novelslam Chapter 290: Let's Go Take a Look
Chapter 290: Let's Go Take a Look
Three days later, Wu Duo and Zhang Gaolei hurriedly flew back to the United States to continue their studies.
After seeing them off, Ding kept shaking his head.
"What a hassle! A round-trip business class ticket for one person costs over 20,000 yuan, just to come back for a few meals. By that calculation, they're way more extravagant than me!"
"Hey! Mr. Ding, you're quite self-aware!" Huang Xiaochuan took the opportunity to tease Ding Yi.
"I'm different from them. I'm good at making money and spending it," Ding said shamelessly, trying to glorify himself.
Huang Xiaochuan ignored him and turned around to call out to Chen Zhe.
"Old Chen, what are you looking at? Come back!"
"Hey! Coming, coming!" Chen Zhe hurriedly responded to Huang Xiaochuan and walked towards him.
Ding Yi glanced in the direction Chen Zhe had been looking in, then wrapped his arm around Chen Zhe's neck with a lewd grin.
"So you've finally gotten the hint of lust, huh? Aren't the flight attendants pretty? Tell me which one you've got your eye on, and as long as she's not married, your brother Ding will take care of her for you."
Chen Zhe blushed and denied it: "No, no, don't talk nonsense!"
Ding Yi touched Chen Zhe's face with the back of his hand, then suddenly pulled it back as if he had been electrocuted.
"Still not admitting it? My hands are blistered from your face, and you're still pretending?"
Chen Zhe's face turned completely red, and even his neck turned red.
"Alright, alright, liking to look at beautiful women is every man's nature, from eighty-year-old old men to three-year-old children, it's all the same, what's the big deal? Hurry up and get in the car and let's go." Huang Xiaochuan stood up for Chen Zhe and urged the two of them to leave quickly.
Ding Yi then temporarily let Chen Zhe go, and the three of them got into the car and drove back.
After getting in the car, Ding Yi asked, "Big Boss, what's the deal with the franchise store? I've already secured the property, and I'm just waiting to collect the rent."
"There are basically no problems. The renovation plan should be ready by the end of this month."
Chen Zhe didn't understand what the two were talking about, so he asked, "What are you two talking about?"
Ding Yi then put his arm around Chen Zhe, who was sitting in the back seat.
"A big spender wants to open a women's clothing store. You should quickly find a girlfriend and have him send her a few outfits."
Chen Zhe pushed Ding Yi's hand away.
"I do not want."
"Old Chen, are you planning to stay single forever? Don't you want Brother Ding to introduce you to someone?"
At this moment, Ding Yi transformed into a matchmaker, desperately trying to introduce Chen Zhe to a girlfriend.
Huang Xiaochuan simply couldn't stand it anymore.
"Alright! You only managed to win her heart thanks to me and Old Chen swallowing our pride, and it's only been a few days? And you're already arranging for Old Chen to find someone? It's not that I look down on you, but if Old Chen believed you, he might really be a bachelor for the rest of his life."
"Big shot, drive properly. Traffic regulations clearly state that drivers are not allowed to talk while driving. Shut up!" Ding Yi was somewhat embarrassed and angry.
In March, the Hang Seng Index experienced a significant fluctuation.
Huang Xiaochuan, who was far away in Shanghai, called and instructed Min Huifen to sell her Hang Seng Index futures at 6500 points. HSBC, on the other hand, helped Huang Xiaochuan buy Hang Seng Index futures at 5400 points, a difference of 1100 points.
This immediately increased Huang Xiaochuan's principal from the original 20 million US dollars to over 60 million after deducting bank fees and leverage interest.
Just a few days after the liquidation, the then Governor of Hong Kong made inappropriate remarks, causing the Hang Seng Index to fall to 5780 points. Huang Xiaochuan immediately asked Min Huifen to buy Hang Seng Index and continue to go long, but the margin was increased to US$50 million, and the leverage remained the same at ten times.
A few days later, important speeches from central ministries stabilized investor confidence, and the Hang Seng Index quickly surged back to 6300 points.
Min Huifen was completely impressed by Huang Xiaochuan's move; it was incredibly precise.
However, this was just the beginning. In early April, when the Hang Seng Index reached 6800 points, Huang Xiaochuan made a phone call to Min Huifen, demanding that she sell all of her Hang Seng Index futures.
Without hesitation, Min Huifen carried out Huang Xiaochuan's instructions. After clearing out his positions, Huang Xiaochuan's futures account had reached 140 million yuan. Min Huifen was astonished by the speed at which he was making money.
Subsequently, the United States and Europe expressed their support for the inappropriate remarks made by the Hong Kong governor, while the central government firmly criticized the remarks made by the current governor. The two sides engaged in a war of words, which caused the Hang Seng Index to fluctuate between 6400 and 6800 points for three weeks.
During this period, Huang Xiaochuan remained inactive and continued to hold no positions.
In order to receive information from Hong Kong as soon as possible, Huang Xiaochuan arranged for someone to set up a satellite dish in the courtyard of the old villa where he worked. Mai Guangde's job was to stay there all day to keep an eye on it. His dormitory was also arranged in the annex of this old villa. In addition, there were people to cook, clean and take care of the house. Mai Guangde only needed to keep an eye on the Hang Seng Index every day.
The work is quite leisurely, with not much workload and a lot of free time. However, you can't go out during the week, and you can only go out on weekends to walk around and experience the understated luxury of old Shanghai.
Throughout April, in addition to keeping a close eye on the Hang Seng Index, Mak Kwong-tak's job was to record the daily news with a video camera and then hand it over to his boss's bodyguard to take away.
The first thing Huang Xiaochuan does when he gets home every day is turn on the TV to watch the news. After watching the day's news broadcast, he watches the videotapes, constantly fast-forwarding and replaying them.
In early May, Huang Xiaochuan received the revenue reports for the first two months of the year from Times Supermarket.
He glanced at the figures and found that the first month's turnover was seven million. Due to the discounts and promotions for the new store opening, the gross profit margin was around 7%. In April, the normal operating income dropped, with the total turnover for April falling to three million nine hundred thousand. However, the gross profit margin reached 16%. By this calculation, the profit in April was even higher than in March. This does not include the rental income from the shopping street.
Huang Xiaochuan thinks this number is quite good. After all, Yihaodian's business area is only so big, and residents' income is only so much now. Whether it makes money or not is not important. What is important is to explore a suitable business model through this store and train more employees.
After reviewing the report, Huang Xiaochuan decided to go to the supermarket on a weekday evening.
Since the opening of Times Supermarket's No. 1 store, Jiang Bixing has been extremely busy, losing weight as a result. While others can work an eight-hour workday, he cannot, because other departments have rotating shifts between their directors and deputy directors. However, as the acting general manager of Times Supermarket and the store manager of No. 1 store, he bears the greatest responsibility. The chairman doesn't concern himself with these matters at all, and is far away in Hong Kong.
Although there were two trainee store managers following him to learn, these two couldn't make decisions on matters big or small, and Jiang Bixing had to make the final decision on many things.
With the opening of the new store, there were many things to work on and many problems to solve, from printing price tags to dealing with delayed deliveries. Jiang Bixing was so exhausted that he developed several large blisters on his lips.
The supermarket opens at 8:00 AM and closes at 9:00 PM.
However, the employees' working hours are from 7:00 am to 10:00 pm, in two shifts. The early shift is from 7:00 am to 3:00 pm. Excluding one hour for meals and rest, the actual working time is seven hours.
The afternoon shift runs from 2 PM to 10 PM. The one-hour handover period between the afternoon and morning shifts is the shift change time. The afternoon shift also has a one-hour lunch break.
These were all things Jiang Bixing learned while studying abroad, and he made slight modifications.
Yu Xiang, linking arms with Huang Xiaochuan, asked, "Why did you come all this way to buy things?"
"This store is newly opened, and I heard it's pretty good. Anyway, it's convenient to drive here." At this point, Huang Xiaochuan frowned. The store opened in a hurry and parking was not taken into account. The space in front of the store can only accommodate about 20 cars. It's okay for now, but it won't be enough in a few years.
This needs to be informed to Jiang Bixing so that the parking lot can be considered an important survey indicator when conducting further site visits.
As the two passed through the shopping street and reached the entrance, they heard the sales assistant at the supermarket entrance giving a welcoming speech.
"Hello, welcome to Temporary Supermarket!"
Huang Xiaochuan smiled at the sales assistant, then looked at the service counter near the entrance, mainly checking the cleanliness and whether the shopping carts and baskets were clean and tidy.
Without alerting anyone, Huang Xiaochuan took Yu Xiang for a walk around the supermarket and bought some things. During this time, Huang Xiaochuan even went to the restroom. Huang Xiaochuan chose to go after dinner, when the supermarket was quite crowded. However, the supermarket employees were generally doing their work in an orderly manner, and the shelves were always neatly arranged.
The queues at the checkout counters weren't too congested, and the on-site supervisor was very flexible. As the number of customers increased, he immediately added more checkout machines and personally led several reserve supervisors to the machines to process payments.
After this round of inspections, it was found that overall the results met Huang Xiaochuan's expectations, especially the appearance and spirit of the employees.