"What, these arrangements have had no effect at all?" Upon learning that the two Walmart stores he had specifically targeted had experienced no issues whatsoever, with the necessary deliveries arriving on time, the executive's expression grew slightly displeased.
However, it was only slightly. He quickly smiled and explained to Tucker, "I understand. This must be because they've memorized the warehouse's inventory configuration in advance."
"This Oriental Amazon entered the Walmart warehouses half a month ago. Half a month is enough time for their pickers to memorize the locations of all the goods in the warehouse. There's nothing surprising about this."
"But our plan has been ruined!" Tucker frowned. "My superiors are very dissatisfied with my work."
"It's no big deal. If this method doesn't work, we'll find another one. There's no shortage of ways to deal with such a small partner!" the executive said nonchalantly.
"Since they've memorized the placement of all the goods in the warehouse, we don't need this method to deal with them. I'll find something they can't memorize!"
"Coincidentally, Walmart recently had a news story about an employee who contracted avian influenza but didn't rest in time, causing half of the Walmart branch's employees to contract the same illness, even leading to over a dozen customers being infected!" the executive said.
"Oh, it seems there was indeed such a thing. I saw the relevant news reports!" Tucker nodded.
"This news caused significant pressure on the company. Headquarters has issued a document requiring all branches to conduct health check-ups on their sales staff to prevent similar incidents from happening again."
"So, I can require all employees who can enter the warehouse to pass health check-ups and have corresponding proof of examination before entering. This is also for the sake of customer and company reputation!"
"As for those who cannot obtain a health certificate and are not Walmart employees, they naturally cannot enter the warehouse. They must wait until they obtain the examination certificate!" the executive said with a smile.
"That's right!" Tucker immediately nodded and smiled. "The fastest the results of these examinations will be available is about a week. Some outsiders won't be able to enter the warehouse for a week without a health certificate, which is entirely reasonable!"
"Exactly. With this, all 300 of my stores will have a legitimate reason to refuse entry to Oriental Amazon's personnel. Oriental Amazon's business will be completely paralyzed for three weeks. Are you satisfied now?" the executive said.
"No problem. Oriental Amazon has only been open for two days, and already businesses in three states are paralyzed. That's bound to be very interesting!"
"By the way, you can't issue this notice too early. It's best to wait until after 10 a.m. in the morning. When Oriental Amazon starts accepting orders and their pickers begin working, they'll be kicked out due to the health certificate issue. This way, Oriental Amazon won't even be able to stop accepting orders, and a portion of their orders will inevitably go unfulfilled!" Tucker nodded with great satisfaction, as if he could already foresee the news of Oriental Amazon being in an uproar the next day.
***
The next morning, as Bieber was instructing two newly hired delivery personnel on the rules and techniques of delivery, his phone suddenly rang.
He glanced down and saw it was the Walmart store manager's call, so he answered immediately, smiling and saying, "My good friend, why are you calling me so early?"
"Yes, there's something I need to inform you about. The branch just issued a document requiring all our employees to undergo health check-ups. After all, we had avian influenza infections before, which put Walmart in a very passive position. We need to use these measures to salvage our image in the media!" the executive said.
"Oh, that's natural. But what does this have to do with us?" Bieber was taken aback for a moment, then quickly said, "Do our employees also need to get checked? No problem, we will fully cooperate with Walmart's work. I'll arrange for all our employees to get checked immediately!"
"The examinations are definitely necessary, but the notice also states that all outsiders are prohibited from entering the warehouse and employee areas unless they hold a health certificate. Those already in the warehouse must be immediately cleared out!" the executive said.
"How can there be such a thing? Our website has already started accepting orders. If our people are cleared out, then all our orders will be undeliverable. This will ruin our entire business!" Bieber was immediately anxious. This kind of thing could really be fatal!
"Look at you, you old fellow. What are you so anxious about now? Did I tell you to leave?" the executive said with a chuckle. Bieber felt a bit relieved, but still asked, "Then what should we do? Should we force ourselves to stay in the warehouse? Will that cause you any trouble?"
"There will certainly be trouble, but we are friends, and I definitely won't make things difficult for you!" the executive said with a smile. "Here's what you should do: first, find a way to get health certificates. Going to public hospitals is too slow. I'll introduce you to a private hospital for your employees to get checked. They not only check quickly but also provide proof of examination very fast. As long as you're willing to pay a bit more money, you can get all the examination results within 5 hours and obtain your health certificates directly there!"
"Walmart has collaborated with them several times, and they are very trustworthy partners. You can rest assured!"
"As for the 5-hour gap, that's also very simple. You can tell the owner of that institution to advance the issuance time of the health certificates by 5 hours, changing it to 10:00 AM this morning."
"Although this is a bit irregular, it's a private institution. As long as you're willing to spend money, nothing is a problem!"
"And with this certificate, I can say that you showed me your health certificate this morning, so there's no need for me to kick your people out of the warehouse. Do you understand?"
"Understood!" Bieber immediately smiled. "I'll arrange for them to get checked now. After work tonight, we'll go to Dick Street together..."
"No, let's skip tonight. My wife has been suspicious of me lately because I've been out so much. I need to lie low for a few days. We can talk about it during the joint company dinner on Saturday. My wife won't suspect anything about a company team-building activity!"
"Understood!" Bieber said a few more words to the executive, then immediately ordered the online platform to stop accepting orders and then arranged for all employees to get medical check-ups.
The private health check center introduced by the executive was indeed very efficient. Upon learning of Bieber's intentions, they immediately arranged for the check-ups and assigned a beautiful nurse to provide full service.
After all, Bieber directly stated that he wanted to purchase the most expensive corporate health check package. He not only wanted to test for the avian influenza virus but also undergo all hygiene-related tests in the food industry.
The cost of such a check-up was enough for the private health check center to treat Bieber and his employees as honored guests.
As for the health certificates and such, they were naturally not a problem. Under the arrangement of the owner of the private health check center, Bieber and his group's check-in time, which was supposed to be 11 a.m. this morning, was changed to 3 p.m. yesterday afternoon, and their health certificates were issued at 10 a.m. this morning, making everything perfectly reasonable.
Of course, the check-ups themselves were conducted very diligently, and they did indeed check for the presence of the avian influenza virus, as Bieber did not want any of his employees to be infected with avian influenza.
It was just that Bieber and his team obtained the medical reports in advance.
And the same story was not limited to Bieber's center. All 300 Walmart branches under that executive encountered similar problems.
As a result, a significant portion of the Walmart executives actually offered their suggestions to help Oriental Amazon overcome this hurdle, in the same way as Bieber's executive.
After all, Walmart almost every year suffered various hygiene scandals, and after each hygiene scandal, Walmart would immediately require all employees to undergo health check-ups and have health certificates to be on duty.
However, these health certificates could not be obtained immediately. But Walmart couldn't operate without employees, so this practice of issuing reports first and then submitting the official certificates later was very common, a routine skill mastered by all Walmart branch managers.
After the local representatives of Oriental Amazon and the Walmart branch managers had a good relationship, these managers didn't mind helping Oriental Amazon use the same techniques.
Of course, there were definitely some branch managers who didn't dare to do such a thing.
But it didn't matter. Bieber immediately reported this matter to the headquarters, and the headquarters then issued Bieber's solution as a standard solution to all relevant branches, instructing them to handle it according to the plan, while also discussing with those managers whether they could board the bus first and pay later.
Finally, they stated that almost all branches did this, so everyone was the same.
Upon hearing that everyone was doing the same, these branch managers, who usually enjoyed good food and drinks from Oriental Amazon and experienced new forms of entertainment every week, naturally waved their hands and turned a blind eye.
Everyone was doing this recently. Even if there were problems later, they could fire all the branch managers if they had the ability.
In the end, except for a very small number of stores that couldn't deliver due to stocking issues, leading to a one-day closure of the purchase channel, some orders also had to be delivered past the deadline.
However, just as Tucker's hired "haters" were preparing to start their smear campaign, Oriental Amazon proactively announced on its official website that it had learned of the avian influenza outbreak and decided to take preventive measures. They had all employees undergo early health check-ups yesterday. However, due to the speed of various health check centers, some employees could not obtain their health certificates in time, resulting in some orders being undeliverable. They apologized to all users who had a bad shopping experience.
Not only would Oriental Amazon refund all the funds to these users, but they also proactively compensated them with a no-threshold consumption voucher of the same amount.
Upon seeing this announcement, the "haters" and internet trolls who were already sharpening their keyboards suddenly found themselves unsure of how to proceed.