Chapter 164 - Manufacturing (3)
“I’m sorry. I am already booked.”
Shu Yan felt regretful about that. But since she wasn’t in a hurry this time, she could very well take the train to City Han the next morning.
She seemed to hear another man’s voice from the other side who had said something to the driver. The driver suddenly changed his tune and said, “Oh, you know my passenger this time. It is the same man as you have ride share with last time. He said he didn’t mind if you ride share with him. Do you still want to go? If so, I can come pick you up.”
“Yes, I will wait for you in front of Fu Street.” Shu Yan didn’t think it’d be that man. What a coincident.
Shu Yan had to go merchandizing almost on a weekly basis so JingJing and Tianbo were already used to it. They were able to take good care of themselves without too much prompting from Shu Yan. Shu Yan, worried, repeated the reminders to them again before she went downstairs to wait for the car with a big bag of samples. A small car pulled in front of her not too long after and Feng Zeyu was riding in the passenger seat.
Surprisingly, Feng Zeyu nodded at her when he saw her today.
“Um, thank you,” said Shu Yan softly.
They did not exchange any more words on their way to City Han. When they arrived, Shu Yan said, “I won’t be heading back with you this time. I have a few extra errands to take care of today.”
“Alright. Then I won’t wait for you.” The driver nodded.
“Let me pay you what I owe you now then.” Shu Yan nodded and handed the money over to the driver.
“That won’t be necessary. Mr. Feng had already paid for the entire amount. You can pay him if you want.”
“That won’t be necessary. Its on our way anyway.”
This was the first time Shu Yan heard Feng Zeyu spoke an entire sentence. His voice was magnetic and very pleasing to the ears.
“No, that’s not right. You paid for the car but I should split it with you since I rode in it too. Please take the money.” He refused and Shu Yan shoved the money into his chest before she got out of the car. “Thank you. Have a good day.”
Feng Zeyu took a look at Shu Yan and quietly accepted the money.
“Mr. Feng….”
“It’s fine. Let’s go.”
After she was done with the merchandizing, Shu Yan brought her sample with her over to a few wholesalers that she was more familiar with. The shop that she always bought from has their own factory; Shu Yan avoided them purposefully. If they have their own factories, they’d just imitate and produce their own anyway. Which was why Shu Yan never planned to reach out to them to begin with.
The other few bosses were just wholesalers so Shu Yan planned to sell out of their storefronts.
“You opened up your own factory already?” One of the boss ladies who was closer with Shu Yan asked.
“No, it belongs to a friend of mine. I’m just helping him out. You won’t need to spend money on inventory. We’ll just leave them here. If anyone like them, you call the factory and we’ll send the products to you right away, or even straight to the customers. You won’t need to do a thing to earn a cut.” The boss lady agreed immediately after Shu Yan had said that.
It’d cost her nothing. Nothing wrong with leaving them inside her shop. It wouldn’t take much room anyway.
“They look like they’ll sell. Factory price? How much for wholesale? How much for retail?” asked the boss lady directly.
The cost was 7 yuan including labor, materials, rent, and utilities. After discussing with Lao Zhang, they’ve decided factory price would be 13 yuan and as low as 12 yuan if they were to buy a lot. 18 yuan for wholesale price and 35 yuan for retail. That’s what they had set them at but, in reality, they would not be able to monitor the wholesale and retails prices closely.
“That’s a bit on the high end.” The boss lady was hesitant about it.
“Take a look at this quality. We shoot for mid/high end, not something you’d find on the sidewalks. Your merchandizes are right mid/high ends as well. You won’t like anything on the low end. Besides, you won’t have to pay for them in advance,” said Shu Yan with a smile.
“Alright, give me five sets of each,” said the boss lady seemingly with difficulties.
Shu Yan didn’t have five sets with her. She wasn’t able to carry so much by herself. She left one of each color there and would give Lao Zhang a call after ward to have him send more over.
Shu Yan used the same sales pitch at a few different mid/high end wholesalers’ places and, after she grabbed some more inventory for herself, it was already noon. Shu Yan saw a lot of vendors behind the market and there was a good selection of noodles, rice, shaobing, steamed buns, etc.
Chinese have always been smart. Once the country has opened up, they’d always manage to find a way to become wealthy.
Shu Yan hasn’t had food from street vendors in a long time. She picked a place that looked relatively cleaner and order a noodle dish. It tasted pretty good. She then found a spot where she could take a quick nap before returned to the shops again in the afternoon. Only a few of the shops sold a few of her fall undergarment. The result wasn’t particularly great.
Shu Yan decided to spend the night at City Han and check again the next day before she headed back home.