Chapter 49: Competition

Pu Xiang remembered that Yang Xiaoling said that her parents were both full-time workers in the same factory. After she got married, her mother gave her job to her ex-husband.

Now her ex-husband has hooked up with the factory director's daughter, so he has become the factory director's son-in-law. It would be easy for him to do something bad to his former father-in-law who is still working in the factory.

In fact, there is never a shortage of flatterers in this world. As long as someone shows a little bit of malice, there will naturally be people who step forward to vent their anger on the "master".

Pu Xiang was thinking about the upcoming wave of layoffs, and thought it would be a good idea to sell her job now, at least she could still get some money.

And starting a business now can give you an advantage.

"A blessing in disguise is not necessarily a bad thing. The country now encourages people to start small businesses, so it is not necessarily a bad thing to leave a factory."

Pu Xiang persuaded Yang Xiaoling while going to look at the store.

She now has a habit of riding her bicycle around the main streets of the county every day.

The several stores she was going to visit today were all vacant after the Chinese New Year.

I asked around, but unfortunately, they were all rented out and not for sale.

Pu Xiang has no debts now and still has some spare cash. However, she knows that this money will be worthless in a short time, so she only wants to buy a store.

I looked at three or four stores in a row. The ones with cheap prices were not in satisfactory locations, while the ones with satisfactory locations had expensive rents.

There is also the issue of store size.

Pu Xiang was not in a hurry and did not make a decision immediately. He planned to wait and see.

I waited for more than half a month but didn't see any good stores. The few I looked at before were already rented out.

Pu Xiang was a little disappointed. This is the situation now. Everything is missing.

Yang Xiaoling did give Pu Xiang some news, saying that her father had sold his job, and now the three of them were free, so they were thinking of opening a store or something.

Pu Xiang thought it was a good idea and asked what kind of business Yang Xiaoling was planning to do. Yang Xiaoling said she was going to sell some small items, such as shoes and socks, and she was going to rent a stall in the small commodity market.

Pu Xiang thought it was a good idea. It was a small business and the investment would not be that big regardless of whether it would succeed or not.

If it turns out that I'm really not cut out for business, the loss won't be much.

In the blink of an eye, another two or three months passed.

The weather is getting warmer, and everyone has changed from heavy winter clothes to light and beautiful spring clothes.

Pu Xiang now wears a suit, skirt and high heels every day. If it's cold, she wears a windbreaker and ties a bright scarf around her neck.

There was no progress in finding a store, and Pu Xiang couldn't help but become anxious.

Sometimes small places really develop too slowly. She wanted to go to the city to take a look, but she really didn't understand the situation in the city. Even in the next few decades of her life, she basically rarely went to the city.

All her businesses were in the county town, so later she simply went to Hai City to be a full-time mother-in-law and just took care of the children.

There is no movement in Puxiang's new store for the time being, but her neighbor has moved.

The couple who bought the old Xu's store originally sold dry goods, but who knows what went wrong with them, they suddenly sold out all the goods and started renovating the store.

Other people’s home renovations are none of Pu Xiang’s business.

If you open a shop to do business, it is normal to renovate the shop every two years.

But the abnormal thing is that the decoration style of this store looks more and more familiar. It changes every three days and becomes more and more like my own home.

Not only Pu Xiang noticed it, Shi Wenya and Zhao Qing were also stunned.

"Xiangxiang, they are packaging this like our store, right? They package their dried goods like this? They are crazy!"

Pu Xiang looked at it expressionlessly and thought, they probably don't sell dried goods anymore.

Her guess turned out to be correct. After the renovation was completed, they changed the sign on the door as well.

Fragrant beauty.

The full name of Pu Xiang's shop is "Xiang Meiren", a specially designed handwritten art font. The other party copied it almost exactly, emphasizing the enlarged "Xiang". Pu Xiang added a smaller "Meiren" at the end, while the other party added three words "Xiang Meiren". People who don't know the difference can't tell the difference at first glance.

"That's too much, it's really too much!"

Shi Wenya and Zhao Qing were so angry that if Pu Xiang hadn't stopped them, they would have rushed up and had a fight.

I've never seen anything so shameful!

There is nothing wrong with you doing business as a competitor, but copying like this clearly shows that you are trying to steal the current business.

Pu Xiang looked at the owner of the other dry grocery store rolling her eyes at her smugly, and she suddenly laughed.

The other party also followed her example and tied a scarf, wore a suit, and cut her hair short.

I really learned it 100%.

Pu Xiang looked the other person up and down, then turned around and pulled him back into the store.

"This is the first time I have felt the meaning of the phrase 'ugly imitating others' so directly. This outfit I'm wearing really doesn't suit her."

Shi Wenya and Zhao Qing looked at each other: "...Puff!"

The two of them reminisced and laughed. They were so angry just now that they didn't have time to care about each other's outfit.

When Pu Xiang mentioned this, the two of them couldn't help but laugh.

Pu Xiang is tall and slim, with a majestic appearance, but her head is small, so her face doesn't look big.

As for the other party, although she is not short, she is not tall either, maybe 1.6 meters at most. She is in her thirties, and cannot be said to be fat, but her upper body is thick, her neck is short, and her face is round. This outfit is really a bit of a disaster on her.

Normally, Pu Xiang is not such a mean person. She believes that a good figure is natural and dressing well requires talent. As long as it is clean and tidy, she thinks it is all right. However, when it comes to such a vicious person as the dry grocery store owner, she does not hesitate to attack him with words.

As long as you change the name of the store, or change your outfit to suit her, instead of copying her style completely, she won't say anything bad about you.

After commenting on the other person's outfit, Shi Wenya felt a little worried: "Xiangxiang, our business won't really be taken away by them, right?"

She just saw that the styles they sell are many of the same as what they sell.

There is no need to guess, this must be goods imported from Lin City.

Pu Xiang is not worried about this.

"Don't be impatient. Let's wait and see. The only way they can steal my business is to sell at a lower price. With the same purchase price, do you think the lady boss would be willing to make less money?"

Zhao Qing shook her head first: "She is such a calculative person, she definitely doesn't want to earn less than us."

Pu Xiang said: "Since she doesn't want to make less money and wants to sell at a lower price, the only thing she can do is to buy cheaper goods when purchasing. There are many similar products in the wholesale market in Lin City, but the quality is different."

Shi Wenya and Zhao Qing had both gone with Pu Xiang to purchase goods. When they arrived at the wholesale market, they saw dozens or even hundreds of vendors selling the same styles, so choosing the right goods was definitely a test of one's vision.

Shi Wenya originally wanted to open a small shop, but after going there to purchase goods a few times, she gave up the idea.

Every time she went to purchase goods, she felt dazzled. She had no standard for choosing anything and everything looked the same to her.

Pu Xiang finally gave a summary: "Just wait and see, their business may not be successful. Apart from the boss's vision in purchasing goods and her taste in matching clothes, which women's clothing store have you seen with big bosses? Who is willing to change clothes and try on clothes in it?"

While Pu Xiang and the others were waiting to see what would happen next, the owner of the dry goods store was quite pleased with herself.

"I told you, I just copied her. What can she do? Look, look, she doesn't even dare to fart. What can she do to me?"

The boss's slightly uneasy heart suddenly felt relieved.

"You're right. You're smart. Her business seems to be doing really well. How come there are so many old ladies spending money on clothes?"

He always thought that selling food was the way to make money. People have a mouth and if they don’t eat, they will starve to death. This is a necessity.

But it’s different with clothes. It’s enough to wear them. Why do you need to buy them every day?

A piece of clothing can be worn for several years.

No matter how he thought about it, he felt that the women's clothing store business would not be able to survive, but the business was so good that before the Chinese New Year, the store was packed with people.

Many people spend hundreds of dollars on it.

A few hundred dollars!

We are already having a good New Year, where did these spendthrift old women come from?

The couple who worked in a dry grocery store watched this every day until their eyes turned red. They couldn't sleep at night and felt that they should change their careers.

However, neither of them had ever been involved in the women's clothing industry. After much hesitation, they finally gritted their teeth, bought tickets and went to Lin City.

They all heard that the clothes in Puxiang's store were imported from Lin City, so they went to check out the situation first.

After seeing this, the two of them decided to change their careers.

The wholesale market in Lin City is so huge that it is packed with people. It is said that some people come from several provinces to purchase goods.

Just ask around and you won't hear of anyone losing money.

This is why Pu Xiang didn't hear these words. If she had heard them, she would definitely understand what was wrong.

Don’t those who can’t do this job just disappear from this group quietly?

The rest of the people who come to pick up the goods are either new to the business or have already established themselves in this field.

Later generations came up with a special term for this, called survivor bias.

However, the couple who owned the dry grocery store didn't understand any of this, and they just went ahead and did what they wanted.

The goods were cleared out, the store was renovated, the clothes were delivered, and everything was ready. We chose an auspicious day on a weekend when there were many people, set off firecrackers, and opened for business.

However, the expected scene of a huge influx of customers did not occur. The excitement of the opening attracted many people. The proprietress greeted them warmly, and some people followed her into the store out of curiosity to take a look.

As a result, no matter which customer it was, none of them wanted to try on the clothes after seeing them.

Even some younger girls and wives would walk out as soon as they entered the store.

What is going on?

The proprietress and the boss were speechless. Seeing that business was not picking up, the proprietress told the customers who came in that her clothes were fashionable goods in Lin City and the prices were dozens of dollars cheaper than those next door. People just took a look and left.

It wasn't until a few days later that the proprietress finally figured out the pattern. The few orders she made were made during lunch and dinner when her husband went home to cook and she was left alone in the store.

"Don't come to the store tomorrow. I'll be in charge of the store alone. Just bring me lunch and dinner."

The boss lady gave her man an order, and she wanted to verify it.

As a result, the store's business really picked up the next day. Customers who came in to look at clothes, even if they did not pay for the clothes in the end, would take the clothes to try on.

It turns out the problem lies with the man in the store.

The dry goods store owner waved her hand and said that she would be in charge of the store alone from now on. Her husband was not allowed to enter the store. Even if he wanted to deliver meals to her, he could only call her outside the door to get them.