1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 238 The Rise of Curly Hair

It was a bit chilly at night. Chen Jiazhi, wearing a black coat, stood by the trunk of the car peeling cabbages. The ground was covered with layers of rotten leaves, indicating a significant amount of spoilage.

He looked up and sized up Li Cai, who was greeting customers again. Li Cai had his hair parted in the middle, wore an open denim jacket over a light brown vest, and had good skin. He looked quite handsome.

Suddenly I realized that Li Cai was more suited to selling vegetables than Chen Zhengxu.

Good food comes from good guys, and that's the reputation Chen Jiazhi built in this market. It seems like it would be good for Li Cai to continue it.

Chen Zhengxu was more composed, and his performance in this procurement was better.

It would be perfect if the two of them switched positions.

Zhang Jie, a retail vendor who hadn't been seen for a while, arrived. She was probably just passing by and hadn't originally planned to buy anything, but after Li called out to her twice, she stopped to ask the price.

"Hey sis, come check out the vegetables! We have bok choy, cabbage, and cauliflower, all on sale at a low price!"

How much does it cost?

Li Cai actively promoted the products, and in the end, he sold ten to twenty kilograms of each type of vegetable.

This can be seen as a microcosm of the entire night.

Chen Zhengxu later voluntarily gave up the task of selling vegetables to Li Cai.

While peeling vegetables, Chen Jiazhi chatted with Xue Jun, learning about the situation at the Dongxiang vegetable market.

Similar to Jiangxin Market, there is less work at Dongxiang Market. Work is done intermittently, and some workers take on part-time jobs during their breaks.

Chen Jiazhi also agreed with this approach, as it could reduce labor costs, as long as the Dongxiang vegetable market was given priority.

Xue Jun asked, "Jiazhi, there's only one stall, and not many dishes. Isn't it a bit wasteful of you to invite the three of us?"

“Of course it can’t stay this small forever.” Chen Jiazhi pondered. “We have to take it one step at a time. Tell me, if I bring in 1 catties of vegetables, can the three of you handle it right now?”

"Uh……"

"Can't handle it~"

"Brother Xue, could you please deliver the groceries to the back parking lot? It'll be a van; the license plate ends in ****."

"Okay, go right away."

Xue Jun agreed, and Li Cai closed another big deal. Of the three, Xue Jun was the most familiar with the market environment.

Purchasing, selling vegetables, and delivering goods—normally, three people wouldn't be enough for a large stall. In later times, a large stall was basically operated by a company with a very detailed division of labor.

But right now, the entire wholesale market chain is still in its infancy, and three people is not a small number.

In fact, Chen Jiazhi was also learning by doing. He had no experience in running a large stall, but he was knowledgeable and knew what was the right thing to do.

However, many mistakes are inevitable in the actual implementation process.

Fortunately, he had enough time and patience. As the planting base gradually improved and his pockets filled up, he gained the confidence to cover his expenses.

That's why he took this step; if he wanted to grow bigger and stronger, he had to control the sales process.

Even if you fail, you can still gain experience.

Moreover, judging from the current situation, the loss tonight won't be much, at most a few hundred yuan.

After peeling cabbage leaves for a while, Chen Jiazhi said goodbye to Zhengxu and Li Cai and went to stroll around the market to check out the prices.

He would ask the price at each stall, and many people recognized him and made teasing remarks.

He also ran into Director Wang from the market, who offered him a cigarette.

“Mr. Chen, you’ve finally remembered to do business. Stall number 56 is in a mid-to-high-end location, but since it was rented to you, it’s been vacant for more than a month twice in a row. You’re the most special one in the whole market.”

Chen Jiazhi took out a lighter, lit a cigarette, and laughed, "Director Wang, I came here every time the market was short of vegetables, which brought a lot of customers to the market."

Director Wang choked for a moment, then asked, "When will your own base have vegetables next?"

Chen Jiazhi said, "Around New Year's Day, during the holidays, the prices will definitely be better."

Director Wang laughed and scolded, "No wonder everyone says that you, Boss Chen, don't sell cheap vegetables. You've been planning this all along. No wonder you earn in one month what others earn in two or three months."

Chen Jiazhi laughed twice: "I was just lucky."

After exchanging a brief greeting with Director Wang, Chen Jiazhi continued browsing the market.

As autumn and winter approach, vegetables in the market spring up like mushrooms after rain.

The most common vegetables are Chinese cabbage, bok choy, radish, kale, lettuce, cabbage, and cauliflower.
Next are mustard greens, spinach, scallions, garlic, ginger, taro, garland chrysanthemum, chili peppers, and chives.
Each type of vegetable is sold at least by several stalls, and each stall likes to offer a mixed selection of various vegetables.

I've hardly seen anyone who specializes in one or two product categories.

Therefore, stall number 56 can quickly establish itself by continuing to focus on leafy vegetables, because of the foundation it has laid.

But Chen Jiazhi wanted more; he wanted to do delivery, directly supplying hotels, restaurants, government agencies, and factories.

Currently, very few vegetable stalls offer delivery services. Many hotels and businesses have their own purchasing departments, or they outsource to private individuals, while others directly contact vegetable farmers—the methods vary widely. However, many of these individuals don't actually engage in wholesale business; they'll only consider entering the vegetable wholesale industry once they've made some money.
There must be very few people developing this fast these days... very few my ass!
Chen Jiazhi cursed under his breath, his eyes fixed on a stall in front of him. He saw Curly Hair, but wasn't sure if Curly Hair was buying vegetables.

Because it looks more like they're selling vegetables.
After standing there for three minutes, Chen Jiazhi confirmed that Curly had rented the stall marked number 33.

This bastard's started a business?!

Perhaps because he had been being watched for a long time, Mao Liangcai sensed something and then saw Chen Jiazhi standing in the passageway. Immediately, he grinned.

"Boss Chen, it's been a long time! Are you serving dishes again?"

Chen Jiazhi walked up and looked at his stall. There was a light truck parked in the stall, and samples of various sizes were displayed on the side, mostly leafy vegetables. No wonder he seemed to have seen many regular customers earlier.

"Mr. Mao, if I hadn't come soon, you might have poached all my old clients, right?"

"That's a good thing. If you don't have vegetables to sell, I do. People will naturally come to me. In business, everyone has to rely on their own abilities."

"That's true, it all depends on one's own abilities."

Curly-haired boy had his arms crossed in front of his chest, but then he spread them out to the sides, looking quite dashing.

"I have to thank Mr. Chen for his guidance. I've been living a very comfortable life for the past month or so."

"is it?"

“Of course,” you said, “the most important thing in selling vegetables is stability. You lost your business, but I took over. Besides, I also owe a lot to buying vegetables from you for a while, which allowed me to get to know many high-quality customers.”

Chen Jiazhi was slightly taken aback: "Now everyone's coming here to buy from you?"

Curly-haired guy smiled and shook his head. "It's not that bad yet. After all, I've only been running this business for a month. But if you don't come soon, it might be over soon."

"Although you're here now, the food doesn't seem very good. Look at my food, it should be better than what you have at your stall, right? Do you want to buy some to take home?"

"It looks okay."

Chen Jiazhi remained calm and was not angered by Curly's smug attitude. When he was smug, he could be even more arrogant than Curly.

Without a flashlight, Chen Jiazhi could tell at a glance that the food was good. At the same time, there were two workers-looking people sorting and packing at Curly's stall.

This is a real slap in the face. I was just thinking about doing delivery and hadn't even started doing wholesale yet, and now I've run into one.

It was the curly-haired guy he knew so well.

Chen Jiazhi lingered at the curly-haired stall for a while longer, and after seeing two regular customers come to pick up their food, he knew what was going on before quietly leaving.

Curly watched his retreating figure, snorted smugly, and felt incredibly pleased with himself.

He didn't initially intend to do wholesale business; he just wanted to do some 'personal shopping' and run errands for some valued customers to pick up vegetables from stall number 56.

And he did indeed achieve that. He went from only being able to take three or four pieces of bok choy at the beginning to taking sixteen or seventeen pieces a day, thanks to his increasingly successful "personal shopper" delivery business.

As a result, No. 56 suddenly ran out of food again, and for one or two months at that.

This not only upset other long-term customers of No. 56, but also backfired on Curly Hair. Without a high-quality source of goods, the high-quality customers that he had worked so hard to accumulate might be lost again.

Curly Hair didn't have Chen Jiazhi's confidence in attracting customers back; he couldn't accept this outcome.

So when Chen Jiazhi announced in advance that he would be out of vegetables, he did not complain, but immediately went to find other high-quality sources of goods.

For those two days, the entire wholesale market in Huacheng was his target.

Persistence pays off. After repeated hard work, he found high-quality sources of goods in unknown corners of other wholesale markets.

They were able to continue the business.

Moreover, he had accumulated at least seven or eight high-quality sources in the city during those two days, not just one.

Some are in large vegetable wholesale markets, while others are in smaller wholesale markets near vegetable production bases.
That was the first time he realized that there were so many 'treasures' in this city!
Then, an uncontrollable new idea popped into my head: why not do wholesale myself?

He has a lot of high-quality delivery customer resources, and now he knows where to buy vegetables. In the past two years, he has saved a lot of money by delivering vegetables to government agencies and factories.

He has customers, a source of goods, and money, so why can't he do it?!

Just then, Chen, the vegetable farmer, ran out of vegetables!
Because he had been planning this for a long time, he also knew many of Chen Cai Nong's customers and could directly and accurately locate them to bring them over.

This time, they're not only going to steal his customers, but also uproot him!
He did just that: he rented a stall, changed his truck, and within a month, he had quickly established himself. Business was booming, and as he said, he was living a very comfortable life.

Even if Chen Cai Nong returns, Curly is not afraid. He has seven or eight high-quality sources of goods in his hands, as well as downstream distribution to government agencies, restaurants and factories. He has a winning hand. How the hell am I supposed to lose?
Watching the figure calmly walk away in the corridor, and thinking about the two times he had been tricked, Curly threw his cigarette butt on the ground and stomped it out hard.

"At the very least, it's a draw!"

Curly's rapid development surprised Chen Jiazhi, and he even seemed to be mimicking the stability Chen had mentioned before, proving he was a talented individual.

The two or three people he brought in are now not as good as Curly Hair alone.

In the vegetable wholesale business, a stable supply of goods is indeed very important, but in this day and age, stability does not necessarily guarantee huge profits, not to mention that it is easier said than done to have a stable supply of vegetables all the time.

(End of this chapter)