Chapter 449 is completely sold out.
It was afternoon.
Cheng Wanwan and the village head sat in the courtyard discussing pricing, while Zhao Tiezhu was responsible for recording the data.
The village's tourism and entertainment projects are almost complete, and all the necessary props are ready. It's just waiting to officially welcome guests in June.
“The lotus pond belongs to you, Aunt Dashan, so the fee is twenty coins per person,” the village headman said. “Zhao Sanniang will be in charge of the tea, fruit, and snacks. I plan to price them in three tiers: five hundred coins for ordinary tea for poorer scholars, one tael of silver for mid-range tea, and two taels of silver for high-end tea. What do you think?”
Cheng Wanwan nodded, offering no objection.
As Dahe Village developed its tourism industry, many services were outsourced. For example, Zhao San Niang was responsible for providing tea, Zhao Er Ye's family was responsible for river and lake tours, Zhao the Hunter was responsible for hunting, and Yu Fu Zi was responsible for games like pitch-pot, drumming, and passing the flower. Since the villagers didn't understand the themes and rhymes, Yu Fu Zi had to write them down in advance and then let Lu Ying Xue host the event.
Since all the props were made with money from the village, the harvest went into the village's public revenue, and then the people who were responsible for these tasks were paid wages. At the end of the year, everyone in the village could share the profits.
Regarding the price, Cheng Wanwan and Li Zheng carefully considered it and mostly compared it to Yunxi Xinghuayuan.
Apricot Blossom Garden is a well-established place for spring outings and picnics. Every spring, autumn, and snowy season, it attracts many literati, scholars, and noble ladies to visit. If a group of about ten people wants to eat, drink, and have fun, the cost is at least forty or fifty taels of silver. For villagers, this amount of money is a huge sum that they could never save in their entire lives, but for noble ladies in the city, fifty taels of silver is just a few months' worth of pocket money.
Moreover, these literati would often pool their money to go out and have fun, each contributing a few taels of silver. The amount split among them wasn't much, and besides buying writing brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones, a portion of their money was spent on such social activities. Therefore, scholars could often be seen at many places of leisure.
"Alright, it's settled then." The village head grinned as he looked at the price list. "Hopefully, this revenue will fill the villagers' pockets."
These prices were set very high, and he always felt that they would be more profitable than those from the market. Just thinking about the year-end bonus made the village headman grin from ear to ear.
Cheng Wanwan took out the propaganda posters and flyers that Master Yu had sent: "Have those teenagers in the village go to the city to distribute them, Ping'an County, Fenghuang County, Hekou County, Baiyun County... Every county must be thoroughly publicized."
"Don't worry, I'll definitely get this done." The village head took a large stack of forms, then patted Tiezhu on the shoulder. "Once the publicity is in place, I expect many people will come to the village to book a trip. The rest is up to you."
Zhao Tiezhu immediately stood up: "I will definitely complete the mission!"
Cheng Wanwan smiled. Tiezhu is becoming more and more like a village head. Now, many of the village head's bookkeeping and other clerical work are handled by Tiezhu. It seems that in the future, Dahe Village will also be taken over by Tiezhu. This child is growing up very fast and is more than qualified to be a village head. All he lacks now is...
No sooner had the village head and Zhao Tiezhu left than Manager Yan walked in from the courtyard gate: "Sister-in-law Zhao, Manager Bai from Wancheng came to pick up goods today and asked about our new products. He would like to chat with you about it."
Cheng Wanwan stood up and walked towards the workshop's reception area.
As soon as she entered, Bai Qi stood up and said, "Greetings, Madam Sui."
“We’ve been partners for a long time, so don’t be so polite. Have a seat.” Cheng Wanwan sat down and took a sip of tea. “How’s Manager Bai’s soap business going?”
Speaking of this, Bai Qi went on and on: "I originally planned to sell the soap in the capital, but every time I got halfway there, it was snapped up by merchants from other places, and they were offering pretty good prices. So I decided to save myself the trouble of going all the way to the capital. Recently, I've been unloading the goods at Shunzhou Wharf, and they're all sold out in two days at most. It's not that I'm good at business, but Lady Sui's soap is really good. It's selling like hotcakes in the north."
Cheng Wanwan mentally calculated the time; the soap had been on the market for more than half a year, yet it was still so popular. It seemed that no one had developed a similar product yet, and she could continue to make money effortlessly.
"The new skincare products from Sui Ru Artificial Workshop seem to be selling like hotcakes in Huzhou," Bai Qi continued. "I wonder if I could also purchase a batch of skincare products from the Dahe Zhao family to sell in Shunzhou?"
"I might disappoint Manager Bai," Cheng Wanwan said frankly. "This product is a joint venture between me and the Qian family. It can only be purchased from Qian's Trading Company. If I sell it to you privately, it would be a breach of contract. You know how important reputation is to a businessman."
“One more,” she continued, “this product has a fixed price, and it’s the same price no matter where it’s sold.”
The implication is that reminding Bai Qi not to buy goods from the Qian family is pointless.
When the soap was first launched, she hadn't considered this aspect, which led to the current chaotic price of soap. The most expensive soap in Huzhou is only a little over one tael of silver, while it can sell for five taels of silver in the north. While there are certainly transportation costs involved, the price difference is still too large.
When skincare products are priced, shipping costs are already factored in. Even if shipped to the farthest destination, the product won't lose money at this price.
Bai Qi could only regretfully leave with the goods.
The next morning, Mr. Qian brought good news.
"Haha, they're all sold out!"
The old man laughed loudly.
After the skincare products arrived in Huzhou, he didn't rush to launch them on the market. Instead, he first built up hype, which was also the method he learned from Lady Sui.
He heard that the first time Lady Sui sold soap was on the streets of Nanyang City. She compared soap with bath beans and other products and demonstrated it to everyone on the spot. That's how soap became popular.
He followed suit, bought all kinds of expensive skin care products, and invited beautiful women from brothels to come and demonstrate them on the spot.
The effect was not very good on the first day, so it took three days of promotion before people finally knew what "moisturizing oil" and "moisturizing cream" were.
As we all know, skin care products are expensive, and ordinary people are unwilling to even try them. However, Dahe Zhaoshi's products only cost a few hundred coins, and the effect is similar to those of pearl powder and ox marrow oil. Some women who care about their appearance are naturally willing to pay for them.
On the first day the product was launched, business was so-so, with only a little over a hundred sets sold.
The next day, the door was already crowded with customers because word of mouth had spread and everyone knew how good it was, so they rushed to buy it.
Just after noon on the third day, two thousand sets of skincare products were snapped up.
After the craze passed, merchants from Huzhou smelled business opportunities and surrounded Qian's company, all wanting to get a piece of the pie.
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