1988: Back to the human world for a few years

Chapter 485 This World Is So Diverse
As a second-generation oil monster who actually has some weight, although Zhuo Mali looks humble in front of Yang Mo, in fact, in the secular sense, she is already a high-level elite monster with extremely amazing energy.

Others knew this, and she knew it too, so when Yang Mo said that the number of new outlets added by Momo Baishou would be used as a test for further promotion, her first reaction was not embarrassment, but great surprise.

To negotiate the opening of 50 new A-class supermarket outlets in less than two months before the New Year might have been a daunting and arduous task for future generations, but in this age when everyone knows a little bit about everything, it was an easy task for someone like Zhuo Mali who had friends all over the world.

In fact, if the Xialiu Distribution Agency was not in charge of the Momobai Sales Project and the main person in charge of the network expansion work this time was the honorary president Lu Yingying, Zhuo Mali could have followed Yang Mo's example and strolled around leisurely, met with old friends, traveled around, and finalized the matter at the same time.

But since the person in charge of this work is a small local dog whose actual weight is becoming more and more mysterious, Zhuo Mali naturally cannot steal the limelight from him, but instead plays a supporting role wholeheartedly.

There is a good saying: whether AD can be the C or not depends entirely on whether the support provides support!
Yang Mo is not the kind of newbie who only knows how to look at the numbers on the panel. As long as he feeds the auxiliary well, he can still get high scores.

So, when Tugou proposed the "triangle concept" and wanted to try to expand a number of new outlets in Yishui, a southeastern Shandong region that is neither close to Dezhou nor Lanling...

Without saying a word, Zhuomali immediately contacted the head of the Yishui County Commerce Department through a friend, and then took Tugou directly to the person's office.

Therefore, when Tugou wanted to set up outlets in the newly densely populated areas of Yishui in order to ensure that the new outlets could avoid the purchase path dependence of old residents and at the same time ensure sufficient natural traffic...

Without hesitation, Zhuo Mali made up a name for a "Class A investment project with a total investment of no less than 300 million" in front of the person in charge. Then the person in charge tacitly did not bother to verify the truth of the project. He immediately made two phone calls to the urban planning department and the executive office. He then took out a map, drew a few circles on it, and told them that this was a newly built employee residential area and a migrant population gathering area in Yishui County. After a field investigation, they could freely choose three suitable locations. As long as the area and planning scheme were not too exaggerated, they would be responsible for the subsequent coordination work.

So, when Tugou reiterated the principle of "local production and local sales" and wanted to link the local supply and marketing system to create a three-level value chain of county-township-village...

Zhuo Mali did not hesitate and directly borrowed the phone number of the investment promotion department. She also asked a friend to invite the general manager of the local supply and marketing company over. She planned to make a quick decision and finalize all the cooperation in Yishui area within one day (if the investment promotion department invited the person in charge of the local supply and marketing company, they would often have to make another appointment to meet, which would waste time).

Maybe Zhuomali’s friends were really helpful, or maybe it was the Dahua Company’s reputation that counted.

In short, the local supply and marketing company was very considerate and arrived just one hour later.

Students who are familiar with the system know that, unless the city's superior directly-managed company speaks out, or the county leadership personally instructs, the supply and marketing company at this time does not need to sell face to the investment promotion department. In counties like Yishui, which are still underdeveloped areas, the supply and marketing company is even more confident. Therefore, when people come, they do not hesitate to talk openly just because they are on the investment promotion department's territory.

The two sides talked a lot and in detail.

How should the supply and marketing cooperatives at the township and village levels cooperate with the management of Momo Baishou? What is the specific process? How many temporary non-staff personnel should be added? What infrastructure and corresponding equipment should be built? How should these expenses be shared? And so on and so forth...

We had a very detailed chat and it was clear that the Yishui County Supply and Marketing Company was under tremendous pressure and that the other party came with a sincere desire for cooperation.

The person in charge of the investment promotion department also actively participated in it, discussing what kind of supporting projects and enterprises should be added around such a small system project centered on grassroots rural areas, and what kind of support the county could provide.

of course……

They also made their own demands, asking that some of the county's "famous products" be added to Momo Baishou's sales system, and that the proportion of categories should not be less than 40%, and the proportion of indoor stalls should not be less than 25%;

In addition, 70% of the employment quota for supporting projects and auxiliary engineering projects must be used to place unemployed workers in the county;
30% of the remaining profits from Momobaishou next year must be retained by the county to be used for investment in new projects;

The villages and villagers included in the Momobai supply and marketing system must actively include 20% of their revenue into the township's "five coordinated plans", which will be used for rural road construction, village-county secondary road construction projects, and public education.

In addition, they also implicitly expressed that they wanted to reserve some positions and bidding projects in this cooperation for better coordination.

Zhuomali was not surprised by this series of requests.

When it comes to human relationships, it's all about give and take, right?

They were so active and cooperative, and even pretended to be deaf and dumb and didn't point out my nonsense. Instead, they were very tactful and gave me and others a series of policy benefits and support in accordance with the specifications of A-level investment projects. Isn't it normal to give them a little convenience? These days, who doesn't have a few poor relatives? Who doesn't have other tasks on their shoulders?

As expected, she was eager to change the scene, so she agreed on the spot without thinking... Although Tugou was the main person in charge of this project, his rank was much lower than her as the director. Those present were all the heads of various departments. According to the principle of equality and etiquette, at the critical moment, it was not appropriate for Tugou, a small manager, to interrupt.

Unexpectedly, as soon as she responded, Tugou exploded and rejected the bilateral verbal agreement in an extremely rude manner. He even pointed out that Zhuo Mali was just a legal staff member sent by the company to assist in the work and had no right to make decisions on the project. Then, he stood up and said goodbye in the stunned and surprised eyes of others.

Then, as soon as he walked out, he angrily accused Zhuo Mali of having no understanding of the situation and doing something bad with good intentions.

………………

"Minister Zhuo, you have no idea why the company established the Momo Baishou project, nor do you understand why the company would spend so much energy to build this local production and sales model relying on local supply and marketing systems!"

"Minister Zhuo, I need to remind you that all projects with the word "Mo Mo" in their names are the core projects of the company's core projects. There is no room for any arbitrariness or laxity... I'm sorry, Minister Zhuo, I don't think you are suitable for assisting in the expansion of new outlets for Mo Mo Baishou. I will make a request to the company later, and then let Vice President Sun come over!"

Tugou's chest was heaving violently, and his tightly pursed lips were pale from being pressed too tightly, which also foreshadowed the excitement of this certain Tugou.

Zhuo Mali was shocked to see that Lu Yingying was actually going to apply to invite her back.

What a joke, if I am asked to go back, the position of assistant to the general manager of Chengchan Fund Company will have nothing to do with me, and I will also lose points in front of Yang Mo... If you can't even do such a small thing as helping to expand a few new outlets, your ability is beyond your ability and your value to be reused!

If it was another subordinate who dared to talk back and threaten her like this, even if it was a subordinate from another unit, she would have slapped him in the face and made him suffer eternal damnation... Damn it, I came all the way here with good intentions to help, and I made the wrong decision, didn't I! ?
But the other party was Lu Yingying, someone's childhood friend, and her importance in Yang Mo's mind was ten or even a hundred times greater than her own. Therefore, even if she had the courage, she would not dare to do so.

But Zhuo Mali was not an ordinary woman after all. After a brief moment of grievance and anger, she quickly calmed down.

It seemed that I was a little too careless. What Lu Yingying said was right. For Yang Mo, all projects with the word "silently" in their names were extremely important.

This is the case with the MoMoBai bombing, MoMoBai chao, and MoMoBaiTou even more so. It is said that the reason why Yang Mo compromised with Mr. Wang in the first place was to keep the MoMoBaiChao project... It can be seen how important the two words "MoMo" are.

Therefore, although the Momo Baishou project has only just begun to emerge, its importance is definitely not comparable to other projects. Otherwise, why would Yang Mo take this as his test question?

but……

It is important, but now it is just the stage of selecting a new outlet site. This project is ultimately a supermarket chain.

For a supermarket, location is always the most important thing. Isn’t it normal to make some concessions in order to get the best location?

Is this little girl so angry?
Thinking of this, Zhuo Mali looked at Tugou sincerely and said, "Manager Lu, I admit that I don't know much about the planning and design of the Momobai sales project... In fact, Mr. Yang never opened any relevant information to me, and even didn't let me participate in the equity design."

"In the dark, I may have taken some things for granted, so...can you tell me what mistake I made just now?"

Seeing that Zhuo Mali was actually asking for advice humbly, Tugou was so surprised that his anger could not help but dissipate a little.

After all, the other party is the director of the Legal and Compliance Department, who is two levels higher than herself, and her background is not comparable to that of a wild girl from the countryside like herself. Even though the other party is very likely doing this for Yang Shidan's sake, this is already an extremely rare thing.

Tugou turned around and looked at the concrete building, took a deep breath, and then lowered his voice: "Minister Zhuo, logically speaking, since you didn't know the complete planning plan of Momo Baishou before, then there are some things that I really shouldn't blame you for."

"Although I don't have much social experience, I know that I can't be too wishful about many things. If it can ensure the rapid progress of the project, there is nothing wrong with making appropriate concessions."

"In fact, Minister Zhuo, you have made the decision to include some of the unsalable products in the county into Momo Baishou's future sales system. I don't object... As long as the quality and cost-effectiveness of their products can pass our review, let alone 40% of the category share, even 60% is nothing."

"I have no objection to retaining 30% of the profit surplus from Momo Bai's sales next year to invest in new projects in the county... This project is just like Momo Bai's speculation. It is not a purely commercial consideration. For an underdeveloped area like Yishui, let alone retaining 30% of the profit surplus for return investment, even if 80% is taken out, I will not say a word against it."

“As for reserving some jobs and bidding projects for local areas in this cooperation, although I am not happy about it, I am not so naive as to think that this is unacceptable... You are right, people in the world cannot decide for themselves; this is not the first time we have encountered such a thing. As long as it does not affect the operation of the project, even if we suffer a little loss, it is nothing. We will not be so fussy about such things.”

Zhuo Mali was somewhat surprised at Tugou's "reasonableness". In her opinion, these three clauses were probably the contents in the verbal agreement that were most likely to be criticized by investors. Whether it was the "retained" bidding projects or the unsaleable goods that accounted for a considerable proportion, they would cause relatively obvious troubles to Momo Baishou's return on investment and business operations.

But the result sounds like this...

People aren't angry about these things?

Tugou glanced at the peach, and his tone became angry again: "However, it is absolutely impossible to use 70% of the labor quota of supporting projects and auxiliary projects to relocate the unemployed workers in the county, and to actively incorporate 20% of the relevant revenue of those villages into the township's "five coordinations"... This has seriously touched our bottom line!"

"We would rather adopt the backup plan, reduce the scale of supermarkets from A-level to B-level, add a large number of outlets in towns, and then use company subsidies to gradually cultivate the local small industry ecosystem and business ecosystem over five or six years. We will never agree to these two conditions... If we agree, the Momo Baishou project will completely lose its meaning!"

Zhuomali looked incredulous: "Why?"

Now the performance of state-owned enterprises in various places is not very good, so dealing with those laid-off workers has become a top problem in various places. Therefore, when the investment promotion department of Yishui County asked them to use 70% of the employment indicators of supporting projects and auxiliary projects to relocate those laid-off workers, she had almost no hesitation.

Nowadays, all departments are under tremendous pressure of diversion, and the investment promotion department is no exception. It can even be said that no matter what the investment project is, you can strive for other support policies, but the only thing about the diversion indicator is that you must help me solve part of it... This is almost a hard indicator.

Setting a 70% employment target may be a bit too much, but it is not too excessive under the current circumstances. After all, those unemployed workers have more or less certain work experience. It does not mean that they are completely unemployable after being recruited... When it comes to cooperation, we always have to put ourselves in each other's shoes and make do with each other.

Besides, one of Yang Mo's most important contributions since he joined Dahua Company was to solve the problem of diverting a large number of laid-off workers in Dongying and Dezhou. In her opinion, since Yang Mo had done this before, there should be no problem in allocating so many employment indicators in Yishui.

Unexpectedly, Tugou just glanced at her and said: "Dezhou is Dezhou, Yishui is Yishui, the actual conditions of the two places are different, you can't use the standards of Dezhou to measure Yishui;"

"And please make it clear to Minister Zhuo that each project of Dahua Company has its own positioning and function. Not all projects are for the purpose of placing transferred employees... At least, the Momo Baishou project is not one of them!"

At this point, Tugou sighed, "Okay, I admit that the situation in various places is similar now. It is not realistic to completely avoid the problem of diversion of local laid-off workers. But no matter what, the 70% allocation target is too high, so high that we simply cannot accept it... Even if we take a step back, we can only give the county's local workers a 20% employment target at most!" At this point, Tugou couldn't help but get angry again: "So, you agreed to the 70% target without even thinking about it. Even if I wanted to renegotiate this number on the spot, it would be impossible to reach an agreement with such a large gap in the proportion!"

"More importantly, if the allocation of quotas can be discussed slowly and accepted emotionally, then the other condition, which requires that the villages included in the Momo Baishou circulation system must actively include 20% of their revenue in the township's "Five Coordination", is completely unacceptable... There is no room for negotiation!"

Zhuomali was completely confused at this moment: "Don't they say that each village and township has its own three-raising and five-unification? Wouldn't it be a good thing to let those villages that make money from quietly selling hundreds of goods take out some money to support the construction of their own townships?"

Tugou glanced at her in surprise, and then with a look of deep disappointment: "It seems that Minister Zhuo really has not done any investigation or understanding of the rural areas, especially the rural areas in Yishui?"

Zhuo Mali had a bad feeling in her heart, but her face was full of embarrassment: "Boss Yang gave me the task in a hurry, and I really didn't have time to investigate beforehand."

Tugou didn't care about the other party's evasion and sighed softly: "In the past few years, especially since the year before last, all places have been trying to upgrade... Larger regions want to upgrade to counties, counties want to upgrade to county-level cities, county-level cities want to upgrade to prefecture-level cities, and prefecture-level cities want to become separately planned cities. Minister Zhuo should know about this situation, right?"

Zhuo Mali nodded: "I know this. Isn't Texas a good example? But what does it have to do with the inclusion of township planning that we just talked about?"

Tugou's chest began to rise and fall again: "It does matter. It matters a lot!"

"Minister Zhuo, as a witness to Dezhou's promotion to a prefecture-level city, you should know that no matter what level it was originally, if you want to upgrade, there must be corresponding basic hardware indicators, right?"

Zhuo Mali suddenly thought about it: "Manager Lu, what do you mean...?"

Tugou glanced at her expressionlessly: "You don't really think that you can get the county to take the initiative to ask for these funds to be used to develop the local industry and assist local needy households... They just said it very clearly that this money is included in the township's overall planning, not included in the township's retention. If Minister Zhuo is not clear about the actual difference between the two, you might as well learn about it when the time comes!"

Even the dumbest person can tell at this moment what this part of the withheld funds is used for.

However, Zhuo Mali was still a little puzzled: "Although this money is not used to support local rural grassroots industries and people's livelihood, it is still good to use it to repair roads, build houses, and develop entertainment facilities in the village. Why is Manager Lu so opposed?"

Tugou looked at her as if she were an alien, with a tone full of disbelief: "Minister Zhuo, although the specific plan of Momo Baishou is not open to you, you should still know the strategic positioning of this project, right?"

Zhuo Mali originally wanted to answer that she definitely knew, but after seeing Lv Yingying's surprised expression, she suddenly felt guilty: "Well... when Mr. Yang was still the deputy general manager, he once explained at the board meeting that this project was to open up the value circulation channels of the county-township-village three-level market, use it as a transit hub, revitalize the grassroots economy of rural areas in various places, and then gradually incubate a number of small industries... That should be it?"

Tugou nodded: "Yes, that's basically it... So the premise of all this is to ensure that the people at the grassroots level in the countryside can really make money and save some money."

At this point, Tugou sighed: "Limited by the current purchasing power level and the objective reality of Qilu, Momobaishou must currently sell various high-quality and low-cost people's livelihood commodities and fast-moving consumer goods through the coordination and purchase of local supply and marketing cooperatives;"

"High quality and low price mean low gross profit, which means that even if the supply and marketing system has a strong benefit-to-the-people feature, the actual net profit margin of the producers and providers of goods will not be very high... In other words, the producers and providers of goods earn real hard-earned money, and all win by volume."

“Although the gross profit margin and net profit margin of different commodities are different, one thing is clear: under the mass purchasing model, unless it is a high value-added handicraft, 99% of the commodities, let alone the net profit margin, even the actual gross profit margin is unlikely to exceed 30% after allocating various transportation and distribution costs!”

After looking at Zhuo Mali deeply, Tugou's tone was filled with anger: "Minister Zhuo is not a backstage staff who knows nothing about the market. He should know what 30% gross profit means... It is impossible for those rural grassroots to adopt large-scale assembly line factories for production. In the end, an average of 5% to 8% net profit is already very good."

"But another cruel fact is that Momobaishou is just starting out, with few outlets and adopting a local production and sales model. This means that in the early stages, especially in underdeveloped markets like Yishui, sales will not be particularly large."

"If sales volume cannot be increased for the time being, it means that the villagers who supply goods will not make much money, or even just average money. In the early stage, it is only slightly more profitable than growing crops...Please remember that although Momo Baishou has just started, the flow of goods can still be guaranteed through various means. Therefore, those who can provide Momo Baishou with stable supplies are either township enterprises or people who have left their jobs. People who have left their jobs have completely lost, or at least lost a large part of, the income from farming. Therefore, you cannot regard his income from this as supplementary income."

"So, if you make a simple horizontal comparison, you will understand how harmful it is to require that 20% of the project income be paid to the village pool... The villagers didn't get much money in the beginning, and they have to pay the two transactions to the township. After paying, how much difference will the money they can keep in the end be compared to what they did in the past?"

"Heh, Minister Zhuo, you should have heard about how difficult life is for the villagers who rely on farming for a living now."

"If they can't save money, they won't have enough money to buy goods from all channels, including Momobaishou. The entire rural grassroots market will be stagnant, and they may even continue to retain the habit of bartering. "

"They cannot earn enough money to cover their living expenses, so they have to leave their hometowns and go to other provinces or provincial capitals to work;"

"Young and strong laborers are beginning to disappear in large numbers. Not to mention incubating small rural grassroots industrial clusters, even stable supply to Momo Baishou may not be possible."

"Once the value circulation of Momo Baishou gradually declines, the local rural grassroots market will be even worse off and become more and more withered... This is a vicious cycle, a vicious cycle that is difficult to stop once it starts."

Waving his hands heavily, Tugou's expression unconsciously began to get angry again: "If we can't revitalize the local rural grassroots market, if we can't incubate enough grassroots small industrial clusters, if we can't cultivate the local rural market into a small reservoir with liquidity, then please tell me... What's the point of the company spending so much energy and money to expand the Momo Baishou project in various places!?"

Hearing the butterfly theory of "a war was lost because of a nail", Zhuomali felt a strange sense of absurdity.

Do you want to be so exaggerated?
Aren't you just wishful thinking?
After hesitating for a while, Zhuo Mali could not help but remind him carefully: "Manager Lu, you said that in the early stage of the project, the benefits that those grassroots rural workers can get from it will not be very large. At most, it will be slightly better than farming."

"So... is it possible that whether or not to hand over the 20% to the township pool actually doesn't make much of a difference?"

As soon as she finished speaking, she realized that her remarks were somewhat inappropriate, and quickly said, "Of course, I believe that since Mr. Yang has spent so much energy on this project, he must have his own considerations... Maybe he has some profit model that others can't think of?"

When Lu Yingying heard that Zhuo Mali's focus was only on the profitability of the project itself, she could not hide her disappointment, but she shook her head gently: "No, Momo Baishou is just an ordinary chain project. It doesn't even plan to consider cashing out from commercial real estate, so it doesn't have any other profit model."

Zhuo Mali immediately exclaimed: "There is no other profit model, it all depends on natural accumulation... How is it possible!?"

Seeing this, Tugou couldn't help but become excited: "Nothing is impossible. Do you think that if the initial returns are not high, it will not be attractive to those fellow villagers?"

"Heh... Minister Zhuo, you have never lived in the countryside, so you don't understand what the most basic needs of the people in the countryside are nowadays!!"

“Their most basic needs…”

“It’s not a nicely maintained road;”

“It’s not the slogan painted at the entrance of the village: ‘The mountains are beautiful, the waters are beautiful, and the people are even more beautiful. Don’t fall behind on the road to a well-off society.’”

“Not those cement squares with all kinds of fitness equipment placed there as decorations;”

“It’s not those projects that sound grand and high-end but are actually ignored and built in the village at great expense just to welcome the inspection.

"They don't even need a name that looks respectable;"

“A comfortable and spacious working environment is not required;”

“You don’t need the benefits and perks you’re accustomed to;”

"All they need is an income that can just cover their family's living expenses and not force them to leave their hometown, a small clinic where they can afford to see a doctor when they are sick, and a classroom where their children can afford to go to school!"

"And the 20% that you never paid attention to, which might be just or yuan a year from the township pool... is enough for them to stay in the village happily, pinning their hopes on that insignificant hope!"

Feeling the subtle but incomprehensible anger and sadness in Lu Yingying's tone, Zhuo Mali suddenly felt an indescribable sense of guilt.

For some reason, at this moment she suddenly felt like a clown who wanted to eat meat.

Can a mere thirty or fifty dollars be the reason for those people to stay in that dirty, messy and smelly homeland?

Zhuo Mali laughed at herself, feeling that she couldn't quite understand this world. Then she turned around abruptly and walked towards the office building.

Seeing this, Lu Yingying was stunned: "Minister Zhuo, what are you going to do?"

Zhuo Mali showed a charming smile on her face: "After all, you have to fix the mess you made yourself... I suddenly remembered that I have a few friends who are responsible for the import and export trade of EN590."

"Of course, we also manage pre-trade trade... EN590 is a rare commodity, and there are only a few companies in China that are qualified to import it;"

"So... maybe she's interested?"

Lu Yingying was shocked: "EN590? This, this, this...?"

EN590 is a scarce commodity even in later generations. Although it is not like in later generations that only five units are qualified to purchase it, there are really not many people with this qualification. Similarly, the limited EN5 allocation indicators at this time are not easy to get... It can be said that Zhuomali really spent a lot of money this time.

Seeing Tugou's shocked expression, Zhuo Mali shrugged her shoulders and said, "You are right. This world is so uneven. Although I still cannot understand why someone would stay in a poor rural area and eat bran porridge just for a few dozen yuan a year..."

"But this doesn't stop me from making up for my mistakes in my own way!"

At this point, Zhuo Mali said with a self-deprecating look on her face: "Who makes me a second-generation person in your eyes? Apart from this crooked way, there is nothing else that you can take a fancy to, right?"

Tugou didn't know whether Zhuo Mali's "let you guys like me" meant herself or Yang Mo.

But this did not stop her from watching this charming older sister disappear back into the old cement building with a complicated and inexplicable look...

(End of this chapter)