Reborn as a tycoon in Hong Kong

In the morning, after breakfast, Lin Baicheng left the villa in the extended Lincoln.

In "Extended Lincoln", personal secretary Catherine reported something to Lin Baicheng, that is, Maori Haruko's father went to the Upper East Side villa to find Maori Haruko last night.

Lin Baicheng arranged two female bodyguards for Maori Haruko. While protecting her safety, they also had the intention of monitoring Maori Haruko.

Lin Baicheng asked his bodyguards to monitor Haruko Maori. In addition to monitoring whether Haruko Maori had ambiguous relationships with other men, more importantly, they also monitored whether Haruko Maori had joined forces with other forces to stab him in the back. After all, Haruko Maori helped him control a lot. wealth.

Of course, Lin Baicheng still trusts Haruko Maori very much, so the surveillance is not tight and he will not eavesdrop on the conversations between Haruko Maori and others. The current level of surveillance is only to report who Haruko Maori has met.

It's not that Lin Baicheng is seriously suspicious, but that he knows not to give those close to him a chance to betray him, as this is good for everyone.

Human nature cannot stand the test. It is best not to test it, otherwise you will often get the worst results.

"I know about this."

Lin Baicheng nodded and changed the subject: "Go and buy me a necklace. The price is about two hundred thousand dollars. It is for Kelly. Remember to buy the style that Kelly likes. Pack it and take it." Give me."

Since Carrie Fisher chose to maintain their relationship, Lin Baicheng certainly had to buy a gift for the other party. Anyway, the money spent was not too much.

"Yes, Chairman!"

Catherine wrote it down, feeling a little envious. After all, this was a gift worth about $200,000.

Lin Baicheng asked aloud: "What is the schedule for today?"

"You said you want to visit the physical stores of Blockbuster and Starlight. I have listed the locations of the physical stores. It is up to you to decide which physical store to visit."

"Also, you promised Mr. Phil Smith to visit Zhonghe Game Company, and the time is scheduled for this afternoon."

Catherine didn't even need to flip through her notebook, she just said it directly.

"This time I mainly look at Blockbuster's physical stores. Just go to one or two of Starlight's physical stores."

Lin Baicheng has gone to Starlight Company's physical stores quite a lot, especially the physical stores in Los Angeles and New York. Starlight Company's management is not stupid. The management of the physical stores in the two places is the strictest, and it is basically impossible to find any fault. .

As for the physical store of Blockbuster, Lin Baicheng has never been there once, so this time he mainly went to the physical store of Blockbuster, and just visited one or two Starlight stores.

The first place Lin Baicheng visited was a Blockbuster flagship store in Los Angeles. This is one of the largest Blockbuster stores in Los Angeles.

When he was about to arrive at the store, Lin Baicheng asked Lincoln to stop nearby. He walked to the store alone wearing sunglasses. The bodyguards did not follow him in, but were waiting not far outside.

Lin Baicheng walked into the store wearing sunglasses. As long as he didn't meet someone familiar, he didn't have to worry about being recognized.

In this way, Lin Baicheng can see the real side of the store.

"Hello, welcome to Blockbuster, how can I help you?"

As soon as Lin Baicheng walked into the store, a clerk came over to him.

"I want to find some movies to watch."

Lin Baicheng did not use Cantonese to embarrass anyone, he spoke in English.

Lin Baicheng himself is Chinese. He requires the companies under his name not to discriminate against yellow people, not to exclude Chinese people, and to recruit outstanding Chinese as employees, but he does not require employees to speak Chinese or Cantonese.

As for employees in Starlight physical stores and Blockbuster physical stores who face customers directly, Lin Baicheng also does not require employees to speak Chinese, nor does he require every store to have Chinese-speaking employees.

Many things must be combined with reality. This is the United States. Lin Baicheng requires that the companies under his name cannot be racially discriminatory and recruit some Chinese employees. It is already good to be able to do this, but it is a bit unrealistic to think about more.

"Sir, do you have a specific video you are looking for?"

The clerk asked. Although the man in front of her was an Oriental and strangely wearing sunglasses, she still treated him with the best attitude. The store manager said that all employees at the headquarters are required to regard customers as God during this period. Any employee who makes a mistake will face punishment, and in serious cases, they will be fired directly.

No one wants to be fired, and the job as a Blockbuster clerk is not cheap.

Lin Baicheng shook his head and said, "No, I want to take a look first to see if I can find the movie I want to watch."

"Okay, then after you find the movie you want to rent, you can ask our store clerk or go directly to the counter to check out. The video tapes we place here are divided according to the type of movie, including science fiction, romance, history, etc., on the shelf They are all labeled so you can check them yourself.”

After hearing this, the clerk immediately introduced him. There were not many such customers.

"okay, I get it."

Lin Baicheng nodded and walked towards the shelf where the video tapes were placed.

The clerk did not follow Lin Baicheng anymore, but returned to his original position, waiting for the next customer to come in.

Lin Baicheng was walking around the store. He was not the only customer in the store. From time to time, he could see customers calling to the clerk to ask something, or a clerk looking for customers to see if they needed help. Nothing happened.

After wandering around for a while and looking at basically all the shelves, Lin Baicheng determined that the display of video tapes at Blockbuster was still very good, the hygiene and other aspects were also very good, and the store clerks were also polite and patient.

Overall, it's very good. At least Lin Baicheng can't find any faults with what he sees now.

Of course, this is Blockbuster's flagship store, so it's normal to do well in all aspects. If there are a lot of problems here, then I know the problems in other Blockbuster stores will be more serious.

After watching what was necessary, Lin Baicheng did not stay in the store for long and left directly without renting the video tape.

When leaving, Lin Baicheng didn't walk too fast. He even passed by the clerk who had entertained him empty-handed. After finding that the clerk didn't have any bad reaction because he didn't rent the video tape, he left with great satisfaction.

After leaving, Lin Baicheng met up with Catherine and the bodyguards, returned to the extended Lincoln, and headed to the next physical store.

The Blockbuster store Lin Baicheng chose this time was not a flagship store, but one of many ordinary stores, randomly selected.

When they arrived near the store, Lin Baicheng went in the old way.

This ordinary Blockbuster store is much smaller than the flagship store, only one-third the size of the flagship store, and there are only three employees in the store.

"Hello sir, welcome to Blockbuster!"

When Lin Baicheng walked into the store, a clerk at the counter came over immediately.

"Hello, I would like to find some videos to watch."

"Sir, what movie do you want to rent?"

"I haven't decided what movies to rent yet. I want to look for them myself first."

"Okay, sir, after you have decided, please go to the counter to register and pay."

As the clerk said this, he left and faced a customer who walked in.

Lin Baicheng didn't say anything when he saw this. Instead, he walked around the store, looking at the shelves, and occasionally pulling out a video tape to check the information on it.

This store is much smaller than the flagship store, and Lin Baicheng finished shopping in less time. The service here is definitely not as good as the flagship store, but it is not bad, and Lin Baicheng is quite satisfied.

Before leaving, Lin Baicheng casually took two video tapes and walked to the counter to check out.

When renting video tapes at Blockbuster, in addition to a deposit, you also need to register your identity information. Only in this way can we determine who rented the videotape, and who will return the deposit to when the videotape is returned.

One thing I have to say is that there are no ID cards in the United States.

However, there are ways to prove your identity, such as driver's license, insurance certificate, work permit, student ID and other documents with clear information.

As for fake identity information, there must be some, but as long as the identity certificate doesn't look fake, the rest has nothing to do with Blockbuster.

Blockbuster only needs to collect the deposit and rental fee, and then register the identity information. As for whether the identity information is disguised, it has nothing to do with Blockbuster. After all, Blockbuster is a private enterprise, and the most important money is collected.

After all, Blockbuster has to take into account that some people may rent the tape and not have time to return it, and then ask family members to return the tape with identification.

If you insist on renting and returning the products yourself, Blockbuster will definitely lose a lot of potential customers, and the company will make a lot less money. This kind of thing must not be done.

Therefore, Blockbuster has relaxed its requirements when it comes to identity information registration. Anyway, Blockbuster's business is to rent video tapes and not sell white powder, so it is not strict about what to do.

What Lin Baicheng showed the clerk was a driver's license. The information on the driver's license was that of a white man, who was obviously not the same person as Lin Baicheng himself. However, the clerk didn't say anything when he saw it. Instead, he registered it and collected two volumes. $50 deposit and $3 rental fee for videotape.

Currently, Blockbuster's deposit is $25 for a video tape, regardless of whether it is a hit movie or not, and no matter how many years it has been released, the deposit fee is still $25.

As for the rental fee, there are three calculation methods. One is to rent for three days and the rental fee is US$1.5 per volume; the second is to rent for one week and the rental fee is US$2 per volume; the third is to rent for one month and the rental fee is US$5 per volume.

The third rental method is just to give customers one more choice. Blockbuster has not thought about making money through this, because Blockbuster also knows that there will be very few customers who choose this rental method.

Another point is that no matter which rental method is used, compensation will be required for overdue payments, and an additional overdue fee of US$0.5 will be charged for each overdue day.

As for what if the overdue time is too long and the overdue fee exceeds the deposit, that's okay. Blockbuster will treat it as if you bought the video tape, and you don't have to return the video tape, and Blockbuster will not return the deposit.

Or, if the customer insists on returning the video tape and the deposit, that's fine. They can pay as much overdue fee as necessary. Blockbuster will naturally refund the deposit after the customer pays the overdue fee.

However, there should be no such silly customers. If the overdue fee is $50, I believe no customer will choose to pay the $50 overdue fee just to get back the $25 deposit.

If a customer is overdue for too long, Blockbuster will not suffer any loss. After all, Blockbuster buys a lot of goods. The current price of a video tape is only 20 US dollars. A deposit of 25 US dollars is equivalent to a sales price of 25 US dollars. If the customer does not return the video tape , Blockbuster can still earn $5 a time.

When customers rent video tapes, Blockbuster's clerks will explain to customers in advance the overdue fees and the calculation method of overdue fees.

After completing the rental, Lin Baicheng left the store with two video tapes.

Blockbuster's current rules and charging methods are all in the trial stage. If there are no problems with this method, then needless to say, Blockbuster will definitely continue to operate. No problem, of course it is the best.

However, if a large number of customers have opinions about deposit fees, rental fees, overdue fees, etc., and the opinions are very large and affect the number of rental customers, then Blockbuster management will definitely make adjustments based on the actual situation.

Until we find a way to satisfy customers and make Blockbuster a lot of profit.

The latter is the most important. The most important thing is that it allows Blockbuster to make money. If it doesn't make money, it doesn't matter how satisfied the customers are. Doing business is not charity.

Returning to Extended Lincoln, this time Lin Baicheng was going to a Blockbuster franchise store.

In addition to its self-operated physical stores, Blockbuster now also has franchise stores. However, Blockbuster was only established in July last year. It was only in March this year that some people thought that becoming a Blockbuster franchisee would make money, and the first Blockbuster franchisee appeared. franchisee.

Here in Los Angeles, Blockbuster currently only has three franchise stores, and the stores opened by franchisees are not large, which is better than the ordinary stores operated by Blockbuster.

Lin Baicheng didn't plan to visit all three franchise stores, but only planned to visit one of them.

As a franchise store, Blockbuster requires franchisees and self-operated stores to operate simultaneously, with the same charging methods, and requires franchise stores to treat customers the same as self-operated stores. Even the general arrangement of video tapes is required.

It is true that Blockbuster can make a lot more money with one more franchisee, but Blockbuster cannot allow franchisees to ruin Blockbuster's reputation. If the franchisee does not do well, it will only damage Blockbuster's reputation. Customers and the market will not distinguish Blockbuster's self-operated stores from franchisee stores.

In the eyes of the outside world, Blockbuster and its franchisees are one and the same, so franchisees must be strictly managed and cannot be left alone.

Of course, Lin Baicheng doesn't have high requirements for franchisees, as long as they do well.

After inspecting the franchisee's stores, Lin Baicheng was satisfied with the current management of the stores by Blockbuster's management. At least what he saw was not bad. As for what will happen to these stores when he is not in the United States, he can only leave it to his assistants to supervise, and there is no other way.

After that, Lin Baicheng went to look at the physical stores of Starlight Company. Due to limited time, he only visited one store, which was randomly selected. What he wanted to see was the real side.

A whole morning passed like this while inspecting the physical store. Although he didn't do much, after seeing it with his own eyes, Lin Baicheng was able to know more about it. This was enough.