“Old Chen, in a few days, you’ll accompany me to pick out a car. This one needs to be replaced!” Huang He shifted in his seat inside the car.
“Chairman, you’re finally willing to change cars! I’ve told you several times before that this car is old and needs replacing, but you just wouldn’t agree!” the driver said with a smile.
“That was because I was always staying in Wenzhou and didn’t need to travel far. Even if I did, I didn’t use the car, so there was no need to replace it. But it’s different now. I’ll need to use a car frequently from now on. It would be better to replace this car with a commercial van. You go arrange it!” Huang He said.
“Yes!”
“By the way, what do you think of that young girl named Wang Danrou?” Huang He asked again.
“She’s a pretty good girl, very nice. It’s just that…”
“Just what?”
“I thought you, Chairman, would keep her by your side. Don’t you always lack a suitable secretary? I just didn’t expect you to give this young girl to Manager Ruo!” the driver chuckled.
“Manager Ruo? Why do you call Zhi Ruo that?” Huang He asked, a little curious.
“It’s for convenience. There are two of them in the company now. If both are called Manager Leng, it would be hard to distinguish them. So, we call one Manager Ruo and the other Manager Meng. This way, everyone can easily tell them apart,” the driver explained.
“That’s quite interesting!” Huang He smiled faintly. “To answer your question, my secretary chief is still your Manager Ruo. So, whichever secretary I use, it depends on Manager Ruo’s approval!”
“I understand. So, Chairman is sending that young girl to Manager Ruo for evaluation?”
“Something like that. And I have a feeling that there’s something not quite right about this young girl, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. Since Zhi Ruo is meticulous, it’s best to let her vet the candidate!” Huang He said with a smile.
The car drove for a full five hours before finally arriving in Wenzhou. By then, it was already late at night. Huang He went home to rest for the night and start his busy work the next day. Meanwhile, in Shanghai, the RT-Mart supermarket was experiencing an unprecedented surge in business.
Although RT-Mart had been open in Shanghai for about two years, its business was dismal compared to other supermarkets in the vicinity, often only half their volume.
Initially, RT-Mart’s management could still use the excuse that their supermarket’s location wasn’t ideal. However, when a Walmart supermarket opened directly opposite, and it was packed with customers every day, with business more than five times that of RT-Mart, the entire RT-Mart team became increasingly demoralized.
Historically, RT-Mart had adopted a clear three-pronged strategy: abandoning first-tier cities to expand significantly into third and even fourth-tier cities and county towns, and abandoning its all-direct-operation strategy to open up franchising. It was only after these changes that it managed to survive in the fiercely competitive market.
But today seemed different. Starting from the afternoon, many more people than usual entered the supermarket and headed straight for the grain and oil section, beginning to stock up. The quantities were incredibly large; many people would take one or two hundred catties of rice at once, for which they even brought a small cart.
Even more astonishingly, when these people paid, they all pulled out consumption vouchers. The quantities were enormous, with some even holding vouchers for over a thousand catties of rice. Since they couldn’t take it all at once, they inquired and, upon learning there was no time limit and they could consume them anytime as long as the supermarket remained open, they happily left with over a hundred catties of rice.
This continued throughout the day. When the day ended and inventory was being tallied, the responsible person discovered with alarm that the promotional rice was almost depleted and needed to be restocked immediately.
Such massive sales were unprecedented for the entire supermarket. While the entire supermarket was filled with a joyous atmosphere, Ke Xuedong, the marketing manager of RT-Mart, had a face that held little joy, but rather an expression of greed.
“Manager, I’ve asked several customers who used consumption vouchers. They said they obtained these vouchers from the blind boxes sold at Jiangnan Blind Box Shop. It seems they sold a lot this time; that store sold out all its blind boxes this afternoon and closed early,” one of his subordinates reported to Ke Xuedong.
“So that’s how it is!” Ke Xuedong revealed a look of sudden realization. “I was wondering where that Liu Xiangjiang got so many consumption vouchers from. Turns out they were used as merchandise for their blind boxes.”
“But Manager, what is a blind box? I asked that old lady, but she couldn’t explain it clearly. It seems that for 10 yuan, one can get a voucher for 10 catties of our rice.”
“How would I know what a blind box is?” Ke Xuedong, a person from Taiwan Province, also didn’t know what a blind box was. It was a completely foreign term. But he couldn’t let his subordinate know he didn’t know, so he put on a knowing expression and said, “It’s just a promotional method!”
“If we were to purchase our 10 catties of rice at the normal price, it would be around 12 yuan. Now people can buy it for just 10 yuan, which is still a pretty good promotional discount!” Ke Xuedong said, feigning knowledge.
“I see. But that guy surnamed Liu is too cunning. He bought rice vouchers from us for 6 yuan each and then resold them for 10 yuan each, making a direct profit of 4 yuan. It’s too easy to make money like this!” the subordinate said enviously.
“Yes, they make money too easily!” The more Ke Xuedong thought about it, the more jealous he became. The cost of acquiring this rice was 0.3 yuan per catty. They sold vouchers for 6 yuan each, making only 3 yuan profit per voucher. But that guy surnamed Liu managed to turn a profit of 4 yuan with just one transaction, earning more than they did per voucher. It was utterly outrageous.
“Why should we let others do something so simple? Can’t we do it ourselves!” Ke Xuedong pondered and came up with a plan. He immediately ordered, “Next time this guy comes to buy vouchers, absolutely refuse to sell to him. If he asks to see me, tell him I’m not here!”
“Yes!”
“Also, you go find an art advertising shop and order a banner immediately. It must be delivered tomorrow. Since these rice vouchers are selling so well, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t earn this money ourselves instead of letting this mainland person profit from it!”
“I was just wondering what kind of promotion to run. The day after tomorrow, we’ll also sell vouchers. Our vouchers, our rice, and of course, we should be the ones to earn the money!” Ke Xuedong said smugly.