America's No. 1 financial conglomerate

Chapter 490 Fortune Lies in Peril

Harrisburg is a common city name in the United States. There are 17 cities in the country with the name Harrisburg, including three in New York State alone.

However, the most famous is Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania.

Don't assume that Harrisburg, as the state capital, will be a great place to develop.

In Pennsylvania, the economic center is Philadelphia.

Harrisburg, however, is a city with a population of only 60,000.

Despite its small population and limited area, Harrisburg holds an important and undeniable position in Pennsylvania's industrial landscape.

The headquarters of many of the state's core industries are located here, covering multiple fields such as energy, technology, and modern agriculture.

The clustering of these core industries has not only brought a large number of high-value-added jobs to Harrisburg, but has also greatly promoted the quality of local economic development.

Thanks to these core industries, Harrisburg has a relatively high per capita income despite its small population.

This also means that local residents have strong purchasing power, which makes Harrisburg a key target area for major retail brands to expand their market in Pennsylvania, including Pennsylvania-based brand wawa.

As night fell, the evening rush hour traffic was as congested as solidified syrup. Gallup Wood walked into a Wawa store, and the moment he stepped inside, he seemed to hear the sounds of heaven, instantly softening the tense lines of his face and causing the corners of his mouth to unconsciously turn upwards.

You have a new order, please process it promptly.

This is the notification sound emitted by the ordering machine sold by AiTech when it receives a new order. For store staff, this means another business deal has been secured.

Upon hearing the notification tone, store manager Mary quickly tore off the newly generated order from the ordering machine. A store employee wearing an orange uniform and a baseball cap walked over quickly, took the order from Mary, and turned to head to the goods area to prepare the order.

Before the employee could even turn around completely, the ordering machine's speaker blared that familiar notification sound again.

You have a new order, please process it promptly.

"What a beautiful sound." Gallup Wood, who had just entered the store, heard the notification sound again and even closed his eyes, a look of blissful intoxication on his face, as if he were listening to a sacred prayer of God.

Of course, it could also mean the end of a great work on human reproduction.

At this moment, he felt that the best decision he had ever made was agreeing to bring Wawa into the WShop Group through a share acquisition.

With the official launch of its flash sale business, Wawa stores experienced explosive growth in sales.

In just three days, Wawa stores saw a significant surge in revenue and a substantial increase in sales figures.

Based on the current growth trend, if this positive momentum continues, Wawa stores' revenue could at least double.

More importantly, in terms of profits, thanks to the gradual emergence of economies of scale and his wise decisions, profits can achieve at least a 150% increase.

You have a new order, please check your inbox.

"Ah!" Gallup Wood couldn't help but groan, feeling as if his brain was experiencing an orgasm.

"Mr. Wood?" Shopkeeper Mary looked at him strangely, a hint of wariness in her eyes, as if she were looking at a freakish person.

She was all too familiar with Gallup Wood's expression at that moment; every man had this look after he had released and been satisfied.

Following the direction of the other person's gaze, you can see the store's refrigerated area, which is filled with various beverages, dairy products, and fast food such as sushi and sandwiches.

No, Mary quickly shook her head.

Her gaze shifted again, finally settling on a tuna poster atop the freezer.

Wawa's sandwiches are very famous locally, with the tuna sandwich being one of the store's signature products due to its fresh ingredients and unique flavor.

Therefore, almost every Wawa store displays a tuna poster featuring a smiling man holding a large tuna, indicating that Wawa's tuna ingredients are fresh enough.

"Could it be that she had an orgasm after seeing that man? Or could it be that she only has this kind of reaction when she sees a tuna?" Mary wondered to herself, feeling that the former possibility seemed more likely.

Just as Mary was lost in thought, Gallup's voice came, "Go to the back storeroom, I have something to tell you."

Mary was taken aback. What could possibly be so important that they had to go to the storeroom to discuss it?

However, when Mary glanced at the tuna poster again and thought about her previous guess, she felt much more at ease.

She quickly composed herself, gave a brief explanation to the other employees in the store, and then followed Gallup Wood toward the warehouse.

Inside the warehouse, the lighting was relatively dim, and the air was filled with a faint smell of stored goods.

As soon as Mary entered the warehouse, Gallup Wood eagerly asked her, "How have the sales been these past few days?"

Mary's face showed an expression of "I knew it," and a hint of sadness and pity even flashed in her eyes.

What's the use of having money? If you can't experience the beauty of life, you're just gay.

However, she quickly composed herself and replied seriously, "Very good. Since the flash sale business was launched, the store's daily sales have increased by 100%. However, among all products, our signature sandwiches and coffee are still the best-selling items, and these two products are almost always out of stock."

"I've already contacted the central kitchen and plan to increase the order volume for these two products starting tomorrow."

One of WShop's central kitchens is located in Pennsylvania, in the suburbs of Philadelphia, not far from Harrisburg. Every day, it delivers a steady stream of various products precisely to the stores located in the area it is responsible for.

Besides the Wawa specialty sandwiches and coffee that Mary mentioned, there are many other unique products.

These products sell very well, and over 60% of the online sales revenue of each store comes from these products.

"No need. Starting tomorrow, reduce the order quantity for sandwiches," Gallup Wood said without hesitation after listening to Mary's report.

Mary's expression froze instantly; she wondered if she had misheard.

With sales so booming, not only are they not increasing the subscription volume, but they're actually reducing it?

Gallup then explained the reason: "Our distribution center has restarted, and at that time, some of the sandwiches in all Wawa stores will be replaced with our own products."

Wawa has its own distribution center, which is essentially a central kitchen, but it is only used for making sandwiches.

Before Wawa joined WShop, this distribution center was responsible for making and delivering sandwiches every day.

Now that a central kitchen has been established, this distribution center has been closed.

"But why?" Mary asked, puzzled.

Because WShop has now achieved a certain scale, the cost of each product has decreased accordingly, which is why the profit margin is much higher than the turnover.

This includes reducing the cost of making sandwiches at Wawa by about 10%, something Mary, as the store manager, is aware of.

"I've found a cheap food supplier, just listen to me."

Because the issue of near-expiry food was dropped three days ago—despite receiving complaints, the flash sale platform only informed them without taking any action—Gallup became even more brazen and reckless.

Not only have they imported large quantities of near-expiry food products from competitors, but they've now set their sights on the best-selling items in stores.

The intention is to reduce costs and increase profit margins.

The supplier he found, who could provide the main sandwich ingredients such as beef, ham, and tuna, quoted prices that were 30% lower than the market average, and even lower than the prices of ingredients purchased from WShop's central kitchen.

In any case, even if consumers get food poisoning and come to us for help, the first thing they'll do is contact the flash sale platform.

Even if Flash Sale holds them accountable, so what? They can just shift the blame to WShop's central kitchen.

Moreover, he has already planned to not only reduce procurement costs, but also reduce the amount of raw materials added, thereby achieving a further reduction in costs.

Based on this calculation, the profit might increase by 40% in the end.

"Yes, I've just received another batch of food nearing its expiration date. I think we can appropriately lower the prices of our products."

Mary understood that when prices were lowered, nearby consumers would naturally choose Wawa's stores when placing orders during flash sales, thus increasing Wawa's sales.

As for the cheap ingredients the other party mentioned, Mary knew what they meant, but wouldn't there be problems?

Gallup, oblivious to Mary's worried expression, was completely absorbed in his own wawa empire, dreaming of expanding beyond Pennsylvania and reaching the entire East Coast.

He made huge profits through the flash sale platform, established a new company, and led the new Wawa to expand all the way.