[No preamble or introductory text]
"Xiao Liu, Wow's stall has become so much brighter! You must have spent a lot of money!" To everyone's surprise, the first person to enter the store, queuing at the very front, was an elderly woman in her sixties. She was clearly familiar with the shop's owner and said this as soon as she walked in.
This old lady was also a regular customer of this shop. Back when it was just a small stall, she had been very familiar with Liu Xiangjiang since he came from Shanghai to Wenzhou to work and then returned to Shanghai to set up his stall. In fact, this old lady was one of Liu Xiangjiang's first ten customers!
However, this old lady wasn't specifically queuing. She lived nearby and had a habit of going for a walk by the riverbank at 3 AM. She saw the shop was busy preparing in the bright lights. Upon asking, she discovered it was the blind box shop she used to frequent. Thinking there would surely be opening promotions, she immediately joined the queue, which she maintained from 3 AM until 9 AM.
The store manager, who was working overtime, was a thoughtful person and worried about the old lady. He assigned someone to look after her, brought her tea and water, and even gave her a warm congee with preserved egg and lean meat and two large meat buns for breakfast. The old lady certainly didn't queue in vain.
"Grandma Wang, I didn't pay for this. Our head office funded it. I'm just responsible for operating this store!" Liu Xiangjiang, who had just arrived, explained with a smile.
Although Shanghai was Liu Xiangjiang's territory, this first store wasn't actually his. The head office was directly responsible, as Liu Xiangjiang certainly couldn't afford the more than ten million yuan from selling his house.
However, Huang He couldn't directly send staff to manage the store either, so he entrusted its operation to Liu Xiangjiang. Liu Xiangjiang would then receive a commission from the store's earnings, so in essence, the store was still managed by Liu Xiangjiang.
"Xiao Liu, I see many different colored boxes in your shop. Are you no longer selling the old blind boxes?" the old lady asked in surprise as she entered the shop, seeing various styles and pictures of blind boxes piled up.
In her memory, Liu Xiangjiang's blind boxes only came in an ugly yellow box with the words "Blind Box" printed on it and a few seals. Other than that, there was nothing else. If it weren't for the detailed information about the items inside, it would have been a completely shoddy product.
The boxes back then were indeed quite shabby, but there was no other choice. Huang He had urgently sourced a batch of existing paper boxes from a printing factory for speed and had them overprinted. Naturally, they were simple.
Over the past two months, as Huang He shifted his entire focus to the blind box business, the packaging of the blind boxes finally saw a massive evolution, transforming from simple paper boxes to colorful paper boxes adorned with various pictures.
At the same time, along the walls of the shop, sets of bright, transparent glass display cabinets showcased various items that could be found in the blind boxes.
In addition, there was a temporarily closed Jiangnan Coin exchange counter and stairs leading to the second floor where the consignment area was located.
"No, we still sell the old blind boxes. The yellow blind box placed in the center of the shop is our classic leather goods blind box. It contains not only the old leather bags, leather shoes, leather belts, leather wallets, and leather coats but also newly added items like leather gloves, leather briefcases, leather suitcases, and leather notebooks, totaling 10 brand-new products!" Liu Xiangjiang explained.
"So many more things!" the old lady's eyes lit up. She had bought over a thousand yuan worth of blind boxes in the past few months. Her proudest moment was opening a pair of designer leather shoes from a master craftsman, a "pp master" pair. The last time she visited the stall, she saw someone offering at least 2,000 yuan for these "pp master" leather shoes. She had already made a profit on just this one pair.
However, she had opened almost all the leather goods except for the leather coats, and she felt the blind boxes were no longer interesting, so she hadn't returned. Now, seeing that so many more leather goods had been added to the blind boxes, her interest was rekindled.
But she thought, what use would leather gloves, leather briefcases, or leather suitcases be to an old lady like her!
"Grandma, we now have not only leather goods blind boxes but also twelve other new blind box series!" Liu Xiangjiang, noticing the old lady's puzzlement, proactively introduced, "Look at the blue-packaged blind box on the far left. That's our snack blind box, containing over thirty different snacks. The cheapest market price for a single item is a 1000-gram bag of sunflower seeds, priced at 10 yuan. Additionally, there are pistachios, potato chips, chocolates, and even vacuum-sealed roast chickens and roast ducks. You might even get a super giant beef jerky gift pack weighing 100 kilograms!"
"100 kilograms of beef jerky! Can one box hold that?" the old lady exclaimed in shock.
"Don't worry. If you get this beef jerky gift pack, it contains a voucher. You can take the voucher directly to the store to redeem the product. It's not actually packed in the box," Liu Xiangjiang said with a smile.
"Oh! Oh!" the old lady nodded, then asked, "Are those blind boxes still ten yuan each?"
"That's right, still ten yuan. And today, for our opening promotion, buy ten boxes and get one free!" Liu Xiangjiang replied.
"Then give me one box. No, I want ten boxes. Buy ten get one free means each box is only nine yuan! That's cheap!" the old lady quickly said. She had three grandchildren, and they visited frequently. Her house was always running out of snacks.
"Take a look at the red-packaged one next to it. That's our food and oil blind box!" Liu Xiangjiang continued.
"Food and oil blind box? You can put food and oil in blind boxes?" the old lady was astonished.
"Yes, the lowest value item in our food and oil blind box is 10 jin of Northeast rice. There's also millet, corn, cooking oil, peanuts, pistachios, dried goods, fresh pork, fresh beef... Oh, and the biggest gift package here is a 1,000-yuan food and oil consumption voucher!" Liu Xiangjiang added.
"These things are so heavy. If I buy two, I might not be able to carry them back!" the old lady was shocked again.
"We wouldn't actually put these items here. Instead, we've partnered with the nearby Darunfa supermarket. The boxes contain vouchers for their food and oil section. If you get a voucher, you can directly spend it at these supermarkets!" Liu Xiangjiang explained.
"Then I'll buy one box!" This time, the old lady eagerly bought a box and opened it. The box wasn't large because it only contained a beautifully printed paper voucher that read, "Darunfa Supermarket: Voucher for 10 kilograms of bulk rice."
"This is not a loss!" a smile spread across the old lady's face. The current price of rice in supermarkets was around 1.2 yuan per jin, so 10 jin would be 12 yuan, and she got it for 10 yuan. She had definitely made a profit.
Of course, Jiangnan wouldn't lose either. These were specific brands of rice with a large profit margin. The actual price given by the supermarket for each voucher was only 6 yuan. Without any discounts, Jiangnan could still earn 4 yuan.
Moreover, this was incredibly easy money. They didn't have to do anything except insert slips of paper into the boxes, saving costs on shipping, warehousing, and shelf space. It was essentially free money.
Of course, some blind boxes would incur losses, but after careful calculations, the actual profit per box was still around 2 yuan.
Afterward, Liu Xiangjiang went on to introduce the other ten brand-new series of blind boxes: watch blind boxes, toy blind boxes, clothing blind boxes, digital product blind boxes, figurine blind boxes, kitchenware blind boxes, home appliance blind boxes, accessory blind boxes, sports blind boxes, and book blind boxes.
All these blind boxes were priced the same, at 10 yuan per box.
Some people might be shocked, thinking that 10 yuan for other blind boxes is understandable, but how could a home appliance blind box be 10 yuan?
Ahem, actually, a flashlight is also a type of home appliance.