jdhmnovel Chapter 115 Monopoly Market
Chapter 115 Monopoly Market
Capital
Time flies, and in the blink of an eye it is already December. Although the weather is cold, Su Kexin and Tian are busy as hell. They started preparing for the establishment of the underwear workshop early on, and they are busy every day.
With the help of Liang Zhilan, the underwear workshop was quickly built and put into production smoothly. However, it was the coldest time of the year and the ground was frozen, so it was impossible to build a new workshop.
Therefore, they chose to make a slight renovation of the old house in Tian's big farm, which not only saved costs but also improved efficiency. The whole project did not cost too much money.
Su Kexin knew that time was running out and she had to produce a large amount of underwear as soon as possible to meet market demand. Fortunately, she had previously purchased hundreds of underwear of different styles and fabrics from Chen Ruotong's fashion show as samples, which she could directly imitate.
Therefore, before the end of the year, they successfully produced underwear that was exactly the same as that of the fashion show and began to sell it to the outside world.
Most of the wealthy people in Beijing pursue high quality and fashion, and these underwear just suits their tastes.
For a time, the sales of underwear were very good, allowing Su Kexin and Tian to make a lot of money before the New Year. In order to seize this business opportunity, they decided not to give the embroiderers and craftsmen too long a New Year's holiday, but only gave them four days off.
Then, everyone worked overtime to make underwear, hoping to earn more money to go home for the New Year. For embroiderers and craftsmen, this was not a difficult task, after all, everyone wanted to support their families and earn more money.
However, the wages here are much lower than those in Chen Ruotong's workshop. Each person only gets one or two taels of silver per month, and there is no rest period. However, the wages in Chen Ruotong's workshop are one or two taels of silver per month, and there are four days of vacation.
However, the embroiderers and craftsmen here know nothing about this, and they think the wages here are already quite good. After all, for these low-level workers, being able to find a job and get a certain amount of compensation is enough.
On the third day of the Lunar New Year, Tian's underwear workshop started operations.
As soon as the products were produced, Liang Zhilan's Shishang Xiufang store started selling them, and the sales were very good.
This is because Chen Ruotong's fashion show shop will not open until the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, so Liang Zhilan grabbed the market share in advance.
In addition, Liang Zhilan also used the power and connections of the palace to prevent any clothing business outside the capital from entering the capital, thus initially achieving a monopoly on the clothing business in the capital.
Ho Chi Ping, the eldest son of Ho, was the distributor of all Chen Ruotong's products. He opened a lingerie store called "Fashion Show" in Beijing, which was officially opened on the third day of the Chinese New Year. Unfortunately, his store was forcibly closed by the government officials just after it opened to welcome customers.
According to the yamen runners, He Zhiping's behavior violated the business of Shishangxiufang, so it had to be closed for rectification. This news made He Zhiping very anxious, and he hurried back to Chaoyang Mansion to discuss countermeasures with the shopkeeper He.
Chen Erjiang and He Xiaolian went back to her parents' home on the third day of the Lunar New Year to stay for two days. They were drinking tea with Manager He in the main hall and discussing this year's business operations.
At this time, He Zhiping hurried in. As soon as he entered the main hall, he greeted his family, and then anxiously said to the shopkeeper He: "Father, something big has happened! Several Shishang Xiufang underwear stores opened at the same time in Beijing, causing our store to close down and no longer be allowed to operate. Someone must be deliberately targeting our family!"
When Shopkeeper He heard this, his face darkened. He frowned and asked, "How could this happen? Who is so bold as to touch our He family? Also, why did those officials ask us to stop business and rectify? Did we really infringe on their so-called rights?"
He Zhiping took a breath and continued, "Father, I have sent people to investigate, but there is no result yet. But what is certain is that there must be someone behind this matter. Moreover, these people seem to be in collusion with the government, otherwise the officials would not come to search our store so easily."
Manager He pondered for a moment, a trace of anger flashed in his eyes. He slammed the table and stood up, saying loudly: "Humph! No matter who it is, as long as he dares to go against our He family, I will never let him go! Our He family has some influence in the capital, and we can't let others bully us for nothing!"
Ho Chi Ping nodded and said firmly, "Don't worry, father. I will find out the truth as soon as possible, find the mastermind behind it, and give our Ho family an explanation. At the same time, I will also find a way to restore our business and not let them succeed."
Chen Erjiang and He Xiaolian looked at each other, both of them were filled with worry. They knew that this incident might bring great trouble to the He family, but they also believed that the He family had the ability to deal with this crisis. Shopkeeper He was thinking seriously about the next countermeasures and preparing to meet this challenge.
After staying at the He family for two days, Chen Erjiang and his wife set off back to Pingyang Prefecture.
As soon as he got home, Chen Erjiang told Chen Ruotong about this.
After listening to Chen Erjiang's description, Chen Ruotong couldn't help but start to think about it. She felt that this matter didn't seem to be directed at the He family alone, but at herself, especially at her fashion show.
Looking back, she originally thought that the counterfeit underwear incident that happened years ago was just an ordinary business competition, but now it seems that the other party was obviously deliberately using means to prevent her underwear products from entering the Beijing market.
If we follow this logic, then the person who produced the counterfeit underwear is most likely Su Kexin, the madam of a Beijing brothel. Because she once bought hundreds of various underwear from a fashion show, she could produce them in large quantities.
Furthermore, if you want to open such a large-scale brothel at the foot of the emperor in Beijing, it is impossible to achieve without a strong backstage support. So, who is the backer behind Su Kexin?
Chen Ruotong immediately dispatched expert detective Feng Liangyu to the capital to investigate the matter. If necessary, she would go to the Dali Temple to ask the Dali Temple Minister Zhen Yu to help investigate and find the mastermind behind the incident.
It was already the sixth day of the first lunar month. On this day, all the stores under Chen Ruotong's name opened for business.
The most eye-catching of them is Pinguozhai. As it is winter and the weather is cold, there are almost no fresh fruits available for purchase, so canned fruits have become the first choice for people to visit relatives and friends and give New Year gifts.
Although the price has increased a lot compared to autumn, with each can costing as much as ten taels, for families with financial resources, this little money is nothing.
Pinguozhai's business is extremely hot, the store is crowded with customers coming in an endless stream.
However, due to the shortage of staff, the store staff were overwhelmed. Faced with this situation, Zhang and her two daughters-in-law did not hesitate to join the work team to help the staff receive customers and promote products.
Because the sales of the fashionable underwear shop run by Zhang were affected by the underwear of Shishangxiufang, they dropped sharply, so she asked two maids to look after the shop, and the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law went to Pinguozhai to help.
Their arrival not only relieved the pressure in the store, but also made customers feel more attentive service. The daily turnover was surprisingly high, which made Zhang overjoyed and no longer worried about the poor sales of the underwear store.