
President Lim Su-mi said with a smile.
“Anyway, we are planning to open a directly managed store in Ceylon State.”
“Five! Good news. I will have to tell the embassy staff as well.”
After the participants lined up side by side and held a cutting ceremony, they finally started entering the customers.
The line that had started standing since the evening before was already long. The first customer was a young man in his early thirties from Busan, and he said that he could not forget the taste of the M pizza he ate while studying abroad and rode the KTX.
In response to the influx of customers, the conveyor belt and robots in the kitchen were constantly moving to print pizzas.
The line is so long that you have to wait more than 5 hours to eat at the store. In the end, some people gave up and just packed up, or even booked a room at the Ceylon Hotel and ordered room service.
Sumi Lim, the president of the store, looked around the store and checked whether there were any inconveniences in customer response and service.
We sat down and ate pizza and wine.
The wine glass slammed lightly.
said Ellie.
“There are a lot more customers than I expected.”
Hyunjoo’s older sister nodded her head.
“It tastes good, but the image of an innovative pizza that was born in Silicon Valley really worked.”
Compared to the existing pizza, the price is not much different, but they seem to be willing to open their wallets because they can feel the taste and image beyond that.
While eating pizza, I watched the robot arm and conveyor belt move in the open kitchen. It moved precisely without any error, such as applying the sauce to the dough, putting it in the oven, and taking it out.
The other guests also looked at the kitchen with a curious expression and took pictures diligently. There will be a lot of photos with the M Pizza hashtag on social media today.
One day, when it becomes natural for robots to make pizza, wouldn’t it be possible to find pizza made by humans?
