Smile and Coffee

Smile and Coffee (Alberta Times) Despite all the shortcomings of the Japanese, their enthusiasm, concentration, piety, and perseverance towards work and career are still inspiring...

Smiles and Coffee (Alberta Times) Despite all the flaws of the Japanese, their enthusiasm, concentration, piety, and persistent spirit and attitude toward work and career are still admirable. Especially in the catering industry, both employees and store owners are conscientious and dedicated to their responsibilities and go all out to make guests feel at home and praised by everyone. So the days are successful, and a tripartite body is formed invisibly, sharing weal and woe. For example, a dumpling shop in Tokyo that has been in business for many years, because the old chef passed away and sold the dumpling recipe to others beforehand, the shop owner decided to close down for the sake of "sincerity". However, a group of old customers who had been patronizing the shop for many years stayed with them, visiting the shop every day in the hope that it would reopen. As a result, the media was alarmed, and they conducted in-depth interviews and reports. It became a good story for a while, which made people in the city both moved and regretful. There must be many examples like dumpling shops. As far as the author knows, a famous coffee chain in Tokyo recently announced its closure, which is also disappointing. In the minds of Oriental people, eating is the main thing and drinking is the supplement. No matter how romantic and elegant your coffee shop is, it can only be a boring place after people finish their serious business, or at best, it is a place for people to chat, relax and rest. It is not the same as a magnificent restaurant. The Japanese know this, so they call their coffee shop a "talking room." But please don't misunderstand that this "room" is just a small and elegant room. There are four restaurants in total, located in Ochanomizu, Ikebukuro and Shinjuku in Tokyo. The smallest one has 170 seats. The old store at the Shinjuku train station entrance has 350 seats and an area of ​​550 square meters, or 6,000 feet. It will soon be celebrating its 40th anniversary. With such a scale, even if they are called coffee shops or coffee shops, they are well-deserved. However, the reason why "Conversation Room" is famous is not because of its size, but because the store has a particularly warm atmosphere that makes people linger and have an unforgettable drink. Yanzhaijiawai believes that a cup of fragrant coffee can certainly give people a good feeling, but the first thing customers come into contact with is not the coffee, but the employees. If they give people a friendly smile from the beginning and leave a good impression, then everything that follows will be much easier. Therefore, in the "talking room", smiles, flowers and coffee are the three equally important treasures, just as the relationship between customers, employees and the boss is equally important. There is a reason why Yanzhai Jiawai does this. In college, he suffered from tuberculosis. At that time, it was almost a serious illness that would lead to death, and we had already prepared for the worst. Unexpectedly, when I was admitted to the hospital out of despair, and faced with friendly smiling faces, I gradually realized that it was really good to be alive, and I didn’t want to die. To put it more elegantly, the touching smiles of the nurses rekindled the light of his life, making him strong and brave, and finally defeated the disease. Since then, smile has become what Yan Zhaigai strives to pursue, and it has also become the key to his "talking room" that opens the door to success. The "Talking Room" opened in 1966. However, as early as a year ago, he started recruiting employees, started training, and set a rule that all new employees must live in the dormitory for the first three years and go to bed before nine o'clock every night in order to ensure quality, unify progress, and develop good habits. So far, more than 2,000 employees have lived in dormitories and received strict training. Surprisingly, the things in the "talking room" are not expensive. The fragrant coffee and delicious cakes all cost only one thousand Dan, which is less than ten dollars. So as soon as it opened, it immediately aroused the interest of people, especially professors and writers. They often sit for hours at a time, and I heard that there are many successful essays and touching masterpieces, all written amidst the aroma of coffee and the attentive and thoughtful hospitality. Unfortunately, things have changed and today, there are very few young people willing to live in dormitories to receive training in smiling and flower arrangement. Currently, only 20% of the more than 110 waiters have received serious training, while the vast majority of 80% are part-time workers. Although the business is good, the service level is obviously deteriorating, and it is gradually getting further and further away from the original intention of Yanzhaijiawai. In addition to being sad, he finally decided to close his doors! A few years ago, two old stores in Hong Kong suddenly announced their closure, which became a hot topic in newspapers and magazines. One is Tai Cheong Cake Shop, which is famous for its soft and sweet egg tarts. Even former Hong Kong Governor Chris Patten praised the deliciousness. The other is Quan Zhang Ju Restaurant, whose selling point is the tenderness and smoothness of salt-baked chicken, which is even coveted by people as far away as North America. The former was forced to stop because the owner was unable to sustain the rent increase, which is worthy of sympathy. The latter was bought and returned to the land because he could not withstand the silver bullet bombardment of real estate developers again and again, which is also understandable. However, the situation of these two old stores and the two old Japanese stores is a bit different, and the views and intentions of the media are even more different. If we spread out the four newspapers of the day at the same time, would you please evaluate the performance, gains and losses of the store owners from the perspective of customers, or simply ask you to write a conclusion for this short article. How would you write?