The Secret That Cannot Be Told （1）: Natural Laws and Organic Vegetarianism

Shenzhen boasts around 80 vegetarian restaurants, with about 20 of them located in our small art town. Within a 300-meter stretch of a main road near me, there are four vegetarian restaurants. One is a buffet-style eatery offering all-you-can-eat for 50 yuan and just opened earlier this month. Another specializes in dumplings and noodles while also selling organic products. The other two focus on à la carte stir-fry dishes, with an average dish priced at around 30 yuan. Both of these opened about six months ago and are only about 100 meters apart. Restaurant A has just five or six tables, and Restaurant B is similar in size. However, every day at lunchtime, Restaurant A is packed to the brim, with a decent crowd in the evenings too. Meanwhile, Restaurant B remains eerily empty at all hours, with the chef and owner sitting in the dining area, exchanging helpless glances.

This small town has a population of about 20,000, with only a few hundred hardcore vegetarians. The rest are flexible eaters who switch between vegetarian and meat-based diets. The competition in this market is fierce. While new restaurants open every few months, most shut down within six months. It made me curious—what magical charm does this seemingly unremarkable Restaurant A possess to attract such a steady stream of customers?

One day, I decided to experience it for myself. As soon as I saw the menu, I felt a bit of pressure. Any main dish was priced at around 30 yuan, and organic-themed dishes were generally 35–40 yuan. Soup and rice had to be paid for separately, at about 1 yuan per bowl. If you weren’t full, you’d have to pay extra for additional servings of rice or soup. However, the rice was of excellent quality—fragrant and delicious. The soup was flavorful, and the stir-fried dishes were incredibly tasty, arguably the best I’ve had in any vegetarian restaurant. It’s no wonder that families and individuals are willing to pay the higher prices to dine here every day.

It turns out that Restaurant A’s secret weapon is an exceptional product manager. Whenever they create a great product, word spreads quickly, especially in a market dominated by female customers. Although I haven’t tried Restaurant B, I can guess that its offerings are likely too generic and lack any standout dishes that leave a lasting impression. In a small town like this, it’s hard to survive without a signature product. Among the 20+ vegetarian restaurants here, those that have been in business for over five years are generally run by true vegetarian enthusiasts. These owners are long-time vegetarians themselves and deeply understand the needs and pain points of vegetarian customers. Over time, as their reputation grows and their brand spreads, a few of these owners have even managed to afford houses and cars. On the other hand, outsiders who only see the surface-level opportunities rush into the market, often without being vegetarians themselves, thinking it’s an easy way to make money. They blindly copy others’ models, only to end up failing and going out of business.

Five or six years ago, copying competitors might have allowed newcomers to make short-term profits or rely on luck to earn a bit of money. But in today’s highly competitive environment, outsiders are almost entirely wiped out. Nowadays, running a brick-and-mortar business can no longer rely on aggressive, short-term profit-seeking strategies. Instead, businesses need to learn from models like Fat Donglai’s service-oriented approach. The service industry isn’t like e-commerce, where the relationship ends as soon as the product is sold. Instead, businesses must establish a multi-win (at least dual-win) model. This involves setting higher standards for products and services, binding together the interests of customers, employees, and suppliers to create a virtuous cycle. By offering affordable prices and top-notch quality, businesses can strengthen these relationships and build a mutually beneficial ecosystem. The old mindset of solely focusing on extracting maximum profits—whether by exploiting customers or employees—will no longer work. 

For example, when you walk into a random supermarket in Shenzhen, most of the products are genetically modified or unhealthy processed foods containing harmful chemicals. Supermarket owners rarely think about developing healthier products, ensuring customer safety, or providing better products and services. Instead, they focus on cutting costs to the extreme, squeezing every ounce of value from their employees, treating them like workhorses, and viewing customers as tools for cashing out. Their only goal is to make as much money as possible from each transaction, without a care for the well-being of their employees or customers.

Fat Donglai’s model is being studied by many industries, and it’s likely that significant changes will sweep across various sectors in the future. Businesses that solely focus on exploiting customers will gradually be phased out. Of course, Fat Donglai’s founder developed this multi-win, universe-aligned business model at great personal cost—he once revealed that not a single organ in his body is healthy anymore.

That said, the vegetarian industry in our small town is ahead of the curve compared to the rest of the Pearl River Delta or even the entire country. When dining at vegetarian restaurants in Guangzhou, Zhongshan, Foshan, Jiangmen, or other parts of Shenzhen, regardless of the restaurant’s price range, you’ll rarely encounter the concept of organic vegetarianism. Most places only emphasize avoiding the “five pungent spices” (onions, garlic, etc.), but their food is often excessively greasy or contains genetically modified ingredients. In contrast, many restaurants in our town, even those serving simple dumplings or noodles, offer organic options—albeit at slightly higher prices. Some small eateries even sell affordable organic products on their shelves. Beyond the vegetarian restaurants, there are also numerous small grocery stores specializing in organic foods and fruits.

The organic industry is a major pillar supporting natural therapies and holistic health—a truth that dark capital forces would rather the general public never discover. If everyone were to switch to organic vegetarian diets, organic foods, and organic fruits, the number of people the capitalists could exploit through the medical industry would drop by more than half. Chronic diseases might even become a rarity in the future! On the surface, this small town seems quiet and unremarkable, but it harbors a refreshing undercurrent—a powerful, pure, and positive energy that is quietly igniting a revolution in the health industry.  

2025-01-21