Dong Sanmei was puzzled after hearing this. The street was so wide, how come she didn't see the two of them on the street? Could her sister-in-law be lying to her? What a coincidence.
She suddenly remembered something and asked, "I understand now, did you buy that Santana sedan parked downstairs?"
Dong Sanmei could only conclude that only her younger brother and sister-in-law could see her when they were in the car, while she couldn't see them. Otherwise, it would be impossible for her not to see her younger brother and sister-in-law when they were walking on the opposite side of the street.
Dongqing said, "Yes, we just bought the car this afternoon."
Dong Sanmei wasn't surprised that her younger brother bought a car; he certainly had the money to buy one now. Only then did she realize her earlier assumption. She said, "No wonder I didn't see you on the street, it turns out you saw us in the car."
Li Yuzhu smiled and said, "I did see you two in the car, so you're admitting it."
Dong Sanmei's smile faded. She said, "What's there to hide? Isn't it normal for my sister to find a boyfriend? His name is Li Wei, he's 28 years old, three years older than me. A colleague introduced him to me, and we've known each other for over three months. After graduating from university, he was assigned to work at the local industrial and commercial bureau. He's here to help my sister choose a boyfriend. What do you think of him?"
Dongqing said, "I can't say for sure. We don't know anything about him. After all, you're the one dating. But he's quite handsome. Whether it's a good match or not is up to you, Third Sister. Nobody can help you with this."
Dong Sanmei said, "Alright, I'm an adult now. I'll handle my own marriage well. Let's talk about it when we're ready, and I'll bring her back for you to see."
Dongqing felt gratified after hearing his third sister's words. In this era, someone her age was considered an old maid; she should have been married and had children long ago. He said, "Okay, when will you bring her back so our family can meet her? Go wash your hands and eat."
At this moment, Li Yuzhu had already brought the prepared food to the table. The food she made was very simple, with two dishes: one meat and one vegetable. One was stir-fried shredded pork with chili peppers, and the other was stir-fried green vegetables. Although the food was simple, it looked very appetizing.
After her younger brother remarried, they became a complete family again. Whenever her younger brother and sister-in-law were home, Dong Sanmei would come over for dinner after get off work. The siblings also treated each other the same, and their affection for each other was very deep. They should create a family atmosphere together and share the joys of life.
After dinner, Dong Sanmei went home to rest. Dong Qing said, "We can't always trouble Second Sister to help us get orders. I'll take some time to go to the telecom office to apply for a telephone installation. Our family needs a phone."
In those days, having a telephone installed at home was a luxury; most people simply couldn't afford it.
In those days, telephone numbers were four digits. Telephones now have rotary dialing functions and are gradually being upgraded to semi-automatic dialing and answering functions by the switchboard. Within the county, you can dial directly to call someone, but long-distance calls still need to be transferred by the switchboard.
To make a call outside the region, you needed to dial a zero first. After hearing the dial tone, you could make the call directly. However, once connected, you still needed to be transferred by the city's switchboard. Making a long-distance call was very troublesome back then.
Li Yuzhu said, "That works too. Once the phone is installed, we'll notify all our customers so they can just call home to place orders. That will be much more convenient and save my second sister the trouble of calling every day."
Dongqing said, "That's not a good idea either. We're often not home, and we might miss the phone."
Li Yuzhu said, "That's easy. We'll have the clients call at noon and in the evening. If we're not home in the evening, my third sister will stay at the house. That way, we won't miss any calls from clients."
Dong Qing thought about it and agreed. He said, "Okay, I'll go to the telecommunications office to apply for a phone line when I have some free time."
After remarrying, Li Yuzhu rested at home for two days. On the second day, after breakfast, Dong Qing drove her to Su Village.
On their way to Su Village, Li Yuzhu said, "Our business has been disrupted. Some customers have asked us to lower our prices, saying that other people's goods are cheaper than ours."
Dong Qing said, "I anticipated this phenomenon. We can't lower prices; if we do, business will collapse. If our customers lower prices, they'll follow suit, creating a vicious cycle. If that happens, our business won't be able to survive until the end of the year."
Li Yuzhu said, "We can't not lower the price. Giving the manager a 100-yuan gift doesn't have that much influence, because others can also give him a 100-yuan gift, or even a 200-yuan gift. Have you thought about that?"
Dong Qing pondered for a moment and said, "What you said is all true. We can give them gifts that they can't afford. Our clients are still state-owned enterprises. Giving gifts to the managers is very effective. We will temporarily insist on not lowering prices and take a portion of the money from the price reduction to give to the client managers."
From now on, leave 1,000 yuan for the account manager every time we unload goods. I believe no one else can give that much money. If the account manager always thinks about us, we won't lose the customer.
If things really don't work out in the future, I'll just give them two thousand at once and let them lower their prices as they please. They're too inexperienced to go against me in the short term, so I won't say anything too far ahead. But in the short term, I'll also cripple my competitors, otherwise we won't be able to do business."
It has to be said that Dong Qing's move was a brilliant one. A manager in a state-owned enterprise earns only a few dozen yuan a month, and no one could resist his extravagant gift-giving. No matter how cheap other people's goods were, the manager could dismiss them with a single sentence: "We don't need the goods right now!"
Wholesalers don't allow them to quote prices at all; if the customers don't want the goods, it's useless no matter how cheap their goods are.
Good things often come with difficulties, which is not terrible; it just means taking a few detours. What is truly terrible is being turned away.
That's how the market economy works. Wholesalers in different regions collude on prices. Dongqing supplies all to large wholesalers. As long as they don't lower their prices, other wholesalers won't lower their prices either, even if they get their goods at a lower price. Nobody is afraid of losing money.
No one can control everything in the business world. Dong Qing's method might work for a few months, but it won't last long, and he knows that too.
As the saying goes, even if a chicken doesn't urinate, it still has a way to poop. Their goods won't sell to wholesalers, so they'll try to wholesale them directly to small vendors. Small vendors don't care about anything else; they'll take whatever's cheap.
They dare to sell their wholesale goods cheaply, which will eventually cause market chaos, and even the local product wholesale companies will eventually be unable to withstand the pressure.
In Dong Qing's view, as long as his many clients do not lower prices in the short term, the market will not be chaotic. He can maintain this situation until the end of the year by using various methods, which will only require him to spend more money on gifts.
Losing this little bit of money is really nothing to him. If he lowers the price, the loss for each store will be more than 1,000 yuan. If this vicious cycle continues, even 10,000 yuan of goods from one store might not be enough to cover the losses in the long run.
That's why Dongqing insists on not lowering prices and uses gift-giving as a means to control the market, for as long as possible. Let them do whatever they want.
When things get out of control, I'll have made enough money. At worst, I can give the car and clients to my sister-in-law to work with, and then focus on running the company with my wife.
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