Star Tycoon

Chapter 25 Loss
Tian Ersan bought bowls, chopsticks, and toothbrushes.

I had just put the things in the kitchen when I heard shouts from outside.

"is the boss around?"

Tian Ersan went out and saw Lao Pang delivering goods to the Songshan Supermarket next door.

"What is it?" Tian Ersan went out to greet him.

Old Pang stood outside the counter, looking at the goods in the room, and then at the large refrigerator.

"You've been closed for several days. I thought you'd gone out of business. Do you still need any stock?"

Tian Ersan smiled and asked, "Do you have ice cream?"

"Yes!" Old Pang always loved receiving orders. "What do you want?"

Tian Ersan planned to eat them himself. "How much is a one-yuan ice cream? You can see what I have here. Let's start with a hundred."

Old Pang quickly said, "The ones that cost one yuan are forty per box, I'll sell them to you for twenty-eight, that's the wholesale price."

"Okay! Do you have any in stock right now? Let me see if there's anything I like to eat." Tian Ersan would only spend one yuan on his own, so he wanted to save money wherever possible.

Old Pang took Tian Ersan outside, opened the truck door, and took out a few items for Tian Ersan to choose from.

Tian Ersan quickly chose the ice cream he liked.

Different ice cream brands have different profit margins.

Some big brands cost 70 or 80 cents, while some small brands cost 50 or 60 cents.

Big brands sell well, but the profit margin is small; sometimes, when business is bad, it's not even enough to cover the electricity bill for the refrigerator.

Small brands have high profit margins, but they are difficult to sell.

The best-selling and most profitable items are the old-fashioned popsicles and the little puddings.

Tian Ersan quickly bought two hundred ice creams and a whole box of everything.

Old Pang helped carry the boxes inside, then looked at the empty boxes in the room and said, "Do you still want the beer? I can recycle the bottles."

Tian Ersan paid and said, "We haven't been open much these past few days. Come back in a few days. Do you have any canned goods? Canned yellow peaches."

Old Pang smiled when he heard this.

"Taoxian County lacks everything, except canned yellow peaches. This year, yellow peaches are incredibly cheap, and many canneries have gone bankrupt. How many cans do you want?"

Tian Ersan felt a little relieved; what they needed most right now was canned food.

"How much does the canned yellow peach cost?" Tian Ersan handed over a bottle of mineral water. "It's free."

Old Pang chuckled as he took the free bottle of mineral water, unscrewed it, and took a sip.

"The kind you see on the ground costs 2.5 yuan a bottle, but it's hard to sell. I've given it to several supermarkets and convenience stores, and it takes them a long time to sell out."

Tian Ersan said, "If we buy it for 2.5 yuan, won't it sell well for 3.5 yuan?"

Old Pang laughed as if he'd heard a joke. "If we only make a dollar on these glass bottles, we might as well not sell them. People only buy canned goods when they're giving them as gifts. Nobody will buy canned goods that cost three or five dollars."

“For popular items, you need to make a few cents to a dollar profit on bottled water. For canned goods, which don’t sell well, you can’t put them on the shelf without making a few dollars. And supermarkets love to sell canned meat, selling those that cost seven or eight dollars for seventeen or eighteen dollars.”

"The main money-making products are cigarettes, alcohol, beverages, instant noodles, and ham sausages; everything else is just supplementary."

Tian Ersan nodded, trusting Lao Pang's opinion on this matter.

"How much cheaper can I get if I buy a lot of canned yellow peaches?"

Old Pang casually asked, "I don't usually haul this stuff. It takes up a lot of space and is hard to transport. I don't make much money hauling a load, and it also delays my deliveries."

After hearing this, Tian Ersan didn't say anything more about it. "Then send over ten boxes of instant noodles. Make sure they're legitimate brands, no off-brand ones."

"Okay!" Old Pang replied with a smile, and went out to continue delivering goods.

Tian Ersan also went out and soon saw a three-wheeled truck carrying goods driving by, which was full of canned goods in cardboard boxes.

Niu Jian drove the car to the door. "Boss Tian, ​​the canned goods have been delivered. I'll give you five hundred bottles first, and I'll make a few more truckloads of the rest."

Tian Ersan nodded. "Okay, I won't count anymore. Let's carry them down together."

“Okay!” Niu Jian quickly got off the car and glanced at Lao Pang, who was hauling the goods.

The two did not know each other, but they could both sense each other's identities.

Looking at the canned goods on the truck, Old Pang asked curiously, "With so many cans, will you be able to sell them all?"

Niu Jian laughed and said, "I don't care about that. I'll bring as much as Boss Tian wants."

Tian Ersan picked up two boxes of canned goods. "Boss Niu, I'll settle the payment at the end of the month."

Niu Jian hesitated for a moment, but then he remembered how readily Tian Ersan had bought melon seeds last time.

"Okay, it's only a few days away anyway."

When Lao Pang heard that it was a business operating on credit, he quickly smiled, closed the car door, and drove off to continue delivering goods.

The two of them were soon drenched in sweat from their work. It was a hot day, and carrying box after box of canned goods was indeed a lot of work. This kind of work was not easy for women, so Tian Ersan didn't call for anyone to come down and help; he just considered it a form of exercise for himself.

After unloading four truckloads of goods, Tian Ersan stood at the door watching Niu Jian leave.

"Tomorrow we'll deliver 1,000 jin of sunflower seeds, half of them plain, a small half of them salty, and one bag of each of the rest. Cash on delivery."

Niu Jian smiled and said, "Boss Tian is a very honest man. Don't worry, I'll bring it to you first thing tomorrow morning!"

Tian Ersan smiled and said, "Just come at nine o'clock. I can't get up too early."

"it is good!"

Niu Jian drove away happily.

Tian Ersan breathed a sigh of relief and took out his phone to look at his nearly empty cash balance.

Nowadays, their cash mainly comes from the money earned from selling school uniforms, the loans the two sisters took out, and tips from a few wealthy men and women in the group.

However, it still cannot sustain the current level of consumption.

After buying an air conditioner, a refrigerator, a computer, and canned food and sunflower seeds, I was in a severe cash shortage and was still 50,000 yuan short of reaching 100,000 yuan.

The funds in the store will only be credited after the customer confirms. Only a portion of the goods were shipped today, and it is estimated that it will take three or four days before someone confirms.

Only a minority will click "confirm," and most people will wait for more than ten days for automatic confirmation.

We're already operating on a low-profit, high-volume model, and the money we make isn't even enough to cover the shipping and packaging costs. If we keep going like this, we'll really go bankrupt.

"Let's raise the price. Canned food is too much trouble. Raise the price to 15 for four bottles, otherwise we'll really lose money."

"Five yuan a bottle, four bottles for twenty yuan would lose the price advantage, so let's make four bottles for fifteen yuan!"

Tian Ersan quickly and decisively raised prices. Some things are better done sooner rather than later. He raised prices now while there weren't many buyers, otherwise it would be difficult to raise prices later.

Not many people bought it, and not many people criticized it either.

If more people buy, raising prices will lead to a significant loss of customers.

When people are busy, they forget things. While Tian Ersan was watching a skit on his computer, someone suddenly approached from behind.

"Boss, isn't it hot in here?" Zhou Shanshan put her hands on Tian Ersan's shoulders, smiled, and looked at the computer, noticing that a skit was playing on it.

Tian Ersan replied, "It's not hot. It's windy in front and behind, so it's alright. I forget about you when I get busy."

Zhou Shanshan looked down and saw Tian Ersan reach behind her and touch her leg.

Zhou Shanshan smiled.

"I came down to get some watermelon. Don't I have anything to do this afternoon?" Zhou Shanshan quickly noticed a lot of canned goods. "Why are there so many canned goods again?"

Tian Ersan shut down the computer to let it cool down.

"Of course it'll be sold tomorrow. Once it cools down in the afternoon, the courier will come and pack it up. Sigh, the packing fee will be huge again."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Shanshan remembered something.

“My dad’s cannery used styrofoam boxes to pack canned goods, but we sold our styrofoam a long time ago. I know the people who make styrofoam boxes.”

Tian Ersan quickly walked over and hugged Zhou Shanshan. "Shanshan~ tell me quickly, what's the price?"

Zhou Shanshan's body quickly went limp after being addressed so affectionately by Tian Ersan and being hugged.

"It seems to be six cents a box. I went online with their daughter before, I'll ask for you."

Upon hearing this, Tian Ersan happily kissed Zhou Shanshan on the cheek, "Okay~ Help me make the arrangements, I'll reward you handsomely tonight!"

"Who cares about your reward!" Zhou Shanshan refused the reward and quickly contacted the other party online.

Less than an hour later, a truck delivered 500 styrofoam boxes, each capable of holding four cans of food, for 50 cents each.

Once the issue of the foam boxes is resolved, there's no need for Su Mingjian's expensive packaging!
Tian Ersan, the courier company staff, and Zhou Shanshan worked together packing the packages.

Everyone worked together until eight o'clock before they finally finished. After closing the door, Zhou Shanshan and the others took a shower in the backyard, while Tian Ersan calculated the income at the computer desk.

The more I calculate, the more upset I get.

The shipping cost is four yuan for four bottles, the cost of the foam box is fifty cents for four bottles, and the cost of the canned food is ten yuan for four bottles.

Four cans of food are only fifteen after the price increase!

Earning only 50 cents per order?

"Damn it... something still doesn't feel right."

"We don't even have 50 cents! If you include my salary, and the salaries of Zhou Shanshan and the other two, the four of us are definitely losing money!"

"There must be places where we can continue to save money! And that doesn't even include taxes!"

"If we don't make money, I'll take the three of them and become live streamers instead of running a real business!"

Tian Ersan quickly abandoned that and started creating videos.

Some businesses are not easy to run until you try them!
(End of this chapter)