Extraordinary Genius

In China, August 1^st was an important date. b.u.t.the Super VCD picked this date to be launched was not to honor the ChineseCommunist Party. It was because this was the date where Tai Wah Supermarketopens!

Tai Wah Supermarket was initially scheduled in July. Butbecause of some issues with the renovation and tenants, there were some delayswith some stores. To ensure all the stores opened on the same day, the openingwas postponed.

Fu Guangzheng had suggested renting s.p.a.ces from existingshopping malls. The cost will be lower, and they could open more supermarketsat the same time.

But Feng Yu rejected this suggestion.

Renting shopping malls might be cheaper initially. But oncethe supermarket became popular, the malls will increase the rentals. Even ifyou signed a 10 years contract with the malls, what will you do after 10 years?Move the supermarket to elsewhere? Customers will be lost. Regular customerswere critical to a supermarket.

There is another news this year. Fu Guangzheng did notnotice it, but Feng Yu caught it. China had announced a reform on the practiceof a.s.signing jobs to the graduates. From 1996 onwards, graduates will no longerbe a.s.signed jobs. Those graduates will no longer be given higher managementpositions once they graduate from university, and they will be the same aseveryone else!

This was proposed and started in 1992. From 1992, the numberof government jobs given to graduates was reducing.

Of course, although it stated that this policy started in1992, but most of the graduates were still recruited by the state-ownedenterprises and government agencies. They will begin as Staff members. b.u.t.these people were to be trained to be section level ranks. Once they arepromoted, they will be deputy section chiefs. Those Master degree holders willbe given the position of Section Chief once they enter the government agencies.

On paper, these benefits will be removed, but Feng Yu knewthat this will still be ongoing for at least 5 years. Those students that didnot get a.s.signed with jobs were those with lousy grads. The ones with above-averagegrades will be recruited by various agencies. Some of them were even selectedbefore they graduate.

This policy will filter out those lazy students, and thosewho studied hard will not have to worry. Also, there were more and more privatecompanies, especially in the coastal regions. Many graduates were not willingto enter the government agencies as they could not apply what they learned inschool there!

Without job a.s.signing, there were also problems. One of thebiggest challenges was the introduction of social insurance. Those that workedfor the private companies will no longer be given housing from their companies.

This was good news to the commercial housing. Housing pricesmight not increase overnight, but they will inevitably rise. Not only privatehouses, but even commercial buildings prices will also increase. Commercialbuildings’ prices rise faster than private housing.

If they were to lease commercial s.p.a.ces now, then the rentalwill surely be sky high after the contract ends in 10 years. If they were tobuy the shopping malls now, they could still rent it out to others. The valueof the malls will increase gradually. Even if the supermarket was not doingwell, they could sell off the mall in the future for a profit. Even if they cancarry on collecting rents, they will not suffer any losses.

The Chinese economy was still not well developed. Feng Yumight feel supermarkets could do well, but he also did not want to increase thescale so fast. If the returns from this investment are good this year, they canincrease their scale next year by getting loans.

None of the 20 hypermarkets storefronts was 100% rented out.There were still many empty stores remaining. But all of them were confidentthat after the Hypermarkets were opened, there will be people going up to themto rent the s.p.a.ces.

Fu Guangzheng and Li Zekai were more optimistic than FengYu. They firmly believe that this operation model, which was popular inoverseas and Hong Kong, will be successful in China. Furthermore, they hadstarted marketing this Hypermarket a long time ago.

Also, they still have not used their most importantpromotion tool. In another 2 days, Superman Li and Fu Rongbing will be comingto Beijing to meet with the top officials, and it will be reported on the CCTVnews. The opening ceremony will also be on the news.

There will be a nationwide TV station giving Tai HuaSupermarket publicity. What’s there to worry about? No other company in Chinawill get such advertising when they open for business. How could they fail?

Of course, CCTV promotion was not enough. They had invitedthe Provincial Leaders from various provinces to the opening ceremonies. After all,the hypermarkets will bring up the economy in their provinces, and why wouldthose leaders reject this invitation?

At first, they could only invite the City’s leaders. But FuGuangzheng told the Provincial Leaders that Hong Kong"s richest man, SupermanLi, and head of Hong Kong’s biggest supermarket chain, Fu Rongbing, will beattending the opening ceremony of the Beijing Hypermarket headquarters. One ofChina’s top official will also be attending.

The Provincial leaders did not care if Superman Li will beat the opening ceremony. They have nothing to do with him even if he was HongKong’s richest man. But when they heard that one of China’s top official willbe there at the opening ceremony, they agreed. What connections and backgrounddid this Hypermarket chain have to invite a top official?

The Provincial leaders had to put up a show even if theywere unwilling to attend. China’s top official will be attending, and a.s.subordinates, they had to sing the same tune.

Those leaders also realized that this Tai Hua Supermarketmight be more profitable than they imagine. This supermarket chain had opened abranch in their city, and it will be good for them too.

This will be some credits which will help in their promotion,and all of them did not want to miss this opportunity.

But these Provincial Leaders were not enough. Since it wasthe grand opening, then it should be grand!

Feng Yu used his connections to invite guests to the openingof their branches in every province. The distributors and dealers of Tai HuaTrading, the General Manager of Aiwa Pagers, Wind and Rain Electronics GeneralManager, Lehaha’s Zhong Qingxian, Lenovo’s Liu Chuanzhi, Little’s Tyrant’s DuanYongping, Tai Hua Agriculture Food Factory’s Zhang Ming, Bing City’s MachineryCompany’s Li Mingde and all the branch factories directors, were invited toattend the opening ceremony of their nearest Tai Hua Supermarket branch.

Of course, Li Zekai also invited the Li family’s connectionsin China to attend. Some of Tai Hua Supermarket’s suppliers and representativesof the brands who had rented stores in the Hypermarket were also invited. FengYu checked the name list, and there should be at least 3 prominent figures ateach branch for the opening ceremonies. This will surely create hype.

The leaders of each province will attend the opening ceremonyand how could the provincial TV station and newspaper not report about thisevent? This will be a free advertis.e.m.e.nt for Tai Hua Supermarket.

Currently, Feng Yu was sitting in Deputy Station Chief Jia’soffice, discussing the possibilities of making aspecial episode on Tai Hua Supermarket on the day of opening.

The program was not all aboutcomplaining or exposing bad deeds. It will also praise good deeds once in awhile. This Supermarket chain was an investment by Hong Kong’s top tyc.o.o.n, andit was his way of showing his support of Hong Kong’s unification with China.This was worth reporting.

Other than the 7pm news, there will be news aired in differenttime slots. Can you air more footages of Tai Hua Supermarket during the differenttime slots? We are so close with each other…… Come on….. Don’t be stingy…..

Author’s notes:

August 1^st Declaration

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