1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 7: Handsome boy, pretending to be a novice!
After hearing the price, the vegetable vendor put down the two vegetables in his hand, turned around and left without even the desire to bargain.

Li Mingkun, who was standing by, was also stunned. "Xiucai, your asking price is too high. You're scaring people away. Yesterday it was only 9 cents, and today it's one yuan. This isn't the way you raise the price."

Chen Jiazhi removed the iron frames, took out the beam scale and plastic bags, and placed the vegetables in a conspicuous place.

"These are all vegetable seedlings. It takes a lot of effort to harvest them, so I have to sell them at a high price."

Li Mingkun and Guo Mancang both laughed. "You know your vegetables are too small, but you still bought over 200 kilograms. Aren't you afraid of losing money?"

The two of them had less vegetables combined than Chen Jiazhi, so they were able to go to the market first, and they mainly sold Chinese cabbage and bok choy.

Guo Mancang is a skilled vegetable farmer. He is usually very low-key and the type who makes money quietly. When he saw Chen Jiazhi quoted a high price, he felt a little disdainful.

Although he also wanted to sell at a high price, he felt that it was not realistic because they were not the only ones with vegetables in the market.

“It’s a bit difficult for us to set the price now.”

Chen Jiazhi knew what he was thinking: "You don't have to worry about me, just sell as much as you want, but I think we can try to raise the price today."

Li Mingkun: "Just lift it. You have the most vegetables anyway, so it's not certain who will suffer the loss in the end."

Ordinary retail vegetable vendors and restaurants have different purchasing standards for vegetables.

Chen Jiazhi's "small" dishes are more popular with retailers, while Li Mingkun and Guo Mancang's standard dishes are more popular with restaurants and hotels.

While the three were chatting, someone else came over to ask the price. He asked Chen Jiazhi first, then Guo Mancang and Li Mingkun. In the end, the two of them quoted 95 cents for both the bok choy and Shanghai greens, but the choy sum was still only 90 cents.

Even the 95 cents is not very firm. If someone gets more, they will give more. It is obvious that they have no confidence.

Guo Mancang and Li Mingkun also opened their own shops one after another, and each of them sold more than 40 kilograms of vegetables.

"Jiazhi, why don't you lower the price too?" After packing the vegetables, Li Mingkun saw that Chen Jiazhi hadn't moved, so he advised: "You haven't touched these 200 pounds of vegetables yet. Don't let them rot in your hands."

Guo Mancang also said: "When the market closes, you can only sell at a low price."

"It's okay, I'll wait."

Chen Jiazhi shook his head. It only took about an hour to get from the Dongxiang vegetable market to the wholesale market. It was only around two o'clock now, and there were still four hours before dawn.

There is still plenty of time.

During this period, the supply of vegetables in various places was relatively tight, so it was generally a seller's market. Unlike later when vegetables often slumped in the market, those who took the lead in raising prices would likely end up with nothing.

The risk is not that great now, at least it can be handled.

If the gamble is successful, Chen Jiazhi can earn an extra twenty yuan from the more than 200 kilograms of vegetables. The benefits outweigh the risks, so why not give it a try?

Moreover, Li Mingkun and Guo Mancang have a total of about 200 kilograms of vegetables, and 80 to 90 kilograms have been sold, which is nearly half, and the delivery speed is very fast.

Therefore, Chen Jiazhi is not in a hurry.

"Young people are a bit hot-tempered."

“You won’t turn back until you hit the wall. You won’t know the pain until you hit it once or twice.”

Li Mingkun and Guo Mancang both shook their heads slightly, but didn't say much. Chen Jiazhi had more vegetables, and they were smaller and more tender. If they were sold at the same price, they might not be able to outsell them.

Now that Chen Jiazhi is at a loss, it just gives them an opportunity.

In just a short while, someone else asked for the price, and the two of them placed orders one after another. Chen Jiazhi was still squatting there without moving. When others heard his price, most of them left immediately.

Occasionally, someone would curse in vernacular: "You idiot, you deserve to be kicked out!"

Li Mingkun and the other man were also busy, loading vegetables non-stop, and had no time to pay attention to Chen Jiazhi. More than half an hour later, the market reached its peak traffic, with shoppers and vendors walking around in the dim light, flashlights in hand.

"Jiazhi, help me watch the stall. I'm going to deliver the vegetables."

Li Mingkun, holding two plastic bags full of vegetables, said to Chen Jiazhi that it looked like he was going to deliver the vegetables.

"Go."

Chen Jiazhi noticed that Li Mingkun's vegetable basket was almost empty. He looked at Guo Mancang and saw almost the same situation. It should be only 3 o'clock now.

It's very fast!
The two were so engrossed in their sales that they forgot to raise the price again.

At this moment, a voice came asking for the price, "Handsome boy, how much are these pakchoy and bok choy?"

Finally, I'm not such a loser anymore.

Chen Jiazhi stood up and walked to the vegetable basket. The person who asked the price was an older woman with short hair, who looked like she was in retail business.

"They're all one yuan a pound, sister. Look at my vegetables, they're so tender and small, they're just right for selling back home."

"It's a bit expensive, can you give me less?" The elder sister kept looking at the baskets of vegetables, "If you give me less, I'll take your goods."

"It can't be less."

Chen Jiazhi knew that the lady was interested in the vegetables, so he was not willing to give in at all. Two more people stopped in front of his vegetable stall to ask for the price, and he quoted the same price to them.

He seemed to have seen one of the slightly plump middle-aged men before. He must have come to ask the price before, but now he has come back. There must not be many good goods in the market.

Sure enough, when the slightly plump middle-aged man saw that Chen Jiazhi did not lower the price and there were many people in front of the stall, he placed an order directly.

"Handsome boy, load up the vegetables. 50 jin of bok choy and bok choy!"

As soon as the business opened, there were big orders. Chen Jiazhi was very happy and took out two plastic bags to start packing. At this time, the eldest sister who came first did not hesitate.

"Handsome boy, I'm pretending too. 30 kilograms of pakchoy and 20 kilograms of bok choy."

Guo Mancang had finished his work by then. Looking at Chen Jiazhi who was placing orders continuously, he was a little bit unbelievable. Did he really raise the price?

Then I regretted it and realized I had lost money!

After saying hello to Chen Jiazhi, Guo Mancang also went to deliver the vegetables. After taking two steps, he met Li Mingkun who had returned from delivering the vegetables. The latter also saw Chen Jiazhi packing the vegetables and asked Guo Mancang in surprise.

"The scholar also lowered the price to sell? If I had known this, why would I have raised the price so high in the beginning? I'm still a little young."

"The price hasn't dropped, it's still one yuan per pound."

After saying this, Guo Mancang left. Along the way, he noticed that there were fewer vegetables in the market. Could the scholar have guessed that? He hadn't even left his stall!

Li Mingkun looked at Chen Jiazhi who was busy packing vegetables and collecting money. After confirming that it was still one yuan per catty, he also felt a bleeding feeling. He had packed more than one hundred catties of vegetables today.

A difference of 1 cent is 10 yuan, which is more than a vegetable worker’s daily salary and can buy several pounds of meat!
Wouldn’t the scholar have to sell these 200 kilograms of vegetables for twenty yuan more?
He was no longer worried that Chen Jiazhi's vegetables would not be sold out. In the time it took him to deliver the goods, he had already cleared out a large iron frame, and another iron frame filled with Shanghai greens was also mostly empty. There were still customers waiting nearby, so there was still time and he would definitely be able to sell out all of them.

The question is, when did the scholar acquire the ability to sell vegetables?

In his memory, Xiucai was not introverted or shy, but his eloquence was definitely not good. He was also clumsy when selling vegetables in the market and was often bullied by vegetable vendors.

But today he acted out of character and took control of the vegetable vendor.

(End of this chapter)