Chapter 294: Drought Begins and Water Station Operation

Chapter 294: Drought Begins and Water Station Operation

Chapter 294: Drought Begins and Water Station Operation
"Wireless TV stations?" Patrice paused and said, "Indeed, in Europe and America, TV stations now mainly use wireless signals for transmission.

But in Hong Kong, the population is small, and the investment in TVB is huge.”

Yang Wendong said: “Cable and wireless TV are actually opposite. When there are few people, cable TV is more cost-effective, and when there are many people, wireless is more cost-effective;

I believe that with Hong Kong's current economic development speed, more and more people will be able to afford television sets in the future, and TVB will naturally be able to make a profit."

In fact, the pros and cons of wired and wireless are quite complicated, but wireless will inevitably be the mainstream in the future, especially in densely populated areas.

In the Mainland, although wired users accounted for the majority in the early 21st century, it was actually mandatory.
Of course, some cable TV stations have different business models. They produce content in a specific direction and then charge users selectively. This model can only be used for wired networks. Wireless networks cannot prohibit others from watching.

Judging from the future history of Hong Kong, TVB is definitely the right way, because ATV was later changed to TVB.

Bai Liji said: "Actually, I considered this matter two years ago, and then arranged for someone to investigate. The conclusion was that it was not cost-effective, so I did not push it forward.
Now that you say so, I will consider it.”

"Thank you." Yang Wendong said. It was impossible for the Governor to decide such a matter with just one word.

Even if a wireless television station license is to be launched, it will definitely require public auction, and Yang Wendong can only be one of the bidders.

Robert Black added: "Mr. Yang, you also need to give me some information on this so that I can promote this matter within the Hong Kong government."

"No problem." Yang Wendong agreed.

He came today just to mention this matter, and it is impossible to decide it in a short time.

Originally, no one knew when the Hong Kong government started the project, but Lee Ka-ying bought the wireless license in 1965, and it took two years for TVB to open for business.

Therefore, even if I progress faster, this matter will still take one or two years. I don't know if it can be done before Robert Black leaves Hong Kong.

Central, Hong Kong Island:

On the top floor of a building, several foreigners were negotiating something.

Suddenly a phone rang. One of them picked up the phone and after talking for a while, he immediately frowned.

"What's wrong?" asked a blond man.

The man with brown hair who just answered the phone said, "I just got the news that Yang Wendong's factory will no longer provide us with plastic bags."

"As expected, there is such a trick." The blond man didn't care: "I expected it. This plastic bag is too important for supermarkets.

In the past, no one had it, so it didn’t matter. Now Carrefour has it, other supermarkets have it, even small stalls have it, so we at Yifeng Supermarket must also have it.”

Yifeng Supermarket is the name of the supermarket that Jardine Matheson Group is preparing to enter.

Over the past year or so, Carrefour's booming performance has attracted the attention of many financial groups. With so many people buying, even their normal shopping malls have been affected.

As the largest British financial group in Hong Kong, Jardine Matheson Group saw that the supermarket model had considerable profits, so it officially entered the market.

The man with the tangled hair said: "It's not just that they don't sell to us, Changxing Industry has also begun to restrict trading companies from buying bags, and their own trading companies have begun to get involved in this matter."

"What?" The blond man was shocked. "It seems that this is done to limit our access to enough plastic bags."

"Yes, they are the only family with plastic bags now." The man with brown hair frowned and said, "It may be difficult for us to get enough plastic bags."

If they only wanted a little bit, Changxing Industrial would not be able to control it. After all, once the bags are sold, they are sold.

But even for a supermarket, the demand for plastic bags is not low, and they must be new. If you don't buy from the source, it will be difficult to get enough of this demand.

The blond man asked again, "What about the exit? Don't their bags have exits as well?"

The man with the tangled hair said: "Exports are now also in the hands of Changxing Trade. In the past, overseas distributors or Hong Kong distributors went directly to the factory to get the goods, and Changxing Industry did not care about the rest;

Now Changxing Industry accepts the request and sends it out by itself, and the goods will be sent directly overseas."

The blond man paused and said, "So, they have taken control of the large-scale plastic bag trade in Hong Kong?"

"Yes." The man with brown hair said, "Even if there are loopholes in Hong Kong, it will be difficult for him not to find them. After all, the source is their factory.
The only way now is to buy it overseas. They can’t control the goods shipped overseas, and it’s hard to track them down.”

The blond man frowned. "This will cost a lot more."

The man with the tangled hair said: "As the Chinese say, this is an open conspiracy. It simply increases our costs. However, the price of plastic bags is not very expensive, so our increase is not much, only three or four cents more per transaction."

The blond man shook his head and said, "In the retail industry, it's all about the last few cents. Even though it doesn't determine life or death, it's already a gap. Not to mention, our brand awareness is not as good as Carrefour's."

The fringe-haired man said, "But we have a lot of cheap properties. I have already discussed it with the people at Jardine Matheson and they will give us a very favorable rent."

"That's all we can do now." The blond man added, "This is our advantage, but we can never take it for granted. Even if they are all under Jardine Matheson, Hong Kong Land will not always rent to us at a low price."

"Yeah." The fringe-haired man said, "Actually, there's no need to worry. These plastic bags are selling so well, there will definitely be other people making them, and then this problem will be solved."

"I hope so~" The blond man nodded: "Arrange the decoration as soon as possible, and then contact the channels. Mr. Keswick's intention is to allow us to open earlier."

"Okay." The tangled-haired man agreed and then asked, "Should we tell the senior management of Yihe about this?"

"No need. Why tell them such a small matter?" The blond man shook his head and said, "The higher-ups are only concerned about when we will open for business, when we will be profitable, and when we will bring a large amount of cash flow to Jardine Matheson. This is what Mr. Keswick values ​​most."

"Mr. Keswick also understands the supermarket industry?" the fuzzy-haired man asked curiously.

The blond man said, "He didn't understand it at first, but with his status, can't he just ask a few professionals in Europe and America?"

"That's right~"

July 7, Changxing Building:

"Yifeng Supermarket? This is a good name." Yang Wendong praised when he learned the name of the new supermarket of Jardine Matheson Group.

Today, Hong Kong's business history has been seriously disrupted by him. In the original history, Jardine Matheson did not participate in the supermarket industry in the early days.

In the late 60s, there were several supermarket companies in Hong Kong, among which the more famous ones were ParknShop and Wellcome, both of which were founded by Chinese.

It is estimated that in the past, these supermarkets were small in scale and did not have strong traffic-attracting capabilities, so they were not noticed by large conglomerates in the early stages. Later, when they developed, they were directly acquired by large conglomerates.

Nowadays, Carrefour had money and media in its early days, and it also borrowed some models from Walmart. Naturally, it became a big success in Hong Kong and then attracted Jardine Matheson.

Liu Huayu smiled and said, "Yes, it's OK. Hong Kong Land has directly taken out 6 properties in Central and Causeway Bay. It is estimated that it will open in September."

"More than a month, faster than we did at the beginning?" Yang Wendong asked, "So they just recruited people randomly?"

Liu Huayu said: "Some of them were poached from us, some were from other shopping malls of Jardine Matheson, and some are newcomers."

Yang Wendong smiled and said, "It seems that he really wants to do a good job, but he doesn't understand that it's not so easy to be a salesperson and warehouse manager."

Liu Huayu also agreed and said, "Yes, the number of warehouses and various goods is the most difficult. I guess we will know once their supermarket opens."

Yang Wendong asked again: "Logically speaking, the few middle-level managers who were poached from us should know about this."

Liu Huayu replied: "They definitely know, but it's hard to say how much say they have there, and if the foreign executives insist on opening the business earlier, they can only follow their lead." "That's true." Yang Wendong continued: "It seems that they are not very professional, but the financial strength of the Jardine Matheson Group is very strong and they will not give up so easily, so there will still be tough battles in the future;

We should continue to build our own advantages, especially some cheap products that attract people, and make them famous. "

Even without taking inflation into account, the scale of Jardine Matheson in the 60s was larger than that in the 80s, especially in terms of its share of Hong Kong's economy.

Last year, its market value after listing was as high as 17 billion, and this year it has exceeded 20 billion. It can be said that the 60s was the peak of Jardine Matheson.

His Changxing Group is highly profitable and would be worth hundreds of millions if it went public, but that's just the market value.

In terms of assets, Jardine Matheson is much stronger. Its wealth in Hong Kong is basically ranked first, but no one knows how much wealth and assets it has overseas.

When competing with such a rival, you cannot be careless. Even if you run a supermarket, it may just be a small business for them.

Liu Huayu said: "I have prepared to sell rice, tomatoes and eggs at cost price. We can control the cost of these three items to the lowest;

The rice is purchased from the United States by Changxing Trading following China Resources; the tomatoes are purchased in bulk from China Resources because they can be picked when they are green, which is convenient for transportation; the eggs are purchased locally, and we have found several chicken farmers and provided them with funds to expand their scale to meet our needs. "

"Okay, let's do this for now. After Yifeng Supermarket opens, we'll see if we should do something else." Yang Wendong nodded, and then said, "During this period, we'll continue to increase publicity with Changxing Media. At least people near our store will go more often and form a shopping habit."

Everyone has habits when doing things, and once you get used to it, it is difficult to change it. This is the logic behind the Internet burning a lot of money in the past.

"Okay." Liu Huayu agreed and said, "Mr. Yang, I have another idea."

"explain."

Liu Huayu said: "Recently, all the sodas and drinks in the supermarket have been sold out. This is also because the drought is getting worse and worse. Even Hong Kong Island has frequent water outages. Beverages, at least, can be drunk as water, which can alleviate the water shortage."

"You mean, we should focus on selling water?" Yang Wendong thought for a moment and asked, "But how do we sell this thing?"

The drought is getting worse and worse. In recent months, there was only one day last month when it rained a little, but it probably didn't even moisten the ground.

Water shortage has also begun to affect Hong Kong Island. Even Cheung Hing Building and Cheung Hing Shopping Centre have urgently purchased several large water tanks to store water to avoid sudden water outages.

Liu Huayu said: "Watsons can make water. Why don't we just make purified water directly? However, we don't use glass to package it. We use medium-sized plastic barrels. This way, customers can buy water that is drinkable and usable directly."

"Pure water?" Yang Wendong thought about it.

The concept of purified water has existed for a long time, but this kind of business is rare. Because glass bottles are relatively expensive, only high-end brands will launch this kind of purified water or mineral water, and it is basically only available in developed economic zones.

There were no plastic bottles in this era, but thicker plastic buckets could be easily made.

It is possible to use this to store purified water. For the middle class in Hong Kong Island, it is more cost-effective to sell it directly to them than to let them spend hours queuing to get water.

Liu Huayu added: "This purified water can be drunk directly, it is not tap water, this also avoids the trouble of customers having to boil water, and we are not reselling tap water, so it is not illegal."

"I know." Yang Wendong nodded and said, "Then you can discuss it with Zhou Haoran, and go to Wei Zetao for the plastics."

"Okay." Liu Huayu agreed.

Yang Wendong glanced at the blazing sun outside again and sighed, "It's getting drier and drier."

The real drought in Hong Kong has begun.

It’s August soon:
The sun is scorching, the ground is cracking, and many ponds in Hong Kong have dried up.

In Kuiwan District, in a spacious area, there is a courtyard-like building. Outside the building, there is a very large iron shed with many people queuing inside.

"It's open, it's open." Many people in the queue saw water coming out of the water pipe in front of them, and then the people in the front of the queue were able to get water, and they became excited.

A man holding a loud speaker said, "Everyone line up, everyone will get water, 5L per person, which is 10 kilograms of water."

"Finally, there is water." A woman almost cried with joy.

"Yes, it's still clean. My daughter has had to drink dirty water these days and has diarrhea again."

"We don't even have rice at home now, we're lucky to have water to boil."

"It's the same in my family. We have no water to drink and no milk. And we have a baby at home. Thank the Buddha."

"Why thank the Bodhisattva? You should thank Mr. Yang. He spent money to build this water station, so you can have water to drink."

"Nonsense, it is the Bodhisattva who guides good people to do things, I should thank the Bodhisattva."

"Fuck it, get out of here and go find your Buddha."

There was a lot of chatter in the team.

"Stop talking." The security guard shouted with a loud speaker, "The more you talk, the thirstier you get. Be quiet."

Everyone fell silent.
After a few hours,

Several cars approached nearby, attracting the interest of the people in line. One of them was sharp-eyed and said in surprise, "Is that Yang Wendong, the sticky note king Yang Wendong?"

"Yang Wendong?"

"The great man is coming?"

Many people in the queue were discussing with each other, but seeing the security guards around them, they did not dare to move, and were unwilling to go out to take a look. After all, there were electric fans above the iron shed, and they had waited in line for a long time to get their seats.
not far away:
After Yang Wendong got off the bus, he saw the crowd under the iron shed and asked, "Is there any problem with so many people gathering together?"

Lin Haoyu smiled and said, "Don't worry, brother Dong, everything is done according to your requirements. We will provide sunshades, electric fans, and water to them appropriately. Nothing will happen."

"Well, good." Yang Wendong said again: "There are still too many people. Many people are standing outside the iron shed."

Lin Haoyu said: "I have arranged for people to expand the pavilion, but there are too many people here during the day, so we can only do the construction at night. It will be ready in two days."

"Is there enough water?" Yang Wendong asked again.

Lin Haoyu said: "It's enough for now. Brother Dong, you had the foresight to build a 1000 cubic meter reservoir. Otherwise, it would not be enough. After the opening, too many people came.
Especially after dusk, many families have to go to work during the day and come to fetch water at night, so there are a lot of people. "

Yang Wendong asked again: "What about the water supply?"

Lin Haoyu replied: “There is no problem at the moment, but I heard from the people at the water plant that Hong Kong’s water consumption has been increasing rapidly in recent times;
On our side, more and more water storage stations will open, and it is hard to say what will happen in the future.”

Yang Wendong said: "Well, my five tankers will soon be put into use to transport water, I hope we can slow down a bit."

This kind of large-scale drought has created an enormous demand for water. Hong Kong's water generally comes from the mainland, but now even eastern Guangdong Province is suffering from drought and water shortage, and the situation in Hong Kong is even more serious.

Lin Haoyu said: "Brother Dong, if it really doesn't work, we can only limit the quota again. First, make sure everyone has water to drink. For the rest, we can only endure it."

"Well, that's the only way." Yang Wendong nodded.

Fortunately, this is not ancient times, otherwise this kind of drought would have caused starvation and death to thousands of people.
(End of this chapter)