Starting with vegetable greenhouses in 1988

Chapter 56 New Channel

Zhou Yongqiang sat on the back of the donkey, patting the cargo bed, "Stop, stop, that's it."

Zhou Yongqiang jumped off the donkey and led the two into the courtyard. At a glance, there were illegally built kitchens and partitioned rooms everywhere, and the smell of coal smoke permeated the air.

Li Zhe glanced at the narrow aisle and asked uncertainly, "Brother Zhou, are you sure the furniture store is inside?"

"Hey, come with me. Do you think everyone lives in a detached house like you? This kind of tenement is where ordinary people in Beijing live."

After turning a few corners, Zhou Yongqiang pointed to a house with furniture piled up in front of it, "Isn't this it? Uncle Chen, is Uncle Chen home?"

The curtain was lifted, and a dark-faced old man in his fifties stepped out. "It's Qiangzi. What's up?"

"I brought two friends to buy furniture. Could you give me a discount later?"

Old Chen said, "No problem, take your pick. All the furniture in this yard is mine. If you don't like it, there's more inside. As long as you can afford it, you can take it."

Li Zhe's rented apartment had a few pieces of furniture. His idea was to use what he could and then buy some more.

Li Zhe found a jujube wood coffee table that was the right height to match the three chairs in the rented room, and he also chose a five-drawer chest to put in his bedroom.

There were two single beds in the rented courtyard, and Li Zhe added a wire bed, which he usually put away but could use when there were more people.

Li Zhe went inside and looked around again. He took a fancy to a large folding round table. He was tired of sitting at the low table and wanted to change it.

They picked out a honeycomb briquette stove by the window and wall for both cooking and heating.

Old Chen calculated the prices: a single bed for 20 yuan, a five-drawer chest for 15 yuan, a coal stove for 12 yuan, a large round table for 10 yuan, and a coffee table for 8 yuan.

It cost a total of 65 yuan to get everything. Li Zhe also knew where he was and would buy anything else he needed.

The three of them carefully carried the furniture through the passageway of the large courtyard and transported it back to Courtyard No. 7 using a donkey.

……

The front yard of No. 7 Courtyard.

Watching Lin Qiaomei tidy up the yard quickly, Wang Xiuying couldn't help but think, "This girl is pretty and her age is suitable for my eldest son. What a pity."

If Zhang Yuzhen hadn't been causing trouble for me, there wouldn't have been any problems with Malaysia.

"Daughter, look at my memory, I almost forgot. Your mother sent something, remember to bring it home later."

Lin Qiaomei put down the rag in her hand and asked with some surprise, "Auntie, what did my mother ask you to bring?"

"She didn't say what it was, I'll take it to you." Wang Xiuying went to the first room on the east side and came out carrying a bundle. "It's bulging and looks strange, probably a winter coat."

Lin Qiaomei took the bundle with both hands, saying, "Auntie, thank you for your trouble."

"Daughter, you're being too polite. It was just a small favor. My second son will be traveling between the two places frequently in the future. If he misses home, he can take the tractor back."

"Yes, I'll be troubling Brother Zhezi a lot in the future."

"Don't be so polite. Your mother and I grew up together. What kind of relationship do we have?"

Seeing how friendly Wang Xiuying was, Lin Qiaomei was also a little confused about her relationship with her mother. To be fair, the two hadn't spoken to each other or visited each other for many years.

Neither of them would admit to anything bad.

"Mom, the furniture is back." Li Zhe's voice came from the street.

Wang Xiuying opened the south door of the house, where a blue scooter loaded with furniture was parked. "Just move it here, directly into the house. Going through the doorway is a longer route. Hey, second son, why are you riding a bicycle?"

"These bicycle and the scooter are both brand new, what do you think?"

"How much did you buy it for?" This was what Wang Xiuying was most concerned about. "Not expensive, it's all secondhand. The car and furniture cost a little over three hundred yuan in total. If Brother Zhou hadn't taken us there, we wouldn't have been able to find the place."

Hearing that the price was acceptable, Wang Xiuying said, "Don't just stand there, let's move it inside. We still need to start a fire to cook lunch."

Li Zhiqiang slapped his thigh, "Uncle, we forgot to buy coal briquettes."

Lin Qiaomei said, "It's alright, I'll go to the Ji family's house in the backyard to borrow a few coins, and I'll pay them back after I buy them."

"Sister-in-law, is it convenient for us to borrow from the Ji family?" Li Zhe had met Ji Hongbin once and felt that he was not easy to get along with.

Zhou Yongqiang laughed and said, "It's convenient. Ji Ye's wife and Qiaomei are as close as sisters. It's more effective than me going."

"Okay, I'll go to the market to buy meat, and we'll have lunch here."

Wang Xiuying hurriedly called out to him, "Second brother, remember to buy a carp."

"Okay." Li Zhe got on his bicycle and headed straight for Chongwenmen Market, which was much more convenient than walking.

Chongwenmen Market is very large and divided into several areas, with vegetables, meat, and seafood not in the same area.

Li Zhe first went to the seafood section and bought a carp weighing over three pounds, four pounds of pork, two pounds of tofu, and a piece of braised pig liver, filling his bicycle basket to the brim.

Having bought almost everything, he pushed his cart into the vegetable section and saw Old Li and two others chatting by the stall.

Li Weidong, with his sharp eyes, waved at him and asked, "Second brother, where did this bicycle come from?"

"Just bought it, what do you think? It's no worse than yours, right?"

Li Weidong touched the gleaming handlebars with envy, "Hey, it's a Phoenix brand. This frame is really sturdy. How much did you buy it for?"

"150."

Do you need industrial vouchers?

"Why would you need industrial vouchers for secondhand goods?"

“It’s not expensive.” Li Weidong touched this and looked at that. The bicycle he was riding was bought when he got married. He had looked at Phoenix brand bicycles at the time. They were indeed good, but they were also more expensive than other brands, so he couldn’t bring himself to buy one.

"How did the cucumbers sell today? Did it go smoothly?"

Old Li said, "It's alright. We picked a total of 240 jin of cucumbers, 200 jin of which were pre-ordered last time. The stall owner has already picked them up and paid the balance."

We'll sell the remaining 40 jin ourselves, but we've only sold less than 20 jin. It's probably because the price went up by one yuan; there were many people looking and asking questions, but few buying. Everyone thought the price was too high.

Li Weidong said, "It's almost noon, and fewer and fewer people are buying vegetables. How about we lower the price a little?"

"We can't lower the price." Li Zhe just raised the price the day before yesterday; if he lowered it today, wouldn't that be a slap in his own face?

Moreover, the surrounding vendors all buy their goods from him at the original price. Even if they buy a lot, they don't get a discount. If he lowers the price as soon as the vendors leave, what will the other vendors think?
The fact that cucumbers aren't selling well only means that the Chongwenmen vegetable market has reached its consumption potential limit. Ordinary people are just trying them out of curiosity; who can buy them every day? In the past few days, Li Zhe has figured out the market price of cucumbers and can start looking to expand into other sales channels.

"No rush. If we don't sell them all this morning, we'll sell them this afternoon; if we don't sell them all this afternoon, we'll continue selling them tomorrow." After saying that, Li Zhe looked at his father and asked, "Dad, how many cucumbers have you ordered today?"

"The pre-order quantity exceeded 200 jin, but I collected a deposit for 150 jin as you requested." After saying this, Old Li was also a little puzzled. "Second brother, the cucumber yield in the field has increased, why don't we pre-order more?"

"I still have a use for the remaining cucumbers, you'll find out later." Although Li Zhe didn't pay much attention to the stall owners' collective boycott when Li Zhe raised prices last time, it served as a reminder that he needed to control his own sales channels.

As the second batch of cucumbers ripens, the cucumber yield will increase day by day. Li Zhe roughly estimates that the daily yield of the two batches of cucumbers during their peak fruiting period will reach about 300 jin, and the yield of cucumbers harvested every other day will be 600 jin.

Cucumbers sell well in winter, but even the best wine needs advertising. Whether you sell them for five yuan a pound or seven yuan a pound, you still have to sell them; nobody wants to sell at a higher price.

Only by expanding sales channels and creating a supply shortage in the vegetable market can we maintain high premiums and high profits.

(End of this chapter)