Rebirth of America, this is my era

Chapter 32 Crazy First Week (Seeking Follow-up Reading)
In one morning, 1975 machines were sold, earning $, which was a very high number in the United States in .

After a simple calculation of the share and two and a half years of working income, Ethan's face was filled with joy.

Although he did not become a 100,000-millionaire, isn't the speed at which he makes money much faster than the man next door who sells potatoes?

After a brief celebration, Nolan Bushnell ordered Atari staff to start delivering goods in the afternoon.

More than a hundred employees joined in, and two people in a pickup truck rushed out.

It was not until then that Ethan discovered that most of Atari's employees had multiple jobs.

When they pick up a ruler and a brush, they are engineers; when they put on formal uniforms, they are receptionists; and when they get into their cars, they are the company's deliverymen and outsourced maintenance workers.

The first two items were fine, but the third one, about using a private car for public purposes, made Ethan extremely impressed.

If the capitalists dared to let their employees do this a few decades later, it would cause public outrage and lead to riots and demonstrations.

Of course, Atari, or rather Nolan Bushnell, didn't let them work for nothing.

In addition to their salary and reimbursement of fuel costs, they received an additional bonus of $5 for each machine delivered.

A normal person can earn twenty dollars in half a day by pulling four machines in a car.

This is a day’s wage for most people!

With the huge reward, Atari's staff were very motivated.

Looking at the bustling scene, Ethan, who was acting as a supervisor with his hands behind his back, looked satisfied. At the same time, he also said with emotion: "Nolan, is this the key to your success? Kill other competitors as quickly as possible?"

Although Nolan Bushnell didn't understand what a roll-up was, he knew Ethan was talking about Atari's awesome execution.

So he put his hands on his hips and said with a smile: "It can't be helped. In the past, the video game industry paid the most attention to timeliness."

"If we can't deliver the goods to customers within two days after they place an order, their stores may be filled with knockoffs of our competitors' products on the third day."

“Imitation is so fast!”

"So, for people in our line of work, time is life!"

"The faster the machines sell, the faster we have to deliver them! We have to make sure those merchants who want to make money fall in love with us!"

Ethan liked this approach, and under his watch, the Atari guys showed amazing efficiency.

We set out at around 1pm and returned around 5pm.

Those signed bills meant that stacks of green Franklins were already in hand.

What's even more amazing is that at the same time, Nolan Bushnell and his colleagues who remained in the company made hundreds of calls to contact partners in Sacramento, Los Angeles and San Diego.

The content of the communication is also very simple.

He first introduced himself politely and then presented the facts directly, saying that we held a new product launch event this morning, and our old friends in San Jose and San Francisco were very considerate and directly bought 626 units.

Then I went on to say that this time our machines can limit the player's gaming time. If you are interested, I can reserve a few for you as a token of our frequent cooperation as old friends.

If you're not sure, that's okay, we're doing events in Sacramento, Los Angeles, and San Diego tomorrow.

Just come directly when the time comes.

When the combination of presenting facts, building relationships, and previous cooperation appears together.

The other party naturally said that he would be there tomorrow.

Some who are more impatient will just place an order right away.

And then...

In just one afternoon, with nearly 200 phone calls, Nolan and his team achieved sales of more than 100 units.

After all the company's subordinates came back, Nolan arranged the delivery operation for the next day that evening.

When the next night came, Ethan went to Atari on time after dinner to check the results. He was extremely happy to see that he had sold out 200 machines in the morning and owed dozens of machines in the evening.

However, just as Ethan was thinking that if the shipment rate continued, it would not take long for the shipment volume of Snake Game to reach 1,000 units, Nolan Bushnell ordered all Atari employees:

"Everyone, starting tomorrow, or starting now, we will no longer make the entire Snake Game machine. Everyone will only make circuit boards. Please note! I said no more entire machines! Everyone will only make circuit boards! Only circuit boards!"

'? ? ? '

This decision was a little incomprehensible to Ethan.

He didn't understand why Nolan Bushnell suddenly gave up selling the whole machine.

Because the sales momentum of complete machines is very good now!

When the profit of the whole machine is higher than that of the game motherboard, it is obviously more profitable to make a whole machine!

Just as he was wondering why, Steve Jobs gave the answer.

"When selecting the first batch of invited customers and the second batch of delivery customers, we will choose some who are easy to talk to."

“They’re open to new things, but that doesn’t mean they’ll buy into our pitch.”

"If we had told our customers to replace all the arcade machines in their stores with Snake Game, they would definitely not agree, because the market has never tested the capabilities of Snake Game, so they would rather spend money to buy the entire machine, use time to test the effects of Snake Game, and witness its achievements with their own eyes."

"And when they have completed this step..."

"They and other merchants who understand that Snake Game can really make money will definitely not accept the purchase of the entire machine." "Since new games can make more money than old games, why don't they just change the machine? This way, they can save a lot of purchase costs!"

“And for us, we actually like this model.”

"Because a pickup truck can only carry a few arcade machines, but it can pull a truckload of circuit boards."

"Believe me, we will be very busy in a week at most!"

"Because those guys will call in frantically and say they need to replace the circuit board!"

"Is that so?"

Ethan, who only knew about the arcade industry through hearsay and had never personally experienced it, felt that he had learned something new.

While Ethan was waiting, Atari’s phone started to ring continuously just three days after the first batch of Snake Game was shipped!
Merchants who had worked with Atari in the past have expressed their desire to buy the game!
And those merchants who have not cooperated also want to buy arcade machines!
At first, Atari staff took notes in a friendly manner.

But after that, their attitudes became worse and worse.

“Okay!” is a good response.

There are endless phrases like "I totally know what's going on, just wait and see!"

This poor service attitude made Ethan, who was acting as the supervisor, somewhat dissatisfied.

It was immediately stated that customers must be treated with God-like tenderness!

But when he personally demonstrated to the staff how to answer the phone.

As soon as I picked up the receiver, a heart-wrenching cry came out -

"Oh! Sxxt! Atari? Atari? You sons of bitches!"

"I bought ten arcade machines from you last year! Ten arcade machines!"

"I support your business so much! How could you not tell me when you released a new game?"

"Damn it! The dance hall next door to me took two machines from you! Two!!"

“I ended up making two hundred dollars in one night!!!”

"MFxxk!!! That special number is two hundred dollars!!!"

"My customers! My customers were taken away by that bitch!!!"

"You bunch of beasts! I'll give you one day! Send me ten gaming motherboards!"

"Remember your grandpa's name! I'm in Sacramento! I'm the Great Tim!"

'...'

'It was just an accident.'

Ethan smiled awkwardly and wrote "Stupid Tim" on the paper.

Then, he answered the second call -

"Huh? Atari? You sons of bitches look down on me?"

“Why did all the stores around me receive notifications of new product launches, but I didn’t?”

"MFxxxxx! Your beastly behavior has caused me to lose a lot of money!"

'...'

"You idiot, I'm your dad!"

Ethan was too lazy to pay attention to him and hung up the phone directly.

Then he smiled and waved to the Atari staff, "Go on, go on."

Steve Jobs laughed at Ethan's frustrated look.

He came closer and asked, "Why do I feel like you're very interested in selling gaming motherboards?"

"Of course I'm interested! Because it all means money!" Ethan rolled his eyes at Steve Jobs.

At the same time, he was secretly muttering in his heart, "I can't tell you that I'm here to steal your skills, right?"

As if he could see what Ethan was thinking, Steve Jobs smiled and said, "Oh Ethan, do you want to know how we replace the motherboard for others? For example, the original machine shell is "Pong", and the game inside is also "Pong", but now we change the game inside to "Snake Game", but the outer shell is still "Pong".

The tongue-twisting words made Ethan raise his eyebrows.

Although he was a little confused, he understood, "Didn't you just bring those arcade machines back to replace the motherboards?"

"It was before, but not now, because it's too much trouble!"

Steve Jobs said, “We change them on the spot now!”

"what?"

This fact made Ethan curious, "On-site change?"

"Yeah? Change it on the spot!" Steve Jobs nodded and said, "Are you interested? If you are interested, come with me to have a look?"

(End of this chapter)