The Birth of Shanghai's First Conglomerate

Chapter 13 My First Time Being a Boss
To be honest, this was Chen Pingsheng's first time being a boss.

I was definitely a little nervous, but mostly I was excited.

Before it opened, this large supermarket had a daily customer flow of about one or two hundred people.

The price dropped to 100 after one month of operation.

Two months after opening, the price successfully dropped to fifty.

Nowadays, those who come either don't want to travel too far or don't know much about the store.

They've basically ruined their reputation within this industry.

Although fruit shops are a traditional retail business, the biggest difference between them and regular supermarkets is that fruit cannot be stored for very long.

If fresh goods don't sell within three days, they become stale.

This fruit not only doesn't fetch a good price, but it also negatively impacts the customer experience.

After all, if word gets out that the fruit sold in such a large store isn't fresh, who would want to come?

This presents a significant challenge to the operation of fruit stores.

It can be said that the biggest operating cost for a fruit store, besides the rent, is the spoilage of fruit.

In other words, those items that weren't sold by the designated time and had to be thrown away.

"Old Chen, I've looked around, and if we want to restock this shop with fruit, it will cost at least 50,000 yuan."

Fruit is sold by piling it up; the more it's piled up, the more customers are willing to buy.

They all understand this simple truth.

The key issue is that it's easy to bring in 50,000 worth of goods, but difficult to sell them.

Based on the current customer flow, sales will be at most seven or eight thousand per day.

If the turnover is like this, then the losses will be enormous.

Therefore, the key is to solve the traffic problem first.

This store is nearly 400 square meters, and in addition to a huge cold storage, there is also a fairly large office.

Chen Pingsheng, who was a boss for the first time, sat on the sofa inside and called on everyone to come together to discuss countermeasures.

"The store must be fully stocked; otherwise, it will be difficult to keep customers here."

Chen Pingsheng tapped his pen and said, "How about this? In the next two weeks, we plan to spend 100,000 yuan to attract traffic at a loss. As for the traffic attraction project, we can advertise an event outside, like three apples for one yuan, you can choose whichever you like."

Apples can be considered the number one fruit.

Every household will buy it, so using it to attract customers is undoubtedly the best choice.

"No problem, we'll get the goods from the wholesale market. Smaller apples are only a little over two yuan per kilogram."

The purchase price is about the same, so each person would only lose one or two yuan.

Completely acceptable.

“Zhang Tao, you and Liu Jing will be in charge of sourcing the goods for the next two weeks. Also, we know some people in this area, so ask them to help promote it in the residents' group.”

Chen Pingsheng said, "We're not just offering apples at special prices; we're also selling other fruits at cost price. We'll focus on getting more customers first."

Everyone divided the tasks and got right to work.

Zhang Tao and Liu Jing are in charge of purchasing goods, while Song Yanxi is learning cashier duties. From now on, she will be in charge of the finance department.

As for the others, they should first take charge of clearing and arranging the goods, which is not difficult.

The main reason is that everyone is familiar with each other, so they can work very quickly.

By the afternoon, the first truckload of goods had been brought back from the fruit wholesale market.

Watching her man's busy figure, Song Yanxi even took a short break to take a few photos.

The first picture shows him bending over and constantly moving goods in the truck.

The second picture shows him going to the store to guide the product arrangement.

The third picture shows him learning the POS system from someone at the cashier.

As for the last picture, it shows the two of them making a peace sign together in front of the store.

Song Yanxi posted a photo of herself and her husband, along with a caption.

"A new beginning in 2013, Tengsheng Fruits."

Just as she sent out a few pictures, Du Juan was the first to reply to her.

"What's going on? Is Brother Chen opening a supermarket?"

"Yes," Song Yanxi replied with a smile.

Du Juan immediately left a comment below, "You didn't even tell me about this, I'm cutting ties with you."

That's what she said, but she still rushed over immediately. Then, some of her classmates replied to her messages. She only had a high school diploma; mainly, she was seduced and married by Old Chen right after graduating high school.

Many of her classmates are now pursuing graduate studies in Beijing.

There wasn't much competition among the classmates; most of them just exchanged greetings and wished her business prosperity.

The most outrageous one has to be Song Ma Liu Fen.

She was at a relative's house, where all the relatives were sitting together and engaging in all sorts of comparisons.

For example, so-and-so's daughter married a manager at a foreign company.

So-and-so's daughter married a civil servant or something.

Every time Liu Fen heard these things, she wished she could bury her head in the ground. The reason was simple: her eldest daughter had married the most useless man from out of town, who was also a street vendor.

There's no hope for me in this lifetime.

However, his youngest daughter, Song Wu, got into an arts school and is expected to become a big star in the future.

This really made her look good.

"Hey Liu Fen, why didn't your Michelle Yeoh come?"

Visiting relatives during the Lunar New Year, only childhood is truly the happiest time.

When you grow up and visit relatives, if you're successful, it's fine; but if you're not, the sarcastic and unpleasant interactions between relatives can be as intense as snow in June.

It'll sting you so badly you won't feel a thing.

"She has something to do and can't come."

"What else could she be up to? She just went with Xiao Chen to sell durians, right? By the way, your family sells durians, why didn't you bring a couple over?"

The person who spoke was Liu Fen's cousin. Perhaps it was unintentional, but to Liu Fen, these words were extremely offensive.

Like sitting on pins and needles.

He went home without even eating, making up an excuse.

Her youngest daughter, Song Wu, is a senior in college and will graduate in six months.

I'm currently busy trying to connect with certain assistant directors and producers through connections with my classmates.

She is pretty, but the entertainment industry is never short of pretty girls.

There are only so many opportunities, so why should she get the chance? That's a skill in itself.

Some of Song Wu's female classmates also knew about it, having met those somewhat famous directors.

Even the back door can be wide open.

You can still get some opportunities, more or less.

For example, there was a girl in her class whom everyone privately criticized.

Once in class, he had to curry favor with her, because that female classmate actually got some good resources later on.

They started much higher than them.

Liu Fen returned home fuming and was equally irritable towards Song Wu.

"Mom, why are you taking your anger out on me when Auntie said he's Chen Pingsheng?!"

"Hmph, the older one is useless and the younger one is a real headache."

Liu Fen sat down angrily to the side. It was a good thing that Song's father wasn't there, otherwise she would have definitely caught him and given him a good scolding.

Speaking of Cao Cao, Cao Cao will arrive.

Song Huamin opened the door and came back, carrying some gifts in his hands.

Just as Liu Fen was about to speak, he stopped her, "It's perfect that you're all there. Ping Sheng has opened a large fruit supermarket, and it's opening tomorrow. Let's go over there and take a look."

"He owns a fruit supermarket?" Liu Fen was stunned. "How come I didn't know that?"

"With your attitude, what do you think you can know?"

When Song Huamin came back, he called them and also brought two pairs of wine.

“I just called Yanxi. Their supermarket is huge. I wouldn’t have known about it if I hadn’t seen her posts on WeChat Moments.”

I only found out about this through her WeChat Moments. Seriously, isn't she a terrible mother?

She was completely unaware of such a major event for her daughter, and she didn't even discuss the supermarket project with them beforehand.

She's being completely headstrong; she needs to go and give her some guidance.

Song Wu reacted quickly, immediately opening her older sister's WeChat Moments and exclaiming in surprise:
"This is owned by my sister? It probably wouldn't be possible to open it without hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars."

Song Wu was quite knowledgeable; upon hearing that it would cost hundreds of thousands or even millions, Liu Fen's ears perked up.

(End of this chapter)