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

At 11:00 a.m., the supermarket was packed with people, but the order was surprisingly good. Long lines formed at the checkout counters, with people pushing shopping carts and carrying shopping baskets, all leaving with their purchases.

Lin Xue pushed a shopping cart containing "Joyful" soda, which she had never seen before, several packets of biscuits, half a pound of loose White Rabbit milk candy, and a bottle of shower gel.

She was a student at Tuocheng University. As the year-end approached, she came home for the holiday. Her mother told her that a self-service supermarket had opened in the county today, so Lin Xue came over out of curiosity, intending to come and see what was going on.

She had visited department stores in the city, but she was still deeply impressed after shopping at Huaxingsheng Supermarket.

What's truly astonishing isn't the sheer variety of goods, but rather the business model and the people who have the freedom to shop!

She saw an old woman carefully filling a container with her own bottle in front of a bulk soy sauce barrel. She stared at the number 0.12 yuan displayed on the electronic scale for a long time, then murmured, "So accurate…!"

She saw two young girls trying on hair clips in front of the mirror. They cost three cents each. They tried them on again and again, and finally each bought a different one, agreeing to take turns wearing them.

She saw a family of three pushing a shopping cart, which was already half full of things: two pounds of rice, one pound of eggs, a bar of soap, a pack of matches, two ounces of fruit candy, and a bottle of soy sauce.

The man pushed the shopping cart, his face beaming with joy, while his wife whispered beside him, "It's over budget, isn't it? This month..."

The husband, however, dismissed it, saying, "It's fine. It's rare to be able to buy tickets without them. We can always work overtime next month!"

His wife whispered, "Don't overwork yourself..."

She saw the children sitting in the shopping cart seats, holding bags of cookies and candies, their smiles so innocent and adorable!

Everyone's face was filled with a spontaneous joy, a joy that didn't require begging from the sales clerks, nor did it require carefully reading their expressions or speaking cautiously. There were no "out of stock, come back tomorrow" messages, nor any requests for coupons or receipts.

that's nice!

The world is slowly getting better!

Lin Xue slowly followed the crowd in line. Ahead of her was a family of four. The husband was complaining that his wife had bought too much soap, while the wife retorted that it would be foolish not to buy during the discount period.

Lin Xue would never have imagined such a quarrel caused by buying too much before Huaxingsheng Supermarket opened. The supply and marketing cooperative was often out of stock, and even if you wanted to buy more, they wouldn't sell it to you.

If Lin Xue knew that there was a term in later generations specifically used to describe this: revenge spending, she might suddenly understand.

When it was finally Lin Xue's turn to pay, the cashier in front of her was a young woman in her early twenties, wearing a red vest with the words "Huaxingsheng Supermarket" printed on it. She was nodding at Lin Xue with a smile on her face, and Lin Xue smiled back.

On the cashier's counter was a device Lin Xue had never seen before: a metal box with number keys and a scroll wheel. When the cashier pressed a button, the machine would click and spit out a small slip of paper.

"Beep beep beep," the cashier skillfully shone the demagnetizing gun on each item, then entered the price. Each time she pressed the button, the machine made a crisp sound. Finally, she pressed the master button, and with a "whoosh," the drawer popped open.

"That'll be four dollars and sixty-two cents in total!"

The cashier smiled and handed the receipt to Lin Xue. Lin Xue had never seen a printed receipt before. Just as she was about to pay, the security door not far from the cashier suddenly made a piercing "beep beep beep" sound. The security guard waiting at the door immediately rushed towards a man wearing a green cotton coat.

"stop!"

"Don't move!"

The man, pinned to the ground by three supermarket security guards, struggled and shouted, "What are you doing? What are you doing?!"

"What are you doing? You stole something, and you dare to ask us what we're doing!" The guards tied the man's hands behind his back and pulled him to his feet.

"I didn't steal it!"

The onlookers, seeing this scene, began to point and whisper. An elderly woman asked the security guards holding the man, "How can you be so sure he stole from your supermarket? You can't just do it without any evidence!"

"Auntie, we're not framing him," the guard said, putting the cookies and candies the man was carrying on the ground. Then he searched the man and found a bottle of shampoo, three bars of soap, and a large towel with the magnetic tag still attached.

Upon seeing the items found on the man, the elderly woman who had been questioning him earlier fell silent. Someone in the crowd then asked, "How did you discover he stole things? I saw someone putting things on themselves earlier, and I was about to tell you!"

Upon hearing the security announcement, Manager Li Renfa, who was in the adjacent break room, quickly walked over. Hearing the man's question, Li Renfa addressed the onlookers, "Our Huaxingsheng Supermarket has an anti-theft system imported from America. This system automatically detects items that haven't been demagnetized at the checkout!"

"Any item that hasn't been demagnetized by the cashier will trigger an alarm as it passes through the security door!"

After Li Renfa finished speaking, he walked up to a man who had already paid for his goods and said to him, "Comrade, please take these goods you have paid for and walk through here."

The man was also curious about the anti-theft system that Li Renfa had mentioned, wondering if it was really that high-tech. So he walked over directly, and the device made no abnormal noises.

"Look, this comrade has already paid. The cashier demagnetized the items he purchased at the checkout counter, so the device made no noise at all!"

Then Li Renfa went to the crowd still in line and said to an older woman, "Comrade, please push your cart and walk out through the main gate!"

"Okay!"

The woman had just stepped out of the building pushing her cart when the security door alarm immediately started beeping again. The onlookers exclaimed in surprise, "Wow, this is really high-tech!"

"America's equipment is truly high-tech!"

"This is truly eye-opening!"

The woman was asked to go back by Li Renfa. When she went back in, the equipment sounded an alarm again, which startled her. After returning to the queue, she secretly took out the three toothbrushes from her pocket and put them in her shopping cart.

"As you can see, the equipment won't wrongly accuse an innocent person. Please be self-disciplined and don't take chances when shopping at Huaxingsheng Supermarket!"

Li Renfa's words prompted many people in the queue to consciously take out their stolen items from their clothes or pockets. Knowing that Huaxingsheng Supermarket had such an anti-theft device, they dared not take any more chances.

If I end up like that man who got caught, pinned to the ground in public by security guards, and the police are called, my workplace will be notified, and I'll lose my job!