Chapter 237 Supermarket Data Research and Business Opportunities of Plastic Bags

Chapter 237 Supermarket Data Research and Business Opportunities of Plastic Bags

Chapter 237 Supermarket Data Research and Business Opportunities of Plastic Bags

Liu Huayu then said: "Thank you, Mr. Yang, would you like to go with us?"

"Forget it." Yang Wendong waved his hand and said, "If I go, everyone will feel uncomfortable eating, so you better not go."

"Okay." Liu Huayu nodded and said.

Whether in the United States, Europe or Asia, the relationship between employees and bosses is always somewhat uncomfortable. This is also normal. He also rose step by step from an ordinary employee.

"When will Rediffusion TV broadcast our news?" Yang Wendong asked again.

This time he specially invited ATV to make an exposure on the screen.

The main reason is that supermarkets are a new thing, and no matter how much you praise them in newspapers or on the radio, the effect will not be as good as playing them directly on TV.

"It will be around 9:10." Liu Huayu looked at his watch and said, "About minutes left."

"Well, OK." Yang Wendong nodded and said, "Wait a minute, go talk to the employees, and come back later to see how Rediffusion plays it."

In this era, shopping malls mainly do business during the day and evening, and there are relatively fewer people at night.

The main reason is that there is no mobile communication, and even in Central, it is not that safe at night, so most shopping malls targeting ordinary people are closed at 8-9 o'clock.

With the exception of high-end clubs, the players in these places all have cars and subordinates, so they naturally don’t worry about safety, and it is normal for them to play until midnight.

"Okay." Liu Huayu agreed and left, and came back after a while.

He then said, "Mr. Yang, I have also told Mr. Qin this number. The Hong Kong Chinese Daily and several other newspapers will also report this matter tomorrow morning."

"Yeah, okay." Yang Wendong nodded and said, "It would be good to promote it a little more."

……

The time soon came to 9:15, and the news anchor of Rediffusion Television said: "Today, the Cheung Hing Shopping Center on Des Voeux Road in Hong Kong Island opened, and many business tycoons in Hong Kong also went to participate in the ribbon-cutting ceremony...

Inside the mall, a new type of store called Carrefour Supermarket has opened. This is a new retail model from Europe and the United States, and the shopping experience is very good.

The goods in Carrefour supermarkets are placed directly on the shelves. Anyone can choose what they want to buy. It is very convenient. "

Another host asked, "Sister Yun, what if I go to buy something and no one tells me the price?"

Sister Yun smiled and said, "Don't worry, all the goods in Carrefour supermarket have price tags on them, so you don't need to ask anyone to know the price."

"Really?" The host next to him said in surprise, "Then I don't have to keep asking about prices anymore? That's great. I hate asking about prices when I buy things."

"Yes, the store owner gets annoyed if you ask too much, and I also feel embarrassed if I don't buy anything." Sister Yun also laughed and said, "Then let's see, the reporter in the front is interviewing at Carrefour supermarket today."

The TV screen soon changed to scenes inside a shopping mall during the day. The first scene was a lot of people walking towards the supermarket from the entrance, followed by a large number of people selecting goods at the shelves, and a large number of people checking out at the checkout counter.

"What do you think of the filming?" Yang Wendong asked casually.

Liu Huayu thought for a moment and said, "Based on my experience watching TV in the United States, the filming is indeed not very good, but it does show the situation of a large number of people.

The most attractive part is probably the home appliance area. As far as I know, these home appliances are very attractive to many middle-class families, but the TV station crew just glanced over them.”

"Well, there are many shortcomings, but there is nothing we can do about it." Yang Wendong nodded and said, "There is only one TV station in Hong Kong, and we have no choice."

Liu Huayu added: "The main reason is that I don't have time. It's going to be broadcast tonight. I can only send one person to ATV, and he doesn't know much about TV stations."

Yang Wendong shook his head and said, "It's useless to understand. Li doesn't want outsiders to guide them. We can only let them do it themselves. We can only give some advice, which may not be professional."

In the pre-digital age, you couldn’t know what you were going to shoot right after you finished, so you could only shoot first and then go back and edit it.

In addition, the cost of film is extremely high and the camera is also very expensive, so people are more cautious when shooting.

"It may be because there is no competition that the level of their filming staff is not high." Liu Huayu speculated: "Any industry without competition will be useless."

"Yes." Yang Wendong nodded.

The previous TVB began to decline in the 21st century, which was partly due to the lack of competition from Hong Kong.

Of course, the more important issues are the loss of the market, internal talent gap, and other issues.

Liu Huayu asked again: "This exclusive interview cost 8000 yuan. Do you still want to continue to place advertisements?"

“If you put it in a proper amount, the visual advertising effect on TV will be the best.” Yang Wendong thought for a moment and said.

Newspapers and radio stations are suitable for direct advertising. That is to say, users already know what the product is, and you can just use simple text or a sentence to tell them where there is a better product of the same type.

But for new things, this method is inefficient. Even if you use your own radio station or newspaper, customers may just pass by you if you spend a lot of words or language to introduce them.

"Okay." Liu Huayu said.

Yang Wendong added: "Also, you can cooperate with Changxing Real Estate's cinema chain in Hong Kong Island, buy advertising space from them, and put up pictures for promotion."

As early as the 60s, Changxing Real Estate began to acquire cinema land and build its own cinemas or purchase them directly. In the past two years, all the acquired cinemas have been registered under Changxing Real Estate. Now, there are 20 cinemas.

However, most of them are in Kowloon, with only 8 in Hong Kong Island.

"Cinema? I see." Liu Huayu nodded and said, "The cinemas in the United States also have this kind of advertisement."

"Well, OK." Yang Wendong said: "Today's high sales volume is the result of discounts and previous promotions, and we will need to operate normally from now on.

We still need to invest in advertising, and you need to figure out the specific plan yourself. In addition, if we build other supermarkets, our advertising investment can be targeted at all supermarkets. If it is only for one supermarket, it will be a big loss, and it may even have a counter-effect. "

Once the advertisement is released, it will target the whole of Hong Kong, or a certain group of people somewhere in Hong Kong. However, the Hong Kong government only has such business in Central, which would be a big loss.

"Okay, I plan to open two more properties at the beginning of next year." Liu Huayu said: "Changxing Real Estate has already bought the property and is renovating it.

It just so happens that I can spend another three months training relevant personnel, so the time is just right.”

"Okay, you don't have to worry about the funding for expansion." Yang Wendong added, "But each store must achieve profitability as soon as possible and find the best operating management method."

During the period of rapid expansion, there will definitely be an overall loss, but each single store is a different matter.

As for profits, supermarkets cannot compare with real estate, and Yang Wendong does not lack the profits from a few supermarkets.

Only when it is profitable can it be proved that a business model is correct, and then this model can be used to expand and even continue to optimize to minimize costs.

In this way, when other consortiums discover that this new industry is profitable, they will have to face pioneers who have both their own properties and cost control capabilities when they enter the market. Even if Jardine Matheson enters the market, Yang Wendong will not be afraid.

Liu Huayu said: "Don't worry, Mr. Yang, I will sort out a business model suitable for Carrefour as soon as possible based on the local market of Hong Kong and the operating model of Walmart."

"Yeah, okay." Yang Wendong looked at the TV station again.

At this moment, the news has changed to other content.

"I wonder if I can push TVB forward in advance?" Yang Wendong thought to himself.

If I could get a TV station one or two years earlier, it would be a great boost to my career.

……

In a residential area in Admiralty, Hong Kong:

A family of five is watching TV.

"This supermarket looks really good." A woman said, "We're going to Central tomorrow, why don't we go take a look here?"

"Okay." The man lying next to him said, "I just happened to want to buy a refrigerator. I looked at a few stores before, but it was hard to compare. Now this supermarket puts a lot of refrigerators together, which is really convenient."

"Maybe it's even cheaper." The woman said with a smile, "The TV station said this supermarket is cheaper!"

"Maybe. We'll know tomorrow when we go take a look." The man added, "When I looked at refrigerators in shopping malls before, I always took note of the prices..."

"Ok!"

……

The next morning, at dawn:

Outside a newsstand in Central, a man walked over and said, "Boss, give me a copy of Ming Pao."

"Okay." The boss handed over a newspaper. The man looked at the headline and asked in surprise, "A supermarket with a daily sales of 35? What kind of supermarket is this?"

The newsstand owner smiled and said, "I haven't been there, but I've heard it's like a big department store, but better. You don't need to ask people to know the price, and you can buy whatever you want."

"How is this possible?" The man was a little confused.

"Didn't you watch TV yesterday?" The newsstand owner said again, "Forget it, it's a little hard to explain. Just look at what's written in the newspaper. If that doesn't work, just go to Des Voeux Road and take a look and you'll know."

"Des Voeux Road? Sure." The man agreed and asked, "35 a day for the opening, that would mean million a year, right?"

"Your math teacher seems to be really good?" The newsstand owner said speechlessly, "It must have been the result of large-scale publicity on the first day. How could he be so strong later on?"

"That's right." The man took out some money from his pocket and said, "Then I'll go read the newspaper myself."

"Well," the newsstand owner took the cash and said with a smile, "You can go there and take a look. It may be much better than what is said in the newspaper."

"Okay." The man agreed and went to the side to read the newspaper. After a while, he understood a little: "So this is the business model? It's really novel. I have to go and check it out after get off work today."

……

After a while, the sun rose high in the sky and many office workers started buying newspapers. When they saw the astonishing daily sales figure of HK$35, they were all surprised. Such a high amount was collected in just one day.

Many people have also made up their minds to go and take a look after get off work in the evening.

……

In the morning, Yang Wendong came to Carrefour again.

He actually doesn't care much about Changxing Shopping Mall. For shopping malls in Hong Kong, as long as the location is good, there is basically no problem of renting it out. Although there are some management requirements, they are not very high.

Carrefour is one of the core industries of his future, and its importance is even greater than real estate and shipping.

Even though shipping still has a scale after the 80s, its influence is far less than before. Real estate may make more money, but it is just money, nothing else.

The upper limit for supermarkets is higher. When the number of terminals is large enough in the future, the bias in purchasing may even affect the fate of a small country.

"Mr. Yang." When Liu Huayu learned that the boss had arrived, he naturally went to the door to greet him.

Yang Wendong nodded and said, "Look at the flow of people at the entrance. Although it's not as good as yesterday, it's still pretty good."

Liu Huayu smiled and said, "Yes, the publicity on TV and radio last night, plus the publicity in several newspapers today, the effect will definitely last for a while."

"Well, continue promoting it and make the best use of internal resources." Yang Wendong said.

"Okay, Mr. Yang." Liu Huayu agreed.

With its own internal media channels, it is indeed much easier to promote the supermarket, which is much better than when it was at Walmart.

Although sister companies also need to pay bills, you can choose from a variety of premium locations. The only pity is that you cannot advertise on TV casually, and the TV penetration rate in Hong Kong is still very low.

The group once again came to Carrefour, and Yang Wendong asked again: "Lao Liu, have supermarkets in the United States conducted research on the best locations for products?"

"The best location?" Liu Huayu was a little puzzled. "Walmart's location basically puts the same type of items together. The height is about the same as that of an adult, so the products will sell better."

"That's about it." Yang Wendong nodded and said, "But it's a little more complicated.

For example, snacks and small toys should be placed at the bottom because they will be just the right height for children, or chewing gum and candy can be placed at the checkout counter.

Another thing is that different products may sell better when paired together. For example, American beer and popcorn are a very good match. Do you think it will be easier to sell them together?"

"It's possible." Liu Huayu thought about it and agreed.

Yang Wendong added: "Here in Hong Kong, people don't really like beer with popcorn, but there are many products in the supermarket. If they are placed in different places and paired differently, they may have a stronger effect.

So, next, you need to arrange people to observe and study this aspect to see how to best promote consumption.”

In the past, how to display merchandise in supermarkets was a profound science. It is said that for the same supermarket and traffic, good display of merchandise can increase sales by 15%.

However, Yang Wendong is not clear about the logic here, and the times are different, so the details still need to be discovered through a lot of practice.

At this time, the supermarket industry in Europe and the United States was just starting out, and there was probably no research in this area, so my own research was very meaningful.

The only pity is that this kind of research is unlikely to result in a patent, but being the first to come up with it will also have its own advantages.

"Okay, I will set up a special department to study this." Liu Huayu agreed.

"Okay, this is important, but there's no rush." ​​Yang Wendong asked again, "Any other questions?"

Liu Huayu paused and said, "There is a problem. Yesterday, a security guard saw someone hiding some candies in his pocket. However, there is no absolute evidence, and the business opened yesterday, so no action was taken."

"This is very well done. Without absolute evidence, nothing can be done." Yang Wendong nodded and said, "This is actually what I expected. Supermarkets are not like shopping malls, where there are special tellers to look after the goods and pay for them.

In such an empty environment, with so many people and containers blocking the view, there will definitely be people who take advantage of the situation.”

There is no other way to solve the problem of petty theft except to have more cameras and video evidence. Otherwise, even if something is found in a pocket, and the person says he put it there to pay for it but forgot, there will be no clear explanation.

As a service industry, we should not push people too far.

"Our American counterparts also have this problem," Liu Huayu said. "We can only try to avoid this loss, because unless we have absolute evidence, we cannot offend suspicious users, otherwise we will wrongly accuse them, and the loss will be even greater if the incident gets out of hand."

"Well, this is also a drawback of supermarkets." Yang Wendong thought for a moment and asked, "Can small commodities be packed at your own location, then given to customers, and then they can come to the checkout counter to pay?"

"But there is no way to wrap it! Even if I wrap it, it will be opened." Liu Huayu said with some embarrassment.

"Okay, I understand." Yang Wendong nodded and said nothing more.

Because what is currently in short supply is plastic bags.

If we had plastic bags, many small commodities could be put directly into them and then sealed, just like snacks were packed in supermarkets in the past.

Although it is possible to force open the metal buckle, it is quite difficult. In a crowded environment like a supermarket, this behavior is obvious. People who want to save face probably won't do this.

And the terminal packaging also requires good quality plastic bags, otherwise many people will not come shopping because they don’t bring bags...

Perhaps the rise of supermarkets in history has a lot to do with the popularity of plastic bags, and they may even complement each other.

After thinking for a moment, Yang Wendong said, "Let's do this for now. For many things, we can only discover the problems after experiencing them. This is definitely the case for a new industry like ours."

"Okay, thank you Mr. Yang for your understanding." Liu Huayu said with a smile.

"I will arrange someone to come here, and he will not be involved in management." Yang Wendong added: "From now on, the daily sales data needs to be counted and given to him, and he will pass it to me."

Each branch of Changxing Group has people in the headquarters office to ensure that Yang Wendong can accurately understand the development status of each business.

"Okay, no problem." Liu Huayu agreed.

……

In the afternoon, Yang Wendong came to the Changxing 10,000-person Industrial Park in Kwun Tong:

When Wei Zetao learned that his boss was coming, he immediately came to the door to greet him: "Mr. Yang, why are you here so suddenly?"

"I thought of something and need to discuss it with you." Yang Wendong smiled and said, "It just so happens that I haven't been here for a while, so I came to take a look."

"Well, please come in." Wei Zetao said, "We can go around and I'll introduce it to you."

"Okay." Yang Wendong nodded.

Afterwards, Wei Zetao took Yang Wendong past a dozen industrial buildings that had been built. Every time they arrived at a place, he introduced several different companies in the building, all of which were current suppliers of Changxing Industrial.

After walking around, Yang Wendong said: "Even though we have only developed half of the area, the vacancy rate of the existing factory buildings is still more than half."

Wei Zetao nodded and said, "Yes, first, we still have a lot of room to expand our production capacity. Second, when we acquired this land and built so many industrial buildings, it was not just for ourselves, but also to attract other plastic industries."

"Well, OK." Yang Wendong asked again, "In Taiwan, has Wang Yongqing's factory been able to produce at full capacity?"

"Yes, we have a production capacity of 2000 tons per month." Wei Zetao said, "With the plastic particles shipped back from the United States, I plan to cut prices significantly next month.
Drive out the previous trading houses that monopolized the import of plastic particles. "

"Okay." Yang Wendong nodded: "It's time to take over this market."

Although Hong Kong is still controlled by the British, the British Empire basically no longer has control over many colonies. Therefore, except for special industries such as banking and electricity, British capital and local capital are basically in a normal state of competition.

Especially in trade, it is impossible to monopolize it. Whoever is cheaper and has a better price-performance ratio will gain the market, unless the Hong Kong government orders that Chinese capital is not allowed to participate in this market, but this is impossible.

The core businesses of large foreign companies such as Jardine Matheson, Swire, Wheelock, Hutchison and Whampoa are now beyond the reach of Chinese people, but for small foreign companies, everyone is really competing "fairly".

Wei Zetao added: “Mr. Wang has acquired a larger piece of land near Taipei City, and plans to supply the Southeast Asian market after completion. He also wants to borrow funds from a Hong Kong bank;
However, this requires us to provide guarantees, otherwise Hong Kong banks will probably not lend money.”

"We can provide a guarantee, but we have to charge a guarantee fee or other benefits. Even though we are shareholders, we can't let the joint venture company take advantage of us for nothing." Yang Wendong said indifferently.

Hong Kong actually has specialized guarantee companies, which are actually similar to insurance. They will provide guarantees to companies with low business risks. This is also considered an industry, and all it needs is profit.

Since Wang Yongqing was able to become the king of plastics in Asia in his previous life, his current business is unlikely to suffer losses, and there is nothing wrong with guarantees, but everything must follow normal business procedures.

"Okay." Wei Zetao agreed.

Yang Wendong nodded and asked, "Do you know polyethylene?"

"Polyethylene?" Wei Zetao thought for a moment and said, "Yes, it is a high molecular compound. It has been in the laboratory before World War II. It seems that it was not until the 50s that it was extracted in large quantities from petroleum."

Yang Wendong asked again: "Please help me check. Also, please help me check whether there are plastic or polyethylene bags in Europe and the United States. Give me an answer as soon as possible. This matter is very important."

Plastic bags were very common in the past, but not in Hong Kong of this era, and I don’t think I’ve seen them in the United States before.

I just don’t know whether it has not been invented or it has been invented but not popularized.

No matter which one it is, it will be a good business opportunity.

PS: Please give me a monthly ticket
There is still some in the evening, maybe a little later, around 10 o'clock

(End of this chapter)