Chapter 389 - The First Student (1/2)
Chapter 389 The First Student
Once he was done, Zhang Wang walked to the bubble tea shop next door and ordered a drink. As he drank, he observed the shared phone booth’s situation.
Before this, when Ruan Guangjian was painting, many people had gathered around the phone booth. Now that the shared phone booth was done, people were hurriedly gathering to take photographs.
All things aside, everyone behaved decently.
They took initiative to stand in a line and took turns to take pictures with the painting of Modest outside the phone booth.
During this process, some passers-by came with the original intention to observe the fun. However, when they saw that several new facilities had been added to the shared phone booth, they became quite curious.
“It looks like many things have been added to the shared phone booth.”
“We don’t have to pay to use the drinks machine as well, right?”
“Do you think you can drink anything you want for ten yuan? Of course, you’ll have to pay extra costs.”
“There’s even a capsule machine and two microphones there! What does that mean? We can sing inside?”
“What’s that thing under the foldable chair? I’ve never seen it.”
“I think there are many more things inside now. Please excuse me, everyone, I want to go in and take a look.”
“Ai, ai, ai… here’s the line.”
“Let’s form two lines! We’re not even queuing for the same thing. You’re taking photographs, and we’re going in to experience the booth. We don’t have to interfere with each other.”
“What if we want to take photographs and experience the booth…?”
After discussing it for a while, everyone split into two lines. One line was to take a photograph with the painting of Modest. The other line was to enter and experience the shared phone booth.
Nobody had entered the phone booth before because there were too few facilities. There had been nothing to experience.
However, there were many more facilities now. There was even an artwork outside the phone booth. Now that it looked much nicer, more people were interested in entering.
After all, everyone was interested in upholding their reputation; this affected even the way they viewed phone booths.
The first people to enter the shared phone booth were a couple.
It would be weird to go into such places alone. Not only would one feel lonely, but others would also be looking in from the outside.
After the couple entered, they closed the door and pulled down the curtains.
At the same time, the people on the outside saw the remaining time displayed on the screen: Fifteen minutes.
That way, those in the line would have a rough idea of how long it would be before their turn.
Of course, that function was still not up to par yet. For example, it could only tell how long the people in the booth at the moment had until they had to come out. However, it could not accurately tell how long someone at the back of the line would have to wait.
Zhang Wang quietly noted this down. He considered including a function that would give the people in line a number or an estimated time before they would reach the front in the future.
The couple began curiously exploring the shared phone booth.
“Eh, we have two drinks each. We can choose cold or hot drinks as well.”
“We can even sing for free?”
“Whoa, what a steal. We only need to pay ten yuan every fifteen minutes. It’s so worth it!” “There’s even a capsule machine. Unfortunately, that’s not free.”
“What were you expecting? If the capsule was free, the manufacturer would suffer huge losses.” “Should we sing one song?”
“Can we do that? It’s so embarrassing.”
“Don’t worry; we can’t hear a single peep from the shopping mall. That means the phone booth is quite well sound-proofed.”
At first, ten yuan for fifteen minutes looked extremely expensive. However, now that so many new functions had been added, it did not look as expensive anymore. In fact, it looked worth it!
Yet, to Zhang Wang, he could still generate profits.
He would only give one pair of drinks. Whether the customers chose to stay for fifteen minutes or an hour, the number of drinks they would receive would remain the same. Once they got thirsty, they would probably buy more. Further, the cost of operating the drinks machine was not much. Take the hot drinks for example. A bag of instant coffee or milk tea measuring one kilogram could make fifty 250 ml cups of hot drinks. That made the cost of each drink fifty cents. On top of that, the more that they bought, the cheaper it became and the lower their costs would be.
Even if they added in the cost of water and electricity, a hot drink would cost two yuan at the most. The shared phone booth would continue to make profits.
Of course, customers could not choose their own flavors.
Furthermore, customers would have to pay extra to play the capsule machine.
The couple picked up the microphones from the table and found a small box that contained free microphone covers. They received two for free upon entry, but if they wanted to use more, they had to pay.
The melodious music sounded, and both of them started singing.
At that time, outside the phone booth, everyone in the queue heard soft music coming from inside the phone booth.
“Eh? Are they really singing?” “How long… do they plan to sing?”
“Holy sh*t, they’ve paid more to stay in there for longer. The remaining time has increased!”
“…Let’s go, let’s go. How long must we freaking wait?!”
It looked like the couple that had just entered the shared phone booth was planning to stay in there for a long time. The timer on the screen started again at thirty minutes. Many people who had been queuing with the intention to try out the booth gave up and dispersed.
However, a realization suddenly dawned on Zhang Wang-who had been sitting at the drinks stall nearby-once he witnessed what had happened.
If everyone who went in came out again quickly, it would have been a bad thing. It would have meant that the phone booth had not been attractive enough!
However, now the couple had decided to stay and sing for at least half an hour. That meant that the shared phone booth itself had no problem!