Reborn since 1993

Chapter 431 The calm before the storm

Wanjia Electric Appliance City has this kind of gameplay, on the one hand, because of Li Dongling, the major shareholder. Li Dongling certainly hopes to make Wanjia Electric Appliance City and domestic electrical appliance brands on the same chariot.

Another thing is to gamble that a number of domestic electrical appliance brands can develop. If domestic electrical appliance brands can reach the current level of Japanese electrical appliances, then Wanjia Electrical Appliance City will be able to make a fortune with its exclusive agency rights.

Nowadays, the most popular electrical appliances in the world are those from Japan and South Korea, especially in the mid-to-high-end segment. American and old European electrical appliance brands are losing ground to Japanese brands such as Toshiba, Panasonic, Sony, and Sharp, and can only barely hold on to the high-end market and make a living by selling brands and their style.

In the future, if domestic electrical appliance brands develop, the exclusive agency rights of these domestic electrical appliance brands will be the most valuable asset of Wanjia Electrical Appliance City!
"In addition to the inland electrical appliance brands that focus on cost-effectiveness, Wanjia Electrical Appliance City now also has high-end electrical appliance brands such as General Electric Appliances, Gaggenau, Bosch, AEG, etc. This is the most profitable market for Wanjia Electrical Appliance City!"

Wanjia Electrical Appliance City was originally founded by acquiring French Boulanger Electrical Appliances. Boulanger’s previous brand supply and sales channels in Europe were naturally taken over by Wanjia Electrical Appliance City.

After Li Dongling and Ning Wenke arrived at the fourth floor, they found that the layout was obviously more luxurious than the three floors below. It was all based on the style of brand stores similar to those in shopping malls in their previous lives, giving people a "high-end" feeling.

The per capita income of Hong Kong cities has soared rapidly in recent years, giving birth to a large number of middle-class families. Everyone wants to climb up, and middle-class families are eyeing upper-class life.

Although they cannot afford large apartments of hundreds or thousands of square meters, mountaintop villas, or sea view villas, home appliances and furniture costing tens of thousands of Hong Kong dollars are still sought after by many families in Hong Kong.

The high-end home appliances sold at Wanjia Electrical Appliances City are basically sold to middle-class and above families. To put it bluntly, for the families who buy these home appliances, practicality is only the most basic thing. The most important thing is that they can highlight the life taste, quality of life, social status, etc. of the family who uses them, so that visitors can know that the homeowner's family has the best social status when they see these home appliances.

"The retail staff at Wanjia Electric City have all received professional training before taking up their posts and will not discriminate against users from any region. Now, compared with other electrical appliance stores, Wanjia Electric City's purchasing experience and after-sales maintenance are the best in the Hong Kong electrical appliance industry!"

Ning Wenke said, what does it mean to be bullied by a big store? It means that when you go to a store to buy something, you are obviously giving money to the other party, but the seller rolls his eyes and looks down on you, or even ignores you because you cannot speak the local dialect.

This kind of anti-Heavenly event actually happened. On that day, luxury goods stores in Belgium, France, England and New York all started playing songs from the mainland. Sales clerks began to learn Chinese and use various means such as electronic payment to please domestic users. However, many stores in Hong Kong actually disdained buyers from the mainland.

The price, of course, is that fewer and fewer people go there from China, and then there are all kinds of weird things going on, saying that those stores are not doing well because of the domestic situation.

As for the group of sales clerks who were once disliked, they were naturally kicked out after the store was closed.

On the Wanjia Electrical Appliances City side, Ning Wenke made special instructions on this aspect. Whether in Hong Kong or in Southeast Asia, all retail staff of Wanjia Electrical Appliances City managed by Ning's Company must be trained and sign employment agreements before joining the company. The shopping guides must treat all buyers entering the store equally, regardless of whether they speak Chinese, Cantonese or English. Those who violate this will be dismissed directly. There is no room for negotiation on this point.

Since Wanjia Electrical Appliances City opened in Gangcheng, more than a dozen shopping guides, including supervisors, have been fired for this reason. Some people who were kicked out even took Wanjia Electrical Appliances City Gangcheng Company to court because of their dissatisfaction.

In Hong Kong public opinion, there are mixed opinions about Wanjia Electrical Appliance City's approach, but Wanjia Electrical Appliance City has not backed down. It would rather use the money as lawyer fees than give in and compensate those who were fired!

However, the reputation of Wanjia Electric Appliance City in Gangcheng has been established. After all, who would be willing to spend money to buy things and be scolded by the seller? Even those people who said that Wanjia Electric Appliance City Gangcheng Company made a fuss about nothing, now when they buy things, they still unconsciously go to Wanjia Electric Appliance City.

Li Dongling walked to a brand store and saw the Shenzhou logo clearly lit up. Li Dongling couldn't help but smile when he saw it.

It is hard to say what status Shenzhou has in other places, but in Wanjia Electrical Appliance City, Shenzhou is treated as a high-end brand. It has a C-position store in the entire electrical appliance city. After all, if it is bullied on its own territory, is there any justice or law?

"Mr. Ning!"

"Mr. Li!"

The shopping guide manager in the Shenzhou store saw Ning Wenke and hurried forward and called out.

Li Dongling went into the Shenzhou store and saw that the items on sale were mainly Shenzhou high-end digital cordless phones, Shenzhou USB flash drives, Silver Sable mice, and a Silver Sable mechanical keyboard that Dongling Hi-Tech was testing.

In fact, Dongling Hi-Tech has released two keyboards under the Silver Sable brand, one is a cost-effective membrane keyboard, and the other is a Silver Sable mechanical keyboard.

In the computer keyboard industry, membrane keyboards are now popular. They use membranes to replace the shafts of mechanical keyboards, and add conductive silicone and plastic keycaps. With extreme cost control, they have directly defeated mechanical keyboards.

The Nissan ALPS keyboard, one of the two major axis types of mechanical keyboards, has been driven out of business. Now Sakura is the only one left in the mechanical keyboard industry, but it is not happy either.

The good news is that Sakura has won the war of mechanical keyboards, and now it dominates the global mechanical keyboard market. The bad news is that the mechanical keyboard market is also over. After all, a membrane computer keyboard only costs 30 to 50 yuan, even if it is a branded product, it is only about a hundred yuan, and how much does a mechanical keyboard cost? 500 yuan!
Even though membrane keyboards have many shortcomings, such as poor feel, easy key failure, and a short service life of a few months or half a year, or a maximum of one or two years, membrane keyboards will break down.

But can this affect membrane keyboards and defeat mechanical keyboards? Computer manufacturers and users all vote with their feet.

Anyway, membrane keyboards are very popular now. After Silver Sable launched a membrane keyboard, the sales volume is quite good. Basically, domestic computer manufacturers are purchasing Silver Sable's membrane keyboards.

But compared to other manufacturers who have completely given up on mechanical keyboards, the computer peripherals R&D department of Dongling High-Tech's technical department has been still developing mechanical keyboards.

The mechanical keyboard launched by Silver Sable is a preliminary test of the mechanical keyboard market. The switch is the patent and usage rights purchased from Sakura Keyboard. That is to say, Silver Sable was able to obtain the switch because the mechanical keyboard market was in recession, otherwise it would be impossible.

This keyboard has just been tested, and it is also Dongling Hi-Tech's initial attempt at a mechanical keyboard. It is still imitating the Sakura axis. When the time is right, Silver Sable Keyboard will launch its own axis, and a domestically produced mechanical keyboard will also appear in China!
When e-sports and games become popular, mechanical keyboards will revive. Silver Sable will not give up the market for mechanical keyboards. Top-level mechanical keyboards will also be one of Dongling Hi-Tech's selling points for entering the computer industry in the future!

"How are the sales here?" Li Dongling asked the Shenzhou shopping guide manager.

The shopping guide manager first glanced at Ning Wen, and when she saw Ning Wen nodded, she motioned for her to speak directly, and then she said, "The best-selling products now are Shenzhou digital cordless phones and Shenzhou USB flash drives!"

Li Dongling nodded when he heard this. He was not surprised at all. Shenzhou digital cordless phone now represents a high-end brand. In addition, fixed-line phones are still the main form of telephone service in Hong Kong. It is not surprising that Shenzhou digital cordless phone is popular in Hong Kong.

As for USB flash drives, Shenzhou USB flash drives also represent high-end products. USB flash drives are now the hard currency for computer office work. According to the USB flash drive alliance previously reached between Dongling Hi-Tech and four other manufacturers, the Asian USB flash drive market is basically competing between Shenzhou USB flash drives and Toshiba. In Hong Kong, it is basically a choice between the two.

Dongling Hi-Tech has always regarded the Shenzhou brand as a high-end brand. In the future, basically all of Dongling Hi-Tech's high-end products will be branded with the Shenzhou brand.

Li Dongling and Ning Wenke came to the work area of ​​the electrical appliance city. After entering an office, Ning Wenke handed several reports to Li Dongling.

"Vanjia Electrical City Hong Kong City Company currently has two large shopping malls, one in Mong Kok and one in Central, and 14 stores in shopping malls and other areas. In addition, there are more than 34 small retail stores in various areas of Hong Kong City. In addition to retail, they are mainly responsible for after-sales and maintenance!"

"In addition, the Wanjia Electric Appliances City managed by Ning's Trading Company in Asia has an electric appliance mall in Siam and Malaysia respectively, but the revenue is still in the red. Including the one in Hong Kong, it barely broke even last month!"

Wanjia Electric Appliance City is an asset-heavy investment. Previously, the plan was to buy land and build it themselves, or buy a shopping mall and renovate it, but Li Dongling stopped this expansion and switched to leasing a shopping mall.

But no matter which method is used, the initial investment is not small. Even if it is leasing, the monthly rental pressure is not small, plus the procurement costs, advertising costs, labor costs, etc. Now Wanjia Electric Appliance City in Gangcheng has just begun to break even.

After Li Dongling took a few glances at the performance report, he put it aside. Shopping malls are basically businesses that require early investment and later returns. There are no surprises. The key lies in operational management. The most important point... is to survive long!

"How much funds are available in the account of Wanjia Electric City Gangcheng Company?"

Li Dongling asked directly. Since Ning Wenke started to operate Wanjia Electrical Appliance City Gangcheng Company, Li Dongling asked her to do one thing: spend less money and borrow more money. She should borrow as much as she can from banks in Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and other places. However, the borrowed money must be converted into US dollars in local currency.

"There is still 3.2 million US dollars in the account of Wanjia Electric Appliance City Gangcheng Company, but the debt is heavy. It has to pay a large amount of interest to the bank every month. This is one of the reasons why Wanjia Electric Appliance City Gangcheng Company has not been able to make a profit!" Ning Wenke looked at Li Dongling and said.

"not enough!"

"What?" Ning Wenke was stunned for a moment and asked in surprise.

Li Dongling calculated that this amount of money would be enough for Wanjia Electrical Appliance City Hongcheng Company to survive the storm started by Soros. By that time, the whole of Southeast Asia would be in ruins, and all chain stores and shopping malls that owed money to banks would go bankrupt.

With US dollars in hand, Wanjia Electrical Appliance City can buy the shopping mall buildings currently in use in Mong Kok and Central at a very low price. It can also take over the shopping malls of its competitors in Siam, Malaysia, Japan, South Korea and other places, and will no longer have to pay rent in the future. All the problems of Wanjia Electrical Appliance City can be solved in one go, and maybe it will even be able to collect rent in the future.

"Wanjia Electrical Appliance City needs to raise more funds. We can ask Peregrine for help, but it has to be converted into US dollars!" said Li Dongling.

(End of this chapter)