I Have a Research Support System

After completing the conference registration, the three of Xu Qiu gathered at the entrance and exit of the gate of the venue.

Considering that neither Han Jiaying nor Wu Feifei had a bag, and it was inconvenient to travel with a pile of materials, the three of them went back to the hotel.

Then, temporarily store other materials, including the MRS conference brochure, in the hotel room, and each person only keeps one tag to carry with them.

After putting away the things, Han Jiaying and Wu Feifei came to Xu Qiu's room to discuss their next move.

After some discussion, the three decided to find a supermarket to buy some bottled water first.

When going out, drinking bottled water is more reassuring on the one hand, in case someone boils socks with a hot water bottle, on the other hand, it is also convenient to carry. After all, I am here to attend a conference (travel) and will not stay in the hotel most of the time.

What's more, they have to change the $50 and $100 bills to get some $1 change, so that they can tip.

In addition, Xu Qiu is also a little curious about whether the supermarkets in the beautiful country are different from the domestic supermarkets.

The map around the venue that was previously registered and issued can play a role.

Xu Qiu unfolded the map and spread it on his big bed.

Looking around, most of the places around the venue are hotels, there are also some restaurants, and the number of convenience stores is very small, unlike domestic ones, where convenience stores can be found everywhere.

In some places in China, there are even a phenomenon of clusters of convenience stores, such as a Family Mart on the left and a Lawson on the right.

The nearest convenience store to the hotel is called "CVS Store". It is about two kilometers away from the hotel and spans several blocks.

"CVS..." Xu Qiu searched for CVS information on his mobile phone, and said, "Sister, you can go to Gugou map to check if there are other convenience stores around."

"Okay." Han Jiaying responded.

Xu Qiu saw the information about CVS displayed on his mobile phone, and found that CVS was actually the largest pharmaceutical retailer in the beautiful country. Originally, CVS' pharmaceutical business was its main business, but it just opened a convenience store as a side effect. Accidentally spread the stores all over the beautiful country.

This reminded Xu Qiu of the phenomenon that "brands that are now making mobile phones are rushing to make cars". It is often not the second or third in this industry that defeats the leader of an industry, but other companies across the industry.

At this time, the school girl finished searching the surrounding convenience stores, she shook her head helplessly: "CVS is the nearest convenience store, and another convenience store is four kilometers away."

"Well..." Xu Qiu made a decision: "Then CVS, let's go."

The three of them left the hotel. It was approaching noon, and the sun outside was already very strong.

Xu Qiu was carrying a backpack, holding a parasol with Han Jiaying, and Wu Feifei was holding another parasol. They checked the map and walked towards the CVS convenience store.

After walking a few steps, they came across the first intersection. Xu Qiu and the others were going from south to north when the light happened to be red.

There are also traffic lights here in the beautiful country. There is no countdown number on it, and the style is not much different from the domestic ones.

In addition, there are white lights for passers-by to cross the road. There are two states of red light and white light. The style is in the shape of a palm. Red light stops and white light goes.

Xu Qiu found that there was a controller in front of the crosswalk next to it, and there was a sign on it:

"It is possible to artificially control the change of the traffic lights, press the button, and the signal lights in the orthogonal direction will change from green to red."

Seeing this, Xu Qiu tried to press the button.

In less than three seconds, the traffic lights in the east-west direction changed from green to red, and the red and white lights for pedestrians in the north-south direction changed from red to white.

At the same time, the red and white lights also made a sound of "da da da da", which seemed to urge people to hurry over.

It seems that it is quite useful.

However, it is said that this thing is similar to the door-closing button of an elevator, which belongs to Schrödinger's button. The button in some places can work, such as the place Xu Qiu is pressing right now, and some places are broken, so it can only play a consoling role. .

The three of them crossed the intersection and walked forward for a few minutes, when Han Jiaying suddenly exclaimed: "Brother, look there is a little yellow car over there~"

"Small yellow car?" Xu Qiu followed the junior girl's instructions, looked over, and found that there were indeed two small yellow cars, and the style was almost exactly the same as the small yellow cars on domestic campuses.

It is obviously impossible for someone to ride the little yellow bike across the Pacific Ocean to the beautiful country, but the little yellow bike company specially put it here.

After the three approached, Xu Qiu tried to scan the code with domestic software, and found that the domestic software was also compatible.

However, when they saw the price, they were all dumbfounded. It costs a dollar for a ride!

The money in the beautiful country is so easy to earn.

You know, the small yellow car in China has just gotten financing and left the campus, and the price has only increased from 50 cents to 1 yuan a time, and here it is directly 1 dollar a time.

There is no harm without comparison.

After getting used to the bicycle service of 50 cents a time, Xu Qiu felt that it was a bit expensive to go up to 1 yuan a time. Now the price of the same service in the beautiful country has increased by nearly seven times.

Even if Xu Qiu and the others were not short of this little money, they still couldn't accept it.

So, the three of them continued to walk...

The streets along the way are relatively clean, and there are no homeless people living on the streets. Maybe this is a place with relatively good law and order, and it is also because of the daytime.

It's hard to say at night, anyway, Xu Qiu made up his mind not to go out after eight o'clock in the evening.

Moreover, Phoenix City is not Las Vegas. Looking at the surrounding area, apart from more hotels, other supporting facilities are probably not as good as domestic second-tier cities. There is no nightlife.

A small half of the pedestrians around were wearing MRS conference hang tags, and some didn't hang the hang tags on their bodies, but Xu Qiu deduced that many of them were also participants of the conference, and the characteristics of scientific researchers were sometimes quite obvious.

Navigating along the map, the three of them walked for nearly 20 minutes, finally arrived at CVS, and walked in.

Although CVS is mainly a pharmacy in name, the area of ​​the convenience store is very large. It is estimated that it covers an area of ​​more than 500 square meters, and the area of ​​the pharmacy is about 100-200 square meters.

Wu Feifei acted alone. She received the task of purchasing for her family, saying that she was looking for a vitamin gummy for health care.

Xu Qiu and Han Jiaying acted together, because they were relatively low-key and didn't make a big deal about their going to the beautiful country, so they didn't receive the task of purchasing agents, so they walked around more easily.

The product classification here is very detailed, and there is a tag above each shelf to mark the product category.

There are many kinds of things sold, including all kinds of drinks, food, mother and baby products, toys, small luxury goods, such as lipstick and so on.

In terms of price, except for some fruits, other commodities are cheaper than the same amount of Ruanmei coins in China if calculated in US dollars.

For example, Feizhai Happy Water costs US$0.99 for 1 bottle and US$11.99 for 24 bottles. In China, the price must be at least 2.5 times higher.

2 liters of fat house happy water, 1 bottle is 1.99 US dollars, and 4 bottles of special price are 4.99 US dollars.

The cheapest mineral water is US$0.5 for 1 bottle and US$8.49 for 24 bottles.

In addition, there are souvenirs sold, including acrylic hang tags, metal hang tags, and T-shirts with various patterns.

Among them, T-shirt clothes are on sale, 5 dollars for one piece, 9.9 dollars for three pieces.

"Three pieces at $9.9, it's a good deal." Han Jiaying stopped, touched the fabric with her hands, and felt that it was okay, then turned to ask Xu Qiu's opinion: "Brother, should we buy three pieces?"

"Then buy it," Xu Qiu nodded with a smile: "It just happens that there are three of us, so let's take it as a souvenir."

"Okay." Han Jiaying began to carefully choose styles.

A few minutes later, the junior girl picked out two T-shirts, one white and one black, with the same Phoenix pattern printed on them, which could be used as couple outfits for her and Xu Qiu. In addition, she also thoughtfully helped Wu Feifei choose the printed T-shirts There is a T-shirt with a dog's head.

A couple and a dog are very recognizable.

After shopping around, the two took three T-shirts, mainly because there was nothing to buy for other necessities except water.

For daily necessities, including toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, shower gel, conditioner, shower cap, soap, razor, etc., the hotel provides disposable items and can be replaced every day.

If they hadn't just seen this T-shirt and the price was right, they probably wouldn't have bought it specifically.

Xu Qiu and Han Jiaying found Wu Feifei to gather.

Han Jiaying asked, "Sister Wu Feifei, have you found that vitamin gummy?"

Wu Feifei shook her head: "I didn't find it, I guess I have to go to a special pharmacy to buy it, let's talk about it next time."

Xu Qiu showed the patterns on the three T-shirts: "Look, we bought it for you, you like it."

Wu Feifei understood in seconds, and gave Xu Qiu a blank look: "Let's go, let's go buy water."

In the end, the three bought a box of 24 bottles of mineral water for US$8.49, three T-shirts for US$9.90, and a 2-liter bottle of Fat House Happy Water for US$1.99.

CVS Convenience Store has a manual checkout channel, but there is only one channel, and the queue is relatively long, and there are three self-checkout machines.

In order to save trouble, Xu Qiu and the others chose the self-checkout machine, put the goods on it, scan the code, and then pay the cash, and the machine will automatically give change.

There are no security guards around the self-checkout machines, only a few cameras next to them.

In China, there is also a payment company piloting unmanned supermarkets and unmanned hotels in big cities, but it is very difficult to implement it.

On the one hand, it is easy to lose things. On the other hand, the main reason is that the price of goods sold in unmanned supermarkets is even more expensive than ordinary convenience stores.

The reason is probably because domestic labor is relatively cheap. If you hire a shop assistant, you only need to pay a few thousand yuan a month, and if you upgrade various equipment that no one sells, you may have to increase tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars in the early stage. Investment, and later maintenance costs will be higher than the cost of hiring labor.

On the other hand, the beautiful country has high labor costs. Although it costs a few thousand a month to hire a clerk, it costs thousands of dollars. The absolute cost of upgrading unmanned equipment and equipment maintenance is similar. After converting the exchange rate, no one The cost of sales is lower than the cost of someone selling, and the company will naturally tend to promote unmanned sales.

Moreover, the personal credit system here in Pretty Country is more complete, and the cost of breaking trust is very high, which will affect employment, promotion, renting, leasing, business registration, etc., and the record of breaking trust will be kept for many years, which leads to people I will tend not to be greedy for petty gains and cause myself to lose my trust, which is also conducive to the normal operation of unmanned sales.

Xu Qiufen paid the bill three times, and got some one-dollar bills and some cent coins.

In addition, the prices of the products here are all tax-free, and an additional 10% tax needs to be paid at checkout.

After paying the bill, Xu Qiu put away the change, opened the bottled water, and put it in his backpack. Wu Feifei was holding a 2-liter bottle of Coke, and Han Jiaying was carrying three T-shirts. The three returned to the hotel together.

After arriving at the hotel lobby, Xu Qiu first went to the free drink supply point there and got a glass of lemonade.

Then, Xu Qiu discovered that the lemonade here had been iced, which was very cool and especially refreshing, so he made another glass, and gave Amway to Wu Feifei and Han Jiaying, asking them to have a glass each.

This is also the difference between domestic and foreign countries. Generally speaking, people in China, especially the previous generation, do not like to let their children drink ice water, nor do they like to let children drink drinks with other things added, and they prefer plain water.

Foreigners, on the other hand, prefer to drink ice water, and flavored water with other things added, such as lemonade, coffee, or alcohol, and they rarely provide plain water without anything added.

Afterwards, the three of them stored their things in the hotel and came out again to prepare for lunch.

They also saw some shops on the road before, such as pizza shops, donut shops, sandwich shops, coffee shops, bars and so on.

Some are chain brands that can be seen in China, such as "Pizza Hut" and "Subway", and a few are local specialty brands, such as "Downtown Pizza Lounge" and so on.

In addition to the front shop, there is also a mobile dining car like in the beautiful country movie on the other side of the venue. Now it is time for dinner, and it is probably open for business.

After deliberation, the three finally decided to start with cheap meals and explore the "Shaxian snacks" in the beautiful country.

The first store, I chose a donut shop called "Angkor Donut", which is located between the hotel and the CVS convenience store, a ten-minute walk away.

When the three of them came to the store, they saw a big donut decoration outside the house, and a square chimney, from which smoke would spew out occasionally.

Walking into the store, there are three clerks in total, one is a black fat woman, the other is a white fat woman, and there is a white brother.

They were chatting happily while working, and occasionally had physical contact. It seemed that two fat women were taking advantage of the white guy.

The white guy seems to be enjoying it too...

PS: The name of the hotel was wrongly written earlier. The translated name of Hyatt should be Hyatt. I wrote it as Hilton, but it should have little impact on reading. After that, I will write it as Hilton.