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Chapter 602: Chapter 592: The More People, The More Trouble
With more people coming, the original distribution plan was no longer suitable, so Shen Yunfang and her husband, together with Ma Liguo’s couple, met to discuss it, and finally decided to settle wages based on the distribution according to work.
Since it wasn’t Shen Yunfang’s own business, there was no way to let the new people all invest in it, so they could only pay them wages for selling the goods.
Yunfang proposed selling goods by family unit, with detailed records of the daily quantities taken, and after returning, the corresponding payments had to be made, then paying the sellers a commission of five cents per catty of fish, incentivizing them to sell more to earn more.
In the beginning, Wang Dan was somewhat unhappy, earning only five cents per catty of fish sold, wondering how much she could make in a day. However, her discontent only lasted for one day, and the next day she went out cheerfully to sell the fish.
The variety of their goods was quite complete, and the prices were reasonable. Strictly speaking, they were even cheaper than those sold by the food distribution company. Moreover, it was just before the New Year, when everyone wanted to buy goods for the holiday, and with the current weather, one could buy extra or buy early without issue, storing them on the balcony to stay frozen. Thus, their fish and shrimp sold very well.
Wang Dan’s first day of setting up a stall didn’t involve calling out to attract customers. Instead, as soon as she pushed her tricycle into a residential area, she was swarmed by a crowd of women, who quickly claimed one or two fish each, dividing up her entire stock of seafood. Those who missed out placed orders with her, and in the afternoon, she and Li Hongxing pushed over another tricycle full of sea fish that sold out as well.
When the day ended, despite earning little per catty, the volume she moved was significant. That day, she made more than ten yuan, which delighted her to the point of nearly jumping with joy, inwardly praising herself nonstop for having made the right choice coming here.
Keep in mind, those ten-plus yuan were pure earnings for her. She had no expenses since she was staying with her younger brother, where she didn’t have to spend a cent.
Although Wang Dan was somewhat crafty, she was also a person with an active mind. After spending the first day selling fish with her husband, she changed her strategy the next day.
First, the couple pushed a load of fish and shrimp to a market. After unloading the cargo, she stayed to sell the goods while sending Li Hongxing home to load another cart. When he returned, she left him to mind the stall while she ventured out with the tricycle into residential buildings. This was a job she excelled at, thanks to her slick tongue and thick skin, and her ability to strike up a conversation with anyone. So, she did the rounds. By the end of the day, the couple had sold fish in two locations, doubling their earnings. That evening, after tallying their sales, goodness, they had made close to thirty yuan.
The other families didn’t quite have Wang Dan’s talent but still followed her method, with one person running around selling and the other managing the stall, each ending up making over twenty yuan by the last day.
Wang Dan took great pride in having come out on top.
At home here, Shen Yunfang didn’t go out to sell. When she wasn’t teaching, she stayed in the courtyard to weigh, record, collect money, do the accounting, and pay the wages, with the main task being to wait for the big fish to bite.
Sure enough, within a few days, logistics personnel from some units, or purchasing departments, found their way here. Of course, most of these people came from towns around the Capital, with few from the Capital itself. It seemed the larger units had their own connections for such benefits.
Shen Yunfang warmly welcomed them, negotiated the prices, and then instructed Ma Liguo to immediately order boxes from the cardboard factory. They knew that if they wanted their merchandise to be upscale and fetch a good price, they had to get the packaging right.
After the Solar New Year, once Li Hongjun had left, the first shipment of nearly sixty tons of sea fish was completely sold out, and there were several units still waiting for their supply of sea fish.
On January 5, 1982, Shen Yunfang received three more train cars full of seafood.
Busy with packing and shipping, collecting money, and checking goods, by the 15th when a few families arrived from their hometown with their children, out of the four train cars of seafood, less than one carload was left. Of course, the capital invested by the two families had been earned back after the first carload of seafood was sold.
Once everyone had arrived, Shen Yunfang once again reallocated the tasks among the group, and then everyone took their places, starting to sell goods according to the routine of previous years.
This year, after everyone had gathered, Shen Yunfang and Ma Liguo held a meeting with Li Dajie and Dashuan. The four of them put their heads together and discussed how to cooperate this year and split the profits.
The seafood and fireworks business was definitely going to Shen Yunfang and Ma Liguo, and Li Dajie and Dashuan had no part in it. The Spring Festival couplets business would remain the same as last year. Shen Yunfang deducted Li Dajie and Dashuan’s capital from the money they left behind last year, and the final profits would be divided among the four families.
After everything was agreed upon, Shen Yunfang specifically instructed the two of them that it was enough for them to know about this matter in their hearts, and not to talk about it outside. After all, this year there were not only their four families but also others involved. If others knew about this arrangement, they would certainly feel uneasy, so, on the surface, it would appear that only Shen Yunfang and Ma Liguo were the bosses, while the rest were employees. This would prevent disputes. Li Dajie and Dashuan both nodded in agreement, promising to keep their mouths shut and focus on making a fortune quietly.
In the end, Ma Liguo also shared some good news with them; he had used the money left over from last year to buy a set of apartments for each family in the Capital, all of which were in multi-story buildings and had already been transferred into their names. Whenever they had the time, they could go and have a look. Afterward, they could decide whether they wanted to leave the apartments empty or tidy them up and rent them out.
After everything was made clear, Shen Yunfang relaxed a bit, attending to picking up goods and keeping accounts during the day, and then spending the rest of the time at home with Wang Dajie, looking after the children and cooking.
Thanks to the groundwork laid in the previous two years, this year’s business of couplets and fireworks was mainly wholesale. Shen Yunfang just waited at home for people to come and buy in bulk.
About ten days before the New Year, each family left women in the city to man the stalls, and the remaining men pushed carts to go sell goods at the rural markets together. Learning from the near robbery that Shen Yunfang experienced last year, this year everyone went to the rural markets in groups, which deterred any envious onlookers from getting any ideas.
Wang Dan, the elder sister, once raised objections to this group-selling approach, asking whose sale the fish counted towards when selling in big groups. If the profits were divided among all the participants, wouldn’t her family be at a loss? Having checked the notebook, she realized that she and her husband sold the most goods each day, so no wonder she refused, feeling it was unfair.
Initially, Shen Yunfang didn’t take this matter seriously. After all, the previous collaborations among the families had been very pleasant, and no one was the type to haggle over every ounce. Mainly, since there was no commission system before and everyone was their own boss, nobody shirked their responsibilities, and no one had raised concerns about unfairness. But now that not everyone was the boss, such issues arose, and when an issue emerged, a solution needed to be found.
After discussing with Ma Liguo, they decided that the people who went out to the rural markets couldn’t be paid on commission. Instead, they would be paid a daily wage of ten yuan per person, with a bonus of five cents per kilogram for sales exceeding one thousand kilograms. This bonus would be shared equally among all those who went to the markets.
If Wang Dan and her husband felt that this arrangement was still unfair, they could opt out and continue, as before, to sell goods in the city.
As savvy as she was, Wang Dan wouldn’t stand to lose out. She did some calculations and then had her husband join the group going to the markets, while she herself took a tricycle to keep selling through the streets and alleys.
