Starting with vegetable greenhouses in 1988

Chapter 279 Chaowai Vegetable Store

Although the afternoon sun was not as scorching as at noon, it still carried an unbearable heat.

On the street outside the west gate of the Diplomatic Residence, pedestrians hurried along, mostly walking close to the shade of the trees.

A white Volga sedan slowly pulled up to the side of the road. Li Zhe got out of the car and glanced at the shops on the south side of the street before his eyes fell on the second shop.

It was a newly opened vegetable store with a brand-new red signboard that read "Chaowai Vegetable Store" in gold lettering. The edges of the signboard were also carved with simple patterns, making it look quite impressive.

“Let’s go take a look.” Li Zhe pulled Wang Ting closer and discovered that there was a line of small characters engraved on the lower right corner of the signboard: “Chaonei Vegetable Market’s No.1 Foreign-Related Vegetable Store”.

He couldn't help but laugh: "So it's a shop opened at the Chaonei vegetable market. That's an interesting name."

"Does he also specialize in international business?" Wang Ting asked softly, linking her arm with his.

"Come on, let's go inside and see for ourselves." As soon as Li Zhe took a step, two middle-aged women came up to him at the shop entrance.

One of the women, a middle-aged woman with a long face, wearing a gray cloth jacket and holding a stack of flyers, greeted them warmly: "Sir, young lady, are you buying groceries? We just opened, and the prices are reasonable. Come in and have a look!"

Li Zhe gently patted Wang Ting's waist and gave her a look. Wang Ting understood, cleared her throat, and asked in English, "Can you speak English?"

The long-faced woman paused for a moment, her eyes darting around, then immediately put on a smile, gestured "please," and said haltingly in heavily accented Beijing dialect, "Purely, Kam people, who's afraid!"

Li Zhe frowned upon hearing the pronunciation, wondering to himself, "What is this?"

Wang Ting had experience tutoring chubby boys in English, and the boys often made pronunciation mistakes, so she had long since mastered the skill of "interpreting mishearings." She smiled and repeated, "Please come in, cheap!"

"You're going to choke, you're going to choke!" The older woman nodded quickly, gave her a thumbs-up, and led the two of them into the shop.

Li Zhe wasn't intentionally making things difficult; he just wanted to test the service capabilities of this vegetable shop catering to foreigners. After all, the area around the diplomatic residences is mostly populated by foreigners, and English-speaking service is essential. However, judging from the woman's behavior, she clearly hadn't received professional training.

As the two entered the store, a sweltering heat immediately hit them—the store had no air conditioning; only two old ceiling fans on the ceiling were slowly turning, blowing out hot air, making it even more stuffy than outside.

Li Zhe discreetly surveyed the store's layout: it was slightly smaller than the 365 Vegetable Store, and was also divided into four areas: vegetables, fruits, fresh produce, and groceries. Even the placement of the shelves was somewhat similar to that of the 365 Vegetable Store.

At that moment, a young waiter who looked to be in his early twenties and wearing a white shirt walked over.

His hair was neatly combed, and he wore a gray bow tie. With a hint of nervousness on his face, he said in broken English, "Welcome!"

Li Zhe nodded slightly in acknowledgment, his gaze continuing to sweep across the store.

At this time, there were no other customers in the store.

Behind the counter stood a middle-aged man wearing a white short-sleeved shirt, looking down at an abacus, his fingers moving quickly across the beads. He seemed to be the person in charge of the shop.

Li Zhe first walked to the vegetable section, picked up a tomato and looked at it - the skin was still relatively fresh, but the size was uneven.

He glanced at the price tag next to him and figured it out: it was slightly more expensive than the price at a regular vegetable market, but much cheaper than the 365 Vegetable Store.

He then went to the fruit and grocery sections and found that the prices were lower than at 365 Vegetable Store.

Finally, Li Zhe walked to the fresh food section, which was divided into two parts: on the left was a freezer, neatly filled with pork, beef, and chicken;
The plastic basin on the right contains some seafood, including prawns, yellow croaker, and carp. The variety is not large, but they are all common species in northern China.

He noticed the price tag on the freezer for Qin Chuan hybrid beef—18 yuan in foreign exchange certificates per jin (500g).

The cost price of this beef is 10 foreign exchange certificates per pound, while the discounted price at 365 Vegetable Store is 24 yuan per pound. It has never been lower than 20 yuan per pound. The other party's price tag directly brought down the price.

The young waiter followed again, took a deep breath, and tried to speak his English as fluently as possible: "Ladies and gentlemen, what would you like to buy?"

Li Zhe pointed to the large shrimp in the plastic basin and asked in English, "How much is this?"

The waiter glanced down at the tag next to the prawns and quickly replied, "Five yuan."

“I want two,” Li Zhe said.

The waiter deftly picked up the scale, weighed out two jin (approximately 1 kg) of prawns, handed them to Li Zhe, and announced the price: "Sir, ten yuan."

Li Zhe paid for the shrimp, took the shrimp, and walked out of the Chaowai Vegetable Store with Wang Ting.

As she sat inside the Volga sedan, Wang Ting frowned slightly and said worriedly, "This store has a similar variety of goods to our 365 Vegetable Store, but the prices are so much cheaper. Won't this affect our store's business?"

“There will definitely be some impact, but it’s not a big problem.” Li Zhe glanced at the “Chaowai Vegetable Store” sign outside the window, started the car, and said, “Let’s go back to the 365 Vegetable Store.”

The car circled the street and soon arrived at the 365 Vegetable Store near the east gate of the Diplomatic Residence.

As soon as the car came to a stop, Sun Tao quickly came out of the store to greet him.

His face showed some anxiety, but he forced a smile: "Brother Li, you've finally arrived! I've been worried about the torrential rain in Langfang these past few days. I hope the greenhouses weren't affected?"

"It's nothing, it's been taken care of a while ago." Li Zhe asked as he walked into the store, "How's business lately?"

Sun Tao sighed, led Li Zhe into the store, took out a thick ledger from behind the counter, and handed it to him: "Brother Li, you'll see when you take a look. The Chaowai Vegetable Store opened three days ago, and our store's turnover dropped by a third. More than half of the customers are coming in, and now we're relying entirely on our home delivery business to stay afloat."

I'm afraid that in a few days, they'll also start offering home delivery, and then our sales will drop even further.

Li Zhe opened the ledger, which recorded the daily revenue entries one by one. The figures for the last three days had indeed dropped noticeably.

He closed the ledger, looked up, and asked, "What are your thoughts?"

Sun Tao was indignant. "This Chaoyangmen vegetable market is so unreasonable! Beijing is so big, and there are plenty of places where foreigners congregate. Why do they have to choose to open a shop right next to us? Isn't this just blatantly stealing our business?"

Li Zhe had seen this kind of competitive scene many times in his later years—which large residential area didn't have three or five convenience stores and vegetable shops around it? Competition was the norm.

He placed the ledger on the counter and said calmly, "What's done is done. Complaining won't help. We need to find a solution."

Sun Tao's face showed worry: "I sent someone to inquire at the Chaowai Vegetable Store. They have the same variety of products as us, and their prices are even lower."

I had someone keep an eye on their store for two days, and many of our regular customers went to buy things from them instead.

"I think...shouldn't we also lower the prices of our goods?" he said, glancing cautiously at Li Zhe, afraid that the other party would be unhappy.

Li Zhe pondered for a moment, then cautioned, "Prices can be lowered appropriately, but we cannot engage in a price war with them. Once we get caught up in a price war, even if we win, our profits will shrink significantly, and it will be a losing proposition."

Sun Tao quickly followed up, "Then how should the prices be adjusted? We can't just watch all the customers leave, can we?"

In fact, Li Zhe was not against the price reduction. The profit of 365 Vegetable Store was so high that it was "frightening". The net profit in May alone exceeded 10,000 foreign exchange certificates.

Such exorbitant profits were abnormal to begin with. He hadn't expected such high profits when he opened the shop, and he'd always felt uneasy about it.

He once heard a saying: A true businessman only earns limited profits; excessive profits don't last.

In his view, the normal business path should be to build an industrial chain, reduce costs, and then open more branches—with more branches, the total profit will naturally increase.

However, this era was different from later generations. To do business, one had to be affiliated with a state-owned enterprise. There were too many things to consider before opening a branch store, so his plan was to first make the 365 Vegetable Store a "model store" and then expand when the time was right.

Moreover, encountering competitors was actually within his expectations; from a certain perspective, it was even a good thing—it showed that the marketization process was accelerating.

Li Zhe snapped out of his thoughts and said to Sun Tao, "There are many kinds of goods in the store. It's hard to explain in a few words which ones should be adjusted in price and by how much. Let's study it carefully later. Let me tell you about our future business direction first."

Sun Tao immediately took out his notebook and pen, and assumed a listening posture: "Brother Li, please speak, I will write it down."

"First, we need to define our customer base," Li Zhe said. "We cater to international customers who have better economic conditions, stronger purchasing power, and place greater emphasis on quality of life. Therefore, we need to compete on service and quality, not on low prices." He gave an example: "Take apples, for instance. The vegetable stores in Chaowai sell first-grade apples, while we source premium-grade apples. They are uniform in size, taste better, and can be priced higher. But as long as the quality is up to par, customers who value quality of life will definitely be willing to buy from us."

And as for butter, although they're all domestically produced, the quality varies. We'll source the best quality, even if it's more expensive, to attract our target customers.

"Secondly, there's the service," Li Zhe continued. "We offer home delivery, which they don't; our store's employees are young, have high English proficiency, and can communicate smoothly with foreign customers, while most of their store's employees are middle-aged and don't speak English well."
In terms of environment, our store has air conditioning, is clean and cool, while their store is stuffy and hot, and you can smell the fishy smell of seafood.

In terms of user experience, we have high-priced refrigerated display cases, which keep the meat fresh and give it a more upscale look, while they can only use ordinary freezers. These are our advantages.”

Actually, there's one more thing Li Zhe didn't mention: off-season vegetables. Once winter arrives, the differences become even more pronounced.

Sun Tao nodded repeatedly, his eyes gradually brightening: "Brother Li, I understand! We won't compete with them on price, we'll compete on quality, service, and experience!"

“That’s right, adjust it in these directions,” Li Zhe added.

Sun Tao suddenly remembered something and quickly said, "By the way, Brother Li, the Chaowai Vegetable Store has added seafood products, which is one more category than ours. Should we also stock some fish and shrimp?"

Li Zhe replied, "Forget about fish; the fish foreigners eat is different from what we usually eat. But we can get some frozen shrimp. Frozen shrimp can be stored for longer, and the taste won't be too different, which would be a good way to supplement our menu."

"Okay, I've written it down. I'll contact the supplier tomorrow." Sun Tao also wrote this down in his notebook.

Li Zhe stood up: "That's all for today. You make a list of price reductions for the goods, and based on the prices at the Chaowai Vegetable Store, we'll appropriately lower the prices of the goods with excessively high profits, just enough to maintain a reasonable profit."

"Don't worry, Brother Li, I've had people keeping an eye on their prices these past few days, and I'll be able to come up with a targeted price reduction plan soon," Sun Tao assured him, patting his chest.

"I trust you to get things done." Li Zhe patted his shoulder and prepared to leave, but his gaze fell on the refrigerated display case in the fresh food section. "By the way, is the Qin Chuan hybrid beef in the store not selling very well?"

Mentioning this, Sun Tao sighed again: "Yes, the vegetable store in Chaowai sells it for 18 yuan per jin (500g) in foreign exchange certificates, which is much cheaper than ours. We haven't sold much these past two days. The sales of imported steaks haven't been affected, but those aren't very profitable either."

"Cut me four pounds, put it on the tab," Li Zhe said with a smile. "I've been craving steak too."

"Alright!" Sun Tao immediately picked up a knife, went to the refrigerated display case to get the beef, and quickly cut off four pounds.

Li Zhe went to the grocery section and got some seasonings, which he then gave to Sun Tao to keep track of.

Afterwards, Sun Tao escorted Li Zhe and Wang Ting to the store entrance, handing Li Zhe a bag containing beef and seasonings, still looking somewhat downcast.

"Don't look so gloomy." Li Zhe patted him on the shoulder, his tone relaxed. "You're the store manager. If you don't have confidence, the employees will be even more panicked. Go for it, I'll back you up."

Sun Tao's eyes lit up, and he said gratefully, "Thank you, Brother Li!"

Li Zhe put the meat and seasonings into the trunk, waved, and said, "Let's go."

Sun Tao breathed a sigh of relief as he watched the Volga sedan drive away.

He felt uneasy when he saw the opening of the Chaowai Vegetable Store a few days ago; when he found out that the store was waging a price war, he was so worried that he couldn't sleep.

After hearing Li Zhe's analysis, his anxiety finally subsided, and his enthusiasm was rekindled.
He turned and hurried back to the store, opened the notebook on the counter, and prepared to make a detailed price reduction list as Li Zhe had suggested...

……

The walls of the tenement buildings on Guangqumen Inner Street are somewhat mottled, the stairwells are piled with miscellaneous items, and the sounds of neighbors talking can be heard from time to time.

The Chen family's house is on the second floor.

The chubby boy sat at his desk, his brows furrowed, a pencil stub between his teeth, staring at the words in his English textbook, not writing for a long time, as if he had encountered a difficult problem.

In the living room, Grandma Chen sat on a small stool with a bunch of tender chives in a bamboo basket in front of her. Wearing reading glasses, she deftly picked the chive leaves, and the emerald green chives gave off a unique aroma.

It's not easy to buy such tender chives at this time of year, so the old lady was planning to make her grandson's favorite chive and egg dish for dinner.

"Dong dong dong -" there was a knock on the door.

The chubby boy jumped up from his chair instantly: "It must be my second sister! She promised to tutor me in English this afternoon, look how late it is!"

"Stop talking nonsense. If your second sister hears you, she'll scold you again if you get a question wrong." Old Mrs. Chen didn't even look up, her hands busy picking chives.

"Hehe, I'm not stupid." The chubby boy grinned and skipped over to open the door.

As soon as the door opened, Wang Ting was standing outside, carrying two bulging bags. "Second sister, come in quickly!"

Just as the chubby boy was about to step aside to let her into the house, he caught a glimpse of someone standing behind her out of the corner of his eye, and his face lit up with surprise: "Second Brother! You're here too!"

"I knew you were on summer vacation, so I came to see you." Li Zhe walked up with a smile, carrying a bag in his hand.

During this period, the Wan'an Town Cannery was busy producing canned tomatoes and yellow peaches. As the production supervisor, Li Zhenguo stayed at the factory almost every day and hadn't returned to Beijing for quite some time.

Li Zhe wanted to look after his younger cousin for his second uncle, so he made an appointment with Wang Ting to come over together.

Compared to seeing his cousin, the chubby boy was clearly more looking forward to Li Zhe's arrival, and enthusiastically pulled him into the house, saying, "Second brother, come in and sit down!"

Li Zhe first greeted Old Madam Chen: "Grandma, it's been a while since we last met. Are you still in good health?"

"Oh my, Li Zhe's here! Come, sit down!" Old Mrs. Chen quickly put down the chives she was holding, got up and moved a chair over, her face full of smiles.

Although I knew that Li Zhe and Wang Ting had been dating for a while, this was the first time they had come to my house together.

Wang Ting placed the bag in her hand on the dining table and said with a smile, "Grandma, Li Zhe bought these; they're all your favorite pastries."

"This child, he comes all this way, and he's wasting money." Old Mrs. Chen muttered, but her eyes were full of joy as she busied herself pouring water for Li Zhe.

Li Zhe handed the bag in his hand to the chubby boy: "This is for you, see if you like it."

"Thank you, Second Brother!" The chubby boy eagerly opened the bag, which contained milk candy, chocolate, and a bag of freshly roasted chestnuts, all of which were his favorite snacks.

He squinted and smiled, his mouth stretching almost to his ears.

"Don't just focus on eating, take out the English questions you don't know how to answer." Wang Ting walked to the desk, her pretty face showing a hint of seriousness. "We agreed to catch up on your lessons first, then you can play."

The chubby boy, clutching the bag, grumbled somewhat reluctantly, "Second sister, second brother finally came all this way, can I play with him for a while? You tutor me, second brother must be so bored by himself."

"Stop using me as a cover." Li Zhe waved his hand. "Hurry up and learn from you. I'll take this opportunity to cook something delicious for you tonight."

The chubby boy immediately perked up and leaned over curiously to ask, "Second brother, what delicious food are you going to make?"

Wang Ting smiled and shook her head: "Don't ask anymore, do the questions first, I guarantee you'll never have eaten them before."

"I don't believe you! Unless you tell me first." The chubby boy stuck out his neck, looking unconvinced.

Li Zhe pulled a brown paper package from his pocket, opened it to reveal a large piece of bright red beef, with clear marbling and even fat distribution. "I'll make you a Western meal tonight, a steak."

The chubby boy's eyes widened in disbelief: "Second brother, you can cook Western food? I've only ever seen that on TV!"

"You'll find out when you eat it."

Li Zhe didn't explain much. He said that pan-frying steak in Western cuisine is not difficult. As long as the meat is fresh, of good quality, and the heat is controlled well, the taste will be good.

(End of this chapter)