Reborn America, this is my time

Chapter 32 The first week of madness (for further reading)
I sold three 310 machines in one morning and earned $37. This figure was already very high in the United States in 1975.

A simple calculation of the share, the two and a half years' income of the laborer, made Ethan's face happy.

Although he didn't become a millionaire, isn't the speed of making money much faster than the potato guy next door?

After a short celebration, in the afternoon, Nolan Bushnell asked Atari's staff to start delivering the goods.

More than 100 employees joined the battle, and the two rushed out in a pickup truck.

It wasn't until this moment that Ethan discovered that most of Atari's staff were multitasking.

They're engineers when they pick up a ruler brush, receptionists when they put on their uniforms, and company delivery guys and field repairmen when they get into their cars.

The first two things are fine, but the third thing about private car sharing makes Ethan extremely admired.

If the capitalists dared to let the employees do this decades later, it would arouse public outrage and riots and demonstrations.

Of course, Atari, or rather Nolan Bushnell, wouldn't let them do it for nothing.

On the basis of reimbursement of wages and fuel expenses, they will be given a bonus of five dollars for each machine they send.

A normal person can earn [-] dollars in half a day if he pulls four units in a car.

This is the daily salary of most people!

Under the heavy reward, the staff of Atari are very motivated.

Looking at the hot scene, Ethan, who was acting as a supervisor with his hands behind his back, showed satisfaction. At the same time, he also said with emotion: "Nolan, this is the key to your success? Kill other competitors as quickly as possible? "

Although Nolan Bushnell didn't understand what a dead roll was, he knew that Ethan was talking about Atari's execution.

So he put his hands on his hips and said with a smile: "No way, who made the video game industry pay the most attention to timeliness in the past?"

"After the customer orders, if we can't deliver it to them within two days, maybe on the third day, there will be imitations of our competitors in front of their stores."

"Imitation is so fast!"

"So, in our business, time is life!"

"The faster the machine sells, the faster we have to deliver it! We must make those merchants who want to make money fall in love with us!"

Ethan liked this approach, and under his watch, the Atari guys showed amazing efficiency.

We set off around one o'clock in the afternoon, and came back around five o'clock in the evening.

Those signed bills meant that stacks of green Franklin had been obtained.

What's more, at the same time, Nolan Bushnell made hundreds of phone calls with colleagues who stayed in the company to get in touch with partners in Sacramento, Los Angeles and San Diego.

The content of the communication is also very simple.

First, I reported that my family was polite, and then I directly stated the facts, saying that we held a new product introduction meeting this morning. The old friends in San Jose and San Francisco were very generous and bought six 620s directly.

Then I will tell you that our machines this time can limit the player's game time. If you are interested, I can leave a few for you for the sake of the old friends who often cooperate.

If you're not sure about it, that's okay, tomorrow we'll be doing events in Sacramento, Los Angeles, and San Diego.

Then you can come directly.

When presenting the facts and pulling relationships, the combination punches that Zeng cooperated with appeared together.

The other party naturally said that he must be there tomorrow.

If you are more impatient, it will be settled directly.

And then...

In just one afternoon, in nearly 100 phone calls, Nolan led people to sell more than [-] units.

After all the company's subordinates came back, that night, Nolan even arranged the delivery operation for the next day's business trip.

When the next night came, Ethan, who had finished dinner, stepped on the clock and went to Atari to check the results. He went out to two hundred units in the morning and owed dozens of units in the evening, which made him extremely happy.

However, just as Ethan was thinking that if this speed of shipment was followed, the shipment of "Snake Game" would probably reach a thousand units in a short time, but Nolan Bushnell told all Atari of employees ordered—

"Everyone, from tomorrow, or from now on, we will no longer be making the complete game machine of "Snake Game". Everyone will only make circuit boards. Please pay attention! I mean no more complete machines! Make circuit boards! Just make circuit boards!"

'? ? ? '

This decision made Ethan somewhat incomprehensible.

He didn't understand why Nolan Bushnell suddenly gave up selling the whole machine.

Because the current sales momentum of the whole machine is very good!

In the case that the profit of the whole machine is higher than that of the game motherboard, the profit of making the whole machine is obviously more!

And when he was pondering the reason, Steve Jobs gave the answer.

"When selecting the first batch of invitation customers and the second batch of delivery customers, we will choose some good ones."

"They're open to new things, but that doesn't mean they're going to buy into our pitch."

"If we told customers at the beginning that they should replace all the electronic arcade machines in the store with "Snake Game", they would definitely disagree, because the market has never tested the capabilities of "Snake Game", so they would rather spend money Buy the whole machine, use time to test the effect of "Snake Game", and witness the achievements of "Snake Game" with your eyes."

"And after they finish this step..."

"They, as well as other merchants, who understand that "Snake Game" can really make money, will definitely not accept the purchase of the whole machine."

"Since new games can make more money than old games, why don't they just change the machine? In this way, it can save a lot of purchase costs!"

"And for us, we actually like that model."

"Because a pickup truck can only hold a few arcade machines, but it can pull a car of circuit boards."

"Trust me, within a week at most, we'll be dead busy!"

"Because those guys will call in frantically, saying that they want to replace the circuit board!"

'Is that so? '

Ethan, who only knows about the arcade industry through various rumors and has never been in contact with it personally, feels that he has learned something.

While Ethan waited, the first batch of "Snake Game" was shipped out for only three days, and Atari's phone was ringing off the hook!
Merchants who have cooperated with Atari have expressed that they want to buy games!
And those merchants who have no cooperation also want to buy arcade machines!
In the beginning, Atari's staff had a good record.

But after that, their attitudes became worse and worse.

"Okay!" is a good response.

Discourses like "I really know, just wait!" are endless.

This rubbish service attitude made Ethan, who was acting as the supervisor, a little dissatisfied.

Immediately stated that treating customers must be treated with God-like tenderness!

But when he gets off in person and demonstrates to the staff how to answer the phone.

As soon as he picked up the receiver, a heart-piercing shout appeared——

"Oh! Sxxt! Atari? Atari? You bitch bitches!"

"I bought ten arcade machines from you all last year! Ten arcade machines!"

"I support your business so much! How could you not tell me when you released a new game!"

"Dxxn's! The dance hall next door to me took two machines from you! Two!!"

"It turned out I made two hundred dollars in one night!!!"

"MFxxk!!! That special price is two hundred dollars!!!"

"My guests! All my guests were taken away by that bitch!!!"

"You bastards! I'll give you one day! Send me ten game boards!"

"Remember your grandpa's name! I'm in Saramento! I'm great Tim!"

'...'

'It was just an accident. '

Ethan smiled awkwardly, and wrote Silly Tim on the paper.

Then, he picked up the second call——

"Huh? Atari? Are you sons of bitches looking down on me?"

"Why have all the stores around me received notifications of new product releases, but I haven't?"

"MFxxxxx! Your animal-like behavior has cost me a lot of money!"

'...'

"You silly beep, I'm your father!"

Ethan didn't bother to talk to him, so he hung up the phone directly.

Then he smiled and waved to the staff of Atari, "Go ahead, you guys go on."

Seeing Ethan hitting a wall, Steve Jobs was very happy.

He leaned over, "Why do I feel that you seem to be very interested in selling game motherboards?"

"Of course I'm interested! Because it all means money!" Ethan rolled his eyes at Steve Jobs.

At the same time, he was muttering to himself, 'I can't tell you that I'm here to steal my teacher, can I? '

Seemingly seeing what Ethan was thinking, Steve Jobs chuckled and said, "Oh Ethan, do you want to know how we replace the motherboard for others? For example, the original casing of the machine is "Pong", the game inside is also "Pong", but now we have replaced the game inside with "Snake Game", but the outer shell is still "Pong."

The tongue-twister-like words made Ethan raise his eyebrows.

Although he was a little confused, he understood, "Didn't you just bring those arcade machines back to replace the motherboard?"

"It used to be, but not now, because that would be too much trouble!"

Steve Jobs said, "We do it all on the spot now!"

"what?"

This fact made Ethan a little curious, "On the spot?"

"Yeah? Change it on the spot!" Steve Jobs nodded and said, "Are you interested? Come and see with me if you are interested?"

(End of this chapter)