The Birth of Shanghai's First Conglomerate

A heavy rain brought a wisp of fog to Shanghai.

Large raindrops pattered against the windshield; in rainy weather, nothing beats a large SUV.

Chen Pingsheng drove his long-unused black Brabus G-Class from his garage.

This car is tall enough and powerful enough.

He took his cousin Chen Sai to Nanjing Street to look at storefronts, which is known as the pinnacle of shopping streets in China.

The average price of a storefront there is between 1.2 million and 2 million.

It depends on the location; even slightly better ones won't be less than a million per square meter.

Even the smallest one would cost at least fifty or sixty million.

He has a huge flagship store called Shuiyunjian and a large department store called Tenghui Department Store here.

The combined price of these two storefronts alone reached a staggering 1.5 billion.

Chen Sai's leg is still in a cast, and she can only walk with the help of crutches.

Chen Pingsheng plans to buy a small shop here for her to do business, and he will also collect rent.

It's about half the normal market price.

Given the foot traffic and spending power on this street, any business you start here shouldn't be too bad.

Running a successful storefront on Nanjing Street is far better than running a food delivery business.

My older sister, Chen Yao, also came over. She wants to do the same as Chen Sai and rent a storefront here to start a clothing business. That would be a good idea.

Since the two of them run shops together, they can keep each other company when they chat.

Xiao Le and Xiao Ya are both grown up now, and the storefront of the eldest sister's family all belongs to him.

Earning seven or eight million a year without even paying rent is effortless.

Opening a shop on Nanjing Street was her own idea.

"Big sister, why don't you give your younger sister a call and ask her to open one too?"

Chen Qi, the younger sister, doesn't plan to have a second child; Hu Qilin is enough for her.

The little one will be starting kindergarten soon, but my little sister still has time.

It's not good for her to be too idle; she needs to find something to do.

"My little sister likes to run a clothing store. If she hears that you're buying her a storefront, she'll definitely come running."

"Alright, it wouldn't be bad if the three of you could all be the boss ladies here from now on."

Chen Pingsheng instructed his secretary to select locations for them: three adjacent storefronts.

The smallest is 95 square meters and the largest is 120 square meters, and all of them have attics.

A shop like this would definitely do well if it opened a more upscale clothing store.

Although brick-and-mortar businesses are declining, good shopping streets are still bustling with people.

All three storefronts belong to the same owner, a retired man in his sixties.

They initially made their fortunes through land expropriation and resettlement, and later speculated in real estate, stocks, and shops.

The old man from Shanghai still has a lot of style, wearing an Armani suit.

He owned more than just these few storefronts; the main reason he was selling them was that his grandson needed money to start a company.

A fixed price of 3.2 million, no bargaining allowed.

For a location like Nanjing Street, you really have to pay this price.

Chen Pingsheng felt no pressure, mainly because his wife was now not only organizing the "Grand Night at Shuiyunjian" event in Beijing, but also in Hong Kong, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen.

If we wait another year or two, those eight newly opened cities will also do it, and the income will be incredibly attractive.

"What do you think of this storefront?"

There's no storefront on Nanjing Street that won't do, and Chen Qi arrived in a flash.

She was also the youngest, and shamelessly asked:
"Brother, if you buy this place, how much are you planning to rent it to us for a year? If it's too high, your sister can't afford it."

"Pull him down."

Chen Pingsheng wished he could slap his little sister.

“I just saw that you were too idle, so I thought of finding you something to do. With a location that costs you a million in rent a year, what pressure could you possibly have?”

"One million a year? You're going to scare me to death."

Chen Qi thought for a moment and first held up three fingers, but then felt pressured and pulled back two.

She can earn a maximum of 100,000 a year. And that's only if she's lucky and has exceptional talent.

"You'll pay 100,000 a year?"

Chen Pingsheng didn't even bother to talk to her; he just wanted to buy the storefront no matter what.

He will discuss the rent later; he doesn't want to get rich off this money.

I just wanted to put a little pressure on them.

You could earn more than 100,000 a year just by selling bottled water.

Chen Pingsheng looked at Chen Sai's crooked foot, then at her pitiful daughter.

After thinking about it, I decided to rent it to them at this price.

As for what kind of shop they use the money to open, that's none of his business.

I don't have the time or inclination to care. If I can't make money on Nanjing Street with rents like this, then I'm not going to.

Even the waters of the Huangpu River probably can't wash away this huge joke.

Chen Sai had never run a business before and knew nothing about it.

However, Chen Qi still acted like a female hooligan, helping her look around.

She has absolutely no bottom line when it comes to extorting money from her own brother.

Who told her brother to be so rich? He gave her an excavator to dig all day long.

She could never finish digging it all in her lifetime.

Chen Qi had long wanted to open a more upscale clothing store; after all, what woman doesn't love selling clothes?

The three of them discussed it for a while. Chen Qi planned to sell clothes, Chen Sai planned to sell shoes, and the eldest sister, Chen Yao, would sell bags and the like.

In places like Nanjing Street, there's no such thing as low profit margins and high sales volume, firstly because of the fixed rental costs.

Secondly, many of them are tourists from other places, and they only buy once and don't buy again.

Thirdly, locals in Shanghai with a bit of spending power don't like cheap goods.

If you just randomly pick a shoe store in an alley and go in to ask, you'll find that most shoes start at one or two thousand yuan.

There are many people who can't afford it, but there are also many who can.

In any case, these shop owners tacitly respect one principle: everyone sells mid-to-high-end products.

They compete on everything except price wars.

If a clueless newbie tries to compete with them on price, they'll make you question your existence in no time.

The shop owners here are all wealthy.

Chen Pingsheng's Deer Antler Coffee shop is located here, and business is good, but he still loses several million yuan a year.

The reason is simple: rents are so high they make you question the meaning of life.

Some shops are like that; they don't expect to make money at all, they just open them in high-traffic areas to increase brand awareness.

The Deer Antler Coffee is located in a central location, with a total storefront area of ​​about 200 square meters.

The annual rent is 1200 million.

If you want to buy a storefront like that, don't even think about it without four or five hundred million.

This isn't just one shop supporting three generations, it's one shop supporting ten generations!

Chen Pingsheng owns many storefronts, so he certainly wouldn't complain about the high rent.

I was unknowingly exploited by my younger sister again.

She's the only one who would dare to dream of cutting the price down to 100,000 a year.

It's good that the three sisters run a shop together; they can look after each other and go out to eat sunflower seeds whenever they have free time.

Looking at the bustling streets of Nanjing, one can find a unique charm.

After he bought these storefronts, many relatives came to visit.

The main issue is that even though the family business fund is gone, it doesn't mean he won't help his relatives.

Chen Sai is a case in point. After she was hit by a car, wasn't it Old Chen who helped her deal with all sorts of things?

Now they're even spending 100 million to buy her a storefront to do business. Seriously, a location like that would cost 100,000 in rent per year.

This is practically free.

(End of this chapter)