Chapter 65: Competition is fierce
The saying that lazy eyes can make a strong leg is absolutely true. Although they were still a long way from Zhuxian Town, they arrived in a short while under the hooves of two transport labor horses. It was not yet completely dark when they entered the town. Yun Lang wanted to go home immediately, but Su Luo said that she wanted to go to Qiangui first to see if her store was still open.
Yunlang said he wanted to make a bet, and it was okay to bet on Lao Bao. If he lost, Su Luo would treat him to a big meal. This time, Su Luo was eager to lose, and urged the Hummer to drive into the commercial street.
Unexpectedly, after more than two months away, Zhuxian Town has become more lively, with horse-drawn carriages shuttling through the streets from time to time. Although Zhuxian Town is a water and land port and can be visited overnight, not so many people come out at night. Su Luo looked at the lanterns hung high in the shops on both sides of the commercial street with great interest, and suddenly felt something was wrong.
Some of the shops and inns that used to be on the street have disappeared, replaced by gold cabinets... silver cabinets... jade cabinets... Without exception, there are signs at the door with time-limited discounts, and the door decorations look like copycat money cabinets.
Su Luo was speechless. It had only been two months since she left. How could this be replicated so quickly? Moreover, there were touts at the door of each house. No matter who they grabbed, they would say that our karaoke was cheaper. Then another person came over and said that it didn't matter how cheap his was, my house was 20% off theirs. The original group of people got anxious and said that we had a discount. After a few rounds of this and that, they almost didn't do anything.
Su Luo hurriedly accelerated the Hummer, and when he saw the lantern of his own cash box from a distance, he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. Fortunately, it was lit, indicating that it was still open. When he arrived at the door of the cash box, Su Luo was completely dumbfounded.
Opposite the Qiangui, a huge storefront was opened, with luxurious decoration. There were more than a dozen lanterns lit at the door, illuminating the entrance. On the high plaque were two big characters - Flower Cabinet. Two receptionists stood at the door, without saying a word, just flirting with people passing by, which was much more clever than the two companies' price war just now. Looking at the flow of people in the Flower Cabinet and the Qiangui door, it was deserted. Su Luo was angry. This was clearly a cooperative industry between KTV and brothel. He shouted that this was unfair competition. After shouting, he saw Yun Lang's eager face and asked if he wanted him to go undercover.
Su Luo took out a shovel from behind the cash box door very familiarly. Yun Lang became obedient when he saw it, and floated back to the cash box obediently, shouting "Lao Bao, we are back" as he walked.
Two waiters came up to them, both of them unfamiliar faces. Su Luo looked behind the counter, but didn't see Bao Zixing, so he asked the waiter, "Where is your boss?"
The waiter replied, "The shopkeeper is meeting guests outside and will be back soon. Can you please order something first?"
Su Luo looked in the direction the servant pointed and saw an independent area in the lobby, which was filled with dried fruits and cooked food, as well as glasses of wine. Two guests were holding trays and serving themselves.
It was quite interesting, just like a small supermarket in a mass-market KTV. Su Luo was surprised and asked , "Did your boss come up with this idea?"
The waiter nodded and said that this was probably the guest's first time, so he asked for a look at the price information for each time period.
Looking at the wall clearly marked with different prices at different times, Su Luo was really impressed. She hadn't had time to do these things yet, and now she really didn't know who was the time traveler. Just at this moment, a surprised cry came from upstairs, and then the burly Lu Hu appeared in front of everyone. After asking about their well-being, Lu Hu winked at Su Luo and said, "Boss, we are running the store well, right?"
Su Luo smiled awkwardly: "It's a good idea, but we need customers, look across the street..."
Lu Hu waved his hand and said, "The shopkeeper said that we don't have to bring everyone here to be successful. Those who go there are all drunkards and womanizers, and the level of those who come here is obviously different. Moreover, we are all repeat customers, with a fixed customer base. Didn't you see that we hired two new people because of the shortage of staff?" Then he asked Su Luo to go upstairs and listen at the door of each room. Sure enough, 60% of the rooms had guests, which was quite rare on this cold winter night.
Su Luo then secretly admired Bao Zixing's ability. Lu Hu introduced Su Luo's identity to the servant, and went to the backyard to call BMW. BMW was very happy to see everyone, and repeated Lu Hu's process of taking credit. Su Luo was speechless. This was really a case of fish looking for fish and shrimp looking for shrimp. The younger brothers Yun Lang recruited were as thick-skinned as him.
After reminiscing about the past for a long time, Su Luo interrupted them and asked where Bao Zixing had been.
BMW and Land Rover looked at each other, pulled Su Luo and others into the office, and then said that Bao Zixing went to the flower cabinet to spend money. Before Su Luo got angry, BMW said, "Boss, do you know who the owner opposite is? It's the fat Xue who you invited to cut the ribbon when we opened."
Su Luo was really surprised, and after being surprised, she almost got angry. Although she and Fatty Xue could not be considered friends, they had shared hardships together. She didn't expect that he was so disloyal and actually opened a store right in front of her to compete with her. No wonder he asked about everything in detail when he came to cut the ribbon last time. It turned out that he had this idea in mind at that time. How insidious!
Su Luo was so angry that he wanted to go find Fatty Xue to argue with him immediately. However, after calming down for a while, he felt that he had no position. One should be mentally prepared when doing business. The business world is like a battlefield. What he said was so right!
After Su Luo led all the employees to despise Fatty Xue, BMW said that the shopkeeper was going undercover this time to see if they had any other tricks besides the young ladies.
Looking at the efforts Bao Zixing made for the store, Su Luo suddenly felt that Bao Zixing was lovable. When she finished reading the account books for the past two months, she was shocked. Despite the fierce market competition, Qiangui actually made a net profit of more than 400 taels in these two months. This was undoubtedly a great success considering the scale of Qiangui.
In the first month after she left, Qiangui basically had a monopoly in the KTV industry. Bao Zixing divided the private rooms into high-end and low-end, and cancelled the medium-end private rooms. Eighty percent of the guests chose the high-end private rooms. Coupled with the self-service and take-it-yourself bulk sales system, Qiangui's monthly turnover increased several times compared with the previous month. In the second month, various copycat Qianguis were opened, including new KTVs such as Huagui, which were luxuriously decorated and had ladies sitting at the front desk. Qiangui's turnover dropped sharply, so Bao Zixing introduced the time consumption method, taking the low-to-medium-end route, and set rules for the store. We will not solicit customers if others do, and we will not invite ladies if others do. We will first improve our own taste, and then invite some big bosses who used to come often to come over for a gathering. The store also reserves two high-end business boxes at any time, which are free for these big bosses, and then let them introduce more small and medium-sized customers to themselves.
After listening to BMW's introduction, Su Luo really felt that he had misunderstood Lao Bao. Based on what he had done, it was not difficult to see that he really treated Qiangui as his own business, and he was doing a pretty good job.
After sighing for a while, Yun Lang asked proudly, "How is it? I think Lao Bao is okay, right?"
Su Luo smiled and admitted defeat, and promised to treat them to a big meal. Yun Lang and the others couldn't help but make a fuss. While they were making a fuss, someone knocked on the door. It turned out to be Bao Zixing who came back. When he heard that Su Luo was in the office, he hurried over.
When Bao Zixing saw Su Luo, he didn't care to share the joy of the crowd. He asked Lu Hu and the others to leave first, leaving Su Luo and Yun Lang as the two shareholders. He said, "Boss, we have to sell this store."