Don"t Turn from Summer (莫负寒夏) by Ding Mo (丁墨)
Chapter 13
He Jing nods, “Oh.”
“Second,” Mu Hanxia lowers her voice a little, “You think it’s the merchandise with the best quality and lowest price that get into our store? Not necessarily. If the suppliers want to get their products into the store, they need to pay entrance fees and spend money on difference people and things. Sometimes, it’s not the best that gets in, but the one that has spent the most money on people and things...”
He Jing has long heard rumors about this rule, but has only heard it so clearly stated from Mu Hanxia just now. So she says with widened eyes, “You mean, that’s why our apparels section is not as good as Yong Zheng?”
Mu Hanxia nods, and remembering the phone call she heard outside Meng Gang’s office, she says, “Not just apparels section. Think about how many years we have been in business, and some suppliers have been our partners for about seven or eight years. Some of them have complicated relations with Manager Meng and other managers. It won’t be easy to make any move.”
He Jing gasps to herself at these words and doesn’t dare to talk deeper. She just sighs, “According to what you said, because of these suppliers and those complicated relations, wouldn’t it be impossible to win Yong Zheng?”
But Mu Hanxia replies, “I think this is only second important. The most important thing is...”
“What?”
“Is stance.”
He Jing is somewhat at loss, “What is that? I say, Xia, you’ve gone to the sales department for only a month, and the way you talk is more and more pretentious.”
“Don’t speak nonsense!” Mu Hanxia says lightly, “Wasn’t I pretentious before?”
He Jing t.i.tters. Mu Hanxia smiles too, and says seriously, “At first I thought the grand promotion launched by Manager Meng is super great, super powerful, forcing the opponent into a tough position with a price war. And our supermarket and other supermarkets have always done like this.
I have also thought Lin Mochen... the current leader of Yong Zheng, is a very crafty, cunning guy. But now the way he sells the apparels actually have touched me greatly. I think he’s different from everybody else.
Other people either follow traditional rules, defend their earned interest closely, or scheme about trapping the opponent. Even Manager Meng. He is very experienced, is a seasoned veteran. Still he is such a person.
But Lin Mochen is different. He employs a newer, better and more sincere strategy for the supermarket apparel section. It feels like...we are striving to stand above our opponent while he is already at the top of the whole business from the very beginning. This is his stance. Therefore, once he makes a move, we all feel unprecedented pressure.”
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However, the following two weeks makes Mu Hanxia realize that her “prejudice” toward Lin Mochen at the very beginning wasn’t wrong after all... He is the one who stands at the top of the business, and he is also a crafty and cunning guy.
The second week after Yong Zheng’s opening, all cooked food is 50% off, with a promise: within this week, if the customers are not satisfied with the taste, they can return the food without any condition. If there is any problem with the quality, each case of complaint will result in a fine of 1000 Yuan. They also invite the experienced old workers from the cooked food factories to demonstrate how cooked food is made, full of the air of cultural gourmet masters, attracting a great amount of residents over to watch...
In the meantime, the apparels get from 50% off to 20% off with a sign saying that this price will only last a week and the following week it will go back to its full regular price. Buy quickly if you need them. As a result, the sales of apparels drops a little but is still quite high.
This week, the daily sales of Yong Zheng exceeds three million Yuang, and Le Ya drops to between 1.2 and 1.5 million Yuan.
The third week, all beddings go 50% off at Yong Zheng. The cooked food goes up to 20% off.
......
Where Lin Mochen is cunning about is that the several categories he chooses are all the weak points of Le Ya. Apparels, weak in the whole business including Le ya; cooked food has always been very diverse in brands which Le Ya is not particularly good at; bedding, at the time of switching from spring to summer, is what Le Ya keep conservative at and hasn’t paid much attention to...
Also, he changes his target very fast. The promotion of every category only lasts one week, and the next week it’s a different target. This is what makes Meng Gang and even the whole Le Ya too slow to react. Before you even come up with some countermeasures about the cooked food, he has already turned toward the beddings...The whole plan must have been laid out in advance, for it is impossible to get enough inventory the last minute. Mu Hanxia can almost imagine the picture of Lin Mochen sitting in his office, holding a cup of coffee in his hand, and calmly overseeing the battle with squinting eyes. Wherever his finger points at, the people at Yong Zheng will give a stab...
But who has ever acted like this in the whole supermarket business? Who else can be this ruthless and this fierce? This is more a battle to conquer a city rather than a store opening, and the targets are all the weak points of the opponents, with combined fists, lightning fists, and shadowless fists...
During this period of time, Meng Gang has also organized several defenses, taking advantages of the stronger categories of Le Ya, such as rice, cooking oil, and fruit, for very compet.i.tive promotions, and has regained some in sales. But Lin Mochen’s attacks are too wide-ranged and well-planned to be defeated. In contrast, Meng Gand has just spent three million, and is entangled in complicated relations. Even though he is shrew and sophisticated, he can hardly turn the table over with Lin Mochen getting ahead in almost every aspect.
The opening battle of Yong Zheng is a complete triumph. Now among the customers in this area, who doesn’t know Yong Zheng supermarket means low price and good quality? Not a bit less so than Le Ya, and even...a little better.
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To say that Meng Gang is not angry or depressed, that’s not true. In the business world, relations, money, women...these things are not problems. The worst fear is to have this kind of difficult opponent who won’t play his cards based on common sense. He breaks the established explicit and implicit rules of the market, breaks the habits and interests of many people, and makes you distinctly feel great threats.
But it is not bad enough to cause Meng Gang to lose his coolness. After all, he has been in this business for so many years, and is stably rooted in Le Ya as well as in Jiang Cheng. Even if this store temporarily loses its edge, it won’t cause fundamental damages on him.
Just move on. When the chance comes along, he can fight back again.
The promotion in the store goes on, and the battle against Yong Zheng also keeps going. The employees need to be scolded and encouraged as usual to keep them from losing cohesion or spirit. Social dining is more frequent than before, as Meng Gang needs more relations and more exchange of interests now.
One late afternoon, the sky is getting dark. Meng Gang is in his office, just changing into a casual outfit from his shirt, when his a.s.sistant Xiao Chen knocks on the door, “Manager Meng, for the dinner with Director Xie [Note by the translator: some leader from a government bureau.] tomorrow evening, who are you going to take with you from the sales department?”
Meng Gang ponders a little and says, “Just as you see fit.”
Xia Chen says, “OK. The subordinates of Director Xie are all guys, I think it’s better to take a girl with you, so as to animate the atmosphere, and to avoid being forced to drink too much. How about Mu Hanxia?”
Meng Gang turns to glance at him, and is quiet for a few seconds before replying, “Fine.”
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When Mu hanxia receives the call from the sales department manager, she is standing at the entrance of Yong Zheng superarket.
These days Le Ya’s performance is low, but she has no importance and can’t really be useful in any way, which actually causes her to have more free time. So today she plans to take a good look at Yong Zhen and see how they are doing it. Knowing one’s opponent as well as oneself should be helpful somehow.
The phone call from the manager is hurried and only mentions a dinner which needs her to join. It is not mentioned that Meng Gang is the one she is to accompany, so Mu Hanxia agrees to attend without any hesitation.
After she ends the call, she slightly disguises herself by putting on a cap and letting down her long hair, and then strolls into the Yong Zheng supermarket in an unhurried manner.