Chapter 138 Ye Yingyi's Troubles

The news that Baohualou took over Shenghualou and was going to open a second Baohualou store was reported by television stations and newspapers.

However, this news disappointed the citizens of Hong Kong Island. Everyone had been looking forward to Po Wah Building coming to Hong Kong Island so that they wouldn't have to go through the tunnel just to have a meal. During the evening rush hour, the tunnel was severely congested.

Yue Ning came out to explain that this was just an expansion of the old restaurant, and not a second store in the true sense. The second store was still in the process of selecting a site, and it would definitely meet everyone's expectations and open in Hong Kong Island.

She also took the opportunity to promote her own Ning Xiaochu Noodle House. Does Ning Xiaochu Noodle House need to be promoted?

The advertisement of Yuan Zai and Ning Xiao Chu's joint instant noodles has been aired. The background of Hong Kong City, the background music of Nakamura Mie's songs, a warm smile late at night, a bowl of steaming hot soup noodles, and roast duck and roast pork on the soup noodles.

Ning Xiaochu Noodle House, which serves authentic roast duck and roast pork, was packed every day during its trial operation.

The restaurant opened the day before yesterday and was packed with people. Many people came because Yue Ning would personally cook soy sauce chicken noodles in Ning Xiaochu for three consecutive days.

It was already two o'clock in the afternoon of the third day. Finally, there were fewer people. Yue Ning had been cooking soy sauce chicken noodles for three hours straight. She changed out of her chef uniform and was about to eat some noodles when she saw Ye Yingyi coming in with two people. Yue Ning greeted them: "Aunt, you're here."

Ye Yingyi smiled and said, "Come and eat something."

"I haven't eaten either! Want to join us?" Yue Ning accompanied Ye Yingyi to order food.

She and Ye Yingyi sat face to face. Ye Yingyi looked carefully at the decoration style of the store and said, "Japanese style?"

Ning Xiaochu said it was a Hong Kong-style noodle restaurant. The interior was decorated in log style, and it did have a Japanese fresh style. The background music was songs by Mii Nakamura. According to Yue Ning himself, the intention was to give it a Japanese feel.

"We just want to cooperate with Sister Huiyi's instant noodles to enter the Japanese market. Wan Chai now has a large number of Japanese department stores and is known as Little Tokyo. We want to integrate into the entire environment!" Yue Ning said.

When Ye Yingyi heard the three words "Little Tokyo", she got a headache.

Their soup noodles came up, and Ye Yingyi took a sip of the soup: "It tastes like Japanese ramen."

Even the noodles she ate tasted Japanese. Ye Yingyi was now fed up with the word "Japan".

"The Japanese ramen that is popular in Japan now was called Chinese noodles or Cantonese noodles 30 or 40 years ago. It originated from the food in the Chinese style streets in Japan." Yue Ning scooped up a mouthful of soup with fried garlic in it. "And what we think of as Japanese characteristics, such as this fried garlic, is actually the taste of Taiwan in the past."

"Little girl, no matter how much you try to argue, you can't say that you are not using the Japanese style as a selling point." Ye Yingyi said.

"But now is Japan's most glorious period, and Japan's cultural exports are very strong."

Just then, two customers who were obviously Japanese came in, and the waiter who could speak Japanese said, "Welcome!"

Ye Yingyi was annoyed when she heard Japanese, but Yue Ning said, "This was the heyday of the Japanese economy. Japanese culture and Japanese products were everywhere, and there were many Japanese tourists in Hong Kong."

Ye Yingyi looked out the window. A hundred meters away was a newly opened Japanese department store. This was already the eighth Japanese department store in Hong Kong. With the collapse of local department stores, Hong An Department Store was able to maintain its business with its supply chain advantage. It was already unique among local department stores in Hong Kong. However, Hong An was now surrounded by Japanese department stores. Japanese goods were popular. In the future, Japanese goods would further occupy the market with their high quality and low price. Hong An, which operated global department stores as its selling point, would probably have a harder time.

Ye Yingyi sighed slightly. Her son said he wanted to go to Japan to see small household appliances and also take a look at Japan's department stores.

In fact, one can see how powerful and prosperous Japan's department store industry is in Hong Kong.

Her elder brother and sister told her to be at ease and just go with the flow. Her elder sister said that she had always wanted to build cars for the Chinese, but when she saw that Japanese cars were becoming popular in the 1950s and 1960s and that it was impossible to form an industry in Singapore and Malaysia, she simply focused on ship repair.

The eldest brother also meant that if they couldn't compete with the Japanese in traditional department stores, they should focus on operating large-scale hypermarkets. However, Hong'an Department Store was founded by her grandfather, and Gangcheng was the largest department store after Hong'an Department Store withdrew from Shanghai. It carried the hard work of several generations of the Ye family, so she was reluctant to give it up.

Ye Yingyi looked up at Yue Ning. The kid meant the same thing, that one should just go with the flow. She laughed at herself for not being able to figure it out at her age.

Yue Ning didn't know why her aunt was worried all of a sudden, and then smiled again.

Yue Ning heard from Qiao Junxian that his mother had been very busy recently. This time when they went to Japan, Qiao Junxian also wanted to go with him to see the situation of Japan's department store industry and help his mother think of a solution.

Seeing that her two subordinates had finished their meals, Ye Yingyi said, "Okay, I'm leaving now."

Yue Ning was almost done here, and walked out of the store with Ye Yingyi. In the square of the Japanese department store in front of the store, there was a hot dance performance. Did my aunt come out to see this newly opened department store?

"Aunt, is Hong An also being rushed very hard now?"

"Sales are declining, and Japanese goods are now the mainstream. Japanese cosmetics, Japanese clothing accessories, and Japanese home appliances have huge sales. The old British department stores, which mainly sell high-end products, are already struggling to resist, but they are now supported by the sales of famous brands, so they still look very prosperous. Most of Hong'an's products are actually mid-range, and it's even more difficult to compete head-on with Japanese department stores." Ye Yingyi smiled helplessly, "But it doesn't matter. Your aunt said that if you can't win, don't force it. Go with the flow. She said it a dozen or twenty years ago..."

Yue Ning heard from her third aunt that her eldest aunt saw that Japan had already formed a complete industrial chain. Even though her eldest aunt's truck factory had already accumulated a certain amount of experience, she still decisively switched from car manufacturing to ship repair, and now runs the largest shipyard in Singapore.

The two walked towards Hong'an Department Store together. Next to Hong'an, the Daxin Department Store, which had been competing with Hong'an for decades, has closed down.

"Aunt, what do you mean by famous brands in British department stores?"

"Luxury. You know? It's..."

"High-end luxury? Right?"

"right."

"Aunt, British department stores target the wealthy people in Hong Kong, while Japanese department stores target the middle-income people in Hong Kong, and Hong'an hypermarket targets the general public. Is that right?" Yue Ning asked.

Ye Yingyi felt that she was afraid that her child was not in this industry. She had already explained it very clearly, so why did the child ask again? Unlike Ningning, who usually had very clear thinking and understood things at a glance, she still nodded: "Yes."

Yue Ning hugged Ye Yingyi's arm: "Aunt, let's go to the front and talk."

Ye Yingyi asked the two subordinates to go back first. Yue Ning said, "Sister Huiyi and I both want to enter the Japanese market and take advantage of Japan's rapid economic development. Therefore, the Ning Xiaochu series is based on Hong Kong style and is in line with the tastes of the Japanese. Japanese department stores are eating up the market share of traditional department stores in Hong Kong, so we can't sell goods to the Japanese in reverse. Doesn't Hongan have more than 60 years of experience in global procurement? Don't we have good relationships with major manufacturers around the world? Can we get the factory tail goods of major famous brands?"

"Late-selling goods?" Ye Yingyi smiled. She knew that this girl would not just repeat the question. Sure enough, she had a good idea waiting for her. "I have visited several manufacturers. These manufacturers usually open a warehouse store in the factory to sell these late-selling goods. The cheap ones are 10% off, and the expensive ones are 70% off the original price. However, most of them are out of season and out of stock."

"What if we transform Hong'an into a store that specializes in selling various discounted luxury goods?" Yue Ning asked Ye Yingyi.

When Yue Ning studied business operations in his previous life, he learned about the outlet operation model. The factory discount store format has existed for a long time, but the brands were not really concentrated until around the 1990s, and the real rapid development was in the mid-to-late 1990s.

Luxury goods are extremely attractive to people who have just become wealthy.

In her previous life, she was into jewelry. There was a very cost-effective type of jewelry on the market, which was Japanese jewelry from the 1980s and 1990s, and there was no shortage of large and high-quality items. These things also indirectly reflected how crazy the Japanese economic bubble period was.

In a country like this, where a large number of people have suddenly entered the middle and upper income classes and have infinite hope for the future, how can they restrain their desire to buy? Especially luxury goods that symbolize their spending power, buying luxury goods has become a trend.

"Besides, Hong Kong is developing on its own, and citizens also have this demand." Yue Ning looked at Hong An surrounded by Japanese department stores, "Let them make money from Hong Kong people, and we make money from the Japanese. This is called making money through harmony."

Yue Ning's words were punny, and Ye Yingyi smiled comfortably: "Yes! Hong Kong has a natural advantage in this area. For products such as luggage, scarves and leather goods, Japan imposes a tariff of about 10-20%. On top of the tariff, there is also a 10% consumption tax. Even products such as watches that are not subject to tariffs are subject to at least 10% consumption tax. Hong Kong does not have these. Even if the purchase price is exactly the same, the price in Hong Kong is at least 10%-30% lower than that in Japan, and the median value is 20%. And Hong Kong itself has a huge demand for this. It is not easy for Japanese to go to Europe and the United States, but it is easy to come to Hong Kong."

"The key is Japanese department stores. They won't stick to their own Japanese products and compete with us in this field," Yue Ning said to Ye Yingyi.

Ye Yingyi smiled and hugged Yue Ning: "I just mentioned the famous products of British department stores, and you actually came up with such a way for me?"

"Actually, when Junxian and I were discussing this, I wanted to ask you to consider competing with Japanese department stores in terms of differentiated services and business formats. For example, traditional department stores just sell goods, but can we integrate ice parlors, coffee shops, fast food restaurants, and snack bars into the shopping malls? When customers are tired of shopping, they can have a cup of coffee or a cup of iced lemon tea. But when you mentioned famous products, it reminded me of Junxian's handling of his inventory of electric fans. Combined with the fact that Sister Huiyi and I want to enter the Japanese market, isn't it a good idea?" Yue Ning explained to her.

"That's a good idea, tell me more about it."

The two chatted in detail for a while, and Ye Yingyi looked at her old rival who had gone bankrupt and couldn't help but feel sympathy for him.

Yue Ning looked at the bustling Japanese department store and said, "Aunt, Japan is developing too fast and is too aggressive. Its home appliance and automobile industries are squeezing out the core market of Europe and the United States, and its military is limited. The United States is now suffering from inflation, and in order to maintain its belief in the dollar, it has begun to raise interest rates intensively. When the United States gets out of inflation, it will inevitably take action against Japan. The next decade or so will be the best decade for Japan. They are thriving, and we are riding on their coattails. They will eventually decline, and these department stores will eventually be in the hands of Hong Kong capital."

This statement clearly sounded like a prophecy from a charlatan, and it also made a lot of sense. Ye Yingyi finally nodded and said, "Let's go with the flow."

My way of going with the flow is to avoid the opponent's sharp edge, while the way of going with the flow of the little girl is to find another way. In the end, she is much better than me.

Yue Ning was very happy to help his aunt solve her troubles: "Aunt, I'm going back to Ningyan. My uncle Rong's apprentice will have a competition tomorrow, and I have to let him practice two more new dishes."

"Go ahead!"

Ye Yingyi returned to Hongan, passing through a Japanese department store, and heard a voice: "Private Marseille."

Japanese is actually quite pleasant to the ear. Ningning is right, harmony brings wealth.