Reborn in America, I'm serious about making money.

What business can continue to operate for a long time without going out of business, and will not be affected by the rise of various e-commerce platforms, or will be less affected, and will not suffer from a decline in income due to a bad economy?

Have!

Those are pharmacies and convenience stores, which are also called small supermarkets. In Guangdong Province, they are called "shiduo," while in the north they are called "grocery stores." This is not a joke; analyzing their advantages will explain why they are so resilient.

Both types of stores share common characteristics: cash transactions, no credit, no delayed payments, no payment terms, and high gross profit margins.

Needless to say, pharmacies are even more so. As the old saying goes, "A robber is not as good as a medicine seller."

This makes a lot of sense. When people are sick, they want to get treatment immediately, especially for minor illnesses. They can buy medicine at a pharmacy themselves without going to the hospital and spending so much money on tests.

Although pharmacies have high profit margins on medicines, hospitals have even higher margins. A quick check will show that you can easily spend hundreds or even thousands of yuan. And the medicines prescribed are often special ones that are not sold in pharmacies, making them even more expensive.

In his previous life, Zhang San knew of a medicine called furfuryl alcohol tablets, which was used to treat toothaches. When he first bought it, it cost only 2.5 yuan a bottle, containing 100 tablets. He would take six tablets at a time, which was very effective for his toothache. Later, it cost 5 yuan a bottle, and then 7.5 yuan a bottle. He remembered that the last time he bought it before his rebirth was in the north, when it cost 11 yuan a bottle.

This medicine is more expensive in the north than in the south, probably because it can generate ten times the profit, but it still doesn't earn as much as a toothache kit; for example, when buying this medicine, you have to wait for amoxicillin plus metronidazole* plus traditional Chinese medicine for clearing heat and detoxifying.

They can offer package deals, they would never prescribe a cheap old medicine. In the past, a single white pill was enough for a fever, but now a fever costs hundreds or even thousands of dollars to treat, and if you add tests, it will be even more expensive.

Zhang San is someone who's been through the rain, so naturally he'd tear someone else's umbrella... He can sell medicine for a lower price.

He owns a nationwide chain of pharmacies, a pharmaceutical company under construction across the country, and a charitable hospital. Zhang San's charitable hospital operates according to the standards of a public hospital.

In this way, his medicine doesn't need to go through the pharmaceutical label or any intermediaries. His medicine can be said to have a complete production, supply, and sales chain, saving him the trouble of dealing with intermediaries.

Speaking of this pharmaceutical company, Zhang San had heard a legend, just a legend, that a certain overseas pharmaceutical giant, a real giant, had opened a branch in mainland China. He thought that his drug was so powerful and effective that it should be able to enter the mainland market.

Furthermore, this overseas pharmaceutical giant felt that other competitors who were far less successful than him were thriving in mainland China, so he shouldn't be doing worse than them.

As a result, they failed to win any bids in several bidding sessions. They were puzzled and sent people to investigate the matter. Then... they discovered that the operation of the pharmaceutical quotation system in the West was something that shocked them.

Perhaps this company is too straightforward. If they had just followed the market and local customs, things would have been fine. Instead, they flipped the table. After withdrawing from the mainland market, they directly exposed these unspoken rules.

So what? They're still fine, aren't they?

This company is incredibly naive; it wants to go against the entire industry. If it doesn't leave, who will?

To save costs, Zhang San adopted a vertically integrated approach, encompassing upstream chemical companies, raw material pharmaceutical companies, pharmaceutical manufacturing companies, pharmaceutical logistics companies, and retail outlets.

Moreover, there are branch offices all over the mainland.

His idea was simple: he controlled the raw material production companies. Even if no one bought his medicine, they would still buy the raw materials. And even if they bought the raw materials, they would still need to buy the excipients.

Without these, how would manufacturers produce the drugs? Pharmaceutical manufacturers are like assembly plants. They buy raw materials, add excipients like starch, mix them, and compress them into tablets, which becomes the medicine we commonly use. Does that sound familiar? It's the same process as assembling a mobile phone.

Zhang San's pharmaceutical chain has more than five times the number of supermarkets, reaching 40,000 stores and providing 500,000 jobs. The monthly net profit is around 400 million yuan, and this is not a joke; the profit is very stable.

In the 1990s, when health supplements were all the rage, pharmacies had even higher profit margins, reaching 80%, and customers would buy in large quantities. At that time, Zhang San also developed several health supplements, and the national sales reached tens of billions of yuan. He felt it was incredible, as this was the sales of the manufacturing company, not the sales of the pharmacies.

He still sells several items in his pharmacy: an oral liquid for replenishing blood, an oral liquid for aiding sleep, a weight loss product, and a beauty and detoxifying product.

These four categories, including the GG (boyfriend/girlfriend) on TV, are frequently involved in fights. The annual investment in GG fees reaches nearly one billion yuan, which is distributed nationwide.

Moreover, the reason why Zhang San's TV series can be broadcast on various TV stations across the country is because of his GG fee. If you don't broadcast it, I won't invest in it.

Making money is nothing to be ashamed of!

He just took the idea from a big shot, but a big shot is a big shot, and he made a comeback with other things; unlike Zhang San, who can only be a student and follow in the footsteps of his predecessors.

Most of these pharmacies were bought by Zhang San. Although he makes 400 million yuan in profit every month nationwide, this is after the profits have been distributed. In order to reduce the profit margin, he distributes the profits in other ways, and these pharmacies are one of his main tools for reducing profits.

He raised the rent to twice that of the surrounding area, especially in the four major first-tier cities where prices were even higher. Although some people within the company raised questions, they all understood in the end and didn't pursue the matter further.

There are many advantages to doing this: you buy a shop, wait for its value to appreciate, and then sell it in the future. Plus, the rent is guaranteed, ensuring a continuous profit.

Moreover, the money to buy the store was partly borrowed from Shanghai Pharmaceuticals Group, partly from rental income, and partly from the supermarket's loans, so it can be said that there was no financial pressure.

It was incredibly successful, especially before the millennium. The speed at which shops were bought was astonishing. Otherwise, what would supermarkets do with the money they made? Just let it depreciate?

Where did he get the money to build buildings in mainland China? It all came from these retail sales. Although these retail sales are hard work, what does it have to do with Zhang San? It's all the hard work of his subordinates. He only needs to arrange the finances, supervision, and personnel. He doesn't need to worry about anything else; he can just let his subordinates do the work.

In Zhang San's view, the most profitable places for pharmacies are in fourth-, fifth-, sixth-, and even eighteenth-tier cities, where people are easy to fool.