Snow days, drinking days, cooling days, drinking days. When the two meet, if you don't drink, you're sorry for this season. In recent days, friends have been inviting small wines, and the number of times I have been in the restaurant has been more than a year.
What made us sigh was that the signs that used to be hung in front of the doors of restaurants large and small that said "no outside drinking" disappeared, as if they had been discussed. Moreover, the store's own drinks are almost free of price increase, which is comparable to the supermarket outside. Especially the high-end liquor, seeing that it is fast and the same as the wine delivery store, even so, there are still very few people who order it.
One of my alumni runs a medium-sized restaurant, which he inherited from his parents, and has accumulated a good reputation and a small time-honored brand for two generations. When I went to his restaurant to eat, I found that he had not shown up for a long time, and he was staying in the store, and occasionally there were regular customers, so he came out to say hello.
When old classmates meet, they are naturally cordial. After a few words, he poured bitter water: the reason why he was in the store was because he wanted to look more down-to-earth and receive wedding banquet reservations by the way, although there were very few, but it was much better than individual customers. As for not allowing take-out drinks, my old friend said that the brand had been removed a long time ago, and now there are too many restaurants, and if you give customers a little sense of superiority, they will immediately turn around and leave.
"There are more people, but everyone is reluctant to spend money. In the past, the old customers who ordered good wine and asked for high-grade dishes on a large table are now thrifty, don't look at them driving good cars, the scene is also big, you really have to dig out your pocket, and the money you can take out is not necessarily as much as yours. The old friend said helplessly.
He also said that he is still running a restaurant, but he feels that this is the hard work of his parents, and after so many years, he also has something to do. Now the waiter is not easy to recruit, and he doesn't dare to offend when he recruits, especially the young man, who has no life in his eyes and can't command. It really didn't work, so he cashed out the store, saved some money for himself, quit first and took a look, and there was nothing to do.
The main places where people usually go to eat and consume with high frequency are small restaurants. Half of the small restaurants we frequented have been closed this year, some of them have completely quit and gone out to work, and some have returned to their hometown to reduce their expenses. Those that are still open, dine-in have been reduced, and take-out is the mainstay.
We went to a small restaurant and found that it had taken down the sign prohibiting outside alcohol. In general, small restaurants, even if they don't say it, hate customers who take out drinks in their hearts. Originally, the profit was low, and you were counting on the alcohol to make up for it, and you brought your own alcohol, which actually cut a lot of the boss's income.
Today's small restaurant owners don't care about these anymore. Their primary purpose is to survive. In the words of the boss we are familiar with, anyway, most of the customers who come to eat in the restaurant now are mainly fast food such as rice bowls and noodles, and no one drinks alcohol, and no one asks for alcohol for takeout. simply took down the sign prohibiting outside drinks, and the people in the province looked upset.
There are factories and construction sites near this restaurant, and many workers and masters come here to eat. In previous years, no matter what they ate, they would order a bottle of wine, and the older ones would ask for liquor, and the younger ones would ask for beer. In the summer, it was okay, and I could sell some alcohol, but in the winter, I stopped drinking beer, and I didn't drink liquor to warm up, and I drank hot water and soup instead.
The boss said with a sad face: "Not to mention drinking, even the salesmen who used to come to sell wine every day are less." ”
Judging from the sale and purchase of restaurants, people nowadays, especially rich, can't consume these streets and alleys, and those who have a little money are no longer as lavish as before, and those who have no money and rely on physical strength to earn money all claim to be "poor", and they don't spend at all if they put aside the necessary food and drink.
Don't say you've removed a sign that prohibits outside drinks, and even if you say something extravagant or sincere, people laugh and dismiss. On the streets, only the restaurant still has a little business, the rest of the shops, there are not a few clothing left, the pastry shop is transferred back and forth, the hardware and cigarette hotels are not good or bad, and even the barber shop is not left.
Perhaps one day, our once lively scene will disappear completely, and people will gradually become indifferent at home and at work. All the things of the past can only be said goodbye in memories.