On New Year's Day, January 1, 1975, a shop on Jiangnan Road in Haicheng officially opened for business.

The shopkeeper set off firecrackers, attracting a lot of attention.

Wang Shulan went out to buy groceries in the morning, thinking about what to buy for her grandson who was coming to visit.

Passing by Jiangnan Road, I saw that the shop that was previously under renovation had opened for business.

She had passed by many times before, and each time she saw a young man supervising the work.

Sometimes there would be a young woman and two elderly people; they looked like a family.

The presence of this family in the shop always makes people curious about what they're up to.

It wasn't until she passed by on New Year's Day that Wang Shulan finally learned the name of the shop.

"Qingshan Food Specialty Store..."

As she looked up at the signboard, the young girl she had seen before greeted her from inside the shop: "Hey, ma'am, come in and have a look if you're interested. You can try some."

Wang Shulan's eyes lit up, "A taste test?"

The girl, Lin Yu, came over with a plate: "Look, this is canned food from our shop. You can try it."

On the plate were several small cups, each containing a piece of fruit and half a cup of sugar water.

This must be canned food.

Wang Shulan chose a lychee one. The first taste was a sweet syrup, the lychee flesh was soft, and you could still taste the aroma of lychee.

Wang Shulan is a local, so it's not like she's never eaten lychees before, but making them into canned lychees is quite novel.

She could tell from the taste of the water that it contained a lot of sugar; children would definitely like it.

My heart was filled with a restless desire.

Lin Yu noticed her hesitation and warmly invited her to try some canned pineapple.

Seeing how generous she was, Wang Shulan didn't hesitate either, and picked up the cup with yellow pulp to try it.

"This is delicious too!"

Lin Yu said with a smile, "Besides these two, there are other flavors as well."

Wang Shulan looked at the shelf, where canned goods were neatly arranged in several flavors.

She decided to buy it!

Lin Yu then beckoned her to another counter: "Sister, try this one, dried fruit."

In the past two years, they went to Guangzhou and found several more kinds of fruit.

The variety of dried fruit has also increased significantly.

In addition to their locally produced pears, apples, hawthorns, and plums, they now also have dried mangoes.

The items displayed on the counter were also dazzling.

Wang Shulan was like a mouse that had fallen into a rice jar; she wanted to buy all kinds of food.

Her family members are all factory workers with a high income, so they are very willing to spend money.

In the end, she bought some of everything, including dried fruit, canned goods, dried mushrooms, and vermicelli.

Lin Yu told her, "Today is the grand opening of our new store, so I'm giving you a 50% discount."

The final price surprised Wang Shulan. She bought so many things for such a small amount of money, it was like a windfall.

After seeing Wang Shulan off, Lin Yu turned around and went back into the shop.

Today, their new store opened, and they advertised a 50% discount and held a tasting event.

Therefore, the conversion rate of customers who enter the store is very high.

The store hired two sales clerks and two staff members for stocking and moving goods.

They were all selected from the nearby residents.

Because of this, they didn't encounter too many obstacles when opening their shop here.

Jobs are hard to find these days, and Lin Yu is willing to hire them so that their families and friends will be more supportive of the franchise store.

Grandma Lin, Lin Shan, and the two sales clerks, Hu Changsheng and Li Lihua, worked all morning and finally got a break around noon.

Despite having anticipated this, Hu Changsheng and Li Lihua were still pleasantly surprised by the business at their shop.

It's fair to say that this specialty store's morning sales were higher than those of the nearby small supply and marketing cooperative.

But store manager Lin Shan showed no sign of joy.

Li Lihua also overheard him saying to Lin Yu, "Business in Haicheng is not as good as in our provincial capital."

Before coming here, Lin Shan spent a few days at the specialty store in the provincial capital.

The conversion rate and sales volume there are truly astonishing.

In comparison, today's sales figures were not enough to make him happy.

Lin Yu comforted him, saying, "That's because our food factory is famous locally. This is Haicheng, who would know about us?"

"If you were asked to buy something, and one store was owned by someone you know, and the other by a stranger, which would you choose?"

Lin Shan: "Of course, I'll go to an acquaintance's place..."

He understood after hearing this. The reason why business was good in the provincial capital was because the customers had already tried the food factory's products elsewhere and therefore trusted them.

This is the first time their product has appeared in Haicheng, so it's normal for it to be met with a lukewarm reception.

Lin Yu nodded: "Besides, things were already much better this morning. You can ask Lihua and the others if you don't believe me."

Li Lihua said, "The business here is the best I've ever seen. Even the supply and marketing cooperatives probably don't sell as much as we do."

Hu Changsheng agreed, saying, "Our store's business is already very good."

Both of them wondered to themselves, if the store manager said this business wasn't as good as theirs in the provincial capital, then how high must the sales volume of that store be?

Lin Yu didn't mention the situation at the store, but simply said, "The Haicheng market is still very large. Let's slowly build up our brand awareness, and sales will catch up."

Lin Shan nodded: "Yes, the most important thing at this stage is to let customers know about us."

Therefore, in the afternoon, when introducing the products to customers, Lin Shan and the sales staff would start by talking about the food factory.

These are agricultural products directly collected from farmers, and are also sold in farmers' collectively-run factories.

Nowadays, people value the unity of workers and farmers, and everyone is happy to support the business of specialty stores.

In addition, the store offered a 50% discount on its first day of opening, giving it a price advantage.

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