Return to 88: Starting from Marrying My Sister-in-law

to be frank.

Lu Yang hadn't actually considered making his first move into the home appliance chain store business; he felt it was a bit too early.

The wallets of ordinary people in China are not yet full enough.

At this time, setting up a home appliance chain store requires a large investment, while the income is relatively low.

At least, that's how it seems to him, the reborn one.

With this time and energy, it would be better to invest this money in other industries. With his knowledge as a reborn person, there are simply too many projects that can make a lot of money to invest in.

However, whether it was orchestrated or just a coincidence, at least dozens of home appliance chain stores have sprung up across the country recently, creating a wave of opening home appliance chain stores. As long as a local distributor in the home appliance industry has made their first fortune in this industry, they will try every means to open a second branch and a third branch.
Of course, if that were all, Lu Yang wouldn't really care, because someone should be the one to earn that money anyway.

However, some people, once they've grown powerful and own several or even a dozen home appliance chain stores, start to think they're the boss. They go from begging for food from manufacturers to demanding pricing power, extending payment cycles, and asking for lower purchase prices and sales rebates than their competitors.

Isn't this funny?
Who exactly is the client and who is the contractor? This is completely reversed! Will Lu Yang tolerate this?
It's one thing to bully small manufacturers, but it's unacceptable to try and bully Lu Yang.

For example, when Yin Mingzhu's newly opened "Mingzhu Marketplace" got a three-month extension of the settlement period from Lianxiang, he was still laughing at her, thinking that Lianxiang's old Liu really hated him to the bone, even doing such a harmful and self-defeating thing. Did he think that by forcibly promoting this woman, he could disgust him?

Then Lao Liu was wrong.

I'll stay calm, I'll stay calm. If the enemy doesn't move, I won't move. Even if you, Lao Liu, praise this woman to the skies, as long as she's not stupid enough to provoke me again, I can just pretend I don't see her.

It's infuriating, it'll make you so angry, Lao Liu, hahaha!
Now they've lost both their wife and their army, haven't they?
If you really piss me off, I'll have my wife reconcile with my sister-in-law, and then we'll be family again. I'll make you, you old geezer, furious.

Really.

Lu Yang had indeed thought about it before, but it was just a thought, a way to amuse himself. After all, the thought of reconciling with that woman might send her the wrong message, and if she had any ulterior motives, it would cause unrest in the household.

Well, it's better to maintain the status quo.

Judging by the time, Xu Siqi, who has moved to Singapore, is about to give birth. As the father of the child in her womb, he can't be absent from the birth of his child. So he has been busy dealing with things in China recently, and plans to take some time to go to Singapore. He hopes to stay for a while longer to accompany the girl through her postpartum period before returning to China, as compensation for the girl's obedience in leaving home.

However, an unexpected event occurred at this time.

He wanted to watch the show and stay out of it, but things didn't go as he expected.

Since receiving the three-month extension of payment terms from Lianxiang, Yin Mingzhu had ample funds and made rapid progress, quickly dominating almost the entire electrical appliance retail market in Hunan Province, except for the provincial capital, Changsha.

This undoubtedly caused a huge sensation in the industry.

So everyone started to learn, copying what others did, and initially, it was just small manufacturers being manipulated by these local home appliance chain stores.

But after the small manufacturers were taken advantage of, it was soon the turn of the big manufacturers. Little Genius, Little Prodigy, and even BBK were not spared.

"There is nothing we can do."

"We must retaliate."

"The retail market is the lower-tier market of the electrical appliance industry. Previously, it was a fragmented market without a certain scale. The upstream manufacturers would set whatever they wanted and whatever guidance prices they set, and the downstream sales end could only follow suit. But now it's different. If we let these downstream home appliance chain stores continue to develop, sooner or later they will gain real pricing power. At that time, we manufacturers will no longer have the final say. Everything will be decided by them, and we will have to act according to their wishes. Otherwise, they may cut off our connection with end consumers."

"Does everyone understand what this would mean if it happened?"

"Can we just leave it alone?"

"No? It seems some people still realize the seriousness of the matter. That's good. I have a few new personnel appointments coming up."

Based on recent feedback from consumer markets across various regions, Lu Yang made the decision to launch a decisive attack at a high-level group meeting after only a short period of deliberation.

In short, we must nip these bad signs in the bud as quickly as possible.

So, you see, this led to the simultaneous opening of more than ten "Century Home Appliance Plazas" in ten first-tier cities or provincial capitals across the country. Lu Yang has money; he either doesn't do it at all, or he makes sure to give his competitors a big surprise, and then strives to become the leader in this industry.

"Nine cities across the country... no, ten cities including Xingcheng, all launched simultaneously... This guy is as audacious as ever, and he doesn't take us home appliance chain stores seriously at all. He actually dared to provoke so many of us all at once." Yin Mingzhu unconsciously tapped the cold tabletop with her fingertips, repeating this information in a low voice.

At that moment, no one could understand what she was thinking.

When Secretary Yu Li finished reporting the news of "the simultaneous launch of nine Century Electrical Appliance Plazas across the country" on the other end of the phone, it was as if all the oxygen in the office had been suddenly sucked out, leaving only deathly silence and a silent, turbulent sea.

The cities that were just mentioned on the phone—Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Chengdu, Wuhan, and Tianjin—behind each name is one or more regional electrical appliance chain "local bullies" who wield considerable influence in their respective territories.

Dazhong, Yongle, Dongze, Gome... these are all formidable competitors, and almost all of them have a longer history and deeper foundation than Yin Mingzhu's "Mingzhu Electrical Appliances Store".

"Understood." Yin Mingzhu's voice was unusually hoarse, carrying a hint of exhaustion from surviving a disaster, yet shrouded in an even deeper chill.

She wasn't the only prey, which should have been something to celebrate. But since that guy dared to launch his "Century Electrical Plaza" attack simultaneously in ten cities across the country, he must have a certain level of confidence. Moreover, the amount of money he had and could use was terrifying, far beyond what these small local appliance chain businesses in the lower-tier markets could compare to. Once the other party got serious, who dared to say they could fight alone and survive even one round against him?
She could even imagine the expressions of shock and panic on the faces of the chain store owners in every city on the list, who had just been gloating over expanding one or two branches and taking advantage of a few small manufacturers, when they received the same news.

That nascent ambition—to demand pricing power and longer payment terms from upstream suppliers—appeared so ridiculous and fragile in the shadow of the behemoth that is Century Group.

The silence in the office did not last long.

"Beep beep-"

"Beep beep beep—" The fax machine in the corner suddenly started wailing wildly, like a lake surface tossed with a pebble, and the paper ejector began to rapidly spew out page after page of paper with the scent of ink.

Immediately afterwards, several telephones on the table rang almost simultaneously, their sharp, piercing rings creating a symphony that sent shivers down one's spine.

The assistant strode over, picked up a newly sent document, and after just one glance, his expression became even more serious: "President Yin, it's an urgent statement from General Manager Huang of Rongcheng Gome Electrical Appliances!"

Yin Mingzhu's gaze sharpened.

Gome, the home appliance retail giant that has rapidly risen in Chengdu and even the Sichuan-Chongqing region, is known for its fierce price wars.

I heard the boss is a ruthless character; I wonder how he'll react.

The assistant quickly read aloud: "...Gome Electrical Appliances is determined to maintain a healthy and orderly market environment! Gome will resolutely resist any attempt to use its capital advantage for unfair competition and disrupt the industry ecosystem! Starting today, Gome's Chengdu flagship store launches the 'Summer Storm' plan, joining forces with major brand manufacturers to promise that all product prices are 15% lower than the market average, with no compromise on service. We believe that true value stems from sincerity towards consumers, not from monopoly and hegemony. This is our official statement!"

Additional note: To express our dissatisfaction and protest, we will immediately remove all products from Century Group's Little Prodigy and Little Genius brands from our shelves until the brands realize their mistake. Manufacturers should only be upstream suppliers and should not interfere in downstream sales channels. We hereby warn certain individuals not to interfere; Chengdu is not a place where some people can do whatever they want.

The statement was strongly worded and full of a challenging tone.

"Head-on?"

"A hand-to-hand combat with Lu Yang in Chengdu?"

Yin Mingzhu frowned.

As rumored, Gome's boss, Lao Huang, has a fiery temper. He's choosing to directly confront Century Square's siphon effect on the front lines and use a more aggressive price war to grab customers!
just
Given that guy's financial resources and brand aggregation... doing this is tantamount to throwing an egg against a rock.

From Yin Mingzhu's perspective, she had absolutely no opinion of Lao Huang from Gome.

Almost simultaneously with the faxed statement from Gome, another phone call was answered by an assistant. After listening for a few moments, the assistant covered the receiver and turned to report urgently, "Mr. Yin, this time it's Mr. Chen from Yongle Electrical Appliances in Shanghai! They... they've decided to temporarily slow down their expansion plans in Shanghai's core business districts and shift their focus to the suburbs and surrounding prefecture-level cities and towns near Shanghai in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces..."

Avoid their sharp edge!

Surround the cities from the countryside!

Mr. Chen of Yongle made a choice that was completely opposite to that of Mr. Huang of Gome.

However, considering that people in coastal areas are more affluent than those in inland areas, even if they are not cities at the prefecture level or above, but only small counties or larger towns under the jurisdiction of large cities, there are still many potential customers. Opening chain stores in these places is not a bad idea.

Clearly, faced with Lu Yang's massive investment in Century Plaza in the heart of Shanghai, Yongle chose to strategically shrink, avoid direct confrontation, and seek broader survival space in lower-tier markets.

At the same time, another fax was also sent out.

The assistant picked it up and saw that it was an internal notice from Yanjing Dazhong, which called on colleagues in various regions to "remain calm and restrained" and emphasized that "strengthening in-depth strategic cooperation with high-quality manufacturers" was the way to deal with the situation, seemingly seeking some kind of alliance or consensus.

The office phone was still ringing, and the fax machine was still spitting out paper.

Regional chain giants across the country, like ants thrown into a pot of boiling oil, are hastily making drastically different responses based on their respective strengths, personalities, and assessments of the situation after the initial shock and panic.

Hardline stance, retreat, seeking peace, waiting and watching... chaos has arisen, a disorganized mess!
Yin Mingzhu rubbed her temples wearily.

All these reactions, no matter which one, seemed so hasty and powerless in the face of Lu Yang's thunderous and overwhelming plan.

The Century Group's aircraft carrier had barely started its engines when the massive waves it created caused these "small boats" to sway wildly.

Mingzhu Electric Appliances, which is not even a small sailboat, is already forced to swim in this stormy sea. How can it break the deadlock in the face of the difficulties ahead?

Just then, her personal phone screen lit up, revealing a number that wasn't saved but looked strangely familiar.

It's Lao Liu again.

Yin Mingzhu took a deep breath and answered the phone.

The receiver carried Lao Liu's signature voice, slightly hoarse yet striving to remain calm, but upon closer listening, one could detect a suppressed excitement beneath that calm:
"President Yin, although the news came as a bit of a surprise, I believe you've all seen it, right?"

Old Liu skipped the pleasantries and got straight to the point.

"Your brother-in-law's move is ruthless! Absolutely ruthless! He's aiming to dominate the electronics market in lower-tier cities!"

Yin Mingzhu didn't respond, waiting for him to continue.

"Heroes emerge in times of chaos!"

Old Liu's voice suddenly rose a few decibels, carrying a strange seductive power, "But if Lu Yang can build a platform, why can't we, Lianxiang? He has money to throw at it, and we... can also find money to throw at it! He relies on child prodigies and geniuses as his facade, but we, Lianxiang, along with those competitors he's squeezed out, can't we put together an 'alliance'?"

Yin Mingzhu's heart skipped a beat.

Old Liu's meaning couldn't be clearer!

"I've already contacted the Li family in Gangcheng."

Old Liu's voice was even lower, yet every word was clear, carrying a captivating allure. "The Li family... has always been very interested in the booming retail market on the mainland. As long as the funds are in place, we can completely replicate... no, upgrade our current home appliance chain store model and create a 'superstore alliance' belonging to our camp. Now I formally extend an invitation to you, President Yin. This is a rare opportunity." (End of Chapter)