Chapter 23 Buy and Sell
In the next few days, Song Yuanchao and his colleagues basically ate and lived in the air-raid shelter and did not go anywhere else. As time went by, they made hangers faster and faster. The raw materials were gradually consumed, and the finished hangers were piled up in sacks.
On the first day, due to lack of skill, they only made 618 hangers. On the second day, as their proficiency increased, the number reached 1725. On the third day, it rose to 1988. On the fifth day, Song Yuanchao and five other people worked from early morning to dusk. Finally, all the raw materials were used up and all the wire hangers were made.
The final number of wire hangers was 8,962, which was not much different from Song Yuanchao's estimate. Because there were not enough sacks, only 30 sacks were used, which was an integer of 3,000. The rest were neatly placed in bundles in the air-raid shelter.
Everyone was very busy during these five days, working day and night. When they were hungry, they just ate a few mouthfuls of rice. When they were thirsty, they took a few sips from the kettle. When they were really tired, they just lay down on the sacks in the air-raid shelter to take a nap. After waking up, they continued to work. Even Song Yuanchao was unkempt after a few days, and looked almost as miserable as the day he first returned to Shanghai.
After the completion, Song Yuanchao announced that everyone should take a day off and get enough rest before setting off at four o'clock tomorrow morning. Now the last step was to sell the finished hangers.
They went to a nearby bathroom to take a shower, then had a meal in the air-raid shelter and went to bed early. At 3:30 a.m. the next day, the alarm rang on time, and Song Yuanchao and the others got up and packed up one after another. Just after four o'clock, in the still hazy night, Li Daqi rode a tricycle piled with sacks of hangers, and the others followed on foot, rushing to the nearest vegetable market.
It was less than 4:30 when they arrived at the vegetable market. There were already quite a few people there. Song Yuanchao looked at the terrain, asked Li Daqi to pull the tricycle to an intersection, and then asked his friends to unload the sacks on it.
Last year, the market gradually showed a trend of opening up, especially at the end of the year, when many farmers from the suburbs began to transport vegetables, eggs and other things to the city to sell. In addition, there were some self-employed vendors. Most of these small vendors gathered near the vegetable market, and over time a relatively fixed market was formed.
Of course, this market is not officially recognized by the government at present, but the higher-ups just turn a blind eye to it. To put it bluntly, it is still a black market.
The market starts at 4:30 a.m. every day and usually ends at 6:30 a.m. After daybreak, everyone disperses automatically as if nothing had happened.
After unloading the things, Song Yuanchao opened a sack, took out the tied hangers from it and untied them, then pulled a rope between two trees on the sidewalk and hung the hangers on them in order of color.
After finishing, the three colors of hangers were hung alternately, which looked very eye-catching. The next step was to sell. But at this time, Song Yuanchao saw Li Daqi, Zhang Bin, Wang Jianjun, and Gu Jie looking at each other, but they didn't know how to sell.
When the things were displayed, naturally people gathered around to look at them, but except for Song Yuanchao, no one else had ever done such a thing. In fact, Song Yuanchao had never been a small vendor, but in the later life, he had lived for nearly seventy years, had he never eaten pork or seen a pig run?
What's more, when he worked at the telephone bureau in his later years, he took his employees out on missions and set up stalls to do telephone sales. Seeing that everyone was at a loss as to how to sell things, Song Yuanchao rolled up his sleeves and started to demonstrate.
"Hey, hey, hey! Come and have a look. Don't miss it if you pass by. The steel wire hangers are cheap and good quality. They are made of solid materials and the price is cheap! They are only 3.5 yuan each. Buy them and use them to hang clothes. They are firm and sturdy. This is a rare opportunity!"
Song Yuanchao held two clothes hangers in one hand, which he hooked together and waved in his hand, just like Bruce Lee playing with nunchakus. The sound of the clothes hangers whirring in the wind was dazzling, and from time to time he would do a white crane spread its wings and wave a pipa in his hand, which looked more like the Haidilao ramen performance in later generations.
He waved his hand and shouted loudly. As he shouted, more and more people gathered around him.
"Young man, are you selling steel (wire) hangers?"
"It's made of steel wire, six centimeters thick steel wire, sealed with a PVC casing on the outside. It's hard and solid, and will never rust. Look, auntie, with this color and workmanship, it's only thirty-five cents each. It's so cheap and unique in Shanghai!" Song Yuanchao happily fiddled with the clothes hanger in his hand to show the other party.
"The color is pretty and the look is nice, but is the hanger sturdy?"
"Strong, absolutely strong!" Without saying a word, Song Yuanchao picked up a clothes hanger and hit the sycamore tree trunk beside him hard. In the whistling wind, the clothes hanger hit the tree trunk with a crackling sound. The white tree trunk was directly broken by Song Yuanchao, and green juice splashed out. However, the clothes hanger in Song Yuanchao's hand was basically not deformed except for being stained with some bark and juice.
"Look at this, everyone. Look at the workmanship and materials used. Not to mention hanging clothes, it can also be used to beat your children. I guarantee your children will be very obedient as soon as you spank them."
"Hahaha!"
Song Yuanchao's words immediately caused everyone to burst into laughter. In this era, it is common for parents to beat their children. Which family doesn't beat their children? It is a common thing to beat the little kid at home with a feather duster until he jumps up and down and screams like a ghost. Song Yuanchao's words resonated with everyone.
" Young man , the things look good. Can the prices be cheaper?" a middle-aged man asked.
"35 cents each. If you buy three at once, I'll charge you one dollar. That's cheap enough. We use good materials and the cost is high. If we make it any cheaper, we'll lose money."
"Okay, give me six. Two yuan, right?" The middle-aged man was a straightforward person. He immediately took out two yuan and handed it over.
"Okay!" Song Yuanchao quickly took the money and asked with a smile, "Brother, what color do you want? We have three colors, red, yellow and blue."
"Let's divide it evenly, take two of each color." The middle-aged man said after thinking for a while.
"No problem!" Song Yuanchao agreed with a smile. Then he turned around and saw Li Daqi and the others were still standing there without reacting. He quickly kicked Li Daqi, who was closest to him, and said, "Six hangers, two in each of the three colors. Give them to this big brother."
"Oh... OK!" Li Daqi came back to his senses and nodded repeatedly. He quickly found six hangers and handed them to the middle-aged man. After taking them, the middle-aged man looked at them carefully and even deliberately bent the hangers with his hands with a little force. Then he nodded with satisfaction.
The middle-aged man opened a shop for Song Yuanchao and his friends. The others saw that the hangers the middle-aged man bought were of very good quality, especially the hangers with sleeves, which were brightly colored and beautiful. More importantly, each of Song Yuanchao and his friends' hangers looked like they were made from the same mold, and each one was very standard. They were completely incomparable to the hangers they made at home with pliers.
Besides, thirty-five cents for a clothes hanger is really not expensive. The bamboo clothes hangers in the store are all sold at forty-five cents. What's more, if Song Yuanchao and the other three sell together, they can save five cents, which makes it even more cost-effective.
"I want six too, two . Here's the money."
"I want three. Give me all red ones."
"Give me nine..."
With the middle-aged man's first order, the atmosphere on the scene suddenly became lively. Song Yuanchao called on Li Daqi and others to collect payments and deliver goods. He still waved the clothes hangers with both hands and shouted loudly to attract customers.
For a while, everyone was very busy, and most people bought three, six or even nine at a time, and there were almost no people buying individually.
In less than half an hour, nearly half of the hangers were sold . Seeing that the business was so good, Song Yuanchao hurriedly asked Li Daqi and Gu Jie to ride back on their bikes to bring another batch, while the others continued to sell goods on the spot.
Starting at 4:30 in the morning and continuing until after 7:00, Song Yuanchao and his team sold nearly three truckloads of goods in less than half an hour. It was almost time, people started to go out to work, and it was time to close the stall here.
After packing up their things, Song Yuanchao and others returned to the air-raid shelter happily, closed the door, and enthusiastically counted today's achievements.
It took an hour to check the receipts and sales figures. Today was a very successful first day. In three hours, they sold 966 hangers with sales of 322 yuan.
