Chapter 45 "My granddaughter is really talented..."
"What are you two doing?"
As he approached, pushing his bicycle, Chen Aiguo noticed the notebook in Qin Yang's hand and saw that his granddaughter's attention was focused on it. Under such circumstances, his tone of voice was naturally the same as usual.
"Grandpa Chen, Panpan is a genius. She told me a way to make money in my shop, and I'm discussing it with her right now."
Seeing the other party coming, Qin Yang immediately put down the pen and paper in his hand and subconsciously helped the other party unload the goods.
Qin Yang had never been to a sesame seed bun shop before and assumed that business would slow down after winter. However, the hotter the weather, the better business actually became. It seemed the heat was so hot that people generally didn't want to cook, so many people bought a few buns to take home as a staple.
Another reason is that while students have their holidays, workers don't. Regardless of the weather, everyone leaves home around 6 or 7 in the morning and leaves work after dark, so their shopping habits haven't changed at all. Furthermore, Chen's sesame cakes offer not only the standard white sugar and brown sugar fillings, but also very filling green pepper pork and cabbage beef. They're so generously stuffed that many people can easily buy two for dinner.
It was precisely for these reasons that their business was still booming, even in the summer. Consequently, the Chen family's daily meat and vegetable purchases were enormous. Whenever Grandpa Chen went out, the two large bamboo baskets on the back seat and the small basket on the front armrest were always filled to the brim.
Qin Yang was thinking about the Chen family's business while helping Grandpa Chen unload the goods and telling Grandpa Chen what Chen Pan said. He was doing three things at once.
While he was speaking, Chen Pan took the things in his grandfather's hand and added a few words embarrassedly.
Then, after everyone had carried the two baskets of meat and vegetables to the shelves in the small kitchen at the back, Grandpa Chen understood what they were talking about.
"Panpan, why did you suddenly think of this? Is this really your own idea?" Chen Aiguo, who was wiping the sweat off his face while feeling excited and happy, felt that his granddaughter might really be a genius.
"That's not what I thought. I saw this method on the Xinhua News. It's probably very popular in big cities like Shanghai, but our economy here is relatively poor, so we don't know much about it."
Not daring to take credit for anything, Chen Pan handed a ceramic water cup to her grandfather with one hand while quickly turning on the Xin'an small fan on the wall of her house.
"Really? Even so, my Panpan is amazing!"
Subconsciously praising his granddaughter, Chen Aiguo took out a few purple plums from his pocket, stuffed two into Qin Yang's hands, gave two to Chen Pan, and kept two for himself: "These are gifts from the boss lady who sells chili peppers to me. She said they are from her own garden."
After subconsciously explaining, Chen Aiguo said naturally, "Then Panpan, can we use your membership card?"
Qin Yang, who got two plums, sat on the stool closest to the door of Chen's house. After subconsciously pulling the stool outward, he looked at Chen Pan and smiled without saying a word.
Chen Pan glanced at him subconsciously, then turned to his grandfather and explained, "Grandpa, we need to sell membership cards one by one. I feel that most of our customers may not have the patience to listen to your sales pitch. Moreover, this requires customers to purchase a certain amount before we stamp them. Do you think we have time to stamp people during our peak hours?"
The most important thing is that we have a small number of items and the price is low, so it's difficult to set a reward amount. If you set it too low, it will definitely not be cost-effective for us to frequently redeem rewards for others. But if you set it too high, our business rarely exceeds five or ten yuan at a time. If you then try to sell membership cards to others, they will see that they can't meet the redemption requirements and will no longer be interested in working with us.
Chen Pan quickly finished her explanation, then rolled her eyes and immediately added, "Our sesame cake shop isn't really suitable for membership cards, but in weather like this, we can actually get a large insulated bucket to provide free tea to customers, or we can get some sweet fermented rice for retail."
"The thermos you are talking about is the kind of fortune bucket in restaurants, right?" Qin Yang understood immediately after Chen Pan said that.
"Yes, I think it's called that. Anyway, this thing is also a way to attract customers. We can put a few more plastic stools outside our house so that more people can sit."
As soon as the conversation started, Chen Pan talked about many of the methods she knew to solicit customers.
For example, Qin Yang's family could buy a coin-operated rocking car, which is popular in large shopping malls, outside the store. For example, her family could buy a banner and hold an event every once in a while.
"Activities? What activities?"
Grandpa Chen, on his part, had only been to a large supermarket in the city once or twice in his life. So when he heard his granddaughter talking about promotions and banners, he was subconsciously confused.
"In July, we celebrate students' success in the college entrance exams. During that time, students can get two free beef patties by presenting their admission tickets. Later, we celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival, National Day, the founding of the People's Republic of China, New Year's Day, and so on. Next year, we might even celebrate our first anniversary. For each of these days, we can offer a buy-six-get-one-free deal, or a buy-ten-get-two-free deal. This way, customers who originally planned to buy five or eight patties might buy an extra one or two just for the discount."
Chen Pan said something to her grandfather, and then she looked at Qin Yang who had been staring at her: "Brother Qin, this method is also applicable to your store. You can celebrate your anniversary or five-year anniversary. Your rewards can be a bag of melon seeds or a bag of laundry detergent for every five yuan spent. For students and college entrance examination candidates, you can give them an ice cream, a pen, a notebook, etc. if they score 100 points on the exam.
For college students taking the college entrance exam, we might give them a backpack or a pair of shoes. To attract customers, we need to constantly be active, offering promotions and discounts. Only when customers feel we're constantly offering promotions and discounts will they subconsciously choose us when shopping.
In fact, what Chen Pan said were all very common promotional methods in the previous life.
Like celebrating their anniversary every day, having promotions every day, having shopping festivals every day, and putting up banners every day saying that they will go bankrupt and be demolished in three days and are counting down to deal with it, etc.
Chen Pan had seen these promotional methods frequently in his previous life and was no longer surprised by them.
But it was the conservative 1990s, after all, and society hadn't completely abolished the food coupon system. Many people still shopped at places like the supply and marketing cooperatives, grain stations, and gas stations, where coupons were accepted. The largest shopping malls in Longcheng were still state-owned department stores, and truly large shopping malls and supermarkets had yet to appear even in this remote, small city.
In places like Beijing and Shanghai, people often visit amusement parks, drink Coke, and eat KFC. But in Longcheng, the only place to go is People's Park. Back then, children here still commonly drank sodas that cost 1 or 2 cents. Coke, for example, cost 1.5 or 2.5 yuan a bottle, something many local children haven't even tried. In a previous life, Chen Pan first tried Coke after she went out to work and earned her own money.
Restaurants like KFC seem to have appeared in Longcheng around 2,000 years ago. At the time, Chen Pan had returned home for the Lunar New Year, and while discussing a place to eat with a few friends, someone suggested the newly opened KFC. But everyone, considering the high prices, tacitly gave up. Afterward, Chen Pan never went back to that place, so she had a very deep impression of it.
Quickly suppress the messy thoughts in your mind.
Then Chen Pan carefully told everyone about the promotional methods and customer acquisition methods she had seen in her previous life and used when she opened her own Malatang restaurant.
That day, Chen Pan finally spoke his mind.
In fact, all the promotional methods Chen Pan mentioned are promotional methods used by everyone in big cities. Even in Longcheng, although there are fewer people doing this now, it is impossible that there are none at all.
Anyway, Chen Pan used the excuse that she saw it on TV and in a magazine to let Grandpa Chen and Qin Yang know everything. Why did she know this?
Nowadays, the daily news broadcasts on television feature reports on certain places and companies using certain methods and tactics to help local residents, villagers, and businesses escape poverty and become prosperous. The local satellite TV station in Longcheng even has a dedicated economics program dedicated to teaching farmers how to start businesses and farm. Sometimes, when their own city doesn't have any classic examples, the station will even show classic examples of people making money in other cities.
Nowadays, many newspapers and magazines, in addition to writing celebrity gossip, also have many special interviews with young entrepreneurs and veteran entrepreneurs.
So Chen Pan said that she accidentally saw these things from magazines and newspapers of her classmates and friends, and Chen Aiguo and Qin Yang had no doubts.
Anyway, that afternoon, Chen Pan spoke her mind without hesitation. After she finished, everything was just as it always was. She now made a point of going to bed early, getting up early, eating well, and exercising. After dinner, she worked around the shop for a bit, and then, around eleven o'clock, she began to toss and turn in her sleep. By eleven-thirty, her grandfather had completely closed the shop, and Chen Pan had completely drifted off to sleep.
She slept soundly, but Chen Aiguo in the room behind her and Qin Yang in the next room could not fall asleep for a long time.
Chen Aiguo was considering Chen Pan's suggestions of hanging banners, buy six get one free, or buy ten get two free. He was also considering Chen Pan's suggestion of offering free tea while the weather was hot, or perhaps making some sweet mash and selling it.
"My granddaughter is really capable."
Thinking of the way the landlord next door could only listen blankly while his granddaughter talked so much that afternoon, Chen Aiguo smiled silently in the dark night, and then he once again thought that sending his granddaughter to school was indeed the right choice.
Just as Chen Aiguo fanned himself with a broken palm-leaf fan, his mind wandering, Qin Yang, unable to sleep, simply turned on the light, put up the table on the kang, and turned on the small fan. He took out the membership card he had drawn with Chen Pan that afternoon and slowly began to revise it again.
"This card is not in your name. Please present it when checking out. If you don't report the loss, you won't get a replacement—"
Qin Yang carefully revised each item one by one and decided to go to a printing shop to make this membership card the next day. As for other promotional activities, he decided to hold off for the time being and deal with them later.
When his mother had surgery in March, he spent all the more than 10,000 yuan he earned from selling his house.
Although his family ran a small shop and rented out several properties, much of the money for the shop and the construction of the houses was actually borrowed. Even their house in the city wasn't purchased outright; they borrowed some money from the bank, which took several years to pay off.
Anyway, because of his mother's illness and his decision to build a house, his family's financial situation, which had finally improved, collapsed again.
In order to pay off his debts as quickly as possible and save more money for his mother's medical treatment, Qin Yang now puts all his thoughts on the store and making money. In order to make money as quickly as possible, he is willing to try any method.
In her mother's mind, it must be a particularly regrettable thing that he sold the future wedding house prepared for him by his grandparents.
So Qin Yang started to think about making money quickly so that he could buy back the house or buy a better one in the future.
The doctor said that given his mother's current condition, she should relax and enjoy herself more.
Qin Yang also had the idea of finding an opportunity to take his mother out for more travel and fun.
All of this requires him to make a lot of money.
So he wants to try any method or way to make money and doesn't want to miss it.
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