Chapter 64: Something Happened at the Dyeing Workshop!
Zhou Mujiao was talking to Ma Dalang when Sister Liu couldn't help but rush over and interrupt, "Ajiao, are you sure you didn't deliver the wrong thing? It's still the height of summer, why are you wearing such thick clothes?"
"No mistake."
Zhou Mujiao explained, "Your store has been getting fewer customers lately, and sales have dropped significantly compared to the previous period. Are you worried and trying to figure out why?"
Sister Liu nodded: "Yes, Xiaolan and I analyzed it and believe that it was caused by other clothing stores copying the trend and deliberately lowering prices."
Zhou Mujiao explained: "The vicious competition among peers is part of it, but the most crucial part is something you haven't thought of. Sister Liu, although the weather is still hot, summer is almost over. Those who were going to buy summer clothes have already done so, and those who haven't probably won't come to buy them. If we continue selling summer clothes, business will only decline and it will cause a backlog."
If you have time, take a look at other stores. Have you noticed a decrease in customers? That's because customer demand has been temporarily met, and the market is saturated. At this point, we need to proactively identify and stimulate new customer needs.
Autumn is just around the corner, and once it arrives, the weather will turn cooler. Everyone will rush out to buy clothes, and it will be easy to not be able to find anything. Even if you do find something, it will mostly be something you don't like. For the same price, other people's clothes look good, but yours doesn't. Anyone would feel resentful in that situation.
Our clothes are new and of good quality, and we're ahead of the competition, so they don't have to rush to wear them. They can take their time to pick and choose, and when the weather gets cooler, they can wear their favorite clothes directly to the street.
I'll be sending out five batches of autumn clothing. Around the third batch, other shops will start receiving their autumn clothes, so the sales of the last two batches won't depend solely on being first; you'll need to use your own strategies. When the last batch of autumn clothing arrives, I'll also be sending out winter clothing.
Sister Liu suddenly realized: "Ah Jiao, you're amazing! If I were half as smart as you, I would be the number one businesswoman in Daliang!"
Ma Dalang chimed in, "That's not necessarily true. You may be as clever as Miss Zhou, but you might not be as decisive as her. And even if you are as decisive as her, you might not be able to find a lover like Young Master Zhao who always understands and caters to her, or capable subordinates like me and Liang An!"
Sister Liu said fiercely, "You think you're so great, you're all talk!"
"Tsk, is Little Willow angry? Hey, hey, don't do that! My mouth is practically nonexistent, just pretend I didn't fart?"
"Go outside and fart!"
Before Liang An even entered, he heard Sister Liu and Ma Dalang bickering. He quickly came in and said, "Brother Ma, you'd better take it easy. If you anger Sister Liu, she might just scold you a few times, but my fists don't discriminate."
"Tsk!"
Ma Dalang muttered something under his breath, finished explaining the situation, and went back to his work.
Liang An stepped forward: "Miss Zhou, may I speak to you in private?"
Seeing that Liang An's expression was not good, Zhou Mujiao also stopped smiling.
When the two arrived at the backyard of the clothing workshop, Liang An couldn't wait any longer: "Miss Zhou, I have failed your trust!"
Zhou Mujiao was still in the mood to joke: "You've been valued by a noble person, and you've come to say goodbye to me today?"
“My dear Miss Zhou, you are my benefactor. Would I be out of my mind to follow someone else instead of my true benefactor?” Liang An said with a wry smile, and then confessed, “Miss Zhou, I can’t hide this from you anymore. I messed things up at the dye shop. Something went wrong.”
Zhou Mujiao asked him to sit down and poured him a glass of water: "No rush, tell me slowly."
After the incident, Liang An was extremely anxious, his mouth was covered in blisters, and he couldn't even remember when he last drank water. But when he saw Zhou Mujiao, her composure reassured him, and he drank six or seven cups of water in one go before finally revealing the truth.
Liang An is a good person in every other way, except that he is too sentimental and soft-hearted.
The dye shop owner had previously partnered with Boss Zhu, but he immediately poached the core workers from the dye shop to start his own business. Everything was going well and he quickly got on track. However, later, the dye shop owner came to his door with his wife, children, and elderly relatives, saying that he had no choice but to partner with Boss Zhu because if he didn't, Boss Zhu would cut off his business in Taohua County.
Having worked in the cloth shop for so many years, Liang An knew what kind of person Boss Zhu was. In addition, when he went to the dye shop alone to ask for cooperation, the other party agreed without hesitation. Liang An thought the dye shop owner had some sense of loyalty. Later, the dye shop owner's family knelt down and begged him to share a meal with them and give him a way out. Liang An's heart softened, so he let the dye shop owner work in his dye shop.
The dye shop owner was named Luo San. When he first arrived at the dye shop, he was very humble and took on all the hard and heavy work. He was also very familiar with all the processes and got along well with the workers. After observing him for a while, Liang An thought that Luo San was a good person and handed the dye shop over to him to manage.
"...As a result, after he took over the dye shop, the fabrics often made basic mistakes such as dyeing the wrong color or mixing colors and packaging them together. Every time I went to him, he would cry and beg me to give him another chance. I was soft-hearted and gave him a chance. Who knew that yesterday afternoon, he would actually bring those workers to me and demand more money, otherwise he would not start work!"
Liang An was filled with regret: "If I had known he would do this, even if people pointed fingers at me and called me a cold-blooded wolf, I would never have let him come to our dye shop! Miss Zhou, I have ruined your important business, I am truly ashamed, and I have no face to stay by your side any longer!"
"It's not that serious."
Zhou Mujiao remained calm after listening: "The fact that you were deceived by Luo San shows that you are a person of character, with your own bottom line and conscience, and you remember the good others have done for you. Not everyone has such qualities. As for being too soft-hearted, you have realized that this time yourself. Next time you encounter the same thing, you definitely won't fall for it again."
Everyone makes mistakes. Since I chose you, I want to give you the opportunity to try and the confidence to do so. Liang An, I don't want a machine that never makes mistakes. Even machines have programming errors and mechanical failures. Am I supposed to throw the whole machine away because of a tiny malfunction?
Liang An was almost in tears, because of guilt, gratitude, and Zhou Mujiao's trust.
"Alright, enough said. Let's go to the dye shop. I want to see what Luo San is up to!" Zhou Mujiao slammed her hand on the table and stood up.
The dye shop had a total of thirty workers, and there were many things in the shop that could be used to make weapons. Zhao Yunjing naturally wouldn't let Zhou Mujiao go there so easily, so he went to find Ma Dalang.
Ma Dalang led twenty people, dressed in uniform clothing. These were not traditional Liang attire, but rather clothes specially designed by Zhou Mujiao to make their work easier. They resembled modern food delivery worker uniforms, with the words "Zhou Yun Logistics" embroidered on the back. The clothes were yellow, and the appearance of the twenty-person team immediately attracted the attention of everyone on the street.
On the second floor of Hongyun Restaurant, Manager Su was reporting to his boss, Boss Tang, when he happened to look down and discover this unique sight. Looking ahead, he saw Zhou Mujiao.
He stopped and asked Boss Tang, "Sir, Miss Zhou seems to be in trouble. Should we send someone to take a look?"
Boss Tang also stood up, looked at Zhou Mujiao's increasingly smaller figure, and smiled: "You name a few people, and we'll go together."
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