Siheyuan: Starting from 1958

At this moment, the construction team under the street has begun to clear the ruins in the courtyard, level the site, and purchase and transport various construction materials.

Unlike the mechanization of later generations, most of the materials transportation now needs to be done manually.

The two houses do not sound very tall, but with the speed of building houses in the future, all the main construction can be completed in more than a month, and only dozens of workers are needed.

But not now.

Just to clear the ruins in the courtyard, the street construction team mobilized hundreds of people.

Calculated based on a daily wage of one yuan, the daily salary alone would be more than one hundred yuan, which is more than three thousand yuan a month.

Including the decoration, the total construction period is about three months, and the salary alone will cost Wang Dong a full ten thousand yuan.

Fortunately, in addition to the more than 20,000 yuan in wages that Wang Dong saved, he also earned a lot of money from those old people during the three years of material shortages, otherwise he would not have the capital to open such a large restaurant.

As the hotel construction gradually got on track, Wang Donglai's visits to the courtyard began to decrease less and less frequently, but this did not make him free. Instead, he became increasingly busy.

Opening a restaurant not only requires a venue, but also a large amount of raw materials, all of which the boss Wang Dong has to go through.

Fortunately, Wang Dong worked as the logistics director of the steel rolling mill for a period of time, and knew where to purchase large quantities of cheap grain, pork, and various vegetables in the city.

The only thing he did these days was to look for sources of supply everywhere.

As the market in Sijiu City gradually opened up, the surrounding rural areas no longer cracked down on speculation. More and more people sent their own grain and vegetables, hens and eggs, and even pigs to Sijiu City for sale, resulting in a surplus of all kinds of supplies in Sijiu City.

The service in the supply and marketing cooperatives and vegetable markets is relatively poor and the prices are relatively high. Ordinary people in Beijing prefer to buy cheaper grain, vegetables and eggs from farmers.

There are even some people who go to the countryside to buy vegetables and eggs, transport them to the cities and sell them at a higher price.

Despite this, their sales prices are cheaper than those of supply and marketing cooperatives, and their service is particularly good.

As a result, the supply and marketing cooperatives and the meat processing plants came under sales pressure.

Because with the liberalization of the market, many units have begun to be responsible for their own profits and losses. If the performance is good, the welfare benefits for employees will be good.

If production efficiency is not good, employees’ welfare benefits will deteriorate, and wages may even gradually not be paid.

I heard that after Wang Dong’s restaurant opened, he needed to purchase two to three hundred kilograms of pork, one to two hundred kilograms of pork, one to two hundred kilograms of fish, and thousands of kilograms of various vegetables and eggs every day... The directors of several supply and marketing cooperatives in the surrounding area instantly regarded him as a savior.

"Boss Wang...you must go to our supply and marketing cooperative to purchase vegetables, grains, eggs, various seasonings, pork, chicken, and fish..." A director of a supply and marketing cooperative stated his thoughts directly.

"I promise to give you the lowest price..."

The director of another supply and marketing cooperative nearby was not happy after hearing this and immediately responded, "Boss Wang, my supply and marketing cooperative will give you whatever price Lao Tan can give you. And we guarantee that the pork and vegetables we prepare every day are the freshest."

"I will arrange a salesperson to meet with you and select the best and freshest vegetables and meats for you every day..."

"Our supply and marketing cooperative has a car, and I can deliver the goods to your door..."

"You just need to tell me the amount of vegetables and meat you need for the next day every afternoon, and I promise to deliver them to your door before 8 o'clock the next morning."

"Old Chen, you are crazy..."

As soon as the director of the supply and marketing cooperative finished speaking, the other two directors showed shocked expressions and looked at Director Li who had just spoken as if he were a fool. In their view, the supply and marketing cooperative was a state-owned unit, and although the ranks of the directors were not high, they were all cadres.

The fact that he took the initiative to come and discuss the price with Wang Dong was already giving him enough face.

As a result, Lao Chen not only gave him the lowest price, but also provided door-to-door delivery and sold the best vegetables and meats from the supply and marketing cooperative to Wang Dong...

Isn't this a lowering of one's status?

Several directors showed contempt towards Director Chen who had just spoken, thinking that Director Chen had brought shame to the supply and marketing cooperative.

In their eyes, for decades since the supply and marketing cooperatives were established, others have always looked to the supply and marketing cooperatives and begged them to buy things.

Although the situation has changed now, there is no need for a supply and marketing cooperative director to go to such lengths to beg a restaurant owner to buy things from his supply and marketing cooperative.

Faced with the questions from his colleagues, Director Chen just smiled bitterly and did not explain anything.

He has heard a lot of rumors from his superiors that as the market becomes more and more open, there are more and more private business owners and a wider range of things to sell, the operating pressure on the supply and marketing cooperatives will also increase.

If you want to ensure the income of the supply and marketing cooperative while being responsible for its own profits and losses and make yourself stand out from many supply and marketing cooperatives, the best way is to increase sales and ensure that all employees of the supply and marketing cooperative benefit.

But this is not something that can be done just by talking.

He had also bought things from private business owners, and his most intuitive impression was that the service was very good, without any of the arrogance of a supply and marketing cooperative salesperson.

Shopping from them is a real pleasure.

In addition, the prices they sell are cheap, so ordinary people with a little common sense will choose to buy things from them.

The only drawback is that the items they sell are too simple and not as comprehensive as those sold by supply and marketing cooperatives.

For example, if someone has guests at home and wants to prepare a table full of food, they have to go to many shops to get the food.

But if you come to the supply and marketing cooperative, you can get all the materials in one trip.

This should be the only advantage that the supply and marketing cooperatives have over those vendors.

However, if the supply and marketing cooperative's business model and the service quality of its sales staff do not change, the number of customers brought to the supply and marketing cooperative by its advantage of complete materials will gradually decrease.

After all, the number of vendors selling things outside is still increasing, and the strength of the vendors is also increasing. One day, the types of things sold by those vendors outside may increase more and more, and then the supply and marketing cooperatives will no longer have the little advantage they have.

Director Chen decided to make some reforms to his supply and marketing cooperative.

He cannot change the sales price, but he can change the service attitude of the salespersons, so that the salespersons under his command can serve every customer attentively like the vendors on the street and make them feel at home.

Only in this way will customers ignore the slight price difference and choose to buy things at the supply and marketing cooperatives.

But this idea was obviously not accepted by other directors.

Director Chen did not expect other directors to understand him. He only hoped that his service attitude could impress Wang Dong.

As long as he can win over Wang Dong, a big customer, and have this big customer as support, Director Chen can continue to reform the supply and marketing cooperative according to his own ideas. (End of this chapter)