National Tide 1980.

That's not all. Taking into account the needs of families, Da Dao Wu also set up a dedicated children's play area in a corner of the store, as instructed by Ning Weimu.

In this era, this is not only a pioneering move, but also arguably the most thoughtful service.

Needless to say, the biggest benefit of this move is that it allows all parents to leave with peace of mind, completely freeing them from their constraints.

This allows customers who bring their children shopping to easily learn about the products in the store and choose what they truly need.

And no one would ever imagine that all of these facilities cost almost nothing to the Big Knife House.

After all, with the Big Sword Merchant Guild around, what can't they collect?

All it takes is moving out of the warehouse a dozen or so secondhand arcade machines and a mountain of building blocks and add-ons; these kinds of educational toys are gathered together.

In addition, set up some small, educational reward criteria and assign a staff member to handle prize redemption.

That's enough to ignite the competitive spirit of the older kids and get them playing enthusiastically.

As for young children, they need even less. Apart from a responsible caregiver to ensure they don't get hurt, all they need is a space with soft padding, and slides and climbing frames covered with padding.

In short, this is about getting a lot done with a little money.

The Great Sword House has created a very rich and safe amusement park using only the items readily available in the Great Sword Industry warehouse.

Not only do adults who always struggle with taking their children out give this praise, but the children are also overjoyed, often not wanting to leave after receiving their reward.

For example, the Yamazaki couple, who live nearby, came to the Daiki-ya shop today and bought some household items in the merchandise section because they found the prices to be very reasonable.

But suddenly I realized that more than an hour had passed without me noticing, and it was long past lunchtime.

They initially thought their child must be starving and feeling extremely aggrieved, so they rushed to the children's play area in a panic.

To her surprise, she found her son and daughter sitting happily side by side on high stools outside the playground fence, enjoying pastries and drinks.

"Xiunan, where did all this food and drinks come from? Why are you taking other people's things like that?"

The mother was immediately alarmed, thinking that her child had accepted a gift from an unknown person.

To my surprise, my ten-year-old son proudly declared, "It doesn't belong to anyone else. I won it playing video games and building blocks with my sister."

The father was even angrier and didn't believe his son at all.

"How could that be? Don't lie."

But the son felt wronged, and even the daughter said, "It's a reward we won. Dad, don't wrong us."

After the shop assistant came over and explained, the Yamazaki couple realized that they had indeed misunderstood.

It turns out their son had just broken the record on an arcade machine and won first prize.

The daughter completed a medium-difficulty building block model in half an hour and won third prize.

According to the prize redemption rules of the Daikoya children's play area, the first prize is a 2,000 yen voucher, the second prize is a 1,000 yen voucher, and the third prize is 500 yen.

A 500 yen voucher can buy a set meal of plum juice and Chinese snacks.

In other words, during the process of the Yamazaki couple selecting goods, their children relied entirely on their intelligence to achieve self-sufficiency.

Not only did they get a meal to satisfy their hunger, but they also earned their parents a 2,000 yen voucher.

This naturally delighted the Yamazaki couple, who beamed with pride.

They never expected their child to be so outstanding, and their dissatisfaction and doubt instantly turned into guilt and praise.

And given this, how could they possibly refuse when their child asked to play a little longer?
With no other option, the Yamazaki couple simply turned around and went back to the sales area to continue browsing, leaving their child behind to continue playing.

In this way, Da Dao Wu not only easily won over families by having a children's play area, making the whole family a stable customer base, but also successfully expanded their consumption demand.

Let's talk about whether this move of his was clever or not.

I believe that this place will definitely become the first choice for many families to spend their weekends in the future.

Even with all that has been said, these measures are merely normal tactics employed by Daikichi targeting ordinary customers. They are still insufficient to demonstrate the store's forward-thinking business model and fail to reveal its most promising source of exorbitant profits.

It should be noted that Ning Weimin's greatest skill was robbing the rich to help the poor.

Since he's the one opening the shop, how can he not try to take advantage of Japan's wealthy?
Don't be curious about how he achieves this; the answer is actually quite simple—it's through the trading of secondhand luxury goods.

To put it more accurately and bluntly, Ning Weimin is targeting the secondhand luxury goods market, focusing on high-end clothing, accessories, and handbags.

There is no doubt that Japan at this time was still completely blank in this regard.

The answer is that everything in this world develops from nothing, and requires a specific historical and social environment as its foundation.

The development of the secondhand store industry in Japan is also inextricably linked to its socio-economic evolution.

Despite the fact that thirty years later, everyone knows about the rise and development of secondhand stores in Japan, and that high-end clothing and accessories have become the main part of the secondhand luxury goods market.

However, if we only look at the present, there is almost no second-hand market for high-end clothing and accessories.

What is the current state of the Japanese market?

In Japan, pawnshops generally only accept real estate, luxury cars, gold and silver, jewelry, luxury watches, antiques, and famous paintings as collateral and items for transactions.

Even though Daikokuya, the future giant of the secondhand store industry, already exists, it only sporadically deals in the acquisition and sale of designer handbags, and does not involve the trading of clothing and other accessories.

Moreover, it still focuses on meeting customers' basic needs and has not yet formed a branded trading concept, let alone become an important channel for the early circulation of second-hand branded handbags.

Even though Daikokuya is currently ahead of all its Japanese counterparts, it can only be said that it is laying the groundwork for a future explosion in demand for secondhand fashion items, quietly accumulating the momentum to change the industry.

This is because of the limitations of the era.

It's important to understand that the Japanese economy has suddenly shifted, and many people haven't been able to adapt to this new change in time.

Even the wealthy haven't become more pragmatic.

At that time, most people in this social class still considered using second-hand clothes and handbags to be a shameful act.

Since there are no buyers, there are naturally no sellers; this is determined by market demand. Secondly, because there is no demand, talent cannot be cultivated.

Currently, traditional Japanese pawnshops have no experts in appraising clothing and handbags, and no one cares about relevant experience or is willing to learn these skills.

In other words, it was precisely the rapid increase in demand for luxury goods caused by the appreciation of the Japanese currency during the economic bubble period, and the pain brought to the Japanese people by the collapse of the Japanese economy after the bursting of the economic bubble, that together created the rapid rise and explosive growth of the Japanese second-hand store industry. Both of these conditions are indispensable.

However, the conditions are not yet ripe for this industry to truly undergo a major change and begin to include secondhand clothing and accessories in the category of tradable luxury goods.

If things develop according to objective laws, it will take at least several more years.

At least it will take until the Japanese people truly feel the pain of a hopeless future and are forced to sell their possessions to survive before this market will truly emerge and have the potential to develop.

It's easy to imagine how huge and tempting this business opportunity is for Ning Weimin.

For him, he could easily have made a strong start in Japan and taken the lead in the industry, because he has too many advantages.

He not only sees the future, but he also doesn't need to wait for the Japanese market to mature; he can profit from it now.
Don't forget that Ning Weimin not only owns a huge amount of business in Japan and the Republic, but has also invested a huge amount of capital in France.

He is the uncrowned king of the fashion industry, owning shares in numerous luxury brands.

With his good relationships with Pierre Carton, LVMH, and Saint Laurent, what kind of goods couldn't he get?
What kind of professionals can't he find?
Moreover, the market situation in Europe is quite different from that in Japan.

After World War II, Europe, which had once been prosperous, had long since entered a period of economic recession, but social and hedonistic activities such as fashion celebrations, events, and banquets did not decrease and remained popular among the European upper class.

Especially due to their cultural background, Europeans have a deep-rooted and ingrained admiration for fashion items.

Therefore, the demand for second-hand clothing, accessories, handbags, and jewelry in European countries has a long history.

The trading of related second-hand goods began to develop as early as World War II, and has now formed a relatively mature market.

Just look at how many people rush to rent dresses and handbags from high-end stores at every international film festival and fashion week, and you'll know.

Therefore, while this business faces numerous restrictions for most people in Japan, it is not the case for Ning Weimin.

Conversely, the difficulties others face in developing related businesses here become a moat protecting his profits, further highlighting his advantage in exclusive resources.

The answer becomes clear once you see things from Ning Weimin's perspective.

He not only possesses a market that can be readily converted into cash, but also has an exceptionally rich network of contacts and sources of goods in the industry, which means he can openly and legitimately rob people.

By simply buying high-quality international brands from the Japanese at low prices and then reselling or renting them out at higher prices in the port city or European market, one can easily make a profit and reap a continuous stream of substantial gains.

Because of the exceptionally lightweight nature of luxury goods, he can even disregard storage and logistics costs, making it easier to fully enjoy the appreciation of luxury goods and price differences in different markets by stockpiling large quantities and shipping them in bulk.

To put it bluntly, the core logic of this kind of business is nothing more than Ning Weimin's traditional profession—playing the small drum.

However, back then, Kang Shude was living in the chaotic Republic of China era, taking advantage of the down-on-their-luck rich kids by going from street to street to mansions.

Today, Ning Weimin is even more successful. He's now in Japan, doing international trade, running a business, and preying on the Japanese.

By all accounts, he has surpassed his teacher.

As for Ning Weimin's specific actions, they are extremely simple.

He simply found a fairly good location on the street in the sales area of ​​the sword shop and set up some high-end display cases for showcasing the merchandise and seats for customers to rest, in accordance with the standards of a luxury store.

They hired several beautiful receptionists at high salaries, arranged for appraisers from France to be on duty, and then displayed their business posters and advertisements for buying high-end clothing and accessories in prominent positions. Once everything was in place, they could open for business.

After all, it's just the beginning stage, so there's no need to be too meticulous. Just get the signboard up and start the business.

However, it must be admitted that although the luxury goods section of Daikyo's shop has a wide variety of items.

However, due to the current sluggish consumer data in Japan, almost everyone who passed by the luxury goods counter after the opening was not really interested in the goods in the display case, but rather in the fact that the store was willing to buy back clothing and accessories from international big brands at relatively high prices.

But it doesn't matter. Ning Weimin had actually prepared for this long ago. He wasn't in a hurry to sell, but rather focused on buying.

Because he understands the most important secret in this industry—luxury goods are not like cabbages; whoever controls the supply controls the customers.

The most worrying thing in this industry is usually not "not being able to sell", but "having no goods to sell".

Therefore, his strength easily won him customers who would otherwise be difficult to please as a second-hand store, bringing him a more stable customer base.

Ms. Heye is a very pretty Japanese girl, although her job is just to do odd jobs like serving tea and water at the company.

But before the economic bubble burst, almost every day men would rush to spend money on her after get off work, acting as her devoted admirers.

Unfortunately, with the recent economic downturn, men seem to have lost some of their allure to her.

No one invites her to dinner anymore, gives her gifts, or takes her to the movies or dancing.

This weekend was the most miserable for her, as she ended up all alone, especially since she had long since spent all her salary and had to resort to credit card overdrafts to make ends meet.

So her coming to the sword shop was purely accidental. If she hadn't been out of the loop and didn't have much money, she would never have come here alone.

But it was precisely here that she was surprised to find that such a simple shop actually had a luxury goods counter, and she seemed to have found a remarkable source of income that could alleviate her current financial difficulties.

"Are you really going to take back clothing and accessories from international luxury brands?"

At first, He Ye was a little hesitant to believe it. Even after seeing the words "high-price buyback" on the poster, she still wanted to ask in person.

After all, in the past few years, the purchasing power of the Japanese people has increased significantly, and luxury goods have long been commonplace in Japan.

Not only do ordinary white-collar workers in first-tier cities buy LV and Chanel, but there is even a phenomenon in society where "if you don't carry an LV to work, you will be mistaken for being unemployed."

If someone were willing to buy it, she doesn't know how many people would flock to sell their personal belongings.

She has a huge collection at home: clothes, shoes, hats, handbags, cosmetics... the list goes on and on.

Some of the gifts were bought for herself, while others were gifts from others, though most were from men who admired her.

Therefore, she was quite suspicious that unless the owner here had a money-printing machine at home, wouldn't everyone come if he were so openly collecting money?

What's the difference between that and actively seeking bankruptcy?
However, to her surprise, the other party actually dared to confirm this.

"Yes, miss. We really do accept them. However, they need to be genuine products in good condition, and they must be from a top international brand." (End of Chapter)