Returning wealthy individuals develop their hometowns and become rich in the 1980s

The shantytown that used to be on the north side of Huanghe North Road in Nanshan County has long been demolished, and a three-story supermarket building has been erected and stands by the roadside.

At this moment, the three large characters "Huaxingsheng" have been erected on the roof of the supermarket. In the square outside, some fences are being dismantled by workers in an orderly manner. Construction waste is parked by the roadside, and several hand tractors and Jiefang trucks are parked there. Workers are constantly shoveling garbage into the truck beds and transporting it out of the city.

With a substantial investment of over 400,000 yuan, it has been proven that as long as the money is in place, the project can be completed in days. The entire main structure of the supermarket building was poured in two months. Two months is the limit for cement curing, not the limit for the workers.

As soon as the money was in place, the plumbing and electrical workers started working on the interior decoration and painting. In just half a month, all three floors were completed. Chen Zaixing and Chen Zailong walked through the door to begin the inspection.

"Boss Chen, the water and electricity are all ready, and the shelves are arranged and installed according to the drawings you gave us," Chief Foreman Liu led the Chen brothers through the gate. The first thing they saw was a series of security doors that looked like fences.

Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) was first introduced in America in 1960. Initially, it was only used in the clothing industry. Later, large warehouse supermarkets in America adopted it one after another. Chen Dong's family owns a supermarket, so he naturally knew the importance of the EAS system to supermarkets. He purchased one from the WTO system and installed it at the entrance of Huaxingsheng Supermarket.

The open self-service model of supermarkets like Huaxingsheng Supermarket, which is different from the supply and marketing cooperative department stores, can provide customers with a better shopping experience and save a lot of labor costs. However, it also brings a headache: theft of goods!

Goods displayed unattended on shelves are like wallets dropped by pedestrians on the street, constantly testing the civility of passersby. But people's civility cannot withstand such tests, especially in Tuocheng, where the economy is still underdeveloped and goods are scarce.

Without effective management, Huaxingsheng Supermarket could be robbed and go bankrupt within a month.

Chen Dong runs Huadongsheng Supermarket in America, so he is naturally aware of the long-standing problem of merchandise theft that plagues supermarkets. When Chen Dong’s grandfather, Chen Shengyu, first opened Huadongsheng Supermarket, before this anti-theft system was installed, the amount of merchandise stolen in a year reached more than three million US dollars, directly accounting for 5% of the turnover!

Other American supermarkets, the more chain stores they have, the greater their losses. In the worst year, nearly 30 million US dollars could be stolen. Taking money from capitalists is like taking their lives!

The EAS anti-theft system was thus developed. No matter how expensive it was, people had to grit their teeth and install it. Huadongsheng Supermarket's annual theft loss dropped from 5% to 1.8%, which can be said to have had an immediate effect.

"These security doors have all been tested and adjusted according to the manual," Chief Engineer Liu said, pointing to the gates.

"Just a few doors, and they can catch those who steal goods?" Chen Zaixing looked around and felt that there was nothing high-tech about them, and he couldn't see what their purpose was.

When Chief Engineer Liu saw that Chen Zaixing did not believe him, he walked through the security door, took a bag of biscuits from the shelf inside, and hid it in his pocket in front of the Chen brothers, Chen Zaixing and Chen Zailong, before walking out of the house with an air of nonchalance.

As soon as they passed through the security door, the equipment immediately started beeping an alarm. Chen Zaixing and Chen Zailong went over and took the bag of biscuits that Chief Engineer Liu had taken out. They found that the packaging was no different from that of the supply and marketing cooperative.

"That's strange. This device is so advanced, how could it detect this bag of cookies hidden in my pocket?"

With a smile, Foreman Liu explained to the two brothers, "This is actually a magnetic sensor gate. If product labels are not demagnetized by the supermarket's demagnetizer and are carried directly through the sensor gate, the gate will detect the magnetic echo and immediately sound an alarm to notify security personnel, effectively preventing the supermarket from suffering economic losses!"

Chen Zaixing nodded repeatedly, took the bag of biscuits, and tested it on all the doors. As soon as someone passed by, the alarm would sound immediately, but if they didn't carry the biscuits, no matter how many times they walked by, it wouldn't trigger.

"This is good, this is good!" Chen Zaixing had been to Chen Dongjia's Huadongsheng Supermarket, but he had only noticed the open shelves and the wide variety of goods inside the supermarket, without noticing the inconspicuous security door at the entrance.

Chen Zailong nodded in approval, saying that by using high-tech methods to give the products the ability to "defend themselves," no item could be easily stolen from Huaxingsheng Supermarket, eliminating the need for "people watching people" and "people watching goods" to guard against customers who came into the store to shop.

Chen Zailong believes that on the opening day, catching a few thieves and making the anti-theft system of Huaxingsheng Supermarket known to all customers will make those with ulterior motives risk being caught if they want to steal again, thus effectively controlling the losses.

The three continued walking into the supermarket. The entire Huaxingsheng Supermarket was completely modeled after Chen Dong's Huadongsheng Supermarket. Just like supermarkets in later generations, there was a row of cash registers at the entrance, and beyond the cash registers were rows of neat shelves.

Employees in red uniforms, under the direction of their supervisors, were already moving goods onto the shelves. Smaller items were being placed in whole boxes. The only characteristic of warehouse-style supermarkets is that they ignore the shelves and just stack the boxes.

When Jiang Tong, the foreman who was directing the workers, saw the two bosses, Chen Zailong and Chen Zaixing, arrive, he immediately greeted them. Chen Zailong gestured for him to continue and not to pay attention to them. He then followed Chief Engineer Liu forward to check whether the lights in various places were complete.

"Brother Zailong, Zaixing, you're here!" On the second floor, Deputy Manager Li Renfa greeted Chen Zaixing with a smile.

"I told you, when we're working, you have to call me 'boss'," Chen Zaixing glared at his childhood friend, trying his best to put on a serious expression.

"Okay, boss!"

"Ah Fa, don't listen to Lao Wu's nonsense. Just call him whatever you normally call him," Chen Zailong said. Unlike Chen Zaixing, Chen Zaixing didn't pretend to be tough. Hearing Chen Zailong's words, Chen Zaixing couldn't keep up the act anymore and burst out laughing. He pointed at Li Renfa and laughed, "How about that? Did my expression just now resemble the style of the big boss?"

Do you want me to tell the truth?

"Um!"

"Like you, Zailong and Zaixing, if you wore these suits, you could be recognized at a glance as the owners of Huaxingsheng Supermarket!"

"Is he really that good, Ah Fa? I've noticed you're getting better and better at smoothing things up!"

"I learned all of this from you!"

"Go to hell!"