The Industrial Giant Reborn

Although I knew that Laomei loves to stockpile paper, I didn't expect it to be so crazy. All the various discounts prepared are not as good as the toilet paper that has no discount but is slightly cheaper than other supermarkets.

After a while, the entire row of toilet paper was swept away, and many people left with a shopping cart full of them, and quickly walked to the door to check out.

Although Pierce behind him couldn't understand Chinese, he looked at the direction the boss and the boss's secretary were looking at, and said with a smile: "All of this is expected. There is still a lot of toilet paper in the rear warehouse, and it will be replenished soon."

"You Americans love toilet paper so much?" Angie asked in English.

"It's not that I like it, but it's a disadvantage in supermarkets. Although toilet paper is not heavy, it takes up a lot of space. The transportation cost is quite high, but the price is not high. For many supermarkets located in the city center with high rents It’s not worth it, so most supermarkets don’t have a lot of reserves, and the price is relatively expensive, but users use a lot of it, so they can only buy it frequently.” Pierce explained with a smile.

"But for us, there is no such problem. The transportation cost may be similar, but the cost of storage and retail location is much lower. After all, the location of our supermarket is very average, and the cost of leasing or self-sustainment is very low, and the area is large enough. Large, it is convenient for users to purchase half a year’s usage at one time.” Chen Zhiwen nodded and said, this is indeed a good advantage, toilet paper is a daily necessities in Europe and the United States, but normal supermarkets cannot provide it on a large scale and cheaply.

Wal-Mart is only relatively better than other supermarkets in this respect, but because the area is the same as other supermarkets, it is impossible to store too much toilet paper.

Pierce went on to say: "This is also my entry point. I have already discovered this situation when I was in Fedmart, but at that time the capital turnover was not good, and I was not able to provide much investment in this area."

"Okay, this is a good breakthrough. As long as this is done well, it will be easier for people to become our VIP customers." Chen Zhiwen thought for a while and said.

Many people can't imagine why warehouse-style supermarkets have a membership system that is different from other types of supermarkets, instead of being open to everyone?

In fact, the logic here is very simple, because the location of warehouse supermarkets is not near residential areas, or in other words, not near most of its users.

In order to let users from far away come to shop, the warehouse will attract users with preferential prices, but people are lazy. point, but save time!

Therefore, the membership system is a necessary operation. When members actually invest dozens of dollars in membership fees, in order not to let their membership fees go to waste, they will think more about shopping, and warehouse supermarkets will introduce rebates. Service, that is, the purchase of a certain amount of goods, the membership fee can be deducted until the membership fee is free, which will become a motivation for stimulating users. Online discounts or direct exchange for certain products are another way to stimulate users to come and spend.

Repeatedly, this set of combined punches can pin down customers who are far away, so that their daily consumption is spent in their own supermarkets. Costco also uses this principle to the extreme.

But the premise of all this is that you have to let users become members. The operation logic of the previous warehouse-style supermarkets was to target the company group or a certain group, and attract them to shop by gifting members. Costco wants to break the deadlock of this small market demand. , Include all nearby residents as potential members.

But it is very difficult for users to take the initiative to hand over tens of dollars to become a member of the supermarket. How can there be any reason to spend money before buying anything in this world?

So the one-week experience time is to let users find out that the prices in Costco are cheap. As long as you buy more things, you can earn back the membership fee, and there are points that can be redeemed, but this is not enough. It is best to have something to sell. Products, such as products that can pay back the membership fee once or twice, such as large household appliances.

It’s just that the replacement frequency of household appliances is very low, and large electrical appliance groups may not allow a certain supermarket to break the price positioning. Before Chen Zhiwen wanted to make a fuss about clothing, beverages, and food, but unexpectedly, Americans care more about toilet paper.

"How many rolls of toilet paper do American families generally use in a year?" Chen Zhiwen asked again.

"I haven't checked it. I'm going to check the library for the specific data, but in my house, there are about four or five hundred volumes a year." Pierce thought about it and said.

"Four to five hundred?" Angie stared at the boss, do you eat toilet paper every day?

"The toilet paper is also purchased from the United States?" Chen Zhiwen asked.

"Yes, for an American company, Mr. Chen wants to purchase from Hong Kong?" Pierce asked.

Chen Zhiwen shook his head and said, "There is no paper-making company in Hong Kong, so I have to go to other places in Asia to inquire. An Qi, please remember. After returning to Hong Kong, I will ask Xu Weishan to go to Indonesia to inquire. The forestry industry is relatively developed there, and there are many companies in the paper industry."

Xu Weishan is the general manager of Xinghe Trading Company. He was also recruited from Hutchison Whampoa. Currently, he is responsible for meeting the needs of supermarkets in the United States and purchasing from Hong Kong. He is also responsible for the expansion of the trading company's own business, such as RB and Xu Weishan. When he was in Hutchison, he had cooperated with many RB supermarkets, and Chen Zhiwen recruited him because of this factor.

"Okay." An Qi immediately wrote it down in her little notebook.

"It would help us a lot if we could get a cheaper source of toilet paper from Asia," Pierce said, nodding.

Having a reliable supply partner in Asia is crucial to the development of a supermarket. In fact, many large American supermarkets know this, but there are too many products in the supermarket, which affects customers' life experience and even food safety and other important factors. , It is very cautious to change suppliers from a distant place, and the larger the retail group, the more careful it is, because once something goes wrong, the impact will be very bad.

"Leave this to me, and there will be absolutely no problem." Chen Zhiwen said boldly. The cost in Indonesia must be much lower than that in the United States. After all, the paper industry is not a high-tech industry. Even if the equipment is not as good as it is, other aspects The difference is too much, and wait a few years, the mainland will reform and open up, and there should be many Costco branches at that time. Once the US dollar order comes out, there will naturally be state-owned enterprises in China to do this business.

"OK, then I'm relieved." Pierce smiled, watching a group of people below put toilet paper on their shopping carts, and said, "I'm going to go down and have a look, the most important thing now is to say that these people handle our member."

"Okay, that's hard work." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile, professional people do professional things, how to persuade customers to pay for membership, he probably can't convince anyone, as a boss, he just needs to wait for the data.