Soon, the chairmen of Samsung's 26 branches in Seoul all arrived at the meeting hall of the Lee family manor.
Li Zhenxi was one of them. She pushed open the door and entered the conference hall. Unlike the usual noise, the whole place was silent today.
Looking up, I saw that the head of the Li family was already sitting on the platform at the very top.
Li Zhenxi quickly found her seat and sat down.
Five more minutes passed.
The head of the Li family opened his closed eyes and spoke.
"Everyone should be here by now, so I'll just briefly explain something."
I think five conglomerates are too many for South Korea; four would be enough.
These words caused an uproar. Such a big matter was being talked about so simply?
"Cough cough."
The head of the Li family coughed twice, and the entire room immediately fell silent.
"Don't make such a fuss. You must remember, our Li family feeds half of the Korean population. The Koreans are our Li family's Koreans! Do you understand?"
"Understood! Loyalty! Honesty!"
The head of the Li family nodded, then slowly stood up and walked outside.
He kept talking to himself as he walked.
"Ugh, I'm thirsty and want to drink something, but the doctor won't let me. I really miss Lotte juice. It tastes just like it did when I was a kid. I'm getting old, and I don't know if I'll be able to get up tomorrow if I drink this."
Although he was talking to himself, his voice echoed throughout the entire conference hall.
Lee Jung-seo and the others realized that the chaebol that should have disappeared was Lotte!
Everyone immediately understood what they had to do.
The next day, news suddenly spread that the head of Samsung, the Li family patriarch, was seriously ill.
In South Korea, this would be a huge event; in less than a morning, it was already widely known.
In the afternoon, new news came out that the head of the Li family had suffered food poisoning from drinking a bottle of Lotte beverage, resulting in vomiting and diarrhea. The old man was too old and his body could not withstand it, which is why he became seriously ill.
That evening, major South Korean television stations reported the news.
This news involves two major conglomerates; even a casual broadcast of this news would generate a huge buzz.
Sure enough, the news broadcast immediately sparked widespread discussion on South Korean social media.
Moreover, people would occasionally step forward and share their experiences, saying that they had also gotten sick from drinking Lotte's beverages and eating Lotte's snacks, suffering from vomiting and diarrhea.
As more and more people say online that they have also suffered food poisoning from Lotte food.
This related topic also topped the trending lists on major South Korean social media platforms.
South Korean authorities conducted surprise inspections of Lotte's major subsidiaries overnight.
The investigation revealed a number of problems, such as a dirty and chaotic production environment, expired raw materials, and workers' non-compliance with hygiene standards.
In the past, even if these problems were discovered, the relevant departments dared not report them truthfully, after all, these were conglomerates!
How could a lowly department staff member have the courage to confront a conglomerate?
Moreover, the chaebols are very good at handling things. If a problem is found, they will give each of the inspectors a bag of hush money, and that will be the end of it.
But tonight is different. All the relevant personnel are wearing body cameras and the whole process is being recorded.
All problems discovered must be reported without exception, without any room for negotiation.
Moreover, the officials from the relevant departments came and went in a hurry. Even the senior executives of Lotte Food Factory hadn't arrived at the factory from their homes before the inspection was over and they left.
It was as if they were afraid of being eaten by zombies if they were even a second too slow.
Even more outrageous, the evidence recorded by these body cameras appeared directly on social media that same evening.
They didn't even wait until the next day.
In the middle of the night, social media, which should have been calm and peaceful, suddenly became excited because of these videos.
Keyboard warriors seemed to have received some kind of signal, and they all unleashed their flying keyboards!
They've started verbally attacking Lotte!
Lotte was completely dumbfounded; they didn't even have time to do any crisis management before they were already being criticized by the entire internet.
When the next day arrived at work, none of the Lotte Group's crisis management team members showed up, making the other employees realize that the situation was beyond repair.
So they were also quietly thinking about how to get away from Lotte as soon as possible.
If you leave now, you can leave with dignity. But if the group goes bankrupt, you'll be kicked out like a stray dog.
Sure enough, as soon as they arrived at work, they received news that supermarkets across the country were starting to return Lotte food products one after another.
More and more cases of food poisoning after consuming Lotte food products have appeared online.
Gradually, starting from some post, Lotte became synonymous with toxic food.
On this day, none of Lotte Group's top executives came to the company.
Actually, that's not quite right. These high-ranking officials were called back by Chairman Xin Xibing late last night for an emergency meeting.
After the meeting, everyone was sent out to contact old customers, reassure them, and tell them not to return the goods.
Therefore, a large portion of those who call to request returns after returning to work have already been stopped by the company's senior management.
Otherwise, Lotte Group's customer service department would probably be inundated with calls.
Although Lotte managed to keep the distributors in check, customers weren't buying it.
On that day, Lotte Foods' sales plummeted by more than 80 percent.
In other words, a supermarket that used to sell a hundred bottles of Lotte drinks a day only sold less than twenty today.
In supermarkets, if your products don't sell, they naturally won't want them anymore. Otherwise, would they just let them sit in the warehouse like mushrooms?
Even though these Lotte executives had already informed them, they were still taken aback by the dramatic drop in transaction volume.
At this point, a little bit of personal connection won't be of any use. Even if a connection were useful, at most it would mean that the goods in the warehouse wouldn't be returned, but buying more would be impossible.
When it came time for the evening news, all the television stations in South Korea, as if by prior arrangement, were broadcasting reports on the Lotte Market factory issue.
The problems uncovered by these investigations are well-founded, supported by evidence, and based on the truth, making it hard for anyone not to believe them.
Shin Se-byeong, chairman of Lotte Group, had been entertaining clients all day and had just come out after drinking with a large chain of supermarket owners.
He drank several bottles of liquor by himself before the other party gave up the idea of ​​returning the goods.
At this moment, Xin Xibing was sitting in the back of his Mercedes. He had drunk too much and was feeling a bit unwell, so he opened the car window a little to let some fresh air in.
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