Chapter 51
The Wei Family’s grocery store was about to start recruiting shopkeepers, and the news spread.
On the day of recruitment, dozens of men came to apply for work, and many new faces came.
Uncle Mao, the housekeeper, who is also the manager of the grocery store, gathered all the applicants in one place and directly announced the job description for the recruited shopkeepers.
There are two types of jobs for these shopkeepers, one would be to buy goods from their grocery store and sell them directly, which meant that they could still sell other goods. The other is to become the exclusive salesman of the grocery store, the goods are provided by the grocery store, and only the goods of the grocery store can be sold by them.
When buying goods directly from the grocery store, they would pay according to the wholesale price, every time they get the goods, they need to settle the payment the next time they come to get supplies. If they become the exclusive salesman of the grocery store, they can get the corresponding commission according to the number of goods sold, and an additional subsidy of ten wen per day.
Regardless of whether it is a supplied salesman or an exclusive salesman for the grocery store, a contract must be signed and the provisions of the contract must be abided by. They can sign a temporary contract, and a month later, after passing the assessment, the official contract can be signed only by those who passed the assessment. The grocery store has the right to void with anyone who violates any of the provisions of the contract. Those who violate the contract shall pay the corresponding liquidated damages.
After the words fell, the people who came to apply for the job immediately whispered to each other, talking about the contract, and the wholesale price… They didn’t know all kinds of things, which made them reluctant to choose.
Uncle Mao raised his hand, and the crowd quieted down, he announced “Now people can start applying for the job they want, and I will explain the answer to the applicant’s everyone’s questions in a unified way.”
With Uncle Mao’s words, those who came to apply for the job hurriedly lined up to apply for the job.
Wu Da came with his companion, who was also a peddler. The two had been selling coleslaw made by the Wei Family’s stall. By selling coleslaw at the Wei Family’s stall, they had a stable income every month and their family could still eat meat several times a month.
Wu Da and his family must become the peddlers of the Wei Family’s grocery store, but they hesitate whether they should choose to sell the goods by themselves or become the official salesmen of the grocery store.
Wei Youli and Li He used to work as porters with Wei Lei at the dock. They were friends with Wei Lei so when they met Wei Lei at the dock, Wei Lei asked them to come apply.
The two had been working as coolies at the dock before, so they were apprehensive about the job application. After listening to the rules of the grocery store, they realized how could the two of them have the money to get the goods if their families were poor, so they hoped to become official salesmen in the Wei Family’s grocery store.
Both of them have seen Wei Lei since he started doing business with his good brother, he now wears clothes that only rich people can wear. When they met him, he invited them to a restaurant, which was a place they could only dream of going to. Wei Lei asked them to come, so they chose to come after considering it, and their family members supported them.
After the applications, they recruited over a dozen shopkeepers.
Uncle Mao explained to them the purchase price and the selling price. At present, there are seven or eight types of sauces, coleslaws, pastries, and pickled side dishes at affordable prices. They can choose to sell individually, or you can choose to sell each model together. If they are selling goods from the Wei Family’s grocery stores, they must wear vests with the Wei characters printed on them uniformly.
Wei Cheng’s three brothers-in-law chose to be peddlers in the grocery store, Wu Da, Wei Youli, and Li He, and three tall and thin men, and a short and thin man also chose to be the official salesman of the grocery store. Others are shopkeepers or small street vendors who choose to sell their goods alongside the Wei Family’s products. The profits are high, but they have to bear the risk of being unable to sell and unable to earn a profit.
“The sauce can be given away on the first day, and the grocery store will provide you with three catties of sauce for free. The free sauce provided is for you to give it to customers for free. Each customer can only receive a small spoonful and we’ll let you deliver it for free There is a purpose for giving to customers, it is not for nothing. It is to let customers try the sauce for free, understand the taste of the sauce, and only when customers are satisfied will they return to buy more.”
“The sales areas are all divided, and you all have to sell in a fixed area. Merchants and wealthy connections would depend on everyone’s ability.”
Uncle Mao let everyone go and told them to come to work on time tomorrow.
“Master, we have provided the sauce to those peddlers for free. If the peddler takes the sauce home privately, it will be given away for nothing.” Uncle Mao didn’t understand this point, what was the purpose of his master doing this? He asked his master for some answers.
“In the early stage of opening the sales market, you have to lose money. Only by losing a little can you make subsequent sales.” Wei Cheng sipped his tea, and the corners of his mouth slightly curled up. The promotion fee was too cheap in his eyes. If they take the material home, the loss is their own, and they can test a person’s character. He can afford to pay for this loss.
Uncle Mao has been taught!
—
Wu Da is a well-behaved peddler. There were already households where he often sold his goods so when he came, the ladies in the houses knew him, and most of them asked to buy coleslaw. Wu Da told the women that there were new products, and there was also a free spoonful of limited sauce for each household, which could be used for cooking. The dishes made by the sauce are comparable to restaurants.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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Hearing the commotion outside, the people passing by were all curious and went up one after another. As soon as they heard that there were free things to distribute, they all went home to pick up bowls to receive them. Wu Da didn’t have to walk through the streets to distribute all the sauces, coleslaws, side dishes, and a lot of pastries.
The people who heard the news but didn’t receive complaints, Wu Da was quite business-minded so he didn’t find himself in a difficult situation. He promised to give some more away again for free tomorrow and he was praised by the surrounding residents.
Other shopkeepers also sold things according to Wu Da’s method. The aroma of the sauce was delicious and some people wanted to buy the sauce after getting it for free, the free samples weren’t given in vain.
Zhou Yuan’s three elder brothers were guided by Wei Cheng, they also had free sauces but they managed to sell several catties of sauces with the free sauces. The cold dishes and side dishes were also free for customers to try, and the ones brought out for sale were all sold out.
They dared to let customers try it for free because Wei Cheng opened the back door for them and told them that they didn’t have to pay for the loss if they couldn’t sell it.
The peddlers at the Wei Family’s grocery store have registered how much they received for sale, and they have to make up for the loss by themselves. If they give customers free trials without limiting them then if they are unable to sell half a catty, they’ll have to pay for the loss themself.
Every peddler tried their best to sell according to the guidelines. There was a peddler who listened to his wife and took the sauce home to eat by himself.
The shopkeeper’s wife told him, “These are free sauces. It’s better to eat them at home than to give them away for free. Our focus is to sell coleslaws, and we will rely on coleslaws to make more money.”
The peddler has always been jealous of Wu Da being able to sell coleslaws ever since he saw that Wu Da made a lot of money selling coleslaws. The peddler who bought the goods beforehand has the right to supply. He has always wanted to sell some coleslaw from Wu Da’s hands, but Wu Da refused him saying that he signed a contract with the stall and could not provide him with the goods.
This time Wei Family’s grocery store was recruiting salesmen, and he ran over, mainly because he wanted to get the supply for coleslaw and the other side dishes, and he would definitely make money. There are free sauces to take, and after hearing what his wife said, he felt that the free samples would be given away for nothing and would only benefit outsiders so it was better to keep it for themselves.
The shopkeeper only sold cold dishes and side dishes that day. If he was being honest, the sauce is really delicious. This particular peddler’s sales area is in the residential area of his house, and the fragrance of his house wafted throughout.
Residential houses in other areas wafted from different people’s homes, and the smell made the family salivate. The man who had just got off work was hungry when he returned to the door, and now he will be even more hungry.
*
The next day.
Wei Cheng ordered Uncle Mao to provide a batch of sauces to the peddlers in his shop. The other peddlers saw it and thought about yesterday’s situation, so they took out some money and bought some. Only the peddler who took the sauce for his own home did not buy any of the sauce. The peddler thought to himself that he already had free sauce, so why would he pay for it, and the boss would not know if he sold the free sauce directly.
What he didn’t know was that everyone in the Wei Family’s shop noticed his out-of-sync behavior with other shopkeepers.
Uncle Mao understood what his master said. If there is a problem with one of their peddlers, they can see through it at a glance.
As soon as the Wei Family’s peddlers arrived at the place where they were assigned to sell, the aunts gathered around, chirping and chattering, saying that the sauces were delicious for cooking and that they were free of charge.
There are several kinds of sauces on the peddler’s goods. Most families are rich enough to buy a little of each, and the peddler will tell them which sauces are suitable for cooking which dishes, and which sauces are for noodles and the like.
In half a day, most of the Wei family’s official salesmen were happy that they were able to sell their goods and returned to the grocery store to share their sales process. Only that greedy peddler returned to the grocery store in the afternoon and saw everyone happily sitting together drinking tea and chatting, and after inquiring about it, his face was gloomy.
No, he was going to find out why they could easily sell them out, so he walked around for a day and found out that the problem was the free sauce.
As soon as he got home, he hurriedly asked his wife to return the sauce, but his wife told him that a few catties of sauce had been taken by their relatives, and those given away were gone. The peddler got angry and scolded his wife severely on the spot. The peddler’s wife is a hot-blooded person, so she is not the one who allows him to scold for no reason, and the two quarreled—
That peddler learned to be smart and gave away the remaining sauces for free. Looking at the heartache, he comforted himself saying that there was still a return. He looked at the money and went home, and he imagined that he would live a life of good and flavourful food in the future.
He didn’t know that after this month, all properties under Wei Family’s name would never be hiring.
—
In the name of Tai Fu Luo, the young master’s family gave away a set of high-quality sauces to the distinguished guests of Tai Fu Luo.
The gifts sent by Tai Fu Luo were treated seriously by the rich and famous. Even though they didn’t understand Tai Fu Luo’s intentions when they received the gifts, they asked the kitchen to cook the dishes according to the paper method inside.
The sauces added freshness to light dishes, it added thick and fresh tastes for heavier tastes, and other sauces added to meat stews made the dishes taste better.
Those who tried it all went back to Tai Fu Lou to inquire about the source of the sauce. With such a good sauce, they wondered if it was a new product from Fucheng, and they all thought that only Fucheng had such a high-quality product.
Steward Guan only said that Baiwei Zhai, which sells sauces, is about to open in the county. He also intentionally mentioned that the recent improvement in the quality of dishes in Tai Fu Luo was related to the sauce of Baiwei Zhai.
They were all businessmen, how could they not understand the meaning of Quan Steward Guan’s words?
If they wanted sauces, they’d have to wait for Baiwei Zhai to open.
On the day of the opening of Baiwei Zhai in the inner county, luxury carriages were coming one after another at the gate.
Knowing that the wealthy families were buying Baiwei Zhai’s sauce, the other more fortunate families also followed suit and bought sauces there. Baiwei Zhai’s reputation spread in the county within only one day as more and more customers followed suit.
This is the propaganda effect of the famous and powerful.
Baiwei Zhai’s business occupies a single market in the county. After the sale, the supply of sauce workshops continues.
—
Wei Cheng didn’t know the situation in the county, and he was drinking afternoon tea with his wife in the Xian Manju private room.
“Husband, are my brother’s sauce business doing well?”
Zhou Yuan knew that his three elder brothers started working as peddlers selling sauces, so he asked his husband about his three elder brothers’ sales.
“With your husband as their guide, if the sales are not good, it will damage your husband’s reputation as a businessman.” Wei Cheng laughed.
“Husband!”
He was asking seriously, why did his husband only compliment himself?!
Seeing his wife glaring at him, Wei Cheng stopped being funny, and said, “They earn dozens of wen a day, and they earned at least two taels of silver this month.”
“The clerks in Xian Manju earn more than one tael per month, and they get a bonus every month so that it is almost two taels.” Zhou Yuan said, “In this way, wouldn’t it be better to ask my elder brother and the others to work in Xian Manju? We also include three meals a day.”
Wei Cheng smiled and said, “Now it’s just two or so taels a month, my brothers-in-law have your husband open the back door for them, sooner or later, they will have no problem earning 10 or 20 taels every month.”
Only a small percentage of the market has opened, the key customers are merchants and wealthy households have yet to be touched.
Once the market opens up and if the merchants don’t take the initiative to come to the door, then the peddlers’ monthly earnings will be high. This is a resource only the peddlers in Wei Family’s grocery store have. Unless the peddlers who get the goods can find merchant customers, they will only bring sales from a fixed area, and the fluctuation will not be large.
“So much!”
Wei Cheng didn’t know if he should laugh or cry, how could his wife sometimes think too little and sometimes too much?
“Let’s not talk about my brothers-in-law. We still have one very important thing to talk about.”
Zhou Yuan looked at the person with clear eyes.
Wei Cheng’s heart softened, and he stretched out his arms to pull the man onto his lap and hugged his wife’s slender waist, “Yuan Yuan, do you want to go back to our home where we used to live? The house will be finished in two days, we’re going to move back home, are you happy?”
Every night when he returned to the backyard of Xian Manju, he noticed his wife’s emotions.
Zhou Yuan’s clear eyes overflowed with joy as he asked, “Really?”
Even though Xian Manju is also where they live, he still likes the feeling of that home in the suburbs. No matter how comfortable living in Xian Manju is, it can’t compare to his and his husband’s original home.
Thinking about going home and living there, joy appeared on Zhou Yuan’s face, his eyes shined brightly, and Wei Cheng’s heart itched when he saw it.
His eyes darkened, and Wei Cheng’s lips covered his wife’s lips…
After the kiss, Zhou Yuan gasped as he leaned on Wei Cheng’s chest, his face flushed and his lips ruddy.
Wei Cheng raised his hand and gently wiped off the water stains on the corners of his lips, “Yuan Yuan, we haven’t gone shopping for a long time, and we need to buy a lot of supplies after finishing work at home. Let’s go shopping in the inner county tomorrow.”
Ah?!
Zhou Yuan stopped leaning in his husband’s arms, raised his head, and asked, “If I’m going to the inner county, who will look at the counter?” Xiao-Liu’s arithmetic has improved but she is responsible for a lot of things, can they let her take care of the counter alone?
“In the store, I’ve asked Wei Lei to hire another shopkeeper again. In the future, the shopkeeper of Xian Manju will be a newcomer, he will be the one taught to man the counter.” Wei Cheng said.
Zhou Yuan was slightly stunned, “I, I don’t need to be the shopkeeper anymore?” He sat up straight, his eyes drooping.
Wei Cheng lightly pecked his lips, pressed him back into his arms, hugged him tightly again, and said softly, “Yuan Yuan, your husband is not willing to let you be the shopkeeper all the time. My original intention in letting you be the shopkeeper at Xian Manju is so that you will learn more knowledge. In the future, someone else will take over that responsibility.”
Zhou Yuan relaxed and leaned against his husband’s chest, with a smile on his lips, “If I don’t have to go to Xian Manju, will you let me stay at home?”
Staying at home to take care of their house, and taking care of his husband is what he should do, Zhou Yuan even forgot his responsibilities as a husband, if he could take care of his husband better by staying home then he would be very happy.
Wei Cheng hugged him tightly, a smile appeared on his thin lips, his wife was finally not sad.
“The business of Xian Manju is stable. We won’t come here often, so I’ll let Lei-zi take care of it.” Wei Cheng said, “I will be in charge of the grocery store every day from now on, so you can accompany me to the grocery store.”
Zhou Yuan sat up straight, looked at the person, and asked doubtfully, “What can I do at the grocery store?”
Wei Cheng just smiled and said nothing.
Zhou Yuan urged him with small eyes.
Wei Cheng said slowly, “I take care of others, but you—of course, you take care of me!”
(～￣▽￣)～
It’s time for some bun~
Thank You for the new chapter (⋈◍＞◡＜◍)。✧♡
Mm-mm, that greedy peddler has it coming to him!