Episode 03: Visiting Local Food Vendors

I have no experience running a business.

Since I was a child, all I knew was to study hard. My family always told me to focus on school, get into a good university, and find a stable job. No one in my family runs a business. I do have distant relatives who own small eateries, but they’ve suffered losses, and I’m not familiar with the details.

In short, I’m a blank slate when it comes to doing business, especially in the restaurant industry. I have no idea how anything works.

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However, my second job was related to food service. Back then I worked at a major tech company’s app, providing tools for restaurant operators to help them attract customers. Writing that sounds like corporate jargon—basically, we helped restaurants get more diners so they could make more money.

So there I was, a fresh graduate with less than two years of experience, completely clueless about how to run a restaurant or any business at all. I wasn’t the only one; many of my colleagues and even my boss were in the same boat. Looking back, it’s almost surreal.

The company had a useful policy: we were required to accompany the BD (business development) team on merchant visits. In case anyone doesn’t know, BD means the people who negotiate partnerships and deals with restaurant owners. Thanks to that policy, I got to shadow the BD and visit several food‑service businesses.

This was around 2016.

The merchants we visited were located in a relatively bustling area, occupying an entire two‑story building—ground floor for walk‑in diners, second floor for private rooms. Because we had called ahead, the owner greeted us when we arrived. I was still very green, barely speaking; the BD handled most of the conversation. After some small talk, the BD asked how business was going, and the usually reticent owner suddenly opened up, venting a flood of frustrations.

His main pain point was the “eight‑policy” restrictions. Previously, because the restaurant was next to a government office, it hosted countless banquets and the private rooms were always full. After the policy took effect, banquet bookings plummeted and the second floor became deserted. He tried a series of solutions with no success: targeting salaried workers (but there aren’t many office workers nearby, and they mainly eat at lunch), offering price‑cut promotions on certain dishes, even running a few promotions through popular food‑blog accounts. Nothing worked. The space is large, the initial investment huge, and the staff costs are high—costs that keep mounting. He was at his wits’ end.

I was shocked. On one hand, I had never considered any of these issues because I’d never run a shop and had no concept of them. On the other hand, I realized how absurd the product‑feature debates we were having seemed in comparison—like whether merchants should be allowed to upload a few photos or set up a menu. That realization still sticks with me after all these years.

After a few more job changes, by 2020 I—still not in the food industry—found myself talking to restaurant owners again, almost by accident.

It started when a Shaanxi‑style eatery opened across from my office. I’d often go there for lunch, ordering their roujiamo and noodles, and sometimes I’d see the owner’s wife bustling around the shop. One day, while completing a company assignment (similar to a new‑hire training task), I was in a mall and spotted that familiar owner’s wife. My teammate and I decided to approach her for an interview.

First, we asked, “Do you find QR‑code ordering useful?” She replied, “I’ve tried a few places, none of them work well, so I just make do. I’m too lazy to switch; they’re all pretty terrible.” (We forced a weak smile +1)

Next, we asked, “How’s your delivery business?” She sighed, “Don’t even talk to me about delivery. I can’t even get in touch with the BD from that blue‑logo delivery platform. I can’t change promotions, so I’m basically losing money on delivery. It drives me crazy.” (We forced another smile +2)

Then we asked, “What challenges are you facing right now that our company might help with?” She thought for a while and said, “I don’t know what you can do, but let me tell you the problems we’re dealing with.”

1. Renovation – The shop’s remodel was a massive effort; the construction quality was good but the labor was exhausting.
2. Central kitchen – She wants a central kitchen to produce semi‑finished items (like pre‑made roujiamo) so the in‑store kitchen only needs quick heating. This would shrink the kitchen footprint, free up more seating, handle peak hours better, and increase table turnover.
3. Hiring – Turnover is huge in the restaurant industry. Finding skilled staff is hard; if they quit, you have to train newcomers from scratch, which is a nightmare.
4. Advertising – Even a simple poster is expensive. She pointed to the billboard at the entrance and asked, “Do you know how much this costs? Photo shoot plus design runs into the hundreds.”

Finally, we asked, “What can your company do for us?”

That’s when the whole team exchanged another forced smile +3.

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To sum up what I want to convey:

1. Don’t stay confined to an office cubicle as a product manager, especially when you know nothing about the field you’re building for. Get out, talk to people, stay observant, and fall in love with the industry you serve.
2. There are countless problems, only some of which can be solved, and a company will only address a subset of those. Yet problems are opportunities, and opportunities can become wealth.

2025‑02‑01
From Henan

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Product Manager | Reading | Travel | Psychology | Everyday Life

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Originally written by Estela Young and published in Chinese on 一只产品汪的自白. Translated and edited for DriftSeas with permission.