Chapter 374: Upgrade
Sing Tao Island, Johor.
After doing manicures for several customers in the afternoon, Liu Meizhu stretched herself, then looked at the time and found that it was already half past four.
She and a few of her sisters sat on the sofa in the lounge area, chatting while waiting for the end of get off work.
The working hours of Zhiren Company are 20 days per month, with only 5 to 6 working hours on weekdays. The maximum working hours per month are 120 hours, and special overtime hours should not exceed 20 hours.
Jobs like that of a manicurist are very regular jobs.
While Liu Meizhu and others were chatting, two more customers came. They did not refuse to serve them just because it was almost time to get off work.
Because if the customer's service exceeds working hours, they will automatically receive special overtime compensation. Usually, they cannot use up their special overtime quota every month.
Liu Meizhu was doing a manicure for a customer at exactly 5:23, just before getting off work.
"get off work."
The five employees from the evening shift also arrived one after another.
After leaving the nail salon, Liu Meizhu and two of her best friends went to the supermarket to hang out.
Since she has arranged for the child to be in kindergarten, she does not need to take care of the child at all. She only visits the child three times a week, and the rest of the time the couple enjoys themselves together.
Liu Meizhu, who was planning to buy a few bags of potato chips to take home, came to the potato chip shelf. She looked at the unfamiliar shelf and asked, "Is the tomato-flavored potato chips of that brand sold out?"
After a careful search, she realized that it was not gone, but the packaging had been changed.
Holding the canned potato chips, Liu Meizhu asked the shopping guide not far away: "Excuse me, why are the bagged Shan State potato chips out of stock?"
The salesperson smiled and shrugged: "Now there is no plastic packaging at all, only cans."
Liu Meizhu scanned the shelves and found that there were indeed only cans or kraft paper cans (with aluminum film inside) left.
Liu Meizhu didn't make a fuss about this.
Mainly supermarkets under the Sapiens company, many products are in cans, kraft paper and aluminum film cans, glass bottles, tinplate cans, kraft paper and aluminum film bags, and plastic bags are rarely used.
She looked at the price and found that a 500g can of potato chips was still 0.4 yuan.
There is also a golden number 0.1 on the can. Liu Meizhu, who often buys things at Fengrao House, knows very well that this golden number represents the recycling price of 0.1 yuan.
Most of the packaging containers of many daily necessities and packaged foods produced by Sapiens are recyclable.
Liu Meizhu usually takes the accumulated bottles and cans to the recycling station every week to sell, which brings in a considerable amount of income.
Those recycling stations are not shabby garbage dumps, but are set up in stores in various blocks of the city, with dedicated management personnel and automatic recycling machines.
The profits of Sapiens in the pre-packaged food sector are not low, thanks to its strong industrial system and recycling industry.
For liquid foods like milk and juice, Homo sapiens use glass bottles for packaging instead of Tetra Pak cartons from the Swedish Tetra Pak Group, so they do not need to pay patent fees to the other party.
In addition, glass bottles can be reused, and the low-temperature glass technology of Homo sapiens has very low costs. Every time a glass bottle is recycled, the packaging cost will be reduced.
After several years of circulation, many glass bottles have now been reused dozens of times, further reducing packaging costs.
After Liu Meizhu picked up a few cans of potato chips, she pushed the shopping cart to the meat area.
When she arrived at the meat section, she found that the packaging here had also been changed, but the change was somewhat unexpected.
Because here we use a lot of transparent plastic boxes to replace the previous glass boxes and canned packaging, and also use vacuum-packed plastic bags.
Liu Meizhu was confused: "What's going on?"
The guide in the meat section explained: "Because of the emergence of fungi that can decompose plastic, plastic can now be used in fast-selling fresh ingredients and frozen vacuum-packed ingredients."
"So that's it." Liu Meizhu suddenly realized.
Although plastic-decomposing fungi in tropical regions can decompose plastic bags such as polyethylene in about eight months, this has little effect on fresh food with a shelf life of only one or two days, or vacuum-packed food that is stored frozen.
Suddenly Liu Meizhu asked: "Then all plastic products cannot be used?"
The salesperson thought for a moment and said, "That's not the case, but the lifespan of synthetic clothing, artificial leather, toothbrushes, and the like will definitely be shortened. The company is already trying to find a solution, so don't worry too much."
After hearing what the shopping guide said, Liu Meizhu was not too worried, but still ran to the clothing area on the second floor.
As expected, all clothes marked with chemical fibers were sold at a discount price, and could be bought at only one-tenth of the price.
She had no interest in those chemical fiber clothes at this time, and walked directly to the clothing shelf marked with natural materials.
There are clothes made of silk, cotton, linen, wool and blended fabrics.
Although these fabrics are all marked as natural materials, it does not mean that they are truly natural. The natural materials stipulated by Sapiens Company only require that the materials are consistent in order to be labeled as natural materials.
For example, the silk pajamas in Liu Meizhu's hands only cost 15 yuan for a set of four pieces. If real natural silk was used, the price would be at least 60 yuan.
Obviously this is a silk .
Liu Meizhu directly picked up three sets of silk pajamas that matched her own size, and also selected a few sets for her husband and two children.
I also picked up a few sets of fine-spun clothes made of composite linen. This kind of linen clothes has been processed with modern technology and is almost as soft as cotton, but has poorer elasticity. It is very comfortable to wear in Southeast Asia.
Then she bought some pig-bristle toothbrushes, fine-spun towels, and small wooden-framed mirrors.
The pig hair of pig bristle toothbrushes are actually artificial pig hair. Most of the animal hair of the Sapiens company is imitated through technology.
As for other things, Liu Meizhu plans to go home and discuss with her husband, then make a list and replace them with natural materials.
At the supermarket entrance, she put a bunch of things in a special shipping box, then directly inserted her employee card and clicked confirm.
The special transport boxes were sent to the third floor of the supermarket via a conveyor belt.
Walking out of the street, you can see a long and narrow suspended track above the street. This suspended track is not for passengers, but is specifically used to transport goods.
The things Liu Meizhu had just purchased at Fengzao House were now being sent into the freight car.
When Liu Meizhu took the bus back to her residence, a message popped up on her mobile phone shortly afterwards, indicating that the goods had arrived at the temporary storage room on the third floor.
Arriving at the temporary storage room on the third floor, she inserted her employee card into the pickup machine. One of the doors of the storage cabinet automatically popped open, revealing the things she had just purchased at the House of Plenty.
He simply took a cart, put the special transport box on the cart, and then took the elevator back home. As long as the special transport box is placed in the recycling room of the temporary storage room on time, someone from the freight company will come to collect it.
"Honey, I'm back."
Chen Yanxiu, who was taking a bath, asked curiously, "Working overtime again today?"
While stuffing the ingredients into the big refrigerator, Liu Meizhu replied nonchalantly, "No, I just went to the supermarket for a walk. The supermarket changed a lot of new packaging today. I heard it was the influence of the Tokyo fungus."
"Tokyo fungus? The factory is also in the process of replacing some plastic parts recently. This incident has a big impact."
Chen Yanxiu picked up the long-handled Buqiuren electric bath brush and scrubbed his back.
Liu Meizhu was in the kitchen, preparing to fry beef patties when the range hood automatically reminded her: "Please wear an anti-oil fume helmet."
"It's really troublesome..." Liu Meizhu took out an anti-fume helmet that the property company had sent her a few days ago from the cabinet below.
Although she complained, Liu Meizhu still wore it because she was afraid of death. According to data released by the Ministry of Health, oil smoke is an important cause of lung cancer in women.
This anti-fume helmet is not difficult to wear. Its design is similar to that of an astronaut's helmet. It is almost a completely transparent spherical surface with special brackets fixed to the shoulders and back, so the head does not need to bear weight.
Moreover, during use, Liu Meizhu found that wearing a helmet can protect against splashing hot oil, which is very useful when frying and cutting onions.
After taking a shower, Chen Yanxiu looked at his wife who looked like an astronaut and said with a smile:
"I heard that for a while, the property management company was going to renovate homes with open kitchens in batches, and our kitchen should also be renovated."
"How much?"
"No charge, the company paid for us."
When she heard that it didn't cost any money, Liu Meizhu had no objection.
After all, after reading the public report of the medical division, many families feel anxious about open kitchens, especially families with children. They either send their children to kindergarten temporarily, or simply let their children play outside on the balcony while cooking.
Liu Meizhu, who was frying beef patties, held a wooden spatula and said, "Honey, do you want to replace the plastic things we use at home?"
"We have to change it. After all, the fungus has a very strong ability to spread, and Southeast Asia is a severely affected area. We have to change it sooner or later."
Liu Meizhu turned the beef patty over and said, "Then take a look at what needs to be replaced. I just went to the supermarket and bought some natural clothes, a toothbrush, and a small mirror."
Chen Yanxiu lay on the sofa, turned on his mobile phone, logged into the announcement page of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and found the guide to replacing household plastic products.
According to the list in the replacement guide, the first thing to be replaced is the home's electrical circuit system. You don't need to replace it yourself, as the Nanyang Power Grid will arrange personnel to replace it.
Other electrical appliances are also being recalled in batches by their manufacturers and gradually replaced with new products.
After looking for a long time, Chen Yanxiu found that he didn't need to worry too much. The company had already arranged everything and he just needed to follow the company's arrangements when the time came.
He continued to lie there and watch TV without any anxiety.
Ordinary people in other regions, however, have to face the problem of aging plastic products in their homes alone, which in turn increases their living burden.
It is estimated that the number of ordinary people working in Homo Sapiens companies will increase further in the future.
