On the second day of the three brothers' summer vacation, Liu Meiyun fulfilled her promise and took them to the department store to buy a TV.
If she doesn't buy it now, her ears will be pierced by the scolding.
In 1981, buying a TV was a luxury for most families. An ordinary 12-inch black-and-white TV cost five or six hundred yuan, and imported color ones were even more expensive, costing more than a thousand yuan.
Liu Meiyu looked around at the counter for a long time, and finally discussed with her three sons and decided to buy a domestically produced 14-inch Peony color TV for more than 900 yuan, and also a TV ticket.
"Mom! Let me hold you!"
When it comes to buying a TV, Dabao was the most enthusiastic. He was asking the salesperson at the counter about the movement and the cathode ray tube, and the salesperson was sweating on his forehead.
Erbao and Xiaobao don't care about that. As long as the person speaking on the screen is in color, they are fine with anything.
When Lu Erbao was paying, she saw the manager right in front of her and suddenly started to bargain with him.
"Uncle, we are all elementary school students, so is there no discount?"
The manager was stunned for a moment. He had just been promoted a few days ago and had encountered customers who haggled with the salesperson at the counter during these days, but this was the first time that someone came directly to him to bargain, and it was a child.
He's quite handsome, and the way he's dressed doesn't seem like he's short of money. Then I looked over at the counter and saw that he was a good fellow with two brothers. It seemed that the children's parents didn't notice at all, as they had already paid and were filling out forms.
The manager smiled and thought the kid was smart, but all the prices in their department stores were clearly marked.
"Little boy, this is a department store. The prices are the same no matter who comes to buy."
Lu Erbao was a little disappointed: "Uncle, you have too few activities here, and there are no discounts."
The manager did not take the child's words seriously. He just said a few words to fool the child with a fake smile.
"Mom, I want to open a department store when I grow up!"
Before leaving the department store, Lu Erbao suddenly expressed his feelings.
Liu Meiyu didn't take it seriously. After all, they are still unsettled at their age, and what they want to do changes every year.
A few years ago, when Lu Erbao was earning pocket money by selling junk, he even said that when he grew up he wanted to take the job of the boss of a scrap recycling station.
"Then keep going! Mom will support you mentally!"
After bringing the TV home, the three brothers officially began their happy summer vacation.
Today she invited her friends to her home to eat watermelon and watch TV. Tomorrow she made an appointment with them to go swimming at the gym, and the day after tomorrow she will play basketball and table tennis. Her daily schedule is even busier than her as a businesswoman.
As for the clothing store, Liu Meiyu was only responsible for recruiting two new sales people, and the rest of the work was basically left to Yao Shunliu and two store managers.
Huamei only has three stores in Beijing now, and it will definitely expand to all parts of the country in the future. How can she coordinate it all by herself? Yao Shunliu is a partner who needs training. If the other sales staff and store managers are trained, they can also travel around the country to help her manage stores in the future.
It was much more difficult for Liu Meiyun to find a professional manager for herself in the 1980s than in later generations. Those who had graduated from university and were capable were all aiming for the iron rice bowl in state-owned enterprises, and she looked down on those who were incompetent, so she could only slowly cultivate and train the existing talent base.
As a result, the West District branch, which Liu Meiyun did not interfere much, went smoothly from preparation to opening, and all promotional activities were carried out without missing a single one. In addition, the clothing styles in the store were indeed very trendy, so although the daily turnover was not as high as that of the Central City and Friendship Road branches, it was also very satisfactory.
"Across the street, Xin Ting opened before us. The clothing styles in their store are almost identical to those in the department store, but the prices are very low, so their business is also good."
Seeing that Liu Meiyu had not come to the store for several days, Yao Shunliu told her about what had happened in the past few days.
Liu Meiyu came to join in the fun on the day Xinting opened its business, and confirmed that the owner was Bai Ting. She never came here again after that, mainly because it was a bit far from her home, and it took two hours to ride a bicycle there and back.
A shirt that costs more than 40 yuan in a department store was sold by Xinting for less than 30 yuan, and no invoice is required. It is indeed a lot cheaper.
"But I noticed that a lot of the goods in her store were sold out, and she hasn't restocked them recently."
Yao Shunliu found it strange. Xinting had been open for two months and business was really good because of the low prices. It was so good that Yao Shunliu was worried that it would affect the business of his own store. He even asked Liu Meiyu whether she wanted to lower the price by one or two yuan.
Liu Meiyu refused without thinking.
Nowadays, the market is large and competition is small. There is no need to compete for customers by engaging in price wars. Huamei clothing is positioned for young people, and novel styles are the key to attracting customers. Besides, their prices are not high, and the working class can afford them if they grit their teeth.
Moreover, Huamei is a chain of clothing stores, so if they want to lower prices, they have to lower prices all together. For the sake of the turnover of one branch, the other stores have to follow suit and make concessions. Whoever does the buying and selling will suffer.
"I don't know, maybe there's a problem with the supply."
Liu Meiyu looked through the account book and made a random guess, not really curious.
On the other hand, Bai Ting was indeed extremely worried about the supply of goods for the clothing store.
She had finally found Manager Wu from the department store and persuaded him to help her get a batch of low-priced "sample clothes" from the factory's production line, thinking that they could form a long-term cooperation. However, after less than two months, the news of replacing someone in the college entrance examination appeared in the newspapers. Not only was Manager Wu fired, he was also sent to jail.
Bai Ting was almost furious. She had given Manager Wu a lot of "benefits" before, and now that her business had just started to take off, he had cut her off.
Since she couldn't rely on Manager Wu, she had to go to the textile factory herself to find Director Wu who had helped them make the "sample clothes".
The two were cousins. They had dinner together before, and Bai Ting asked him to help find out the factories that supplied Huamei.
Bai Ting had thought about looking for a production line with drawings, but she had visited almost all the factories in Beijing. No one would take a single order of several hundred pieces. The rural enterprises that were willing to take the order did not have the raw materials. She also did not know what the boss of Huamei had negotiated with the factory.
At first, she thought that Boss Yao was just an ordinary self-employed businessman, but later she watched him go to the south again and again, from retail to wholesale, and finally to open his own clothing store. The speed at which he got rich and made money was smoother than that of her who traveled through time.
Now they have opened three stores in Beijing. She is far behind them in terms of clothing styles and the speed of adding new products.
At first she was also puzzled. She didn't know the background of Boss Yao and why he seemed to be so good at seizing business opportunities every time, not only organizing promotional activities but also placing advertisements in newspapers.
It was not until later in the dormitory when she heard that Liu Meiyu was also the owner of Huamei Clothing Store that she suddenly understood.
It turns out that Boss Yao is borrowing a backstage!
Liu Meiyun's husband is a military officer, and her in-laws are said to be even more powerful. So they brought Liu Meiyun into the partnership, relied on the Lu family's background, placed advertisements and promoted the products, and found manufacturers. How difficult could that be?
Watching Huamei's gradual rise, the name Liu Meiyu always lingers around her. After graduation, she didn't stay at home to take care of the children, but relied on the influence of her husband's family to make a living outside. Bai Ting didn't believe that she could always be so lucky and not be exposed.
But that has nothing to do with her.
She still wants to do business well in Beijing, and doesn't want to cause trouble and offend the Lu family now.
"Director Wu, didn't we agree before that you just changed the order? There are so many overstocked goods in the warehouse. Can you give me 300 to 500 pieces at a time? Can't we make money together?"
The man wiped the sweat from his forehead, handed over an envelope, shook his head and said decisively: "Boss Bai, I really won't do this again in the future. I lost my mind last time. The share you gave me is all here. I will return it to you without missing a cent. Don't come again in the future."
If he continues, he might even lose his job.
Some time ago, his cousin who was a manager in a department store approached him and said there was a job that could make extra money, which was to find a way to pass off the backlog of goods in the factory warehouse as "defective products" every month and transfer them to individuals at a low price, or to sell a few pieces from the department store through their supply channels every month.
At first, he couldn't resist the temptation of money and followed the lead in one or two jobs. He made a lot of money, and the commission for each job was more than his monthly salary. But he was worried every day when he went to work in the factory. Later, his cousin's family was exposed for replacing someone else's college quota. Not only did the couple lose their jobs, but his cousin is now in jail.
With the experience of his cousin as a precedent, Director Wu would never dare to do anything that would let the country down again, no matter how much money he was offered.
Bai Ting frowned: "Director Wu."
"Miss Bai, I'm so sorry." The man interrupted her and stood up without leaving any room for her: "I really can't help you with this matter, please go find someone else."
“…”
Watching the man hurried away without looking back, Bai Ting felt a throbbing pain in her temples.
Why do I feel like I've traveled through time and space, but I'm still as unlucky as before?
She had been in partnership with someone in the hair ornament business. However, when the business was successful, the partner turned against her, secretly cut off the supply of raw materials, and went out to open his own business.
In the meantime, I bought goods from merchants and set up stalls. Not only did I almost get caught several times, but I couldn't keep up with the courses in school and had to retake them.
Now, after finally saving tens of thousands of dollars to buy a shop and open a store, my partner suddenly went to jail!
Seeing that the store business was getting better and better and the shelves were becoming emptier and emptier, Bai Ting had no choice but to go to Yangcheng by herself.
Before, she was reluctant to go to Guangzhou to pick up the goods because she couldn't carry much on her own each time, and the security had been bad in the past two years. Once, when she was taking a train to Guangzhou, she encountered several robbers who stole most of her money before she even arrived in Guangzhou.
If she had no other choice, she really didn't want to go to Guangzhou alone.
But she couldn't find anyone she could trust.
For a moment, the face of her ex-husband Sun Aiguo suddenly flashed through Bai Ting's mind.
Thinking about it now, she suddenly felt that she might have made the wrong choice.
Even if she doesn't have children, she should find someone to adopt one. If she were still a military officer's wife, maybe she would be the one that Boss Yao came to curry favor with and seek cooperation with!
There's no need to make her so passive now. She opened a clothing store and ran out of stock after only two months!
But then she thought of Sun Aiguo's tough mother. Bai Ting shook her head and quickly put the whole family out of her mind.
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