Chapter 211: Chapter 211: A good start
On the seventh day of the fourth lunar month, when people in the city who had subscribed to the evening newspaper opened it, they saw the promotional flyers enclosed inside again. The flyers still contained details of the promotional items that the Jia convenience stores were preparing for their opening, along with the detailed addresses of the five stores. This was the result of a week-long newspaper insert advertising campaign by the Jia company, which was low-cost but had a wide audience reach.
At 9am on the eighth day of the fourth lunar month, the five convenience stores of Youjia Company opened at the same time in the city. Although they had made the preparations for the event very grand, the opening was very low-key, with no ceremony and not even a firecracker being set off.
The main colours of the convenience stores are blue and yellow, which look clean and refreshing, and are very approachable. This was also Feng Yiping's requirement: to have a distinctive appearance, but not to be garish, and to strive to blend into the daily lives of ordinary people with a fresh attitude.
Like the noodle shop, the street-facing side of the store has been replaced with large expanses of glass, and several lights have been switched on at the top. Passers-by can look inside and see the row of drink coolers against the wall at the very back.
Two employees remain in the store: of course, the prettiest girl is standing behind the cash register, while the other boy stands in the least conspicuous corner of the store. If the two stand together, it is easy to put pressure on individual customers.
The other two, at either end of the street where the shop was located, were dressed in work clothes and handed out carefully crafted flyers to passers-by. The requirement was that they not force the flyers into people's hands. At the same time, they had to give the most sincere smile with each flyer they handed out. If one could stay behind to chat for a few words after handing out ten flyers, that would be considered a success.
Feng Yiping could not take any leave and still had to attend classes at school. Everyone else, except for a few warehouse staff, crammed into two vans and drove from one store to the next, hoping that their efforts over the past few months would bear fruit. fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓
Sitting in the classroom, Feng Yiping really found it hard to concentrate today. He could appear indifferent in front of his parents, and he also rejected their offer to come and show their support. In fact, he was quite anxious inside.
This is a very promising job, and he is prepared to make it his career. From the very beginning, he has set a very high starting point for the infant Youjia Convenience Store. He has used modern systems and management models that many large domestic supermarket chains have not yet adopted, and the hardware in the store, including the refrigerators, is also top-notch.
In addition, from the beginning, he deliberately did not involve other family members, but instead hired Zhou Xinyu and the others at high salaries, in the hope that there would be no more of the drawbacks of a family business.
In the later era of Internet Plus, various electric appliance companies used their own online platforms to make life easier for everyone, while also driving a large number of people offline to get rich, and they themselves also achieved success. Feng Yiping also hoped that while he was successful, he could use the convenience store platform in the future to sell private label goods and drive the hardworking folks in his hometown to get rich.
Therefore, convenience stores are an important part of his plan. Although the five stores today are just a trial, he cannot accept an unfavorable start.
This kind of waiting is undoubtedly very difficult. Even Chen, Feng Yiping's math teacher, can tell that Feng is restless today. After class, she specially calls Feng out to the corridor and asks with concern, 'Is something wrong, Yiping?'
'Nothing,' Feng Yiping said to his class teacher, while straining to look at the shop across the street. Unfortunately, it was too far away and blocked by the high school wall, so he couldn't see it at all.
'Are you not feeling well? Do you want to see the school doctor?'
'No, Miss Chen, I just have a bit of stomach pain. Sorry, I need to go to the bathroom.' Feng Yiping made up a plausible excuse.
After enduring the four morning classes, Feng Yiping and the teacher left the classroom at the same time. As they walked towards the entrance, Feng Yiping slowed down his pace. Had the store not opened all morning? Should he buy something to help the store get off to a good start?
No way! He reassured himself. Just looking at the promotional items, there would definitely be some customers.
So he walked to the front door, and when he looked up, he saw a customer leaving with a shopping bag, having just finished paying.
He walked quickly over to the checkout counter, where a transaction was in progress. The customer had not bought much, just two packs of cigarettes, and there were a few elderly people in the store, wearing reading glasses, carefully looking at the prices of the goods on the shelves.
Feng Yiping asked the girl behind the cash register with his mouth, 'How much?'
The girl didn't even look at the computer, and directly held up four fingers, which meant 400 yuan. Not bad!
Feng Yiping now had a bottom line, and forgot his previous anxiety. He thought, 'I've brought dozens of people here, and worked hard for more than a quarter. How could it not be successful?'
He then visited the three surrounding stores, and they were all okay. The morning sales were between 300 and 500 yuan, which was not bad.
He finally arrived at the one located in the city's central business district, which was also the fifth convenience store. Unsurprisingly, that store should be the one with the best business.
As soon as the car came to a stop, he saw the van with the Yajia Company advertisement on the body drive up to the front of the convenience store and stop. After the door opened, Zhou Xinyu personally led two people to carry the goods.
Is it time to restock? He walked quickly over, and Zhou Xinyu was holding a drink. When he saw him coming, he smiled and asked, 'Have you seen the other stores?'
'Yes, they're all fine, but this store is doing so well? You need to restock now? How much have you sold?'
Zhou Xingyu proudly held up one finger, then made an eight, '1,800?' Feng Yiping was surprised, 'Are they all promotional items?'
'No,' the chubby Gao Zhiyi had already delivered one item and was back to take another, 'The back-end has analysed the data, promotional and non-promotional items account for 46% and 54% respectively,'
'Haha,' Feng Yiping was relieved. No wonder these two guys had come to deliver the goods themselves. They must really enjoy the sense of accomplishment.
Feng Yiping walked in with a beer in his arms. There weren't many customers in the store, which was less than 50 square meters—of course, it would be unrealistic to expect to see the same kind of foot traffic in a convenience store as in a hypermarket.
He observed that there were people buying drinks, snacks, cigarettes, instant noodles, ham, salt and soy sauce. Of course, there weren't many of the promotional items left, such as toilet paper and cooking oil, but most people didn't just come for the bargains, so that was good!
At 10 pm, when the cash registers in the five stores were switched off, the total turnover for the day was calculated in the background. Three stores had a turnover of over 900 yuan, one store had a turnover of over 1,000 yuan, and the store in the commercial district had a turnover of nearly 4,000 yuan, reaching 3,900 yuan.
Of the total sales of nearly 8,000 yuan, the proportion of promotional items was only over 40%, and the bulk was still general daily necessities. Moreover, all aspects of the day ran smoothly without a hitch, and it was also very lucky that there was no difficult incident encountered.
'Yes!' Everyone clapped in celebration after seeing the detailed data. This was only the first day, and it was estimated that some people had not noticed that there was such a small shop nearby, which meant that their previous work had not been in vain.
The young people in the store didn't know what the figures meant, but they could see that the management seemed very happy. Although they were a little tired, they felt happy too.
Feng Yiping bought a large pile of late-night snacks with his own money to reward everyone for their hard work today. Looking at the young, hopeful smiling faces, he felt very grounded.
Things like the Asian financial crisis don't happen every day. This summer, he was able to catch the last wave of the market and speculate in Hong Kong stocks and the Russian ruble. But after that, there won't be such opportunities for many years. He still needs to be down-to-earth and build a company with development prospects. Today's good start has laid a solid foundation for him.