Chapter 1431: Half of a Country
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
If this dog food imported from the United States wasn’t that cheap, the Zhang Zian would not so doubtful given that there were many rebates. He might’ve even bought a small amount to try the effect and enrich the shelves in his store.
However, the more Qi Tong actively promoted, the less satisfied Zhang Zian was. Finally, he stood up directly and asked him to leave. “Mr. Qi, I have some things to deal with in a moment. At the moment, I’m not considering changing the dog food in the store. I’m sorry to make you come to see me for nothing. Nevertheless, if there is another opportunity in the future, let’s cooperate again. ”
Qi Tong came with great expectations and talked until his lips were dry. He was also scared to his wits by the dog. He became angry from not expecting Zhang Zian to simply disagree.
“Brother store manager! Please think carefully! This is a win-win situation! Soon we will advertise on the Internet and print media, and cooperate with pet celebrity V to promote it. Customers will come to your store and ask for this kind of dog food. If you can’t get it out, you may lose more multiple regular customers!” He complained sadly.
Now the economic effect of the fans was obvious. Important people such as Internet celebrity V could influence the direction of consumption. Most of V’s recommendations could be bought for money without considering too many details when recommending products. As long as he saw that the import and export formalities of this dog food were formal and there was a sales permit, he would’ve quietly taken the promotional money.
Once other celebrities joined V in recommending the same dog food product and exaggerating its benefits, it was easy to psychologically influence their followers. Coupled with advertising, it could potentially lead to this product becoming popular with the general public.
Seeing Zhang Zian silent, Qi Tong thought he changed his mind and whispered, “In fact, what’s there to worry about? I don’t understand the technical details, but I will give you a thorough explanation. Do you know Fanxing, the pet industry’s top business? We have won the distribution contract with all their branches in our province. Almost half of the managers of directly-operated stores and franchised stores across the country have agreed to cooperate with us. Even if the sky falls, even you alone can’t stop it!”
Zhang Zian didn’t respond.
It was true that Qi Tong’s model of giving shopkeepers high rebates was particularly welcomed by the storefronts of large chain pet supermarkets. Since the store managers needed to promote dog foods, why not benefit from selling them? ? They didn’t even need to sell it manually; they could just put this dog food on the most prominent position on the shelf and add a slogan like “Shop Manager’s Recommendation” to increase sales.
As far as he knew, Fanxing employed a model of collective purchasing at the headquarters that could reduce the purchase cost. However, each store was also autonomous to varying degrees. The most important thing was that if Qi Tong wasn’t exaggerating, half of the country would’ve quietly bought his goods. Even if the headquarters discovered this afterward, what could they do? As a penalty, would they have replaced half of the store managers nationwide? That would’ve been impossible, as their daily operations would be completely paralyzed. There might’ve not even been any punishment; with so many shopkeepers, they were likely to join together and fight this scandal by collectively going on strike. That would be enough to make the company leaders.h.i.+p nervous. The law does not blame the general public, so their best bet was to acquiesce this way.
The more Zhang Zian thought about it, the more shocked he felt. He merely thought that this dog food had just entered the Chinese market. Could it have already been listed and sold across the country?
It was easy to discuss if this dog food was safe. Once something bad happened, this may be a wider and more profound impact than a cat abuse incident.
“Ok, how about I buy this bag? Let me try it out.” Zhang Zian changed his mind, weighed the bag of dog food in his hand, and raised his voice to Lu Yiyun, “Xiao Yun, open a receipt for a purchase, 50 yuan.”
“Receipt of 5… 50 dollars?” Lu Yiyun looked up from the tablet and thought she heard wrong.
Qi Tong quickly stopped him and said, “Wait! Take this as a gift. I still have a few more bags in my car, I’ll bring them to you.”
He thought Zhang Zian was convinced. As long as he left a bag, it meant that there might’ve been more business in the future.
“How could I…” Zhang Zian rejected. “One bag is enough. I can’t use any more even if you gave them to me.”
No matter what Qi Tong said, he insisted on taking only one bag.
Before he left, Qi Tong said, “By the way, brother, I think you have more cats than dogs in the store. If you are interested in buying the same brand of cat food that’s also affordable, give me a call! ”
Zhang Zian once again didn’t respond.
“Master, how come listening to this man’s tongue-in-cheek tone makes him seem unreliable?”
After their game was over, w.a.n.g Qian stood up and stretched his arms, squinting at Qi Tong’s departure from behind. He and Li Kun couldn’t hear exactly what was said, but they were able to at least to think that his tone of voice was highly insistent on people to do things for him.
Zhang Zian nodded. “I don’t think he is very reliable. If he comes back in the future, tell him that I have gone to a faraway place and you can’t help me decide things.”
“This is the dog food he sells?” Li Kun stared curiously at the bag in Zhang Zian’s hand. “Do you want to open it and try?”
Zhang Zian said, “…What disgusting things did you do while I was gone?”
“No! Don’t get me wrong! I mean open the feed for the dogs in the store to taste!” Li Kun quickly corrected herself.
After chuckling Zhang Zian said in a more positive tone, “I didn’t take this bag for dogs to eat. I’ll be going out again now to Binhai University.”
“What are you going to do there? The schoolgirls are not yet returning to school!” w.a.n.g Qian wondered.
Zhang Zian: “Do you have feces in your brain? I’m going to Binhai University to find Professor Wei Kang and ask him to help find out what’s in this bag of dog food!”
w.a.n.g Qian then realized what he meant and said, “Oh! I thought you were going to say goodbye to your blind date and never return…”
Zhang Zian glanced at him and said, “Look after the store. I’ll be back as soon as possible.”
The test results wouldn’t be easily ready and there might’ve been other things in the laboratory that had to be done, he had to wait until the labs had extra time before working on his project. Thus, he planned to find Wei Kang, explain the situation to him, send him the dog food and then tell him to inform him when the test results come out.
At the same time, he wanted to visit other pet stores in the city to see if they have this dog food on their shelves.
He looked at the hot sun outside and the sweaty pedestrians on the street. He didn’t want to go out, but there was nothing else he could do.
As soon as one foot stepped out of the store door, he felt like he was stepping into a sauna from an air-conditioned room. He retracted his foot, ignored Snowy Lionet’s murderous look as she laid on the top of the air-conditioning cabinet, turned and asked, “Yes, and when do the freshman girls enter school? I can’t stand the two of you for a long time. It affects my business, so I have to go recruit a few new girls to work part-time here.”
w.a.n.g Qian looked at him in confusion.