I met my whole family through Baidu Tieba.

Shen Kang didn't know where his superiority lay; he only saw Tao Yinchu smiling mysteriously with an air of knowing what was going on.

This reminded him of the VFF incident eight years later: Trump casually posted a nonsensical tweet and went to sleep, and the "VFF" in the tweet was even more puzzling, but his subordinates and supporters had already taken action.

Some analysts believe it's a "deliberately coined neologism hinting at a deeper meaning"; others say it's "a brilliant satire of fake news delivered through encrypted language"; still others praise it as "creating a completely new rhetorical device on social media, something only a genius could do." A White House spokesperson later responded seriously, "The president and his supporters understand what the word means."

When Trump woke up, he was completely bewildered and even tweeted, "Can anyone tell me what 'vff' means?"

Shen Kang now has a somewhat similar feeling.

But that's not important.

The important thing is that he spent the whole morning reading, and now his mind is full of things like registers, caches, and instruction sets. His brain is like a P-type computer that has been running bare metal all morning, and it's getting a bit hot with the fan whirring.

He needs to stop, catch his breath, suspend the current process for a while, and push all this junk onto the stack to save the current state. Once the stack temperature drops, he can pop it out one by one and process it slowly.

In layman's terms, it's about getting a change of pace.

"Old Tao."

Shen Kang looked at Tao Yinchu and, for the first time today, brought up work-related matters: "According to what you said this morning, if we sell out of these three thousand toothbrushes, it won't be able to restock for a while?"

Tao Yinchu thought to himself, "What's wrong with President Shen's reaction time? It happened several hours ago." Then he nodded, "Yes. The factory has scheduled all its production lines for the Spring Festival for Philips. If we sell out these 3,000 units and place additional orders, they won't be able to arrange it for us until at least the eighth day of the Lunar New Year. In the end, I don't know how long it will take."

What they are talking about now is what Tao Yinchu mentioned this morning, regarding the supply chain of the sonic motor for Anjia 1:

These days, there are very few factories in China that can make sonic motors; there are only a handful. One of them is called Lide, located in eastern Guangdong. The sonic motor for Anjia 1 was also made by them.

Everything was going smoothly until there was a problem with the delivery of Anjia's first order of 1 electric toothbrushes. It was originally said that the delivery would be completed in early January, but it was delayed for nearly 10 days and was only delivered yesterday.

Furthermore, the other party stated that their production capacity was prioritized for Philips, and any subsequent orders would have to wait until Philips' orders were completed before they could be processed.

"Philip also has its own factories in the country."

Tao Yinchu, fearing that Shen Kang hadn't listened carefully that morning, explained some details to him: "However, Philips operates on a production-plus-purchase model. For motors with higher technical content and more advanced features, they produce them themselves. For some motors with lower technical content, if purchasing is more cost-effective than producing them themselves, they will outsource the orders to domestic factories. That's why Philips has become a major customer of Lide."

At this point, Tao Yinchu slapped his thigh, sighed, and began to reflect on his actions: "It was my oversight that led me to choose this factory. I only thought that this factory could supply Philips with stable and reliable products. But I never expected that Philips would pull such a stunt at the end of the year, directly locking up the factory's production capacity."

Zhong Weiting, who had a penchant for conspiracy theories, couldn't help but say, "Could it be that they're targeting us? Knowing we're also going to sell electric toothbrushes, they're locking up our production capacity first. That way, even if we sell very well and all 3,000 units are sold out, we won't be able to increase production capacity anytime soon, and we won't be able to expand the market."

Shen Kang laughed and shook his head. "Weiting, you're even more confident than I am. How could such a big company target us?"

After saying that, he asked Tao Yinchu, "Old Tao, with Philips locking up production capacity like this, won't the other small factories like ours be squeezed out?"

Currently, the electric toothbrush market in China is indeed very small, with Oral-Bee and Philips dominating the majority of the market share. However, apart from Anjia, there are a few other manufacturers in China that have also started making electric toothbrushes.

Tao Yinchu replied, "I have inquired, yes."

Shen Kang nodded: "So, they're not targeting us. If you really want to say they're targeting us, then it's all the manufacturers who want to make electric toothbrushes."

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"Philip knows better than anyone that electric toothbrushes have been sold in Europe and America for many years, but they've only just emerged in China. Oral-Bee's dominance makes it uncomfortable, but what worries it even more is that we've started making electric toothbrushes ourselves."

"Today they launch a new brand, tomorrow another brand. One or two isn't scary. What's scary is that once these smaller brands make a name for themselves in the local market, Philips' premium pricing strategy as a 'Western big brand' will slowly lose its effectiveness."

Tao Yinchu continued, "So they simply locked up the production capacity of factories like Lide at the end of the year. Even if these small factories in China wanted to produce more, they couldn't."

Shen Kang nodded: "That's right. It does want to lock down the entire process, but it can't, so it simply locks down a few key points. It's not that it's trying to kill off any particular one; it's trying to keep those of us who want to make electric toothbrushes forever stuck at the 'small-scale' stage. If you sell well, the supply can't keep up. If you can't keep up, it will continue to occupy the market. If you can't get ahead, it won't have to compete with you."

"Even if we can't lock it in the end, doing this will at least postpone the point when it 'can't be locked anymore' as much as possible."

After saying that, Shen Kang exclaimed in admiration, "What a brilliant strategy!"

Then, he stood up, looking quite interested, and said, "Have you all finished eating? Come on, Zhengye Street is right next door. Philip must have a store here. Let's go take a look and learn something."

Tao Yinchu and Zhong Wei also stood up.

After paying the bill, the three of them went to Zhengye Street next door.

In early 2009, the Zhengye Street area didn't yet have the glass-walled shopping malls that would later appear. The busiest areas were Yangcheng Department Store, Hualian Shopping Mall, and several newly established home appliance chain stores.

As the Spring Festival approached, the entire street was covered with red banners with yellow lettering, advertising things like "New Year's Goods Fair," "Spend 300 Get 50 Free," and "Trade-in Your Old Appliances for New Ones." The banners stretched from the street corner to the overpass, creating a festive and joyful atmosphere. The street was bustling with people, a lively and lively scene.

Shen Kang looked around with great interest.

Since his rebirth, he had never been here before, and now that he saw it, he felt a strange yet familiar feeling.

The three of them didn't do much shopping and went straight to Yangcheng Department Store.

Philips products are still very common in Yangcheng Department Store. As you walk along, you can see rice cookers, LCD TVs, vacuum cleaners, electric heaters, and so on.

However, Philip's personal care services are not located here. After inquiring, I learned that there is a dedicated counter on the sixth floor.

On the sixth floor, in the west section, in the personal care appliances area, there is a Philips personal care sales point.

After Shen Kang and his group took the elevator up, they immediately saw Philips' personal care business sales point.

The blue and white color scheme and the brighter lighting bathed the entire counter in a cool glow. Behind it, a lightbox displayed a line of English text and the phrase "Philip, Healthy Living."

Below is a long, narrow glass cabinet with three shelves inside.

On the top shelf are three electric toothbrushes. Next to the middle one is a handwritten price tag: "New Year's special price 399, plus a free original brush head!"

Compared to later generations when buying a domestic electric toothbrush usually comes with at least two brush heads, and some even come with three original brush heads, the current practice of giving away even one original brush head is considered a "big promotion." This is indeed a scenario that people in later generations could not have imagined.

The electric toothbrush on the left in this big sale costs over 500 yuan and doesn't come with brush heads. The one on the right is more high-end, costing over 700 yuan, and it also doesn't come with brush heads.

The second layer contains matching brush heads, supported by stiff cardboard, arranged neatly in blue and white. The bottom layer contains two razors, clearly just there to make up the numbers, but not too out of place.

A female sales promoter, in her thirties, was standing in front of the counter, wearing a blue Philips uniform with a name tag pinned to her collar.

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She is demonstrating to a middle-aged couple.

The woman hesitated, while the man remained silent.

The salesperson turned on the demo unit, and the brush head created a fine spray of water in a glass of water. "Listen to this sound, sir," she said. "Over 30,000 strokes! You can't get that much with a hand brush."

The woman took it, tried it on her wrist, and said, "It's a little numb." The salesperson replied, "That's right, that's the cleaning power."

The man was still looking at the prices, asking if there were any cheaper options. The salesperson said, "This is a special price for the Spring Festival. The ones below that aren't strong enough; they won't even get between your teeth. If you're buying for an elderly person in your family, this is the best choice today, and it even comes with a free brush head."

Shen Kang and the other two stood on the side, not too close.

"This is a good approach."

Shen Kang watched with interest, and casually said to Zhong Weiting beside him, "Weiting, when we go to other service points later, tell them to add this method to our service as well, so that when our housekeeping staff come to promote their services, they can also use this 'toothbrush splashing water' trick..."

That was a good idea; he just stole it.

As Shen Kang was speaking, a voice came from the side.

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"Mr. Shen?"

Shen Kang also stopped talking for a moment and looked over, only to see a middle-aged man standing next to him looking at him. It was Gu Jinhua, whom he had just met last night.

Gu Jinhua looked at Shen Kang with some surprise, feeling that she and this President Shen were really destined to meet. They had just had dinner together last night and bumped into each other again today.

"Manager Gu."

Shen Kang also greeted him.

Gu Jinhua glanced at the two men standing next to Shen Kang, who resembled his two henchmen. Shen Kang then introduced them, "This is Manager Gu Jinhua, the manager of Philip Yangcheng. This is Zhong Weiting, the manager of Anjia Household Services Yangcheng. This is Tao Yinchu..."

During the introductions, Gu Jinhua glanced at Zhong Weiting, thinking, "This is the manager of Anjia Household Services in Yangcheng? He looks quite young." As for Tao Yinchu, he didn't pay much attention to him.

After introductions and greetings, Gu Jinhua made a joke, tinged with a hint of probing: "Mr. Shen, are you bringing two top executives from Anjia here to try and expand these traditional sales channels?"

Zhong Weiting and Tao Yinchu remained silent, feeling somewhat embarrassed: just moments ago, the three of them were enthusiastically discussing stealing someone else's idea, and now, in the blink of an eye, the person in question had arrived at their door.

I wonder how President Shen managed to brush it off...

As the two were pondering this, they saw Shen Kang, with an open and honest expression, say directly, "No. Well, our An family has also made an electric toothbrush and is preparing to sell it. We've come to learn how your senior, Philip, sells them."

"I didn't know until I came to learn, and I was amazed. Manager Gu, Philips really lives up to its reputation as an international brand. They really have some tricks up their sleeves. For example, your promotional tactic of splashing water while holding an electric toothbrush seems ordinary, but it's actually very intuitive and quite clever. I've learned something. I was just telling them that we'll learn this trick too and have our sales staff splash water when promoting electric toothbrushes."

"..."

Zhong Weiting and Tao Yinchu both lowered their heads slightly, thinking to themselves, "President Shen, is it really okay for you to be so honest?"

:

Gu Jinhua was speechless.

"..."

However, Gu Jinhua immediately stopped caring about this trivial matter and was shocked – was Anjia also going to sell electric toothbrushes?

If it were any other small manufacturer claiming to sell electric toothbrushes, Gu Jinhua would most likely just chuckle and dismiss it, but An Jia is different.

His behavior last night clearly shows that Gu Jinhua values ​​the An family quite a bit. Furthermore, Shen Kang's performance last night, with his confident and arrogant demeanor, left a deep impression, so Gu Jinhua is indeed more concerned about him than when she heard that other small manufacturers were making electric toothbrushes.

Then, Gu Jinhua asked again, to confirm, "Anjia is going to sell electric toothbrushes too?"

Shen Kang, who had nothing to hide, nodded and confirmed again, "Yes, we'll be selling them in the next couple of days. By the way, I remember seeing Manager Gu's information on our Anjia Home Services customer list. Manager Gu is also one of our Anjia customers. So when our people come to promote the electric toothbrushes, we hope Manager Gu can help us out by buying one to try out and give us some feedback."

"..."

Zhong Weiting and Tao Yinchu lowered their heads even further.

Tao Yinchu thought to himself, "I, Lao Tao, already have a thick skin, but I didn't expect that President Shen, at such a young age, would have an even thicker skin than me. He directly asked the competitor to give him face and buy one of their electric toothbrushes in front of them, and even asked them to give him some feedback after using it."

Gu Jinhua was speechless again, but still managed a forced smile and said, "Since President Shen has spoken, then there's no doubt about it. If someone from your An family really comes to my door to sell it, I'll definitely buy one."

He wasn't just being polite.

If someone from Anjia came to his door to sell him an electric toothbrush, he would actually buy one. In fact, he would even specifically set aside time these past few days to have someone from Anjia come to his door for cleaning, just to buy an electric toothbrush.

After all, this is an electric toothbrush made by Anjia Home Service, one of their competitors.

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