Jiang Shiyue thought for a moment and said, "I want local food coupons, meat coupons, and sugar coupons..."
She listed several things at random.
The middle-aged man's eyes suddenly lit up, and his tone was full of affection for a big customer: "I have them all, how much do you want?"
"Two catties of meat coupons, ten catties of fine grain coupons, ten catties of white flour, half a catty of sugar cubes, half a catty of brown sugar, two catties of eggs, and some grain and oil coupons too."
"Meat coupons are 80 cents per pound..."
The middle-aged man was interrupted by Jiang Shiyue's frown just as he began to speak: "Outside, second-grade meat is only 70 or 80 cents per catty. Why is your ticket as expensive as the meat? Are you taking advantage of me because I don't know anything about it?"
The middle-aged man shook his head, perhaps realizing he'd made a mistake. His tone softened, "Comrade, if you say that, you really don't know your stuff. First time at the black market, right? Let me tell you this: if you don't have a ticket, meat here will be at least double the price. The same goes for other grains, oils, rice, and flour. If you don't believe me, take a look around first and come back to me."
Jiang Shiyue didn't believe it, so she took Yangyang for a walk around the yard and asked around. The answer was pretty much the same as what the middle-aged man said. However, the middle-aged man was probably a middleman, so the price was still a bit higher than buying directly from an individual.
A gray-haired woman saw Jiang Shiyue asking about the price of meat, so she came up to her and whispered, "Miss, do you want to buy some meat?"
Jiang Shiyue nodded.
The old woman said, "I'll give you a discount, one dollar and twenty cents per pound. It's all good meat! If my son Ga Wa wasn't so anxious to get married, we wouldn't have taken such a big risk and killed our pig."
Ga Wa is the name given to boys by the locals, meaning her son.
The pigs were raised by them themselves, but according to regulations, they had to be sold and purchased in a unified manner and sold at places designated by the commune, and the recycling price was much lower than the market price.
Going to the black market and selling it for more money is illegal.
"Auntie, it's not that I don't want to buy it, but I don't have any cash. Please leave me five pounds, and I will sell the clothes I'm wearing and buy it from you."
The old woman looked at Jiang Shiyue, stretched out her wrinkled and rough hands to touch her clothes, and asked, "How much do you want this dress for?"
Jiang Shiyue is now wearing two layers of clothes. The inner layer is a dress, the outer upper body is a suit jacket, the lower body is a pair of beige trousers, and the feet are wearing a pair of low-heeled square-toed leather shoes.
"Auntie, this dress costs ten yuan in the department store and you need a ticket. If you want it, I'll waive the ticket and give it to you for ten yuan. You only need to wear it once."
The old woman's hand seemed to be burned, and she quickly withdrew it, muttering: "It's so expensive! Too expensive! I can't afford it."
Jiang Shiyue smiled bitterly. It wasn't that she sold them expensively, but a set of clothes that cost ten yuan was indeed a luxury for ordinary people, but for many city dwellers, it was just a mid-priced piece of clothing.
The old woman was reluctant to leave, shaking her head and looking back every three steps as she walked away.
Just now, when the old woman was asking the price, a younger woman standing not far away had been listening intently. Seeing that the old woman couldn't afford it, she came over and said, "Ten dollars for me!"
Jiang Shiyue shook her head, "Twelve."
"Why are you still raising the price? I just heard you tell that old lady ten dollars." The young woman protested dissatisfiedly.
"That's because Auntie sells me pork cheaply, so our exchange is of equal value." Jiang Shiyue explained confidently, "However, if you want to buy two sets, I can give you a 10% discount, or you can exchange it with me for something I need."
Young woman: “…”
Jiang Shiyue said this because she could tell that the young woman was a pure buyer. Furthermore, this woman must be a frequent visitor to the department store and knew very well that she wasn't asking for an exorbitant price.
"What does your other set look like?" the woman asked.
"I have quite a few more sets, you can choose for yourself."
The young woman hesitated for a moment, then suddenly squatted on the ground, picked up a small wooden stick, and wrote on the ground while reading: "10% off for 12 yuan is 12 times 0.9, 29 equals 18, 19 equals 9, 9..."
The woman was obviously not well educated and couldn't figure it out halfway.
No one noticed, but as soon as the woman squatted down, Yang Yang's lips moved, and the shape of her mouth clearly showed ten yuan and eighty cents.
Jiang Shiyue waited for a while, seeing that the woman really couldn't figure it out, and then she said, "With a 10% discount, it's 10.80 yuan."
The young woman thought about it and felt that the number was acceptable. She nodded and said, "Let's go! I'll go with you to pick out clothes. You can give me a zero when we get there."
Jiang Shiyue nodded and stretched out her hand to the woman: "Can you lend me ten dollars first? I'll buy the meat first and then take you to pick out clothes. I can take off my coat and give it to you first."
The young woman had just heard Jiang Shiyue going around buying meat. After a moment's hesitation, she pulled out her purse and pulled out a big unity banknote to give to Jiang Shiyue. Jiang Shiyue took off his coat and gave it to the young woman without saying a word.
The young woman checked it carefully and showed a satisfied look.
Jiang Shiyue bought five pounds of pork from the old woman for six yuan, then took the young woman back to the parking spot, asked the driver to help watch the meat, and then took the bag for the young woman to choose.
Jiang Shiyue was visiting the black market for the first time, so she didn't know the market conditions, so she brought some clothes for all seasons. Just now, after a quick look around, she realized that the clothes she brought included both new styles from this year and older styles from previous years.
The woman picked out a beige dress with orange blossoms.
This skirt is a new model this year. I guess the original owner bought it a while ago and hasn’t had time to wear it yet.
"Comrade, you have excellent taste! This is a new model this year. I haven't even worn it yet. Look, the crease is still there. You should know that this dress costs twelve dollars plus a ticket at the department store. I'll give you a discount. How about sixteen dollars?"
Jiang Shiyue learns and teaches on the spot, and the price is doubled if there is no ticket.
The young woman shook her head and said, "I'll buy you two sets of clothes, and you can give me a discount."
She had her eyes on this skirt for a long time, but her family didn't have enough cloth coupons.
Each year, each person was only given a maximum of sixteen feet of cloth coupons. For example, this year, each person only received fifteen feet of cloth.
This is the amount of cloth a person uses in a year.
In fact, various tickets are much harder to get than the real thing.
"Or, how about you pick out a different style and I'll give you a discount?" Jiang Shiyue politely refused.
The young woman really liked the dress and gritted her teeth: "These two are twenty-five yuan, and I'll give you ten kilograms of fine grain coupons and a few kilograms of non-staple food coupons."
She originally wanted to buy some fine grains today, but after buying clothes she had no money left to buy more fine grains.
Jiang Shiyue pretended to think, and when he saw that the young woman was getting anxious, he nodded with an embarrassed look on his face, "Okay then!"
After the payment was made, Jiang Shiyue counted the money and said to the young woman with a smile, "Sister, I'll come back next week at the same time. If you come again, I'll give you a 15% discount!"
The young woman touched the two pieces of clothing with a painful feeling, "Forget it! I'll only buy this one set this summer."
These two sets of clothes took up more than half of her salary this month.
Jiang Shiyue then remembered that this was not the era of online shopping decades later.
Decades from now, you can buy clothes whenever you want, and no one will care if you buy them every day.
Nowadays, people may not be willing to buy a set of clothes throughout the year, so I quickly added, "Sister, you can introduce relatives, friends, and colleagues to buy clothes from me, and I can give you a commission. If the people you introduce buy my clothes, I will give you one dollar for each set and fifty cents for each piece."
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