Chapter 5.20 Friday

Managed Fitness Gym.

The gym was somewhat empty in the morning, with only four female members exercising on the row of treadmills, the rest lying idle.

The situation in the weight area wasn't much better, with only six people, three of whom were personal trainers working out.

Guo Licheng, having just finished his workout, wiped the fine beads of sweat from his forehead with a towel and sat down in the rest area.

He had been quite busy as the manager lately.

The other branches were in full swing with their preparations. Guo Licheng, of course, couldn't handle everything himself, so he transferred a few trustworthy personal trainers from the flagship Managed Fitness Gym to be managers there.

They purchased the same model of equipment. Moyu Takeaway had already coordinated with Rui Yuchen to arrange unified meal orders from nearby stores. These were all easy to handle. The only slightly troublesome aspect was personnel recruitment.

Guo Licheng set recruitment rules for all the branches, strictly implementing President Pei's instructions: when hiring trainers, they had to look at muscles and physique first. Anyone who wasn't well-trained, no matter how eloquent or silver-tongued, was absolutely rejected.

As a result, a large number of trainers were eliminated for not meeting the physique standards. Fortunately, President Pei was very generous with salaries, so even with the strict enforcement of these standards, many qualified trainers switched jobs, and all matters at the branches proceeded smoothly.

The several branches of Managed Fitness Gym were expected to open one after another in the next few days.

The Managed Fitness Gym at Mingyun Villa seemed to be opening the soonest. Guo Licheng had been too busy to go see it, and he didn't know whether the business situation after opening would be optimistic.

Based on Guo Licheng's deduction, it probably wouldn't be too optimistic.

He knew the flagship store's temperament.

While busy with the branches, Guo Licheng also had to work hard every day as President Pei instructed, fearing that he would slack off for two days and have his physique go out of shape, drawing President Pei's criticism.

But as a result, Guo Licheng had no time to attract new members or promote the gym.

It was okay when Coach Ya Ling was around, with new customers signing up because of her every day. Now that Coach Ya Ling had been transferred away by President Pei, the gym seemed even more deserted.

"Manager, the fitness meals have arrived!" the receptionist called out.

Guo Licheng looked up and saw two Moyu Takeaway delivery guys taking off their insulated boxes and placing the Moyu Takeaway meals neatly on the long table before hurriedly leaving.

It was almost noon, and these delivery guys had other places to go. The Managed Fitness Gym was full of their own people, so they didn't need to be too polite, delivering and leaving.

Guo Licheng called out, "Time to eat!"

"Oh..." A few weak responses came from the gym.

Guo Licheng was a little helpless. He knew why everyone's spirits were low.

Because they had no interest in fitness meals.

Moyu Takeaway's fitness meals were similar to those sold on the market, mainly salads. Although they were balanced in meat, vegetables, and nutrition, they were indeed bland. Eating them once in a while was okay, but eating them too often was unbearable. Even the smell of instant noodles could make them drool.

The few members exercising in the gym were the rare loyal customers, the kind with very strong willpower, who hadn't been dissuaded. They had been eating healthy meals for a long time.

For them, eating healthy meals had become a task, a daily check-in. No matter what the fitness meal was, they would just shovel a few bites to deal with it, deceiving their stomachs, just to complete the task.

Of course, they had no interest in eating this kind of thing.

Because there weren't many people in the gym, there was no need to eat in batches. Everyone sat down and opened their meal boxes.

But as soon as he opened his meal box, Guo Licheng was stunned.

"Did they send the wrong order?"

In the meal box, half was mushroom and chicken breast rice, and half was steamed tomato and egg tofu.

The mushroom and chicken breast rice used brown rice, dotted with chicken breast, diced carrots, corn kernels, mushrooms, and green peppers. It was stir-fried with a small amount of oil for a short time and then steamed with the brown rice, so that the flavor of all the ingredients was infused into the brown rice.

As for the steamed tomato and egg tofu, the tofu was first stir-fried with a small amount of oil, then the heat was turned up and the egg liquid was poured in. After the eggs were fully cooked, the tofu was evenly coated, and a small pinch of chopped green onion was sprinkled on top.

These two dishes were the latest achievements of the Moyu Takeaway Food Lab. The former had 320 kilocalories per serving, and the latter had 398 kilocalories per serving. Taking half of each and combining them could make the intake of nutrients more balanced.

Rui Yuchen felt that these two dishes initially met his needs for "fitness meals that can be eaten for a long time," so he arranged for them to be delivered to the flagship store of Managed Fitness Gym today, so that everyone could taste them and give their opinions.

But he didn't emphasize this to the delivery guy, and the delivery guy was very busy, so he forgot to inform them.

Guo Licheng heard someone swallowing.

After eating salad for so long, everyone could drool when they smelled instant noodles, and the smell of barbecue was nothing short of torture.

Who could resist seeing this kind of hot, fragrant, normal food in front of them?

But no one dared to touch their chopsticks yet, all looking at Guo Licheng expectantly.

Guo Licheng also swallowed.

He cleared his throat. "It seems like they sent the wrong order, so there's nothing we can do about it. We can't waste food, right? Everyone, eat up, and we'll add an extra workout after."

"Okay!"

Everyone immediately beamed and began to devour their meal boxes.

Guo Licheng rapped on the table. "Eat slower! Chewing slowly helps digestion, and eating slowly makes it harder to gain weight."

Everyone slowed down.

Two of the girls, holding spoons, one spoonful of steamed rice and one spoonful of tofu, even had tears in their eyes.

So touching!

Finally, they weren't eating grass anymore, but food for human beings!

Guo Licheng also ate very enjoyably.

It had to be said that this kind of warm, flavorful food was more than a level above salad in terms of taste.

While eating, Guo Licheng was also a little puzzled. Although it felt like they had sent the wrong order, the ingredients were very healthy.

It seemed like they had only used a small amount of oil, and the ingredients such as brown rice, carrots, green peppers, corn kernels, chicken breast, eggs, and tofu were all relatively healthy.

But then he thought about it, Moyu Takeaway itself was a brand that advocated health, and its other everyday foods also seemed to be low in oil and salt, not as heavy as other takeaways.

So Guo Licheng didn't say much, thinking that he would ask Rui Yuchen when he had the chance.

...

...

Chapter 5.21 Saturday

The Loss Aversion Trainee meeting was held on time.

The Loss Aversion Trainees from each department reported one by one. Pei Qian would ask a few questions about the parts that interested him, and would skip over anything that seemed normal.

"...Several branches of Managed Fitness Gym have opened one after another, but they are still very deserted and no one cares about them."

"On Friday, which was yesterday, the fitness meals sent by Moyu Takeaway seemed to be wrong, but Coach Guo led everyone to add an extra workout, so there was no impact," reported the Loss Aversion Trainee from Managed Fitness Gym as usual.

Sent the wrong order?

Pei Qian vaguely felt that something was wrong.

Would Moyu Takeaway make such a low-level mistake? Shouldn't be?

Rui Yuchen and his subordinates weren't idiots. If they were to make this kind of low-level mistake, I should have known long ago. How could I have waited until today?

Pei Qian looked at the Loss Aversion Trainee from Moyu Takeaway.

Sure enough, this Loss Aversion Trainee, who was also a waiter at the Food Lab, raised his hand and said, "That wasn't the wrong order, that was the new fitness meal developed by the Food Lab."

Pei Qian: "?"

A clue detected!

"Tell me the details," Pei Qian said warily.

The Loss Aversion Trainee from Moyu Takeaway introduced, "Rui felt that the previous fitness meals were too unpalatable and didn't conform to the dietary habits of Chinese people. So after research, he decided to make a trade-off between taste and health."

"Although this version of the fitness meal has more calories than the previous version, it's healthier. Uh... of course, the cost has also increased."

Pei Qian's face had become a little gloomy, but when he heard "higher calories, higher cost," it relaxed a lot.

Higher calories would make the effects of fitness slower.

Higher prices would dissuade more cash-strapped customers.

Seemed like it wasn't a bad thing?

"How much has the price increased?"

The Loss Aversion Trainee from Moyu Takeaway said, "The cost of each fitness meal has increased by about three yuan, which is roughly seven yuan a day."

Pei Qian calculated, and an increase of seven yuan a day, if they worked out three days a week, would cost nearly a thousand yuan more a year!

Hmm... the pricing of Managed Fitness Gym was rising even higher.

Managed Fitness Gym had already screened out a batch of customers through price, and now that the price had been increased again, wouldn't it screen out even more customers?

Seemed not bad.

Pei Qian asked, "Then how does Rui Yuchen plan to handle this pricing issue?"

The Loss Aversion Trainee from Moyu Takeaway said, "Rui plans to let the members choose whether to eat salad or the new fitness meal, with different prices for each."

Pei Qian immediately shook his head. "That won't do!"

Letting the members eat salad if they wanted to save money, and spending a few more yuan to improve their lives when they were tired of salad, wouldn't that completely fail to achieve the effect of dissuading them, and only have the opposite effect?

The current shared gyms had proved that the price increase strategy was useful and could indeed dissuade customers, so of course they should continue to raise prices.

"Our gym is called Managed Fitness Gym, the key is management! Letting customers choose what to eat, what kind of management is that?"

"Let the Food Lab continue to spend a lot of money to research fitness meals, no matter how much money it costs, bundle it all with the gym membership fee!"

The Loss Aversion Trainees from Moyu Takeaway and Managed Fitness Gym exchanged glances and said, "Okay, President Pei."

"Wait," Pei Qian realized a problem and raised his hand. "Don't you two go and tell them, I'll notify the heads of the two departments myself."

The Loss Aversion Trainees couldn't be exposed.

They should be transparent within the departments, and shouldn't arouse the suspicion of the department heads.

"Okay, next," Pei Qian motioned for the meeting to continue.

The Loss Aversion Trainee from Thriller Paradise reported, "President Pei, regarding the Thriller Paradise project, Manager Li and the investors have just signed a contract with Manager Chen. The investors plan to jointly invest in building a large shopping mall for us in the Thriller Paradise project, and half of the profits will be ours."

Pei Qian was silent for a moment, and a question mark slowly floated above his head.

?