「Junheng Trading Co., Ltd. Second-floor conference room.」
"This Meng Zalang is like a ghost that won’t leave. He’s acting like a rabid dog, fixated on our Hongyun Rice and refusing to let go!" Bian Xuedao fumed, smoking by the window.
Qian Na shot him a look and said, "What a way to talk. Are you insulting him or us?"
Ma Chaoyun said indignantly, "This is the first I’ve ever heard of someone complaining that we’re selling too cheap and demanding we raise our prices. What has the world come to?"
"What are we supposed to do?" Ma Qiumei said, her face clouded with worry. "The commotion from the last price increase just settled down, and now we have to raise it again. The restaurants are going to curse our entire family line."
Xu Fei clenched her small fists, her face flushing red with anger after hearing Chen Lin’s report. "Making us raise the price by 10 yuan in one go? You can count on one hand the number of rice brands on the market that sell for 30 yuan a jin. This isn’t just backing us into a corner; they’re trying to kill off Hongyun Rice! It’s outrageous!"
Everyone in the conference room who had been called back was furious. It was already difficult enough to expand the market for Hongyun Rice at its current price of 20 yuan a jin.
Aside from the major restaurants, the smaller ones didn’t even dare to consider it.
There was plenty of rice available for 2 yuan a jin. Smaller restaurants couldn’t possibly charge enough to justify using a rice that costs 20 yuan a jin.
"Everyone, calm down. Complaining here won’t solve anything." Wu Jun waved his hand, and the room finally fell silent.
Meng Zalang had played a big part in fanning the flames of this forced price hike. And with He Qingfeng repeatedly sabotaging Hongyun Rice, Wu Jun had no intention of letting him off the hook in the first place.
Things had only been quiet for a week, and now he was stirring up trouble again. Wu Jun was naturally going to teach him a serious lesson. This time, he would crush him so thoroughly that he’d be too scared to ever try again, effectively killing his business and driving him out of the Shimen Market for good.
At this point, everyone was at a loss. All eyes turned to Wu Jun, waiting to hear what he had to say.
Wu Jun said, "Earlier, I had my aunt go to the job market to recruit more people, and Chen Lin is in the process of applying to open an online store."
Hearing Wu Jun’s words, everyone’s eyes lit up. An online store—they should have opened one long ago.
Nowadays, the amount of money people spent on online shopping was as much as, if not more than, their spending on daily necessities.
From trash bags costing a few cents to luxury goods worth tens of thousands, there was nothing you couldn’t buy online. The digital economy was a massive pie that could no longer be ignored.
On Singles’ Day alone, the total sales of just a few online shopping platforms could exceed 370 billion yuan in a single day!
And that was just on Singles’ Day. While daily sales weren’t as explosive, the total annual revenue was still an astronomical figure.
"I had our customer service manager, Li Xiaoxiao, run the numbers earlier," Wu Jun said. "Across several e-commerce platforms, there are over twenty different kinds of rice selling for more than 30 yuan a jin. And... they all sell pretty well."
There’s a high-end market for every kind of product. The national liquor, Maotai, is a perfect example. Bottles that cost over a thousand yuan are in such high demand they’re constantly sold out, generating tens of billions in annual sales.
"So... are we going to focus exclusively on online sales from now on?" Qian Na asked, her expression excited after hearing Wu Jun’s words. "If other brands can sell their 30-yuan-a-jin rice so well, just imagine how well our Hongyun Rice will do."
Bian Xuedao looked at his naive wife, at a loss for words. With a troubled expression, he stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray on the windowsill.
’Women really are shortsighted,’ he thought. If they focused exclusively on online sales, what use would regional managers like him be?
’They’d just need to hire some online store managers and customer service staff, and that would be that. People like him would be kicked to the curb.’
A couple of days ago, Dong Lizhu had paid the regional managers their salaries for the month. Bian Xuedao and his wife took home over 300,000 yuan.
The two of them withdrew the cash, spread it out on their bed, and counted it until their hands cramped. They didn’t even get around to taking care of... other business.
Now, if the restaurant market were to collapse, these days of making easy money would be over.
Bian Xuedao hadn’t left his stable government job just to make 300,000 yuan. His goal was 3 million, 30 million.
Wu Jun stood up and walked over to the window. He took out his cigarettes, offered one to Bian Xuedao, and lit one for himself.
"The online store is one aspect," Wu Jun said, his back to the others as he blew a puff of smoke out the window. "Brick-and-mortar specialty stores are another."
Hearing Wu Jun mention brick-and-mortar stores, the hand Bian Xuedao was holding his cigarette with trembled in excitement.
’Looks like this little brother-in-law is pretty reliable after all,’ he thought. ’He wasn’t planning on kicking us out. He’s left a way for us to survive.’
Sure enough, Wu Jun said:
"In the main urban districts, we’ll establish one flagship specialty store for each of the four regions, and the four regional managers will remain in charge of them."
"We’ll also gradually penetrate the surrounding areas—Baoding, Zhengding, Langfang, Cangzhou. We’re going to expand our footprint."
"Our goal is to sell over 150 tons a day. If we can’t hit that volume here in Ji Bei, then we’ll break out of Ji Bei and go national!"
Currently, the game could produce 100 tons a day, for an annual output of over 36,000 tons.
Once the production site was secured, this output would increase even further. Wu Jun was giving everyone a heads-up, raising their sales targets in advance.
Break out of Ji Bei and go national!
The moment Wu Jun said this, a wave of ambition washed over everyone.
To expand a small-to-medium-sized enterprise from a second-tier city into a major corporation with a nationwide reach... it would be an immense honor to personally take part in such a grand undertaking.
"Well said! We at Junheng will break out of Ji Bei and go national!" Bian Xuedao stuck his cigarette in his mouth, freed up his hands, and started clapping. He clapped until his palms were red. His little brother-in-law’s ambition made it all worthwhile, quitting his job to take the plunge with him.
"Break out of Ji Bei and go national!" Qian Na echoed her husband and joined in the applause.
One after another, everyone stood up and applauded enthusiastically, their eyes filled with adoration as they looked at Wu Jun.
Before they started following Wu Jun, they were just a bunch of ordinary, bottom-rung working-class people. Some worked in restaurants, some ran breakfast stalls to the point of exhaustion, and others were cashiers in supermarkets.
Whenever they ran into the elites, minor managers, and junior white-collar workers from big corporations who lived in their neighborhood, they always felt inferior.
But now, under Wu Jun’s leadership, their incomes had increased dozens of times over. They had respectable jobs and walked with confidence.
Their financial situations had improved dramatically. Now, when they walked through their neighborhood, many more people would proactively greet them. People looked at them with the kind of eyes reserved for successful individuals, and they couldn’t help but enjoy that feeling.
"Boss Wu, should we hire a professional market research firm to help us scout locations for the specialty stores?" Bian Xuedao asked a crucial question once the excitement died down.
Opening a specialty store wasn’t a simple matter. Location was everything.
Choose the right spot, and you could rake in a fortune. Choose the wrong one, and you’d be waiting to close up shop for good.
An old saying puts it well: The right time, the right place, and the right people—you can’t succeed without all three.
Wu Jun turned around and asked the group with a smile, "Have you guys ever heard of the Jilao model?"