In addition to these more expensive gift boxes, there was also another option. The second option was relatively simpler wooden boxes that were smaller in size, but which were also polished smooth until they looked exquisite and beautiful.
When Madam Yang heard Su Tang say that her cafe also sold gift boxes, she originally hadn’t taken it very seriously. After all, she was the wife of an official and was used to dealing with the upper echelons of the County Seat. For people like this, it wasn’t just a matter of what was being gifted, the appearance of the gift was also of almost equal importance. A shop from a small town like this generally wouldn’t have anything that could catch the eyes of the people in her circle. However, when she saw the boxes Su Tang had Pu Wei bring out she couldn’t help but admit that they were truly very exquisite.
Although Madam Yang was the wife of a deputy county magistrate, at the end of the day, Qingyuan County was still only a county after all. Even the so-called good families there wouldn’t take out a box made of a fine wood like mahogany to be used as a gift box, as people might do in the imperial capital.
Thus, Su Tang’s gift boxes, which were hand-carved and made from solid wood, were definitely very good even when put alongside other gift boxes in the County Seat.
Su Tang also felt that these boxes were very expensive and felt the pinch. However, in the modern era, didn’t you see those luxury brands use all sorts of valuable and exquisite things to package their goods? That was the power of a brand, and she was now in the process of making her own brand, so spending a little more was inevitable.
Taking into account the premium sauces that she planned to sell through the Luo family later used this same logo, Su Tang knew it was only a matter of time before this logo that she had personally designed would be a resounding representative of quality all throughout this country and perhaps even the whole world. In her plan, everyone who saw this logo would only have one thought in their mind: That whatever the logo was attached to was definitely a high-quality product.
That was also the reason for the design of these gift boxes. They were exquisite, but also simple and straightforward with the logo very clearly displayed. Although her Dessert Cafe had only just opened, it was already somewhat famous in Qinghe town. Many people in the area hadn’t eaten at her cafe before, but they still knew that there was a delicious but expensive sweets shop on East Street with a strange and special name: Dessert Cafe.
Like this, Su Tang was building an imperceptible impression of her brand in the hearts of the people. And that small impression would continue to grow, from Qinghe Town to Qingyuan County, and finally even to the imperial capital itself. And one day, she would grow this impression until it reached the whole country and even the whole world.
Madam Yang could tell at a glance that Su Tang’s gift boxes were actually very good things. They even had a special grid of internal compartments that happened to perfectly accommodate the various products of the Dessert Cafe, which was very convenient and pleasing to the eye.
Finally, Madam Yang decided to directly order ten gift boxes from Su Tang on the spot. Then she also ordered a frozen cheesecake to pick up the next day separately.
As she knew that the cheesecake slices sold by the Dessert Cafe all came from a large round cake, Madam Yang simply asked for a complete cake.
“Alright then. Since the madam is buying so much, there will be no separate charge for the gift boxes themselves. Ten gift boxes will cost a thousand copper coins, and a small slice of frozen cheesecake usually costs 20 copper coins, so for a whole cake with eight slices it will cost 160 copper coins, and altogether the total will 1160 copper coins.” Pu Wei had been listening at the side and when she heard Madam Yang’s order she quickly calculated out the price and announced it.
The gift boxes Madam Yang ordered included two pieces of cheesecake, two cupcakes, four cookies, and four pieces of toffee, for a total of 100 copper coins. Originally, the large gift box itself also cost an additional five copper coins, but Su Tang knew that selling these boxes would help advertise her shop in the County Seat so she waived the fee directly.
Frozen cheesecake was a bit more expensive than the other items on the menu because the process to make it was a bit more complicated. Su Tang had already told Pu Wei before that the price of one slice of cheesecake would be twenty copper coins and, since one cake could be cut into eight slices, it meant the total cost for a cake was 160 copper coins.
Madam Yang nodded and gestured for her maid to pay. “Ah, but what about today’s cakes and these cookies?”
She was hinting that she also needed to pay for the food they had already eaten today. However, Su Tang immediately smiled and waved her off, “From the start, I created these new products and invited the madam and Wan’er to taste them and give me feedback, so naturally it’s my treat. There’s no need to pay.”
Although she was running a business, Su Tang and Lu Wan’er were friends to begin with, so treating her to some desserts was nothing. Moreover, today she had invited them over under the guise of trying out her new products, so she obviously never planned to ask them for any money.
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tl begging corner:
Continuing to enjoy, but wish the author could give us a little more action now and then. I’m missing those bad seeds on the rotten branch of the Su family.