industrial overlord

Chapter 703 Chinese Merchant
"Are you from the country?"

Before Lin Zhenhua could say anything to his daughter, a short, shrewd Chinese man came out of a nearby shop and said to Lin Zhenhua and the others: "It's your first time in Spain, so you don't know the rules here. Some people have to take a lunch break at noon, and they will not open for business until three o'clock in the afternoon."

"Hehe, that's how it is." Lin Zhenhua said with a smile, he has come to Spain quite a few times, but they are all here for business activities and rarely go shopping, so he really didn't know there was such a rule here.He looked at the little man and asked, "Excuse me, brother, are you... doing business here? By the way, may I ask your surname?"

The man nodded and said: "Miangui's surname is Zhang, you can call me Xiao Zhang. I opened a store here, you see, I opened this store."

As he spoke, he pointed to the store he had just walked out of. Lin Zhenhua turned his head and saw that it was also a shoe store, so he smiled and said to Lin Fei, "Xiao Fei, don't you want to buy shoes? Come to this shop." Pick a pair from Uncle Zhang's shop."

"No need, no need." Xiao Zhang quickly waved his hand and said, "All I sell here are Chinese shoes, and these little girls don't like them. Besides, if you want to buy domestic shoes, you don't have to go to Spain buy it."

Lin Fei had already walked outside Xiao Zhang's store at this time, and took a look with her head, but she really didn't have any interest in going in again.She looked at the two shops, and then asked Xiao Zhang: "Uncle Zhang, you said that people in Spain are used to taking a lunch break, why doesn't your store have a lunch break?"

Xiao Zhang laughed and said: "How can we be so delicate as Europeans? Look, as long as the shops on this street are opened by Chinese, none of them are like the locals. They all open early in the morning and late at night. There is no such thing as a lunch break when it closes. Those local stores only open at 9 o’clock and close at 5 o’clock in the afternoon. There is still a 3-hour lunch break in between. They are full of money and can’t do 5 hours a day. business. If we had been in business like them, we would have lost our pants.”

Hearing what Xiao Zhang said, Lin Zhenhua became interested, and he said, "Xiao Zhang, we want to visit your store, can we?"

"Of course." Xiao Zhang said, "Whoever runs a shop would stop customers from the door, come, come, three, please come inside."

Lin Zhenhua and his entourage followed Xiao Zhang into his shop. It was a small shop with shelves full of leather shoes of various colors. There were stools for changing shoes and a large dressing mirror beside them.Xiao Zhang found a few folding chairs, beckoned them to sit down, then conjured a few bottles of mineral water out of nowhere, handed them to them, and said apologetically, "I'm sorry, my conditions here are Poor. When I return to China, I welcome you all to visit my hometown, and I will treat you to a seafood feast."

Lin Zhenhua and Yang Xin sat down, while Lin Fei went to the shelf to look at the shoes.Xiao Zhang sat opposite Lin Zhenhua and his wife, and everyone chatted casually.

It turned out that the little Zhang named Zhang Cheng was from southern Zhejiang and had been selling shoes in Spain for five years.The main business of his small shop is to wholesale Zhenan shoes to shoe dealers all over Europe, and also do some retail sales.According to himself, his annual turnover can reach tens of millions of euros.He also proudly revealed that although his store here doesn't look very good, he owns a five-story western-style building in his hometown.

"Are you the only one in your store?" Lin Zhenhua asked curiously. He had been sitting here for so long, but he hadn't seen any other clerks. From what Zhang Cheng meant, it seemed that there was no one else in the store either. The appearance of helping.

Zhang Cheng said: "It turned out that my wife and I did it together. In the first two months, she became pregnant, so I sent her back to China. The medical expenses in Europe are too high, so it is not as convenient as in China. For a while, I am the only one left." Alone here."

"Then can you be busy?" Yang Xin's eyes widened. The business of tens of millions of euros is close to [-] million in RMB. If Zhang Cheng still hides something, the business may be more than [-] million.It is really unbelievable that Zhang Cheng can manage such a large business by himself.

Zhang Cheng sighed: "Oh, there is no way, I have to be busy even if I am too busy. I have to guard this store, pick up goods at the dock, and deliver goods to retailers all over the world. I can't wait to do 16 a day. Hours. Just now the little sister asked me why I didn’t take a lunch break, how could I have time for a lunch break.”

Lin Fei, who was looking at the leather shoes on the shelf, heard this, and couldn't help interjecting: "Uncle Zhang, I think this is a problem with your business philosophy. I see that your shoes here are all cheap, and the most expensive ones are also expensive." It’s less than 100 Euros, and there are even cheaper ones at 10 Euros. Look at the Compee next door, they sell branded shoes, and the price of a pair of shoes is at least 10 pairs or more, so they can sleep in every day without being like you. It’s just as hard work, but you can still earn a lot of money.”

"Haha, what this little sister said is interesting." Zhang Cheng laughed, "However, little sister, you are wrong about one thing. The Compee next door to me is indeed much more expensive than the shoes I sell. But it’s not enough to say that it makes a lot of money. The annual turnover of its store is not even 1/10 of mine. The car driven by its boss was bought 10 years ago, and he has no money to replace it with a new one. .I bought a new BMW last year, and the Spanish boss next door to me looked at it with red eyes."

"What? Compee's turnover can't even reach 1/10 of yours?" Lin Fei was shocked. In her mind, Compee is a world-renowned brand. Can't compare?
Zhang Cheng didn't answer directly, but asked Lin Zhenhua: "Brother Lin, do you believe what I say?"

In the previous chat, Lin Zhenhua had already told Zhang Cheng his surname, but did not disclose his identity.The reputation of Hanhua Heavy Industries is well known in China. If he said that he is the boss of Hanhua Heavy Industries, I am afraid that Zhang Cheng would jump up and accept his head.

Hearing Zhang Cheng's question, Lin Zhenhua nodded and said, "I believe what you said. An old brand like Compee can attract young people like my daughter. People spend hundreds of euros on a pair of shoes. It’s mainly for novelty, but it’s not practical. On the contrary, our Chinese-made shoes, which cost tens of euros a pair, are of high quality and low price, and must be more popular among the common people. Although the price of each pair of shoes is not high, the sales volume is estimated to be ten or a hundred times higher. For these luxury brands."

"Brother Lin is knowledgeable." Zhang Cheng raised his thumb and said, "In Spain, there are a lot of international famous brands, but if you say that ordinary people buy the most every day, they are Chinese products. A pair of shoes worth tens of euros, wearing It is comfortable, and I don’t feel bad when I step on the water or get wet. I just buy another pair when it wears out, so the sales volume is much higher than those of international famous brands. In Spain, the real buyers of those international famous brands are foreign tourists. , especially our tourists from China.”

"Haha, just like my Feifei." Lin Zhenhua pointed at Lin Fei and smiled.

Afraid of Lin Fei's embarrassment, Zhang Cheng quickly said: "It's not just you who can buy it. Sometimes when we go back to China, we will also buy some local famous brands as gifts. The streets are full of famous brands here. Go to our country. Still quite popular.

However, the locals are no longer interested in these brands, all they care about is the price.In the past, when we Chinese didn't come, the locals couldn't buy cheap shoes, so they could only buy from these local shoe dealers.Now there are five Chinese shoe stores opened on this street alone, why would the local people buy shoes from them? "

"So, you snatched away the business of the local shoe dealer?" Lin Zhenhua asked.

"You can also say that." Zhang Cheng said, "But we can't blame us, can we? These Spanish shoe dealers sell expensive shoes, and their service attitude is also poor. The usual business hours are half shorter than ours, and customers come to their stores. When you go to buy shoes in China, they are bigger than customers, and they will be unhappy if they try a few more pairs. We Chinese pay attention to harmony and make money. How can these Spanish shoe dealers get rich with this attitude?"

Lin Zhenhua asked again: "You stole his business, do you have any objections?"

A sad expression appeared on Zhang Cheng's face, and he said, "How can there be no opinions? In recent years, the economic situation in Europe has not been good, and the Spanish shoe merchants on this street are basically unable to make ends meet, so they have a lot of opinions on us. Really? They went to the city hall several times to ask the local government to drive out the Chinese shoe dealers. The city government couldn’t find a reason to drive us out, but they also sent people to tell us a few times, let’s pay attention to it. The local shoe dealers have a way out."

Lin Zhenhua said to Yang Xin: "Xiaoxin, look, what Xiao Zhang and the others encountered is very similar to what our company encountered. Europeans rely on their own technology and brand advantages, so they just sit there and eat their money. When it comes to our competition, the first thing they think of is not how to actively respond, but how to use rules to squeeze us out. Europe is like this from industrial equipment to daily consumer goods, and its economy can last for a few days ?”

Yang Xin said: "That's true. Europeans are used to being comfortable and have no competitiveness. Xiao Zhang, you have to be careful and prevent the locals from jumping over the wall. Anyway, you are doing business on other people's land after all. just in case……"

Just as Yang Xin said this, there was a sudden commotion on the street. Before they could realize what was going on, a Chinese broke into Zhang Cheng's shop and shouted to Zhang Cheng out of breath, "Zhang Cheng, hurry up!" Hurry up, something happened!"

"What happened?" Zhang Cheng, Lin Zhenhua, and Yang Xin stood up together.

"A group of Spaniards surrounded our warehouse in the south of the city and moved out all the shoes we stored there, saying they were going to set them on fire!" said the man.

"I'll fight them!" Zhang Cheng roared.

　…The incident of burning shoes in Elche happened in 2004, which was delayed by two years in the novel.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)