Chapter 552: Chapter 58: Camp of Heaven-Defying Talents
Zhuo Feng and Feng Xing decided to temporarily use Mao Dazhu’s bamboo mat shop to open the Agricultural Specialty Store, and they busied themselves going back and forth between Yanqing and the store location, working on the final touches of the renovation.
Luckily, an authentic Agricultural Specialty Store didn’t need much decoration, just a few shelves for the appropriate products, and the ambiance became simple yet somewhat elegant with the purple bamboo potted plants that Mao Dazhu had brought back from Baoshan Temple last time.
During the trial operation of the Agricultural Specialty Store, the products for sale were very simple: three new varieties of sweet potatoes, premium processed sweet potato flour, and bottled pickled sweet potato leaves.
They didn’t need many hands on deck, just borrowed an old employee from Mao Dazhu to test the waters with some sales for a while.
Yu Gang had promised Xiao Xian last time that he would take the products for testing. Whether it was because Yu Gang put in a good word or the farm’s products were indeed excellent, after they were sent for inspection and confirmed to be green and pollution-free, they were awarded the green with yellow frame certification recommended by the Agricultural Science Academy.
Zhuo Feng hung the certificate on the wall, and it really added a touch of prestige. The night before the official opening, Zhuo Feng checked the store’s product prices with Xiao Xian, and Mao Dazhu watched closely.
"Auntie-in-law, your pricing is off," Mao Dazhu had a nephew who died young, about the same age as Feng Xing. He got along well with Feng Xing and treated him like a nephew, which made Zhuo Feng to be considered his auntie-in-law.
"Right, we calculated the water and labor costs just like your bamboo mat shop," The Agricultural Specialty Store used a bit more water than the bamboo mat shop, and based on the current market prices of corresponding agricultural products, the calculated prices weren’t exactly the most reasonable, but they were close enough.
"I’ve lived this long, eaten more rice than the salt you’ve had; I’m absolutely right, this is how we should price them," Mao Dazhu immediately helped Zhuo Feng adjust the prices, which left Zhuo Feng dumbfounded on the spot.
The sweet potatoes were two yuan and twenty cents per half kilo outside, three yuan in the store. Sweet potato flour was eight yuan per half kilo on the market, ten yuan in the store. The price of pickled vegetables like sweet potato leaves went straight up from five yuan a bottle to ten yuan a bottle. With such prices, who would still buy?
Harboring such doubts, the Agricultural Specialty Store began its first day of trial operation.
On the opening day, Mrs. Zeng sent a fancy golden Lucky Cat. She originally wanted to buy a pair of flowery baskets as it was trendy to send flower baskets for store openings, but Xiao Xian said that the flower baskets would wilt in a few days, and after passersby plucked a few flowers from them, they’d still have to be dealt with if placed at the entrance.
Mao Dazhu donated about a hundred woven bamboo baskets, giving one to the first hundred customers who came to the store.
The opening day was quiet, and the owner of the water buffalo hide bamboo mat shop across the street was watching and chuckling.
Mao Dazhu wasn’t bothered by the mocking remarks and even proudly said: "Five Gentlemen is now not worried about opening its doors or not; once it does, it’s good for three years, shifting to a high-end route."
Last time Boss Qiu came by to seal a red envelope, he heard that Mao Dazhu was worried about sourcing materials and assured him with a pat on his chest that he would take care of the bamboo supply.
The products could also be diversified. Not just summer mats, but pillow mats, dining mats, cushions, and even door curtains. With just one set per week, Mao Dazhu could cover the daily expenses of Five Gentlemen, thinking about that warmed his heart.
The residents of the nearby community and office workers hadn’t noticed the new Agricultural Specialty Store downstairs. The store was first discovered by a few old men and women attracted by the advertisement of buying sweet potatoes and getting a basket.
The old men and women from the courtyards nearby were the type to count every penny tighter than a bald man’s hair, calculating in their minds, a handmade basket worth twenty yuan.
The Agricultural Specialty Store’s baskets were well-made, worth thirty yuan each. The store’s items were a few cents more expensive, but buying them once or twice was still a net gain.
With that thought, on the first day, two old ladies and an old man walked away with four baskets and several kilograms of sweet potatoes. The flour, being two yuan more expensive, didn’t attract any buyers for the time being.
One of the old ladies who lived in the courtyard made sweet potato rice that night. Around five o’clock, not quite six, as usual, the old lady asked her husband to set up a table in the courtyard, cooked a few dishes, and started eating dinner.
Around five o’clock in the courtyard, other residents, some returning with kids from school and some from work, occasionally passed by a few neighbors. A little boy who had just come from kindergarten, hungry, saw the delicious sweet potatoes steaming in the old lady’s pot and clamored to eat the sweet potatoes.