1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 237 A bad start
"Uncle, I've got it. I'm going to chop them to pieces in a minute!"

"Haha, Brother Chen, I'll try my best to give you a great start today!"

"Besides bok choy, I've told you about the other vegetables you can buy. Anyway, each person has 1000 yuan for shopping, so you can decide what to buy."

"Good~"

"That's what I thought from the beginning: if I stocked up on more types of vegetables to sell, business would definitely be better."

"Okay, go ahead and order it. Once it's ordered, have it delivered. I'll watch the car."

Watching Li Cai and Chen Zhengxu's confident backs, Chen Jiazhi had a bad feeling.

In this day and age, doing wholesale business can indeed be profitable, but it's not something you can do easily.

Especially the two newcomers who were just starting out.

The two only knew that buying low and selling high, and that cutting a little more at the wholesale market was pure profit, but there were many other factors involved.

It's better to suffer a little loss first.

After the two went to buy the goods, Chen Jiazhi returned to the driver's seat, thought about things for a while, and then took a short nap while wrapped in his clothes.

Li Cai and Chen Zhengxu each assigned a procurement task and then went their separate ways.

Chen Zhengxu was assigned bok choy and choy sum, while Li Cai was assigned cabbage and cauliflower.

Holding a flashlight, Li Cai imitated the actions of the seasoned veterans, looking at each stall and vehicle one by one.

When he sees the vegetables he wants, he stops and asks the price in broken Mandarin.

Another truck passed by, and two or three meters away, Li Cai shone his flashlight on the cabbages that were laid out.

Cabbage is also called kale, or cauliflower, and cauliflower is also called broccoli.

Layers of cabbages were stacked in the carriage. He picked up two and looked at the leaves; they looked quite appealing.

How much is the cabbage?

"4 cents 5."

The vegetable vendor was a short man with dark skin, a stark contrast to Li Cai's fair skin.

Li Cai shook his head: "It's too expensive. Others are only quoting 4 cents, and some are even quoting 3 cents."

The short man took a step back, put his hands behind his back, and said in a light tone, "You want to check out the goods too?"

"Would you sell it for 4 cents?"

"Not for sale."

Seeing this attitude, Li Cai turned around and walked forward, thinking that the short man would ask him to stay, but his attempt to play hard to get failed completely.

I was actually a little disappointed, because the cabbage looked pretty good.

After walking a while further and asking around at several other stores, I felt that the prices I negotiated were not satisfactory.

Cheap things always seem to have flaws, and when you try to negotiate a price with the owner of an expensive item, it feels like they might turn on you at any moment; they're not friendly at all.

In front of another truck, Li Cai saw a truck full of cauliflower, all covered with dark green leaves, and a woman was guarding the truck.

"Boss, how much is the cauliflower?"

"Handsome, how much do you want? If you want a lot, I can give you a discount. How about 45 cents?" The woman greeted him enthusiastically, her eyes constantly fixed on Li Cai's face.

His accent was quite heavy, but Li Cai understood him perfectly when he said "handsome guy," which made him feel very comfortable.

Suddenly, I felt that familiar feeling again, and then I realized that the price negotiation hadn't gone smoothly because everyone was a man.

This truckload of cauliflower looks delicious.

Li Cai casually picked up a few, lifted the outer leaves, and looked at the cauliflower inside. They were large, with tightly clustered flowers, as white as snow, and each one looked very beautiful.

Li Cai calmly put down the cauliflower: "Would you sell it for 4 mao?"

"Young man, 4 cents is too cheap, I can't give it to you, I really can't." The woman hesitated, shook her head, took a few more steps inside, and picked up a cauliflower that was placed in the corner of the carriage.

"45 cents is the lowest price I can offer. Look at my cauliflower, it's all like this, big and white!"

Seeing her take a cauliflower out of the carriage, Li Cai subconsciously assumed that the same kind of cauliflower was inside.

"I'll take more, 1200 jin (600 catties), how about you give me 4 mao (0.4 yuan)?"

"Oh my, you're such a handsome young man." The woman looked conflicted, and after a few seconds, she tugged at Li Cai's arm and whispered, "Don't go around telling everyone, okay?"

"do not worry."

"Let's load the vegetables now, boss. Where's your truck? I'll weigh them and deliver them to you right away."

"Let's install it now~"

Soon, the woman had her husband start packing and delivering the vegetables. Li Cai didn't leave; he watched from outside. At first, he cautiously lifted a few leaves covering the cauliflower to take a look—they were all large, white, and delicious vegetables. But then he was completely captivated by the calls of "Handsome guy!"
the other side,
Chen Zhengxu was more cautious than Li Cai, while also keeping in mind the vegetable price information provided by Xue Jun.

The bok choy was bought quickly.

But the price of bok choy made him very upset. According to the prices of vegetables in both markets, the price of bok choy was higher than that of vegetables in other markets. The thought of losing money if he bought it made Chen Zhengxu hesitant to make the purchase.

However, the two didn't have much time, as they had to rush to another market to sell vegetables later.

I had no choice but to grit my teeth and find a slightly cheaper supplier, and I didn't buy much, only 100 jin (50 kg).

Another half hour later,
Li Cai and Chen Zhengxu returned to the front of the car. The car was loosely loaded, but only about half full.

Chen Jiazhi asked, "How much food did each of you buy?"

李才说：“我买了1200斤花菜用了480元，1000斤包菜用了350元，还剩170元。”

陈正旭：“我买了2000斤白菜用了800元，100斤菜心用了40元，还剩下160元。”

"We haven't even spent all the money yet!"

Chen Jiazhi said in surprise that although people kept bringing over vegetables, he actually only got out of the car once or twice and didn't look closely, deciding to let the two of them do as they pleased.

"Forget it, let's go sell the vegetables first." With only a little over 4000 jin of vegetables in total, Chen Jiazhi lowered his expectations again. His goal was to earn back the money for the oil.

Less than an hour later, Chen Jiazhi arrived at stall number 56 again.

When the car entered the market, I anticipated that there would be acquaintances there. After we arrived at the stall, two people followed us.

"Boss Chen, you're here again. This isn't like you at all. Vegetable prices are cheap lately."

"It's rare to be able to buy vegetables at a cheap price from Boss Chen, so I have to buy some today no matter what."

"What if Mr. Chen wants to sell it at an even higher price?"

"Hey, the vegetables weren't packed in plastic crates today!"

One of them noticed something amiss, pointing at the vegetables in the truck and examining them closely. Some were in bamboo baskets, some in bags, but there were no vegetables in plastic baskets.

After Chen Jiazhi got out of the car, he gave a brief explanation, and the two familiar customers understood. He was the only one in the entire market who would do something so wasteful as to rent a stall and leave it empty.

Many stall owners have to keep their businesses going even if they lose money.

The two people who arrived didn't leave either; they waited to inspect the goods.

Li Cai and Chen Zhengxu then began preparations, and Xue Jun had also arrived early to help unload the goods and sell the vegetables.

Chen Jiazhi didn't interfere, and the pricing was decided by Li Cai and Chen Zhengxu themselves.

He was just a driver today. After driving the car to the parking lot, he slept in the driver's seat. After all, it was winter, and it was a bit cold at night.

However, he had only been asleep for a short while when Li Cai woke him up.

"Something's happened, Brother Chen."

The large, white cauliflowers were gone, and their surfaces were covered with many black spots. After selling for more than an hour, not a single one had been sold, which made Li Cai panic.

The cabbages I bought also had problems; except for one or two that were okay, the leaves of the rest were all defective.

"It's okay, it's not a big problem."

"But we can't sell them. Nobody's buying the cauliflower and cabbage."

Chen Jiazhi looked at the cauliflower and cabbage and pondered, "The cauliflower has relatively few black spots, so let's sell it cheaply. As for the cabbage, peel off a few outer leaves, and the inside is fine, so we can sell it. Consider it a lesson learned."

Li Cai remained silent, but had no choice but to agree, having already suffered a loss on the very first day.

"Is the bok choy okay?"

"The cabbages are fine, selling quite well," Chen Zhengxu said with a smile. "Many are your regular customers, Uncle, some people buy a dozen or more at a time!"

Chen Jiazhi casually grabbed a handful of bok choy from the bamboo basket. The medium-sized black-leaf bok choy looked quite good. He plucked off a leaf, which was crisp, tender, and juicy.

"This cabbage is alright, but where's the heart?"

Chen Zhengxu said, "There were only 100 jin of bok choy left, and it's already sold out. It was your regular customers who came to pick it up, and they even asked why there was only so little bok choy today."

After a moment of silence, Chen Jiazhi asked again, "The bok choy you bought should be alright, right? Don't ruin my reputation."

"It's just average."

"..."

"But it was sold cheaply. The person didn't even look at the goods before paying and having them delivered."

"..."

The reputation I've built up over so long might be ruined.

But then he remembered what he had told the two men when he was buying the goods that morning: every penny saved is pure profit.

I forgot to emphasize the importance of quality to both of them.

Chen Jiazhi had already prepared for losses, and it was even better to suffer some losses now.

After comforting the somewhat dejected Li Cai, Chen Jiazhi didn't go to sleep anymore, but instead helped clean the cabbage leaves.

Aside from the yellow leaves on the outside, the cabbages are fine inside, but there's a lot of waste and it's also labor-intensive.

If the purchase price were low, there would still be a profit, but now there's only a loss.

This ending actually surprised Chen Jiazhi a bit; Li Cai must have lost money on the two dishes he bought tonight.

On the contrary, Chen Zhengxu made a small profit.

Besides the good reputation Chen Jiazhi had built for leafy greens, it was also related to the fact that the bok choy he was buying was indeed of decent quality.

You earn five cents per pound of bok choy, so 2000 pounds would yield a profit of over 100 yuan, enough to cover the cost of oil.

But cabbage and cauliflower will definitely lose money.

While cleaning the cabbage leaves, customers kept coming up to ask about the price.

The price of cauliflower was halved, with a purchase price of 4 cents and a selling price of 2 cents, resulting in a 50% loss.

The cabbage was purchased for 35 cents and sold for 40 cents, but after deducting losses, only 800-odd kilograms of cabbage remained after 1000 kilograms, which was still a small loss.

Including the shared costs of fuel and labor, Chen Jiazhi lost a lot of money, but he didn't feel much heartache.

Even if he loses all two thousand yuan tonight, he won't be surprised, because there are quite a few people who specialize in swindling and cheating these days.

Moreover, he felt he had gained an unexpected insight from watching Li Cai's performance while selling vegetables.

"Sister, the small black spots on the cauliflower are nothing to worry about. They are probably caused by insufficient light and temperature. Just cut them off with a knife, and it will still be edible after cooking."

The key is that it's cheap, only two cents! You'll definitely make a profit if you take it home!

Perhaps because he had just suffered a loss, Li was eager to perform well, so he was very proactive in serving customers. Whenever someone came to inquire about prices, he would get up and step forward to help. He made quite a few sales, and the cauliflower began to sell gradually.

The delivery speed for bok choy and cabbage with the outer leaves removed has increased significantly.

Furthermore, thanks to his good looks, he's earned countless compliments like "handsome guy!"
(End of this chapter)