“Chairman, you have to find a way to solve this problem, otherwise it’s incredibly troublesome!” Shen Yuequn thought it over and over after returning home, and then called Huang He.
Huang He, as chairman, naturally had a mobile phone. He had also given his business cards to all the workers, so Shen Yuequn could contact Huang He immediately.
“I know about your problem, but I need to think about it. I will give everyone an answer tomorrow!” Huang He said on the phone.
The key here is that Huang He said everyone, which meant that Shen Yuequn was not the only one facing this problem. In fact, more than half of the people had reported this issue to Huang He. The remaining half were either too embarrassed to call or had simply not started selling yet.
This issue had actually been reported to Huang He three days ago. At first, Huang He didn’t think much of it and simply issued a strict order for everyone to ignore these people, refusing returns and exchanges.
However, by today, over fifty people had called to report this issue. Many also stated that those demanding refunds were severely impacting the sales of the blind boxes, a situation Huang He had not anticipated.
After careful reflection, Huang He realized that he had indeed not considered all aspects.
Huang He had blindly applied the blind box strategies of Bandai and Pop Mart from his previous life to his own leather goods, but he had overlooked the differences in certain characteristics between their products and his.
Bandai’s products and Pop Mart’s products were, to put it bluntly, toys or crafts. They did not have the problem of being unusable; anyone who bought them could use them normally.
However, leather goods were different. Leather bags and belts had considerable universality. Leather jackets, as long as the size difference wasn't too great, could still pass muster when worn.
But leather shoes were another matter. Generally, if the size difference exceeded two sizes, they were practically unwearable, with almost no other solution than to give them away.
Therefore, it was natural for a large number of requests for refunds to occur.
One or two might not be a problem, but when a large number of refund requests surfaced, it would directly affect sales, employee morale, and the future of blind boxes.
After all, leather shoes were currently the most attractive item in the blind boxes, akin to the top-tier draw. The vast majority of buyers purchased blind boxes with the hope of getting leather shoes.
If the leather shoes obtained were unwearable, the appeal of leather shoes would be greatly diminished, and whether blind boxes could continue to be popular in the future would be a big question mark.
This was a problem that blind boxes in his previous life rarely encountered, but now, Huang He was constantly thinking about how to solve it.
He spent an entire day pondering this. From Leng Zhiruo bothering him in the morning to almost nightfall, Huang He hadn’t come up with a good solution.
In fact, there were only a few ways to solve the problem.
The first method was to abandon leather shoes and focus on items with greater universality, such as leather bags.
This method wasn’t impossible, but the problem was that there were still millions of yuan worth of leather shoes piled up in the warehouse. It was imperative to deal with these shoes.
The second method was to agree to exchange the leather shoes for ones that were a better fit for the customer’s shoe size. However, this was also impractical, as it would require the stalls to stock hundreds of pairs of shoes in different sizes and styles, creating immense trouble for himself.
The third method was to agree to refunds, giving the customer ten yuan back and taking the leather shoes. This was actually the only feasible method, and the company would not suffer any losses. As long as they put them back in a box, they could be sold as blind boxes again.
However, this did not fundamentally solve the problem. If a pair of leather shoes was only refunded at 10 yuan, it seemed like neither a gain nor a loss for the customer. But to get a pair of leather shoes, a customer might need to buy ten blind boxes. In this case, the other 90 yuan would have been spent in vain. xxs one
If the leather shoes were wearable, it would be fine. But in the end, they could only be exchanged for 10 yuan, which would undoubtedly cause an explosive impact on their mindset!
This would also ruin the market for blind boxes!
As a result, after a day of hard thinking, Huang He couldn’t find any solution to the problem, and felt a wave of mental exhaustion.
“Perhaps I should just run away with my sister-in-law,” Huang He sighed, rubbing his temples. Just then, the office door was pushed open, and Leng Zhiruo walked in, her face slightly flushed, saying, “Brother-in-law, my mom is calling you home for dinner!”
“Home for dinner?” Huang He was taken aback. In the past few days, he had completely sorted out the memories of the original Huang He.
The original Huang He’s home was gone, as his parents and wife had also passed away. So, his current home was actually his mother-in-law’s house.
Since his wife had also passed away, Huang He had not been back to his own house for more than half a year. Everywhere in that house was filled with memories of their life together, a place full of traps. Huang He would lose control of his tear ducts and break down in tears within minutes.
Therefore, Huang He would either stay in the company or in a hotel. Later, when his mother-in-law heard about it, she started asking Huang He to come to her house for meals and rest every few days. Gradually, his mother-in-law’s home became Huang He’s home.
“But I promised the workers that I wouldn’t leave until their wages were paid…” Huang He said hesitantly.
“Don’t worry, brother-in-law. The workers have seen your attitude and actions. They stopped watching you long ago. Haven’t you noticed that there isn’t a single worker visible below our office building now?” Leng Zhiruo said with a smile.
“Alright, then let’s go back. I’m starting to smell like pickled cabbage here, the old-brand pickled cabbage kind,” Huang He said.
“How can it be that exaggerated?”
“Don’t believe me? Smell for yourself?” Huang He subconsciously reached out, and Leng Zhiruo also subconsciously took a step forward, placing her nose against Huang He’s clothes and gently fanning her nostrils.
In fact, Huang He smelled quite good because his office had a bathroom, and every morning, Leng Zhiruo would bring him clean, folded, and scented clothes to change into. Of course, Huang He had a scent, and it was the scented fragrance that Leng Zhiruo liked the most.
The bathroom… Leng Zhiruo couldn’t help but sniff a few more times, her face pressing against Huang He’s body.
“Zhiruo!” Huang He’s voice carried a hint of tremor and a suggestive hoarseness. Leng Zhiruo then jumped back like a startled little rabbit, flustered and saying, “Really, it’s so sour, it’s killing me! Let’s hurry home!”
Then Leng Zhiruo, truly like a rabbit, darted away.
Oh my god, it’s so sour.