Chapter 282: Gift from the Deer
Many outsiders who come to Lujiao for the first time find that there is no large comprehensive shopping mall here, making life very inconvenient.
After receiving the feedback, Shirakawa Kaede once tried to contact some supermarket chains, but they were not interested in deer antlers.
Finally, after examining the population data of Lujiao, Shirakawa Feng simply decided to build it himself.
Anyway, there is only one shopping mall, so we might as well consider it as a solution to the employees’ life difficulties.
Moreover, Lujiao City has more than 50,000 residents, which is not a small number.
Now with the establishment of the Shirakawa Electric Factory, it can attract more outsiders.
In addition, the outflow of local population will slow down or even return, and all this will add up to more than 60,000.
The active population of 60,000 in the city center is enough to support a comprehensive shopping mall.
Neon's population is sparse, but most of it is concentrated in cities, and the same is true here in Kakuno.
This population distribution characteristic makes the population density in the city center relatively high.
So after conducting sufficient research, Baichuan Holdings took direct action and designated a large area in the best location in the city specifically for planning the construction of the shopping mall.
As for Shirakawa Kaede's decision, Kazuo Mayor Abe Arata almost welcomed it with open arms and feet.
All approvals for the construction of the mall were given the green light. The design drawings were provided by a design company in Tokyo, and the construction was commissioned to the local agricultural cooperative.
With the cooperation of many parties, in less than a year, a three-story shopping mall covering an area of nearly 100 acres and a construction area of 100,000 square meters rose from the ground.
However, building a mall is one thing, and only when enough merchants move in can it truly fulfill its function.
But this is not a problem for Baichuan Holdings. After developing for such a long time, it has accumulated some business connections.
Moreover, because it is located in the Northeast, the rent of Bailu Mall is relatively cheaper than those big cities.
The stores are readily available, the rent is cheap, and there is a nice active population.
Local brands such as Uniqlo, IKEA, and Shiseido have settled in here. In addition, foreign brands such as Adidas, Nike, and KFC also have branches here.
With the entry of these well-known brands, the framework of Bailu Mall has finally been set up.
The remaining stores can be handed over to the many local century-old stores.
Pastries, cuisine, sake, kimonos, these old shops have a long heritage, and it is not excessive to have a specialty store in a shopping mall.
With about a hundred brands gathered together, Bailu Mall has become a comprehensive shopping mall.
In the first two days after the opening, people from surrounding cities even came to the mall after hearing the news, which is why Baichuan Feng saw such a huge crowd in the mall.
It seems that there is no need to worry about Bailu Mall going out of business and eventually closing down for the time being.
After leaving the shop, Shirakawa Kaede and Kotaro were on their way to the Shirakawa Electric Factory when they accidentally passed by a game hall.
What surprised him was that there was a long queue in the game hall, and the few people waiting at the back even stood outside the door.
"Huh, the game hall business is so good?" Baichuan Feng was surprised that Lujiao now has such a large game hall.
As far as he could remember, when he was in school here, the only game hall in the city only had a few arcade machines.
But looking at the front, the scale of those rows of machines has at least expanded several times.
"It seems that there is a racing game that is very popular recently, but I have only heard about it."
If Kotaro had not met Shirakawa Kaede and had not worked at Shirakawa Electric, perhaps he would be one of them now.
But now he has no time to care about these trivial matters. Isn't it more important to be the director of a business unit?
"Racing game?" Baichuan Feng's eyes lit up as if he had thought of something.
So, under the surprised gazes of Kotaro and the others, he actually walked up leisurely and started chatting with the young people waiting in line.
He would even look inside the store occasionally, as if he was really discussing with his peers which arcade machines were fun.
However, it only took two minutes for Baichuan Feng to get the information he wanted and then he left.
"Xiao Feng, do you like playing games too?" Kotaro seemed to be getting to know him all over again, his thick eyebrows moving back and forth.
"The game or something is not important, but that racing game is indeed a good game."
It’s a good game indeed. The chip in it is designed by ourselves.
It seems that the sales at Namco should be quite good. Even in a remote place like Kakunoichi, this arcade machine can be found, which means it is a best-seller across the country.
This is a good thing. Shirakawa Feng can already foresee that SIC will usher in a new wave of orders after the new year.
"Let's go." Lujiao is indeed more prosperous than before, and Baichuan Feng left contentedly and walked towards the Baichuan Industrial Park not far away.
Factories and other things were all roughly the same, and most of the workers had gone home for the holidays. Shirakawa Feng took a quick walk around and then went to an apartment not far away.
These were built for Xiaolu and the employees of Shirakawa Electric, so the several apartment buildings were built very conscientiously.
Needless to say, the facilities and materials are excellent, there is even a gym, basketball court and library.
It is completely equivalent to a community, and the living experience is much better than that of an apartment in Tokyo.
After all, the land here is not valuable, and the area of each apartment alone is more than twice the size of 1DK in Tokyo.
“I get weekly reports on factory matters and feel free to ask any questions you have.
For the property management of the apartment, you can seek help from a third-party service company and don’t waste your energy on it.”
Although most of the people here in Lujiao are from the same hometown, Baichuan Feng treats them equally in management and will never discriminate.
"Don't worry, Xiao Feng. Everyone is very disciplined and knows what the factory means to everyone. They all take good care of it."
After all, troublemakers are a minority. Under the background of lifetime employment and fellow townsmen, most people treat Shirakawa Electric as their own home.
For them, Shirakawa Electric has been closely related to their lives for the rest of their lives and will hardly ever be separated from them.
So generally speaking, the management of "people" will be much easier.
"That's good," Baichuan Feng nodded, "The headphone division should also set up its own sales department in the future, in addition to relying on the combination of products such as walkmans for shipment.
We also need to learn to develop the headphone market independently, and the prospects in this field in the future should not be underestimated."
"Hai" When it comes to this, Kotaro also becomes much more serious.
Previously, the production capacity of headphones was mostly determined by the shipment volume of portable players, and their status was considered an accessory to the latter.
But with the increasing types of headphones and the development of high-end products.
Shirakawa Electric's headphones can also try to open up a separate market, and this will also depend on the efforts of the sales department.
Setting up one's own sales department and developing the market independently will put much more pressure on production than the previous distributed production.
But the young Kotaro is also eager to try, because only with challenges can there be growth.
“Anyway, if you have any questions, please ask Hasegawa-san.
He has a lot of experience, and the round-trip flight to Akita only takes a little over an hour.”
As Shirakawa Electric grows, it also needs young people in every job position to grow as quickly as possible.
Those who stand still or make slow progress will be left behind by opportunities.
Kotaro naturally understood this truth, so he listened very seriously to Shirakawa Kaede's teachings.
"Oh, by the way, aren't the transportation conditions here in Lujiao relatively backward?"
Baichuan Feng remembered another thing, the conversation with Ozawa in the mall, which gave him a lot of inspiration.
"Traffic?" Kotaro had only a vague idea about the situation, but someone else did.
“There are very few railroads in Lujiao, but the road system is well developed.”
As the warehouse manager, Kashiwagi is well aware of the entire Akita situation.
“Most of our products are transported by road to Akita Port and then shipped to various parts of the country by sea.
Although the road's carrying capacity is limited, it is not a problem for headphones.
The existing highway system can already meet most freight transportation requirements.”
"Where are the people?" Baichuan Feng's focus was obviously on another aspect.
"People?" Kashiwagi was stunned for a moment before he understood what Baichuan Feng meant.
"If you have a car, it's quite convenient, but the bus is a little slower."
Sure enough, it was pretty much what I expected.
Baichuan Feng roughly understood the problem with the deer antlers, but these matters needed to be discussed with someone else.
The group walked and stopped here and there, and soon visited the Shirakawa Industrial Park.
In general, Shirakawa Kaede is still very satisfied. With the establishment of Shirakawa Electric, the entire Lujiao has also taken on a new look.
Very good, I finally did something for my hometown.
"That's about it, let's go back to Xiaolu."
Baichuan Feng put his hands into his windbreaker, took one last look at his property, and felt very satisfied.
"Okay, let's go back quickly."
Kotaro couldn't wait to start the car, he really wanted to take Shirakawa Kaede back to see Xiaolu.
Compared to the antlers, the fawn is truly a person who has gone through a radical change and has been reborn from the ashes.
I just don’t know if Xiao Feng still recognizes the current little deer.
We got in the car and, under the guidance of the experienced driver Kotaro, it took only fifteen minutes for the car to reach the border of Xiaolu Village.
Different from the bustling city center, the closer you get to the foot of the mountain, the more wild the scenery becomes.
The careful Shirakawa Feng also discovered that compared with last year, the road leading to Xiaolu has been widened a lot, and now it can accommodate two cars traveling side by side.
In addition to the newly built roads, there are occasional decorative wooden fences and cute Akita dog sculptures on both sides of the road.
Before entering Xiaolu, Baichuan Feng could already clearly feel that this place had changed a lot compared to before.
Finally, the car stopped at the road leading to the village entrance. There was a building similar to a memorial archway, or more like a torii.
After getting off the car, Shirakawa Kaede looked up and carefully found the words "Hachimantai Hot Spring Village" particularly conspicuous.
In addition, there is a simple route map on a vertical wooden sign.
The names of the various facilities and attractions of this scenic spot are marked on it, among which the name "Little Deer" is prominently listed.
"How's it going, Xiaofeng? Are you scared?" Torataro's smug voice came from behind.
"But don't worry, there are bigger surprises to come."
Although Baichuan Feng has not entered the village yet, he already knows that the current deer is definitely not the deer he knew before.
But before he could say anything, a burst of noise gradually came from the front, even accompanied by the sound of drums.
And judging by the sounds, it seemed that they were coming towards him.
Shirakawa Kaede turned his head, and Kotaro, Kashiwagi and the others explained and looked at him with a smile.
