1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 144 Deposits: 6.6 yuan
Stall number 56 has been open for seven or eight days, and every day after 2 a.m., it seems to have become its performance time, with groups of people always gathering inside and outside the stall.

People often feel that wholesale markets are very mysterious, and even have a certain prejudice against them, thinking that they are a mixed bag of people.

Dirty, messy, and dark~
Uh…

That description was indeed accurate in some regions during the 90s.

But it wasn't completely without order; in many cases, it was still a place for buying and selling.

If a market is too chaotic and there is constant forced buying and selling, it cannot last long.

Purchasing staff also prefer to buy groceries from stable and orderly locations.

For example, number 56.

Transactions are becoming more and more convenient every day.

Several regular customers who come to the front every day are particularly moved, as they used to be able to chat a bit more while the food was being served.

Now it seems like it's just a quick slap, and you can pay and leave. What a quick-fix guy.

After seeing off several large customers who regularly buy a lot of vegetables, it's time to repackage and bag them.

"Xiao Long, two 5-jin (2.5 catties) packs of kale, one 5-jin (2.5 catties) pack of mustard greens, and one 10-jin (5 catties) pack of bok choy are for this boss in the black shirt~"

"Okay, I'll take care of it."

"Kid, is this okay?"

"Okay, I guarantee you'll be satisfied."

Yi Long was very proactive. He had a heavy accent, but that didn't stop him from communicating with people. Chen Jiazhi often gave him small orders.

While we were busy, three people in blue uniforms arrived.

Who is the stall owner?

The crowd waiting to buy groceries parted to make way, and passersby slowed down as if waiting to watch the show.

Yi Dinggan and the others watched with some trepidation as Chen Jiazhi calmly took a cigarette and walked out.

"it's me."

“We received a report that stall number 56 was maliciously raising prices, so we came to take a look.”

The person who came was fairly friendly and not aggressive. Chen Jiazhi guessed that it was probably a vegetable vendor who reported him.

"No, I even lowered the price today. Besides, I grow my own vegetables, so there's no wholesale-retail price difference. You can ask them too."

However, no one spoke up for a moment.

Just then, Director Wang from the market management office walked in with a smile. After exchanging a few words, two uniformed people inquired about the situation, reprimanded the prices for being too high, and said they needed to be brought under control before leaving.

Director Wang turned back and said, "Mr. Chen, it's alright, but please reconsider your price. They will be inspecting the market for the next couple of days."

"Okay, thank you for your help, Director Wang. Here, have a cigarette." Chen Jiazhi smiled and lit the cigarette for him.

"It's nothing, nothing at all. It's just normal business practice." Director Wang smiled. "I'll be going now. I still have to follow up with them. Sigh, this policy..."

Chen Jiazhi didn't dwell on the issue any longer, but continued selling vegetables.

After seeing off all the waiting customers, there were still some vegetables left. This wave of restrictions on the wholesale-retail price difference still had an impact on him.

Retail vegetable vendors are less willing to buy his vegetables because they are too expensive, and the government has restricted the price difference between wholesale and retail.

If you sell something to someone, it's a huge loss.

Therefore, Chen Jiazhi wanted to take advantage of the policy opportunity to refine his customer base, and now it seems that he has indeed succeeded, with the number of retail vendors decreasing by more than half.

"Family Records~"

After pausing for a while, Yi Dinggan called out, "The three of us won't come in tomorrow. We'll just sell vegetables outside until you've finished selling them all, then we'll come in."

Chen Jiazhi was sitting in the carriage looking at the accounts when he said without thinking, "What's wrong? You think this little bit of food will affect me?"

Looking up, I noticed that the three people's expressions weren't quite natural.

Chen Jiazhi wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but when the topic of the limited dishes came up, Li Mingkun and Guo Mancang seemed vaguely dissatisfied.

This made him realize once again that he could no longer joke around without restraint.

"That's one reason. Even close brothers keep clear accounts, right?"

Yi Dinggan also spoke frankly.

They lent a hand at stall number 56 and sold some of their own vegetables along the way. It wasn't a matter of who lost or gained; they also learned a lot from the experience.

But it can still feel awkward, as people who come to buy groceries treat them almost like servants, which is a very unpleasant feeling.

In fact, they are also independent vegetable farmers.

Now that Chen Jiazhi's vegetable business is going smoothly, he can manage without their help. They don't have many vegetables left, and even if they sell them together, they won't make much money, so they want to go out again.

Chen Jiazhi pondered for a moment and said, "It's up to you. Anyway, you can come to number 56 anytime."

"Please feel free to call us if you need any help."

"Will do."

Chen Jiazhi sensed that Yi Dinggan, Li Mingkun, and Guo Mancang all had a strong desire to go it alone.

It gives you the feeling that if you can do it, why can't we?

After all, Chen Jiazhi developed right under their noses.

Chen Jiazhi didn't insist on recruiting the three. If they had to suffer a painful blow before they would finally realize their mistake, he couldn't force them to stop.

After chatting for a bit, another customer arrived, riding a pedicab. He was a bit overweight, wearing short sleeves and shorts, and kept wiping his sweat.

"Boss, how much are the bok choy?"

"Three yuan per jin."

"I heard you have high-quality bok choy with uniform specifications, but I don't see any here?"

"Sold out. You can pre-order for tomorrow if you need any. It's 90 yuan a piece, and you also need to pay a 20 yuan deposit for the vegetable basket."

The visitor asked with some surprise, "90 yuan a piece? That's quite unusual. Does each piece weigh 30 jin (15 catties)?"

"Yes, net weight 30 jin, quality guaranteed." Chen Jiazhi replied with a smile, "There are also mustard greens and kale, also 3 yuan per jin."

The stall was sold out of mustard greens and kale, which the man hadn't noticed at first, but his eyes lit up when he heard that there were mustard greens and kale available.

"Okay, I'd like to make a reservation." The person hesitated for a moment, then said, "Two servings of bok choy, and one serving each of kale and mustard greens for tomorrow."

Chen Jiazhi nodded and said, "Ouke, what's your surname?"

"My surname is Liu."

Chen Jiazhi wrote Liu Pangzi down in his notebook and said, "Try to come as early as possible, otherwise I'll sell it to someone else if it's too late."

Fatty Liu patted his belly, which trembled slightly, and agreed to the order. He then ordered 50 jin of bok choy for the day.

Another 150 yuan was earned. The payment was made readily, and Chen Jiazhi felt that this was a customer with potential, which could be considered an unexpected surprise.

This is the benefit of refining your customer base.

Those who come to the market early are mostly people who work in retail.

However, some purchasing staff from restaurants, hotels, and government agencies like to sleep in and often arrive even later.

Despite the recent booming market, we haven't been able to attract high-quality customers because Chen Jiazhi's vegetables are selling out too quickly.

He sold out before many people even arrived or before they came.

Therefore, there are advantages to vegetables selling slowly.

Next, more individual customers arrived, and the remaining dishes were quickly sold out.

None of them were in the mood for chatting, so Chen Jiazhi quickly paid Yi Dinggan, Li Mingkun, and Guo Mancang to settle the debt.

Yi Long seemed to sense that something was off and quietly helped pack his things to go home.

Only after Yi Dinggan and the other two had ridden away first, and Chen Jiazhi was lighting the engine, did Yi Long whisper:

"Uncle, I'm on your side."

"What do you mean by 'standing on my side'? We're nothing, things will continue as they are."

Chen Jiazhi smiled and said, "If your father finds out, he'll probably reward you with a beating of stir-fried pork with bamboo sticks."

"Don't worry, I have my mom."

Yi Long said, "My mom said my dad is all talk and no action. He's envious of how much money you make every day, and he wants to make big money like you, but he's lazy and incompetent."

"Haha, don't say that in front of your dad, or your mom won't be able to protect you either."

“Then I will come and seek refuge with you, Uncle.”

"Food and lodging included?"

"That's fine."

"Haha, I wouldn't dare. You should buy the bicycle first."

"By the way, Uncle, how much money do you want for me today? Eight yuan is fine."

"Wow, you've even started paying yourself a salary? Okay, here's eight yuan for you."

Yi Long grinned. Back in his hometown, an adult might not even earn 5 yuan a day, but he could earn 8 yuan a night, bringing him one step closer to owning a bicycle.

Chen Jiazhi also sensed that Yi Long was different; perhaps he had a deeper impression of the young and middle-aged Yi Long now.

Therefore, there is sometimes prejudice, and people automatically label Yi Long as lazy, fickle, unreliable, and so on.

In fact, young Yi Long also has many admirable qualities.

At least the laziness aspect doesn't exist.

It's rare for left-behind children raised in rural areas to be particularly lazy.

On the contrary, Yi Long is particularly focused on making money; his laziness in his previous life was entirely due to his second sister and Yi Dinggan's influence.

Speechless all the way.

When I returned to the market, it was already getting light, and smoke was rising from the kitchen at the back door.

It's much later than yesterday.

After Chen Jiazhi entered the house, Li Xiu was not home, so he took the rare opportunity to sort out the money himself, counting it first and then organizing it.

Including Heiwa'er's vegetables, we harvested exactly 2335 jin this morning.

The market price is uniformly 3 yuan, totaling 1335 yuan.

Heiwa bought 1000 jin of vegetables, with bok choy at 3.5 yuan/jin and mustard greens at 3.6 yuan/jin, for a total of 3550 yuan.

I earned a total of 7555 yuan this morning.

Breaking the record felt natural, and there was no particular excitement about it.

But there was still joy, and no one complained about having too much money. This is how vegetable farmers accumulated their wealth day by day.

Another busy day.

Chen Jiazhi didn't go to deposit money either. He showed off in front of others again last night, and Li Xiu finally stayed at home quietly for most of the day.

Yi Long was also fast asleep at home.

Two more days have passed like this~
Due to the restrictions on the wholesale-retail price difference, the vegetable prices in Chen Jiazhi's market have also fallen.

The prices of common bok choy and Chinese mustard greens have successively decreased.

However, the premium bok choy price remained stable at 3 yuan, with 11 pieces sold daily, totaling 990 yuan.

Therefore, total revenue only declined slightly.

For three consecutive days, my daily income has exceeded 7000 yuan.

Chen Jiazhi also intends to continue expanding the scale of premium bok choy and reduce or even abandon regular bok choy.

From now on, the standard will be unified: only 30-jin (15 catties) net weight packages of bok choy, Chinese kale, and mustard greens will be sold.

Orders are made entirely by the number of pieces.

No repackaging, no retail.

However, there is still a lot of preparation to be made.

On the morning of July 16th, it was the fifth sunny day after the typhoon.

The driving school grounds were equally sweltering.

On his third day of driving lessons, Chen Jiazhi was already able to skillfully drive the Jiefang CA141 truck around, which amazed his instructor, who immediately told him to prepare for the test.

After finishing his driving practice, Chen Jiazhi hurriedly returned to the market.

After receiving the money from Li Xiu, he went to the bank three days later and deposited another 2 yuan, bringing his total savings to 6.6 yuan.

Then, with the remaining two thousand yuan, he went to the plastic products factory and picked up 100 custom-made plastic vegetable baskets.

When I returned to the market, it was already past one o'clock.

Despite being exhausted, she still had to face Li Xiu's resentful face.

"Jiazhi, when you went to deposit money this morning, a very beautiful woman came to see you~"

Did she say what her name was?

"Xu Wenxiang".

(End of this chapter)