1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 297 Unpacking and Inspection

Once outside the cold storage, the temperature instantly rises from cold to warm, then to hot. Both trucks supplying Hong Kong and those delivering to market stalls are busy loading goods.

Today, the only thing supplied to Hong Kong is still green peppers. Chen Jiazhi asked Yi Dinggan, and it's still 7 tons.

The number of green peppers delivered to the stalls was 2 tons less than yesterday, indicating that the impact of the wind and rain on production has begun to show, but there are still about 9 tons left.

The remaining 10 tons are water spinach and 10 tons of bok choy. After pre-cooling and adding ice packs, the shelf life is greatly extended, so it doesn't matter if they are not sold out in one day.

With nearly 5 tons of vegetables remaining at the Dongxiang vegetable market, stall number 63 will receive approximately 34 tons of goods tonight!

Four or five truckloads of food are sent over every night, with the main selling point being large portions and unlimited food!

And with the Dragon Boat Festival just around the corner, sales might see a small surge.

After learning about today's production output, Chen Jiazhi went back to the office and obtained the current financial and sales information from Xu Yao.

There's still one day left in May, but sales have already reached 244 million yuan, all generated by green peppers.

Including the remaining two days, the total sales of green peppers for the whole month will most likely be around 254 million.

With the addition of bok choy and water spinach shipments, there's a good chance that May's sales will exceed 2.6 million again!
The previous record was 265.72 million yuan, set last October.

There's no hope of breaking the record this month, but it's still a dazzling statistic.

The financial figures reached 341.8 million yuan, but some of it was accounts receivable, and payments for goods supplied to Hong Kong were settled every three days.

In this day and age, it's rare for vegetable businesses to have outstanding debts. Chen Jiazhi didn't want to spoil Xia Youche, and it was already generous of him not to demand that the debts be settled on the same day.

I won't ship your goods until you pay.

Chen Jiazhi was capable of doing such a thing. Although he also bowed his head and bent over, he always preferred to sell vegetables standing up.

After the two previous encounters, Xia Youche had come to understand his temperament.

The Dutch pea incident fully demonstrates that he is someone who would rather fight to the death than suffer a loss.

With the growing influence of stall number 63, Jiangxin Market no longer worries about sales.

Moreover, vegetable prices are rising.

After finding out how much money he had, Chen Jiazhi began to think about how to spend it.

First, Kaopu Fresh needs a sum of money. It needs money for hiring people, venues, vehicles, etc. It also wants to buy a few computers to try electronic office work.

In addition, we need to equip them with several Chinese character pagers so that we can send messages if needed and return phone calls promptly.

Secondly, the supplies for Jiangxin vegetable market in the second half of the year can be planned in advance.

Seeds, pesticides, fertilizers, supplies for 300 mu of small greenhouses, and the replacement of some new machinery and equipment are expected to cost 600,000 to 700,000 yuan.

Finally, the Dragon Boat Festival is just around the corner, so we'll give the employees some benefits, and then we'll have to pay their salaries for this month.

After calculating bit by bit, Chen Jiazhi found that he still had more than two million yuan left!
Our financial situation is better than ever before!
For some reason, he remembered Li Xiu's suggestion to buy himself a car, and it seemed like he could indeed consider using company money to provide him with one.

You can even use company funds to buy property as an investment.
Or perhaps we could invest in a new farmers' market...

Gradually, Chen Jiazhi's mind opened up: making money is hard, but spending money is easy, isn't it?
brush brush~
Chen Jiazhi wrote his ideas down in his notebook.

After sorting things out, I wanted to call Xu Wenxiang and ask her to help me contact more business partners, especially overseas Chinese, to see if there were any more channels available.

Supplying Hong Kong is too singular. There are also many overseas Chinese who have left South China and are scattered all over the world. They are also consumers of cauliflower. He felt that he could try these directions.

But just as he picked up the phone, he heard Yi Dinggan shouting downstairs.

"Mr. Chen, the food is ready!"

"Okay!"

He looked out the window and realized it was already dark. When he came out onto the corridor and looked out, the taillights of a car disappeared into the night.

"It's getting dark so quickly, there's not enough time!"

Helpless, I could only turn around, grab my notebook and bag, and go downstairs to the cold storage, where only the Isuzu was left all alone.

Yi Dinggan and several group leaders, as well as Xu Yao, Tong Gang, Huang Chuan, and others, were still there.

Chen Jiazhi asked, "Is everything arranged?"

Yi Dinggan said, "One truckload of supplies to Hong Kong has been sent, and two truckloads have been sent to stall number 63. You can take another truckload. Those three drivers will come back again in the middle of the night. The loading workers have also been arranged."

We have enough vegetables. Even if we load two more truckloads, we can still have about 10 tons left in the cold storage. If sales are good tonight, we can send the trucks over earlier tomorrow and send out more truckloads.

There's still plenty of food to come.

"Hmm~"

Chen Jiazhi nodded. With concentrated planting, there were naturally more vegetables, and the market was starting to improve slightly. Overall, things were not bad.

"Prepare two more packs of cigarettes for each of those three masters; we don't have anything else to give them."

"I just gave each of them two packets, just as a token."

"Okay, just make sure to take good care of people and try to maintain a few long-term cooperative relationships with cars."

In the past two years, trucks that can run freight have been in high demand. It's always a case of goods looking for trucks, and drivers with trucks don't have to worry about not having cargo to haul.

However, with stable delivery orders, many drivers in the surrounding area are also very interested.

For example, Wang Bin bought a car and drove for Jiangxin Vegetable Market for a month before going on long-distance trips. But driving long distances requires reading maps, dealing with complex road conditions, and dealing with highway robbers, which a novice driver simply cannot handle.

Wang Bin only made one long-distance trip before settling back to working in the surrounding areas. Now he's steadily hauling goods for the Jiangxin vegetable market, easily earning several hundred yuan in freight fees per trip, which is quite comfortable.

While everyone was still there, Chen Jiazhi quickly handed over his work.

"There are a few things to keep in mind. We need to add computers to the office and also get an official vehicle. Huang Chuan and Tong Gang should go and look at them together. Try to keep the price of the vehicle under 10 yuan."

Then, with the Dragon Boat Festival approaching, we need to buy the gift boxes for our employees as soon as possible.

In addition, give each worker a holiday bonus of 25 yuan and each manager 50 yuan. Manager Yi should organize this.

Sales have been great this month, and you'll all receive your salaries and bonuses.

I won't go into the production work, but since you all have your own ideas now, feel free to give them a try.

I only ask one thing: regardless of whether the market is good or bad, as long as the sky doesn't fall, we must maintain a stable supply of vegetables!
Okay, that's all. If you have any questions, please ask quickly, I'm in a hurry.

Chen Jiazhi spoke rapidly and without pause, giving no one else a chance to interrupt.

After he finished speaking, everyone had a chance to ask questions, which he answered one by one.

The main things are computers and cars. Buying a car is understandable, since they've made money, but when it comes to computers, they're basically clueless.

What can you do with a computer bought at the market?
It seems like nobody knows how to use it!

Chen Jiazhi only knew that this thing could be used for office work, but he had no idea how it worked.

Anyway, this represents cutting-edge technology, and now that I have the money, I'll spend it to buy one and study it slowly.

The biggest waste is letting money depreciate in your account.

After giving a brief explanation, Chen Jiazhi got into the car. Before starting the engine, he remembered something and rolled down the window.

"Huang Chuan, go and ask if the words 'Reliable Fresh' can be printed on the tape of the sealed foam box. Anyway, we need to make a sign."

"Ah, oh!"

Huang Chuan originally wanted to ask why they printed "Kaopu Fresh" instead of "Jiangxin Vegetable Market," but he felt that asking would be counterproductive.

They're all under the same boss anyway.
...

Even under the cover of night, the Jiangnan Market remained bustling with activity. Li Cai and Xue Jun, having estimated the time, arrived at their stalls early to wait.

Li Cai sat on a stool, smoking a cigarette, and said, "The weather today is perfect for sending two truckloads of vegetables back from out of town."

Xue Jun said, "There are a lot of vegetables today, more than 30 tons in total, which ranks among the top in the entire market."

"I was just expressing my feelings."

"How was it feeling after being away for half a month?" Xue Jun pondered for a moment and said, "How about I go next time? You were originally the one who was supposed to sell vegetables. My presence here, a rough guy, would have lowered the overall appearance of the stall."

Li Cai smiled and said, "Brother Chen was just joking. Who cares about looks when buying or selling vegetables!"

"Hey, you don't believe me? There really is a trick to it." Xue Jun slapped his thigh. "Not long ago, I met a woman who wouldn't bring any vegetables when I was minding the stall, but the next day when a different vendor came, she bought them."

That's why I wanted to go out.

Li Cai pondered for a moment and said, "It's actually quite tough outside. In the countryside, it's inconvenient to eat and stay. Even if you have money, it's hard to spend it, let alone having to go around looking for vegetables and goods."

"So how did you solve it before?"

“At first, I was also unsure of how to do it. The vegetable broker I found wouldn’t let me inspect the goods and asked me to pay first, which I naturally refused. So I had to find one myself. Fortunately, Brother Chen told us a lot about vegetable brokers and agents, and then I came up with a solution.”

At this point, Li Cai smiled and said, "I hired a young man named Ahao in Sanshui, Foshan, as my henchman. I have him take me to find vegetables and inspect goods. If I'm satisfied, I pay him."

Xue Jun asked in surprise, "You even recruited henchmen? How did you do it?"

Li Cai laughed and said, "He wanted to ride in my car, so I said, 'Take me to find some vegetables, and I'll let you ride as much as you want.'"

"Wow!" Xue Jun became even more interested: "Take me to meet him sometime."

Li Cai had no choice but to agree. He had originally wanted to persuade him to stay at the stall, but this backfired.

Just then, He Qiang, He Peng, and a few others ran over, shouting, "The first truckload of vegetables has arrived! They'll be here soon!"

A few minutes later, a Dongfeng flatbed truck pulled up at the stall, carrying neatly stacked foam boxes.

Those who happened to be nearby also took action upon hearing the news.

What dishes have been served?

"You've finally arrived! Why are you getting later and later?!"

Li Cai stood up and shouted loudly, "The first truckload of premium bok choy, each box weighs 30 jin (15 catties) net, 45 yuan per box!"

The buyers paused in their tracks.

"It's 1.5 yuan a pound! You've suddenly raised the price by 3 mao! Even robbery isn't this ruthless!"

"Too expensive! Too expensive!"

Despite the talk, no one has left yet.

Li Cai shouted again, "New packaging, pre-cooled in cold storage, with ice packs added, long shelf life, definitely worth the price!"

"Let's inspect the goods first!"

After the car stopped, Xue Jun had someone randomly pick two boxes and move them to the middle of the stall. He opened them in front of everyone, and they instantly struck a chord with many people.

(End of this chapter)