The Pentium Era - South to North

Seeing that the end of the year was coming, Zhang Chen felt very irritable, thinking that this year would pass quickly. Starting from the second half of the year, not only their stores in Hangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing, but also the franchise stores at the county level below, like In Xiangshan, the sales of a county-level store used to be equivalent to the sales of a prefecture-level city elsewhere, but it is said that it will not be able to sustain this year.

I can't stand it anymore, these are the three words that almost every store will say when calling Zhang Chen.

A few stores are even considering whether to change careers, but looking at other industries, it seems that life is not getting better. Almost no one is spared from the depression in all industries.

Zhang Chen knew in his heart that this was almost an industry-wide phenomenon. It wasn't that there was something wrong with their products, but even so, he still felt irritated.

The entire clothing industry is having a hard time this year, because the sales of their counters in shopping malls in Shanghai and Beijing have dropped by 30 to 40%. But the problem is that their ranking in most shopping malls is still among the top three. By comparison , it’s pretty good. If it weren’t for the downturn in the entire industry, this situation wouldn’t have happened.

In the economic downturn, clothing is a barometer. Zhang Chen now understands why clothing, food, housing, and transportation should come first. If you don’t have enough clothes to cover your body, you will probably eat tastelessly and you won’t be able to dress decently. You won’t even be in the mood to go out. No, I have no desire to sit down and have a good meal. I just huddle in any corner and kill myself with a bowl of noodles.

If sales don't go up, the old problem with inventory comes out. After all, there are so many stores to sell goods and the exchange rate is so high.

When business is good, almost every store’s exchange rate is not enough, and they don’t want to be porters. The remaining one or two pieces of a style will make money anyway. These one or two pieces are very cheap. Disposed of.

When the business is not good, the products will not move, so they can only exchange them, and they will not move. In the end, they have to return to the factory. Every store not only uses up the exchange rate, but also complains that it is not enough. Balabala brand and Balabala brand are already 100% exchangeable.

Moreover, when sales are good, your base is large, and the proportion of inventory is relatively small. When sales are not good, basically every style is produced, and more than one-third of it will be returned in the end.

Inventory is constantly increasing, but there are more and more styles. There is no way, they almost rely on constantly releasing new models to maintain this pitiful sales.

The same is true in the store below. There are fewer and fewer customers coming to buy clothes. Those who often come to the store only rely on those few old customers. In every place, no matter how bad the economy is, there will always be some rich people. , a woman who also likes to buy clothes.

But clothes are not like apples. If you eat one today, you can eat another tomorrow. No matter how much she likes the clothes, she will only buy them once, or even look at them once. Every time she goes to the store, she will ask: Are there any new models?

The only way to maintain sales in the store and retain and attract these old customers is to continuously introduce new products.

Continuously launching new models is almost a requirement of all specialty stores. Zhang Chen and others have to meet their needs. Ge Ling and others are under great pressure in the design center.

Everyone knows very well that no one can design and produce all hot-selling models. Hot-selling models and slow-selling models also exist in a certain proportion. The more new models there are, the more slow-selling models will definitely follow, and the new models will also be on the rise. After ordering the goods once, they will not replenish the goods, and the unsalable money will be returned and become inventory.

There are more new styles, and the cost of clothing also increases, because your fabrics and accessories are all new, and it is impossible to match all the quantities just right, and there will definitely be waste of one kind or another.

In addition, workers are not familiar with the styles, and the output cannot increase. If the output cannot increase, your wages will relatively increase. Otherwise, the workers' income will decrease, which will directly affect their enthusiasm.

All of these have caused their production costs to increase a lot.

The most annoying thing is that the more styles there are, the inventory will definitely increase significantly. This is a vicious cycle.

The sales of clothing are not increasing, and even their private custom-made customers, Zhang Chen, feel that their purchases have dropped significantly.

When Shentu Hongyan came to Zhang Chen's place, they talked about this. Shentu Hongyan and Zhang Chen said, it's like this. It's not that I have no money, but I don't dare to spend it. I thought that money comes easily. , spend it and make money again, but it’s different now. You know it’s not that easy to make money, and you don’t know what will happen next year and the year after that, so even if you have money, you don’t dare to spend it.

Zhang Chen understands this mentality very well.

Shentu Hongyan and Zhang Chen said, like me, it's pretty good because my customers are mainly in China and the Middle East. People in the Middle East are not affected much. They still have money and are still shipping normally.

Those factories in Southeast Asia are indescribably miserable, not to mention the workers, but also the customers. There are thousands of Koreans in Yiwu. Do you know what their lives are like?

I rented a hotel and went to rent a house. A dozen people lived in a house and ate noodles every day. They were not even instant noodles. I couldn’t even afford instant noodles. They were the kind of dried noodles that I bought in tubes and cooked. Okay, let’s get some soy sauce and some salt to eat like this.

They have no choice. They used to deliver goods to China every day, but now they have no goods. How do they make money? For small commodities like ours in Yiwu, the profit margin is very thin. If we don’t have the goods, we have to rest on our laurels.

I don’t dare to go back to my country. There is no way to survive and I can’t find a job. Korea is different from ours. They don’t have any small businesses, they are all big companies. Big companies are already difficult to enter. Now, it’s even more difficult to enter. If you don’t go, wouldn’t there be many big companies that have simply closed down?

Mr. Zhang, let me tell you, I invited three Korean friends to dinner that day, and what was the result? I almost burst into tears after eating. Every dish was eaten, and I wanted to eat all the dishes. This is it. Look, you say it's pitiful or not, but thousands of Koreans, or foreigners, live like this in Yiwu.

On this day, Shen Tu Hongyan and Zhang Chen talked about dressing up, but they didn't talk about these things as much.

Listening to these words made Zhang Chen even more irritated, and at the same time he loved hearing them. He felt that he was not the only one who was unlucky now, but that everyone was having a hard time. Everyone was sad. This man's heart seemed to be a little more balanced.

Zhang Chen himself didn't know why he had such ridiculous thoughts. Is it human instinct? People just don't see good things in others, and wish everyone was more unlucky than themselves?

Times are tough for clothing, and private customization is not satisfactory. Fortunately for Zhang Chen, there is also a dynamic zone. The rent in this area is guaranteed to be income during droughts and floods, but the impact is still huge. The biggest one is that the income from parking lots and catering has plummeted. , Originally, these two pieces were more than enough to sustain not only the expenses of their market itself, but also the expenses of their entire company.

Now we can only make a slight surplus in addition to maintaining our own expenses.

The sales of every store are declining. There are fewer incoming and outgoing goods, and the parking lot income is naturally low. In the market, not only are there fewer customers, but there are also fewer salespeople. The store that used to have three or four people is now guarded by one person. Well, if there are fewer people, fewer people will go to the canteen to eat. It is normal for the income from catering to decline.

Life can still be lived, but as Shentu Hongyan said, expectations for the future have decreased. When a person has no hope for the future, he will of course be dissatisfied with the present and have an impetuous heart. Zhang Chen is just looking forward to this. The shitty year of 1997 can be over as soon as possible.

But these days are real. You can’t keep the happy days even if you want to, and you can’t hide the difficult days even if you want to. You can only live by them day by day, second by second, minute by minute. It won’t be shorter or longer. , every day has to be endured even if it is hard.

Liu Ligan called Zhang Chen and told him that he would have dinner together in the evening and that he must come.

"Why are you so serious about your engagement to Tan Shuzhen?" Zhang Chen asked.

"Shit, I still only smelled the fishy smell and didn't even touch my claws." Liu Ligan said, "I met Qu Tianlin in front of me. She said that we haven't had dinner together for a long time. We got together in the evening. I have already called Wei Wenfang. Called."

"Aren't you afraid of eating a bitter meal?"

"Don't be afraid, you have to have fun even in the midst of suffering." Liu Ligan laughed.

Dinner was still in the big box in Tianxiang Building. The meal was just as Zhang Chen expected. It was a meal to remember the hardships. Everyone complained about how hard life was. Wei Wenfang said that the decline in business was not included. The price has also come down, it’s only 50 cents, and customers have to worry about it.

"Of course." Zhang Chen said, "When times are good, who cares about your express delivery fee? When times are bad, 50 cents is also a cost."

"It's the same for us. Now there are more machines in the country, and the prices are also a mess, and all the old customers have been driven away." Qu Tianlin said with a smile.

"All the old customers have left, and you're still so happy?" Lao Tan was surprised.

"I'm happy. After the old customers leave, there will be new customers. If the customer I'm negotiating with now is successful, we will move the factory to Hangzhou." Qu Tianlin said.

"What kind of customer is so awesome?" Liu Ligan asked.

"Hangcheng Cigarette Factory." Qu Tianlin said, "print cigarette labels for them."

As soon as Qu Tianlin said it, everyone knew that this customer was really awesome.

"Look at us all, life is so difficult. This cigarette factory's business is very good this year." Qu Tianlin said with a smile.

"Of course." Liu Bang, the emperor of the Han Dynasty, said, "There are so many people smoking cigarettes. They smoke cigarettes so hard. After one sip, most of the cigarettes are gone. I feel like my addiction to cigarettes has become stronger."

"Yes, yes, the emperor is right. The emperor is so troubled. How can we ordinary people not smoke cigarettes? By the way, Sister Tianlin, you must find a way to win this. This is a gold mine." Liu Ligan said.

"Yes, Sister Tianlin, do you need our help?" Zhang Chen asked.

Qu Tianlin waved her hand and said, "You don't need it now. I will tell you if you need it."

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