Chapter 229 The 'Unscrupulous Merchant' Liu Chen

Liu Chen pressed 20 on the calculator.

"Twenty?!" Zhu Dian couldn't help but lean his upper body forward, getting even closer to the calculator, and stared at the number on it with wide eyes. "It's really only twenty!"

Liu Chen nodded, just about to speak, when Zhu Dian quickly asked again:

"Is this twenty... our selling price, or your selling price to us?"

Liu Chen smiled and said:

"I said the price per pack, so naturally, it's your selling price." After saying this, the distributors present were no longer as excited, because Liu Chen stating their selling price actually meant price control.

Once a product is price-controlled, their profit margins are squeezed. For instance, with Meili Chang (Beautiful Sausage), they had a love-hate relationship with it. It tasted good and sold well, but Chen Laotou (Old Man Chen) strictly enforced price control on it.

For every Meili Chang they sold, they earned less than half a Sanhui Chang (Three Huis Sausage), and businessmen are driven by profit. Therefore, the best shelf space in their supermarkets was always reserved for products like Sanhui.

Liu Chen, being an experienced salesman, knew these distributors' temperaments.

He immediately explained further:

"This twenty is indeed your selling price, but my price to you is this."

As he spoke, Liu Chen cleared the previous price and pressed another one.

The other distributors were somewhat disheartened, but Zhu Dian once again leaned forward, looking at the numbers on Liu Chen's calculator.

"One hundred and sixty!"

As soon as Zhu Dian said this, the other distributors who had been sitting firmly on the sofa also got up and looked at the calculator in Liu Chen's hand.

"It's really one hundred and sixty!"

"If the purchase price is one hundred and sixty, selling at twenty-one per pack, that's a twenty-five percent profit..."

For the retail industry, this profit margin wasn't extremely high, but it was definitely not low.

Moreover, this pork jerky was so addictive that Zhu Dian even suspected that if he hadn't lost his dentures, he could have eaten ten small packs in one go.

Thinking of it that way, one large pack was enough for just one person.

"At this price! Give me eight hundred cases!" Zhu Dian declared grandly, his face beaming with joy.

"We'll take five hundred cases."

"Our company will take five hundred cases."

"Me too."

"..."

Listening to everyone's order quantities, Liu Chen smiled and turned to Old Man Chen, saying:

"Grandpa, can you help me prepare the contracts? I'll sign the contracts with the uncles and grandpas, and once the pork jerky is produced, we'll ship it to everyone according to the contracts."

Old Man Chen's face lit up at being called Grandpa and responded with an "Okay!" He then walked to the office door, opened it, and called out to have six copies of the product pre-order contracts prepared.

When the contracts arrived, Liu Chen glanced at them. They were all standard, ready-made contracts.

Once the six men signed the contracts, a total of ninety-six thousand yuan in pre-payment was made on the spot, and the matter was settled.

After the contracts were finalized, Liu Chen escorted Old Man Chen all the way to the parking area before stopping and waving goodbye.

After the six cars drove away, Old Man Chen appeared somewhat worried.

"Chen Chen, Grandpa knows you want to expand your brand's scale, but... one hundred and sixty per piece, isn't this pork jerky sold too cheaply? Or is the meat content in your pork jerky not high enough?"

Liu Chen shook his head: "Honestly, one piece of my product contains a total of one hundred packs. Each pack is ten grams of pork. Of course, this is after drying. If it were fresh, the raw material would be around thirteen to fourteen grams.

But one hundred packs in total only use two pounds and six ounces of pork. With two pounds and six ounces of meat, selling for one hundred and sixty yuan, do you still think it's cheap?"

Hearing Liu Chen's calculation, Old Man Chen immediately shook his head.

"Not cheap at all. Not only is it not cheap, but your profit margin is too high."

Liu Chen smiled and did not deny it.

Meimei Chang (Beautiful Sausage) was a product of conscience for the Meimei brand. Snacks, in general, were naturally expected to have higher profit margins.

This was precisely why she chose pork jerky as her second product. Otherwise, she had many other options from the recipes drawn from the system's lottery.

Seeing that Liu Chen didn't deny it, Old Man Chen couldn't help but start calculating how much Chen Chen would earn per piece of pork jerky.

'The cost of pork for one piece of pork jerky is twenty-three yuan. Adding the cost of ingredients and packaging bags, plus the one yuan for the so-called lottery event.

The total cost of a box of pork jerky, at most, is around thirty yuan...

Chen Chen sells it at a factory price of one hundred and sixty yuan per piece, meaning the gross profit is one hundred and thirty yuan, more than four times the cost...'

After calculating this, Old Man Chen looked at Liu Chen with even brighter eyes.

This child is capable! If nothing else, even a seasoned veteran like Zhu Dian felt that twenty yuan per pack was a very marketable price for them.

It was rare to have a product where the manufacturer makes money, the distributor makes money, and the customer is satisfied.

Thinking about how he had previously worried that Liu Chen couldn't shoulder the responsibility and had prepared a fallback for her, he felt that he was just getting old and overthinking things.

"Grandpa, if there's nothing else, I'm going to my maternal grandmother's place. Today is New Year's Day, and my cousin is back. Mom wants me to go gather with them."

"Oh, what could I possibly have to do! I won't go with you. If I go, your grandmother might not feel at ease. By the way, I still have some Maotai that someone gave me in my office. Take two bottles, yes, and also that American ginseng, your mother-in-law can use it to replenish her health..."

Old Man Chen walked along, speaking as he went. By the time Liu Chen reached the office door, she was already carrying two large bags of gifts.

Old Man Chen walked behind Liu Chen, wrapping his down jacket tighter. He muttered:

"It's a holiday today, and it'll probably be hard to get a taxi near our factory. You take my car. Don't drink alcohol when you get there. If you really want to drink, then do so; I'll call someone to bring it back tomorrow."

The old man's nagging was all about one thing: be careful on the road and have fun!

How could Liu Chen leave the old man alone at the factory? It was New Year's Day, and there were very few people at the factory. She first drove the old man back to the old house and then, with the gifts in the back seat, headed to "Phoenix City."

Liu Chen drove towards Phoenix City's underground parking garage, but was stopped by a security guard.

"What are you here for?"

Liu Chen rolled down the car window:

"Resident. My parking space is at B1, number 138. Please check."

The security guard who stopped her walked back to the guard booth and was about to check the records on the computer when another, slightly older security guard directly pressed the button to open the underground garage barrier.

The young security guard looked and immediately turned to his captain: "Hey! Captain, what are you doing!"

The captain lightly patted the young security guard on the back of his head:

"Don't you recognize who this is?"

The young security guard looked wronged: "Who?"

"The top scorer in the college entrance examination for our community last year! It's thanks to her that the residents who initially found it too far away and didn't move here, now think this place is a lucky spot because a top scorer came from it. They all moved in at once. And then, when they moved in,

Those residents who were complaining about the lack of people also moved in. Look, in this area, besides our community, which other community has this kind of popularity?

It's not that people are popular; it's that those street vendors who are looking for a profitable area noticed our community and set up stalls outside. If these vendors weren't here, would you have met your wife?"

The young security guard's mind was spinning from the captain's explanation, and he said somewhat uncertainly:

"So that's how it is... then, that female resident just now is actually my matchmaker."

Liu Chen was unaware that she had become a matchmaker for a security guard. She had just closed her car door, carrying two bags of gifts in each hand, and was walking towards the elevator.

Perhaps it was because the Spring Festival was approaching, but the property management had begun posting red tiger-shaped window decorations, and two small red lanterns were hung outside the elevator.

To be honest, Liu Chen could understand that this was the property management's way of celebrating the New Year. However, how to put it, in the elevator lobby on the first basement level, which only had a single white incandescent bulb for lighting, hanging two red lanterns.

It might be a little festive, but it felt more unsettling...

The elevator came up from the second basement level. As soon as it opened, Liu Chen saw the person inside, and a smile formed on her face. Her cousin Jiang Di, standing inside, smiled, greeted her, and took the gift bags from Liu Chen's hands.

"Your second aunt was just saying you weren't here yet and was about to call, but your second uncle stopped her, saying you'd be here soon, you've got it under control."

Liu Chen nodded at this, as if it were something her mother would do.

"Brother Jiang Di, you're a senior in college now, right? How's your internship going?"

As soon as Liu Chen asked this, Jiang Di, who had been happily talking about their elderly mother, froze.

"Ah, it's going okay. You don't know, these college students aren't as sought after as they were a few years ago. Forget about getting into foreign companies; even getting into a regular company, they don't want you."

"What are your plans after graduation, Brother Jiang Di?"

"Ah... Chen Chen, you're too much. Asking this makes me lose my appetite for the stewed pork trotters my mom is making later."

Seeing Jiang Di's genuine anxiety and worry, Liu Chen thought for a moment and couldn't help but ask:

"Brother Jiang Di, is there anything you want to do? Like starting a business?"

Hearing this, Jiang Di was taken aback, a pensive look on his face.

"Don't say it, I actually do have something I want to do, but it's not starting a business, it's becoming a teacher."

This answer was somewhat unexpected for Liu Chen. After all, in her previous life, Jiang Di had never revealed this ambition.

Perhaps sensing the surprise on Liu Chen's face, Jiang Di scratched his head somewhat sheepishly and said, "Compared to the workplace, I prefer being with children. However, my mother disagrees with this. You know, she's been a teacher her whole life and thinks being a teacher means earning a fixed salary with no financial prospects."

Liu Chen listened to Jiang Di's wish and remembered Jiang Di working so hard as a salesman in her previous life. She sighed inwardly. In her previous life, her cousin had made many sacrifices and efforts for money!

But, how can I get Auntie to agree to Brother Jiang Di's wish?