1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 428

The stall was located inside the market, in a rather ordinary location, with a few wooden planks on top, making it look like a temporary stall.

Several boxes of vegetables were displayed in front of the stall, and more vegetables were placed in cars in the parking lot. People who took a lot of vegetables were guided to the parking lot to load their goods.

Zhou Xiaoxiong is the person in charge of Kaopu Fresh in Shenzhen, responsible for the stalls and distribution center. He also knows that the stalls are too simple and do not match the company's current status.

"Mr. Chen, time is tight and the vegetables need to be sold, so we can only find a temporary stall to make do. I'm already keeping an eye out for a new stall."

Chen Jiazhi finished looking at the stall after walking only a few steps, and then checked the quality of the vegetables in the styrofoam box.

Li Xiu also squatted down to inspect the dishes, just like him, and her quality control remained excellent.

Chen Jiazhi stood up and said, "That's good. Take your time. When I was selling vegetables, I didn't even have a stall and I still managed to sell them."

Zhou Xiaoxiong laughed and said, "I often hear Lao Liu talk about the market price when you guys sold vegetables by bicycle."

Lao Liu is Liu Minghua, who now assists Zhou Xiaoxiong in managing the Shenzhen distribution center's business.

From Liu Minghua, Zhou Xiaoxiong learned a lot about the Dongxiang vegetable market and how the owner had built his business.

The more he learned about his boss, the more he admired him. There are countless people who grow vegetables, but those who can become big bosses like him are as rare as pandas.

They were classmates in junior high school, and even sat at desks next to each other. They had a good relationship back then.

Now, the boss takes good care of these fellow villagers, paying them high wages, paying them on time, and occasionally giving them red envelopes and bonuses.

He received a generous bonus at the end of June, which was neither payday nor a holiday.

Just because the boss casually mentioned that there would be a bonus in the middle of the year, the bonus actually came.

The boss is a trustworthy and generous person. With such a boss, you only need to do your job well to earn a stable and generous income.

Zhou Xiaoxiong and his wife Wang Lan had long suffered the hardships of working odd jobs and had even been homeless, so they cherished their current opportunity.

Zhou Xiaoxiong added, "Boss and boss, don't underestimate our stall. We sell five or six thousand catties of vegetables every night."

Chen Jiazhi encouraged them, "It's not bad. Right now, the main thing is to build up our customer base and let more people know about us."

Five or six thousand catties, or about three tons of vegetables, is very little for Kaopu Fresh and insignificant for Buji Agricultural Wholesale Market.

Today, the Buji Agricultural Wholesale Market is much larger than the Jiangnan Market.

The Jiangnan Market has only 133 stalls, but each stall is larger and more spacious.

The Buji Agricultural Wholesale Market claims to have more than 2000 stalls and booths of various kinds, which leads to huge differences.

The stall that Zhou Xiaoxiong found was not bad; it had a shed, so at least it could provide some shelter.

Many stalls simply had a rectangular grid drawn on the ground with yellow lines.

Of course, the large stalls are still very large. Buji Agricultural Wholesale Market is now the main agricultural wholesale market supplying agricultural and sideline products to Shenzhen and Hong Kong.

The wind may start small, but Chen Jiazhi had no complaints about this stall.

As long as you follow his business philosophy and maintain stable supply, stable quality, and even stable emotions, you can still stand out even in the complex Buji Agricultural Wholesale Market.

It was already bright outside, and the number of people in the market was gradually decreasing; all the vegetables for the day had been sold out.

Zhou Xiaoxiong packed his things, took the bag containing the money, and returned to the distribution center with Chen Jiazhi and Li Xiu.

Chen Jiazhi and Li Xiu arrived in Shenzhen yesterday, but stayed at a hotel for one night before arriving at the Buji Agricultural Wholesale Market this morning.

The distribution center is located inside the customs area, but the two places are not far apart, and all of them have border passes.

Compared to Huacheng's business volume, Shenzhen's delivery is still very weak, but after more than half a year of development, the staffing has gradually become complete.

Besides Liu Minghua, there are 3 deliverymen, 1 purchasing agent, 2 salespersons, and 1 clerk.

The distribution center does not perform further processing such as sorting; it mainly distributes its own vegetables.

Zhou Xiaoxiong brought over the relevant materials and documents, and poured two glasses of water for Chen Jiazhi and Li Xiu.

"Boss, please have a seat. I'll go ask the staff next door to send over some breakfast."

"Okay, hard work."

Chen Jiazhi did not refuse, looking at the business materials of the Shenzhen branch.

This place looks simple, but its daily delivery volume is actually quite considerable. However, there are also low periods, namely the two or three months when the mustard greens are not produced.

It's understandable, as Shenzhen's delivery business only started developing at the beginning of the year with the help of mustard greens.

However, with the recent launch of mustard greens, business volume has shown a significant improvement.

Moreover, with a greater supply of goods, delivery personnel and sales staff have expanded the scope of free giveaways.

The direct feedback is that there are more customers, and the variety and quantity of vegetables delivered are both increasing.

Li Xiu placed a steamed bun and soy milk next to him, and Chen Jiazhi ate the bun while looking at the documents.

Although he had some understanding of the business in various places through Chen Zhengxu, he only gained a more intuitive understanding after visiting in person.

After breakfast, Chen Jiazhi chatted with everyone for a while, and then called Chen Zhengxu.

Following that, Kaopu Fresh provided the Shenzhen branch with more resource support.

This area connects Shenzhen and Hong Kong, and its market potential is no less than that of Guangzhou, making it worthy of more support.

Zhou Xiaoxiong saw Chen Jiazhi and the other man into the car and said, "Boss, come to Shenzhen often in the future."

Others also shouted from the shop entrance, "Boss, come again soon!"

Chen Jiazhi laughed and said, "You can't come empty-handed every time, right?" "Hahaha, the boss really understands us."

"We don't need to ask for much more. Just give us another car next time we come."

The crowd spoke with a hint of joking, after all, the boss had just approved another minivan for them.

Chen Jiazhi waved his hand, "I think with you guys here, adding just one more car next time might not be enough."

After the Jetta drove away, the group lingered by the roadside, still wanting more.

Zhou Xiaoxiong shouted, "Alright, stop looking. Those who need to go to work should go to work, and those who need to go to sleep should go to sleep."

Then Zhou Xiaoxiong patted Liu Minghua on the shoulder and said, "Old Liu, get your driver's license as soon as possible. You'll need to follow along to the distribution center more often, and hopefully you can get a car to drive too."

"I'm looking forward to it too."

Liu Minghua nodded. He recalled the turbulent life he had led over the past two years, and wondered who would have thought he would have such an opportunity today.

After leaving Shenzhen, Chen Jiazhi drove north, and Li Xiu would occasionally ask him questions.

This was her first time in Shenzhen, and business operations there would be quite different.

When she saw Zhou Xiaoxiong managing the money, she had some doubts: why was Jiazhi willing to trust Zhou Xiaoxiong?

I later learned that this was another advantage of fixed quantity and weight; the price was also standardized, so no matter how much it fluctuated, the difference in amount wouldn't be too large.

The biggest risk is that someone might run away with the money, but Li Xiu believes in Jia Zhi's personal charm, and Zhou Xiaoxiong, Liu Minghua, and others are also willing to believe in him and follow him for a brighter future.

In Dongguan, Chen Jiazhi met up with Chen Zhengxu again.

The newly established Dongguan distribution center, like the Shenzhen center half a year ago, only had two people, one vehicle, and one site.

However, as long as there is a source of goods, the work can still be carried out. Everything goes through the process of going from nothing to something.

The Dongguan center can deliver two to three thousand kilograms of vegetables every day, and with the help of cooperating wholesalers, it can deliver nearly 10 tons of goods a day.

The same distribution center also has branches in Zhongshan, Zhuhai, and Foshan, making a total of five branches including Dongguan and Shenzhen.

The network is now largely in place, but even greater challenges remain: communication, coordination, and transportation.

If you're just working with local wholesalers, it's very simple; you just need to hand over the goods to the wholesalers.

But now that it has penetrated into delivery, as the scale of delivery expands and the capillaries continue to extend, the difficulty of subsequent management will increase exponentially.

Chen Zhengxu had anticipated the potential for chaos.

After listening to Chen Zhengxu's idea, Chen Jiazhi pondered and said, "Ultimately, it's still a problem of information processing."

Upon hearing this, Chen Zhengxu knew that his uncle already had a contingency plan in place; he always thought of problems before anyone else.

Chen Jiazhi didn't keep him in suspense and asked again, "Are you still studying computers? You can use computers to solve problems when there's more information and data in the future."

"I'm always learning."

Chen Zhengxu thought for a moment, but still didn't know how to solve the problem using a computer.

Chen Jiazhi said, "I don't know either, but we can contact professionals in this field and find someone to design a suitable system or software for us."

It will take time for the distribution center to develop to that stage, perhaps two or three years.

By then, computer technology should be more advanced, and Chen Jiazhi felt it should be feasible.

If all else fails, he can wait.

The Jetta sped forward, the scenery on both sides flowing by like a scroll, with late rice growing on the flat land, as well as red, green and yellow vegetables.

As we traveled along the road through the fields, it finally stretched towards the vast city that stood in the distance.

From the east to the west of the city, the city is changing rapidly, with more cars, more people, and taller buildings.

The entire office of Kaopu Fresh has been moved to the second floor, leaving more space for the sorting workshop on the first floor.

But it will still feel crowded.

The company has been improving its infrastructure, but it is developing even faster, just like the city is changing every day.

Chen Jiazhi feels that embracing the domestic market is a good thing, as it allows him to grow together with many cities.

He had a summary of data showing that the total daily revenue from all sales channels was approaching 50 yuan.

This means that if they can hold on for another 200 days, Kaopu Fresh can achieve sales of over 100 million yuan.

Although it is still a long way off, Chen Jiazhi has already begun to imagine that day coming.

However, when Liu Yunfan came in and said he wanted to leave, he was still caught off guard.

This should be the first person under him to resign voluntarily. Liu Yunfan was very determined, so he did not try to retain him.

Liu Yunfan revealed, "I will go to Congyu; they value exports very much."

Chen Jiazhi took a sip of tea, paused for a moment, and said, "I wish you a bright future."

“I will,” Liu Yunfan said thoughtfully. “I will prove Mr. Chen wrong. Exports are growing rapidly now, and profits are high. This is the future.”

Chen Jiazhi remained noncommittal and continued drinking his tea. Black tea is durable for multiple infusions and has a mellow flavor, requiring quiet contemplation to appreciate.

Liu Yunfan was getting a little anxious.

But it's all good. Going to Congyu will give our competitors more trouble in the future.

(End of this chapter)