Beixin'an, East Street.
Liu Fen was utterly stunned, as if she couldn't believe her eyes.
Considering that her foreign son-in-law opened the first fruit store with piecemeal funding,
the fact that he had opened a second one so soon, with an investment as high as 1.6 million yuan,
placed it among the highest-end top-tier fruit supermarkets, even within the Third Ring Road of Capital City.
Standing at the entrance of East Street.
Not only her, but even Song Huamin was dumbfounded.
There were mainly three issues.
First, where did the money come from?
Second, this Chen Pingsheng was really not simple, managing the fruit supermarket with such clarity so swiftly.
That must have been because he had been tumbling and struggling in the fruit market for so many years.
He signed the lease on the first day, completed the clearing out of the previous tenant on the third,
began renovating and putting up a new sign on the fourth, and on the fifth, interior design and further renovations began.
Throughout this process, Liu Fen was almost fully involved.
Her emotions were close to explosive, unable to tell exactly what she was feeling.
There was joy, but even more so, shock.
Regardless, as long as Chen Pingsheng managed to successfully open this store as well, he would truly be firmly established in Old Capital City.
With these two stores to his name, who would dare look down on him for once being a street durian seller?
People only look at the present.
As long as you have money, it doesn't matter if you sell your butt outside or whatever, you can still come back and live in glory.
She had never imagined that Chen Pingsheng could not only run the previous store well but also open a branch so quickly.
With this ability, buying a house in Capital City was just a matter of time.
After her mindset changed, Liu Fen also worked more enthusiastically when helping out.
The place used to be a well-decorated large supermarket, and now it only needed some minor adjustments before it could open for business.
The sign renovation took three days, and setting up the interior took a week.
By the tenth of March, Tengsheng Fruit Supermarket's second branch on East Street was officially open for business.
The business strategy was identical to the first store, starting with a promotion of "buy three catties of apples."
All other fruits were sold at the purchase price.
The benefit of doing this was very clear—the store saw a higher volume of customers each day.
The habits of the people in this country are simple: they flock to wherever it's cheaper.
This time, he planned to maintain this approach for two months to establish a reputation, build good word of mouth, and accumulate a solid customer base, before launching a major top-up promotion.
By then, he'd make a year's earnings in just one month.
Afterwards, prices could be adjusted, and he could resume normal operations.
He felt that this fruit selling strategy he had developed could adapt to any major market.
...
The night in Capital City twinkled with neon lights, bustling with life.
Since the opening of the second branch, Tengsheng Fruit could truly be considered to have a small scale of its own.
At least in Beixin'an, the two largest fruit stores belonged to their family.
Song Yanxi had also equipped herself with a large computer, primarily for financial management.
Now that both stores had hired cashiers, she didn't need to be at the store all day.
In her spare time, she would sit in the East Street office, drinking tea and watching the lively sales outside.
Her mood was excellent.
"Yanxi, the first store is about to start distributing profits, how was the situation last month?" asked Liu Fen, who would often come over to sit with her when she had nothing else to do, and she frequently brought relatives along.
The little calculation behind such visits did not need to be stated.
Yanxi prepared a cup of tea for her; the fifteenth of every month was their profit-sharing day.
It was a rule set by Chen Pingsheng himself, though it could have been done every three months.
He didn't see the necessity.
Being able to receive a share of the profits after just over a month of investment, nothing could be more motivating than this.
This would also give Liu Jing and Chen Hao more confidence.
Yanxi pulled out a small ledger, her face beaming as she said, "Last month, the first store had 1.1 million in card top-ups. Pingsheng said to keep a reserve of 300,000 as card capital, and the rest could all be distributed. After subtracting the costs of promotions and other expenses, the profit was roughly 280,000."
Keeping 300,000 as non-distributed card capital was actually a reserve of risk funds.
A single store's actual sales last month were 1.6 million, and since most of the card money hadn't been spent yet, the profit was particularly high.
This month we won't do any recharge activities. After the cash flow comes in, we can maintain a net profit of about 50 to 60 thousand every month.
That's really quite good.
Liu Fen listened in amazement, as she had specifically researched and later found out that the son-in-law from out of town really got the store with just 300,000.
You can hardly imagine how that felt.
Now, hearing that he was making 280,000 a month, and that's with the stipulation of keeping a risk fund of 300,000 without distribution.
She was even more shockingly impressed.
Liu Fen had her own little plans, and now that the son-in-law from elsewhere had really made something of himself, she began to think about other things.
"Did he say how he's going to manage this money in the future?"
Song Yanxi gave her a look, her own mother was really something else.
"Mom, Pingsheng said that in the future, the money earned from the fruit supermarket is all mine to manage, and I can buy whatever I want with it."
"It's good she has a conscience."
Liu Fen was very happy to hear this, and also quite moved.
This is the benefit of a couple that's gone through hardships together. Our daughter has suffered so much with him.
Now that the days are better, he is truly good to his wife.
Liu Fen finally put her mind at ease, waiting for Liu Jing and Chen Hao to arrive.
By that time Song Yanxi had done all the calculations, and what was left was to distribute the money.
Their family had the lion's share, entitled to 51%, which amounted to 150,000 for February.
The moment they distributed the money, it was exactly as Chen Pingsheng had envisioned.
Everyone was as excited as if they had been injected with adrenaline.
Liu Jing said, "Old Chen, the situation at the second store is exactly the same as the first one. If things keep going like this, within two months our store will definitely be the one doing the best business in Beixin'an."
"That's for sure." Chen Hao also said with a smile, "By that time, if we do another recharge activity over here, I think we could easily bring in three to four hundred thousand."
Chen Pingsheng smiled faintly. A week after the East Street store opened, it was indeed doing better than he had anticipated.
The daily customer traffic was already at two hundred and climbing.
"This store should indeed be stable if nothing unexpected happens. I plan to open another three stores within this month."
The hardest part about opening chain stores is the first one.
From the first to the third is a process of replication, with the most important aspects being the standardization of the brand and processes.
There is no barrier to entry in the fruit supermarket business, anyone with money can operate one.
Consequently, the competition is especially fierce.
On any given street or at the entrance of residential complexes, you see them everywhere.
Chen Pingsheng wanted to move quickly primarily to establish brand effect rapidly.
With a brand effect, customers would feel more comfortable putting their money in.
Then, during a major recharge event, he could make back ten to eight times the investment.
As for the net profit of the store in the later period, that would be Song Yanxi's living expenses.
He only needed to earn during the period of multiplied returns from recharges.
With this in mind, he wanted to open new stores as soon as possible.
Yet Liu Jing and Chen Hao were both taken aback by his plan; they didn't have his "Golden Finger."
Their thinking was naturally more conservative.
However, after the money was distributed this time, they were a lot more daring.
Fortunately, there were six of them in the moving group, excluding Chen Ping.
Now, only Liu Jing and Chen Hao were store managers of their own stores, holding a 20% stake.
They had completely escaped the undignified street vending job.
Given a choice, who wouldn't want to earn money in a respectable standing position?
Now that they had the choice, they naturally supported it.
For the next three stores, Chen Pingsheng didn't plan to invest huge amounts of money. For one thing, after opening the East Street store, he had less than three million on his card.
Secondly, Beixin'an was only so large and couldn't accommodate five mega-sized fruit supermarkets at the same time.
As for expanding beyond Beixin'an, Chen Pingsheng had no such plans at the moment.
By concentrating here, he could quickly build that brand effect, achieving a regional monopoly.
He could also prevent the large fruit dealers from outside from coming in.
The benefits were numerous; to sum it up in a phrase, "It's best to be the king in a small realm first."
For the locations of the following stores, he wouldn't need to search himself. Liu Jing and Chen Hao would take the initiative to keep an eye out for prime spots.