Chapter 404 - 146: The Green Tea Female Side Character in a Period Novel (33)

Chapter 404: Chapter 146: The Green Tea Female Side Character in a Period Novel (33)

There was never a shortage of pitiful wails from children by the soda stall.

But today, nearly every parent gave in. The kids stood in a neat row against the wall, clutching their sodas, squinting as they took small sips.

Siblings with different flavors would swap to have a taste of each other’s drinks. Their burps went off like a string of firecrackers, making the summer evening feel especially festive and lively.

The goods on the shelves were visibly dwindling; for some items, Zhao Jinming even had to fetch more from the storeroom.

They were busy straight through until nine o’clock, when the crowd of customers outside finally started to thin.

The hospital director and the others had left long ago, but the parents of the three youngsters waited to the side, holding their dinner containers.

Chi Yun’er and the other two were too exhausted to speak. Every muscle ached. They just lowered their heads and shoveled food into their mouths.

The three families were close because their children were good friends, and they all trusted one another’s character.

So, they helped the trio sort through the cash and ration coupons that filled four entire drawers.

Chi Yun’er recalled that because Bian Family Village was a major fruit producer, every household had enough spare cash to start renovating their homes. The village committee even funded road construction, spending a fortune to connect two provincial highways just to improve transportation.

This created a shortcut, and a lot of traffic started passing through Bian Family Village.

Families along the new road began selling the village’s abundant fruit, while others opened general stores, restaurants, or even simple tea stalls.

Without exception, they all made money. This was especially true for the general stores. They might have only sold small items, but back in the eighties and nineties, their daily revenue could easily reach three or four hundred yuan. ’The profit from that had to be at least eighty to a hundred yuan, right?’

Although she was running a promotion today with discounts and free gifts, Chi Yun’er still had a feeling. ’Today’s revenue is going to be impressive!’

The three sets of parents counted with their heads down, truly experiencing what it felt like to count money until your hands cramp. It wasn’t their money, but every last fen and mao had been earned through their children’s hard work. A sense of pride swelled within them as they counted.

When they each finished their pile and tallied up the grand total, they were all stunned.

Everyone knew the commissary had opened at seven and they’d been swamped until just after nine. In just over two hours, a relentless stream of customers spending one, two, three, or five yuan at a time had pushed the total sales to three hundred and seventy yuan—and that didn’t even include the ration coupons!

Chi Yun’er had just finished her meal. She gave her abacus a sharp shake to clear it, pulled over the sales log she and Xu Chengfang had kept, and her fingers began to fly across the beads with a loud CLACK-CLACK-CLACK.

She was so fast that her slender, pale fingers seemed to leave afterimages under the lamplight.

Everyone watched, holding their breath, their hearts pounding with anxiety.

Three hundred and seventy yuan was no small amount. The hospital had given them a total of one thousand yuan in startup capital. They hadn’t spent much of it, having shamelessly acquired their inventory on credit. They wouldn’t have to pay their supplier for this batch of goods until their next order.

To an outsider, it looked like Chi Yun’er had gone wild, ordering whatever caught her eye in large quantities with a wave of her hand, completely ignoring the massive gap in their available funds.

Zhao Jinming and Xu Chengfang clenched their fists. The total cost of their inventory was far, far more than a thousand yuan...

In other words, with the deep discounts Chi Yun’er was offering, the more they sold, the more money they might be losing.

After all, even they had gotten swept up in the excitement when they heard about the promotion, feeling an impulse to buy things whether they needed them or not.

With over three hundred and seventy yuan in sales, and an average purchase of two or three yuan per person, that meant a hundred and fifty or sixty customers had eagerly made purchases the moment the commissary opened.

’Would they have felt that uncontrollable urge if the deals weren’t an absolute steal? Nobody’s a fool!’

So, their sixth sense was screaming at them: they had taken a massive loss today!

Zhao Jinming and Xu Chengfang slumped, bracing themselves for a devastating blow.

But after Chi Yun’er clicked the last bead into place, she looked at the final tally on the abacus and said with a light laugh, "We made a net profit of seventy-three yuan and ninety fen today!"

"What?" Everyone stared, stunned. Seventy-three yuan and ninety fen in two hours?

"Chi... Chi Yun’er, are you sure you didn’t make a mistake? Maybe... maybe you should calculate it again?" Zhao Jinming stammered.

"Maybe... maybe we lost over seventy yuan?"

Everyone’s hearts leaped into their throats. A loss of over seventy yuan seemed like a much more realistic outcome for the earlier frenzy.

If you could make this much money by offering discounts and free gifts, why weren’t other stores and the co-ops doing the same thing?

Chi Yun’er chuckled. "There’s no mistake. Think about it. For every item we sell, our profit margin is about a third of the price."

"Let’s use one yuan as an example. Our cost is a little under seven mao. We give a ten percent discount, so we sell it for nine mao. Then we give away a bottle of soda that costs us four and a half fen. We still make a profit of nineteen fen. So, with over three hundred and seventy yuan in sales, doesn’t a profit of over seventy yuan make sense?"

"And that’s a conservative estimate. When a customer actually pays one yuan, that’s the price *after* the ten percent discount, which means our margin is even a little higher..."

Chi Yun’er broke it all down for them piece by piece.

As they counted on their fingers, it dawned on them that they’d been completely dazzled by the promotion. Who said big discounts meant you couldn’t make a profit?

’Isn’t there a saying about small profits and quick returns?’

"So," Xu Chengfang gulped, "so, Chi Yun’er, in two hours... we earned more than your entire monthly salary?"

Zhao Jinming chimed in, "Over seventy yuan profit in two hours... does that mean we can make at least two hundred tomorrow? If we run the promotion every day, that’s six thousand yuan of profit in a month?"

Six thousand! That was six times the startup fund the hospital had given them!

Chi Yun’er shook her head. "You can’t calculate it like that. And we can’t run this promotion every day. For one thing, the supply and marketing co-op just outside the hospital grounds would report us for sure."

"On the surface, we have to operate like other stores. At the very least, our listed prices have to be consistent with theirs. We can’t stand out too much, or we’ll become a public enemy."

"Besides, this initial rush is just because it’s new and exciting for everyone."

"Still, taking all that into account, I estimate that with our commissary open twenty-four hours, our daily profit should be at least thirty to forty yuan. On a good day, it could even be seventy or eighty."

After all, the hospital gets a lot of foot traffic.

Regardless, today had been an incredibly auspicious start, and everyone was overjoyed.

"You two should hurry home and get some sleep. I’ll take the night shift tonight," Zhao Jinming said with a smile, patting his chest.

There were no 24-hour commissaries yet, and the hospital cafeteria was closed at night, but the frontline medical staff worked in shifts, so there were always people on duty.

Not only had the Zhaoyang Commissary just opened, meaning many staff members and patients’ families didn’t even know it existed, but even in the future, there wouldn’t be many nighttime customers. Some nights might not see a single one.

But Chi Yun’er wanted to make a statement. She wanted this hospital side-business to operate around the clock, meeting everyone’s needs at any time.

"We’ll call a welder tomorrow to reinforce the commissary. Then when Xu Chengfang and I take the night shift, we won’t have to worry about security."

Chi Yun’er said with a smile, her gaze falling on the two large windows.

Zhao Jinming raised an eyebrow. "Absolutely not. You two are as delicate as you are pretty. How can I let ladies suffer through the night shift?"

"I’ve gotten to know the guys in the warehouse pretty well over the past few days. Some of them are good people. Why don’t we pick a couple of them and let them work the night shift? They could earn some extra money for their families."

Business at the commissary was booming beyond anyone’s imagination. The place may be tiny, but there was a lot to do, and the three of them really couldn’t handle it all.

Chi Yun’er nodded. "That could work. Our ledgers are crystal clear, so we won’t have to worry about anyone pocketing things."

Besides, people are more idealistic these days. Everyone is full of revolutionary fervor; they wouldn’t tolerate such dishonesty.

When Chi Yun’er got home, her body was exhausted, but her mind was buzzing with excitement.

Unable to sleep, she turned on the light, took out her notebook, and continued to write and sketch. ’Besides taking phone calls and selling the co-op’s most popular goods, what else could the commissary offer?’

’The commissary itself is small. If we expand out into the hallway, we’ll have more space for products. It’ll also be more eye-catching, visible to anyone just passing by.’