"Business is getting harder and harder," Liu Changhe sighed, looking at his shop, which hadn't seen a customer in a long time.
Liu Changhe was an old businessman, or rather, his entire family were old businessmen. His grandfather had been a clerk at a food store, and his father too. After the reforms, his father opened a small convenience store. When Liu Changhe took over, he changed the store's name from "Honest Man's Small Shop" to "Honest Man's Convenience Store."
This was said to be the most stylish name. Unfortunately, Liu Changhe didn't understand the essence of a convenience store. He had merely changed the sign. In essence, it remained the same old small shop, selling snacks, drinks, and daily necessities like firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, and tea.
Thus, it couldn't keep up with the times, and business remained poor until one day, a salesman from "Jiangnan Blind Boxes" found him.
"The rice and cooking oil you sell in your store can be restocked from us from now on!" the salesman said, handing Liu Changhe a slip of paper.
"What, are you forcing me to buy?" Liu Changhe looked at the salesman warily, then at the paper, which indicated a company called "Northeast Wuchang Grain Company."
"No, please let me explain!" the salesman said with a smile. "Our company will be selling a lot of grain and oil exchange coupons. To make it convenient for our customers to redeem grain and oil in different districts across the city, we plan to set up points in your convenience store. I see that your shop also sells grain and oil, so this should not hinder your daily operations at all."
"If anyone comes to your store with these exchange coupons to redeem the grain and oil products listed on them, you should exchange them according to the quantity without charging them."
"When you restock from this Wuchang Grain Company, rice will be priced at four mao per jin. At the same time, you can directly hand over these coupons to the company's representatives, and they will buy back these coupons at five mao per jin!" the salesman explained.
"I understand. So, for every jin I sell, I earn one mao in profit. It's just a bit troublesome to constantly exchange them!" Liu Changhe calculated. "But normally, I can earn 5 mao per jin of rice. Here I can only earn one mao. Am I stupid?"
"You jest. The problem is, without our coupons, these people wouldn't come to your store to exchange rice!" The salesman's words left Liu Changhe speechless. He continued, "The rice you restock from us can be returned in full, without any fees. This way, your sales will have no risk."
"Secondly, our company will deliver goods to your door, along with the exchange coupons, relieving you of the labor of restocking."
"Finally, we will only set up one designated exchange point on this street. We estimate that at least 5,000 jin of rice coupons will be exchanged at your store each month. Do you really think this is money not to be made?"
"5,000 jin!" Liu Changhe was stunned. 5,000 jin of rice, even with just one mao profit per jin, that's 500 yuan in profit. His small shop's net profit for a month was only a few thousand yuan, barely enough to live on. If he could increase his profit by 500 yuan, that would be fantastic.
In fact, even if it was only 100 yuan, Liu Changhe would have been very happy.
So, Liu Changhe happily reached an agreement with the salesman. The same scenario occurred on every street in Shanghai, and it went very smoothly. Small shops, unlike large supermarkets, were not so arrogant as to disregard hundreds of thousands of yuan. Even a profit of a few yuan was cherished. Therefore, Huang Xiangjiang's plan proceeded very smoothly. In just one week, the entire grain and oil blind box exchange system had been extended to all streets in Shanghai, including those in old residential areas.
The other partner, Northeast Wuchang Grain, was a partner introduced by Shen Yuequn from the Northeast.
Shen Yuequn now had considerable status and influence in the entire Northeast region. When Huang He thought of Wuchang rice, which had become popular in all food delivery shops in his past life, he immediately asked Shen Yuequn to proactively contact Wuchang City in Heilongjiang to see if they could obtain transportation for rice and grain.
Then Shen Yuequn reported that Wuchang City was actively promoting its local grain industry. The local government had taken the lead in establishing an enterprise called Northeast Wuchang Grain Company, which was promoting its products nationwide but had found it difficult to gain traction.
Shen Yuequn's appearance allowed both parties to hit it off. That very day, Huang He changed his flight ticket to Korea and flew directly to Wuchang City, Heilongjiang, Northeast China. After a few hours by car, he arrived in Wuchang City. In just one day, he reached a cooperation agreement with Wuchang Grain.
On one hand, Jiangnan Group faced the dilemma of sourcing products for its national layout.
On the other hand, Wuchang Grain, with government support, had established branches in all major cities across the country, but their sales performance was very poor. A large amount of grain could not enter the local market, and grain accumulation had been severe for three consecutive years, resulting in losses. The exchange coupon proposal from Jiangnan Group was naturally met with enthusiasm.
Moreover, the price of four mao per jin was also very good. They often sold grain at three mao, or even lower prices.
At the same time, Wuchang Grain Company's other grain and oil products also directly signed procurement agreements with Jiangnan. In the future, Jiangnan's grain and oil blind boxes would directly use products from Wuchang Grain Company, saving a lot of trouble.
Of course, only large quantities of goods like rice, flour, and cooking oil would be exchanged at various small shops. As for other higher-priced products, such as these would be exchanged on the spot in the store, as no one had the ability to draw several boxes of hidden items in one go.
Therefore, Jiangnan Group earned even more. The recovery price of the coupons was five yuan. A 10-jin rice coupon could earn 5 yuan, which was one yuan more profit than before when taking coupons from supermarkets.
Moreover, although it required some manpower trouble at the beginning of market layout, the truly troublesome tasks like delivery and collecting coupons were handled by Wuchang Grain Company. In the future, Jiangnan only needed to settle the consumer coupons with Wuchang Grain Company.
Boss Huang was very satisfied with this outcome, and Wuchang Grain was also satisfied. At least their business had a glimmer of hope. The only one who was likely dissatisfied was Leng Zhimeng, as she had to temporarily travel to Wuchang City for inspection, signing, and a series of cooperation matters.
Although Wuchang was only a short distance from Korea, and Huang He completed his work very quickly, taking only two days, by the time they arrived in Seoul, South Korea, the venue for the first World E-sports Competition, the first day of the competition had already begun.