NOVPUB
Chapter 658: Chapter 648: Rebates
Shen Yunfang didn’t look at them, picking up her own cup directly, naturally it was filled with cool boiled water, and said, "Director Hou, you haven’t visited our farm yet, have you? You must take a look when you get the chance. Not to brag, but it’s truly excellent. Just a few days ago, our province’s governor, the mayor, and several other leaders all visited us for a tour and gave our farm very high praise. And now, knowing that our vegetable greenhouses could produce before the New Year, they took the initiative to help us connect with buyers, allowing us to meet you, Director Hou. This is fate. For the sake of this fate, I must toast to you, Director Hou." As she spoke, she proactively raised her cup and clinked it with Director Hou’s cup.
Director Hou squinted his small eyes, conjured up a smile, and clinked his cup with Shen Yunfang’s, taking a sip as a token gesture.
After putting down her cup, Shen Yunfang continued, "The reason our farm could push our greenhouse vegetables to various enterprises and institutions around our city this time is also a fortuitous coincidence. We’re not aiming to make much money; just getting in touch with leaders like Director Hou and becoming a familiar face is enough for us."
"Haha, Comrade Xiaoshen really has a way with words," Director Hou laughed, not knowing the background of this Shen Yunfang. This procurement task was directly issued by higher management, and from this woman’s words, it seemed there was more to the story.
"Not at all, I’m speaking from the heart," Shen Yunfang said appropriately, revealing a polite smile, trying to appear as natural as possible.
The others were sneakily eyeing their sister-in-law; her words were utterly nauseating. How could she blatantly lie like that?
"But you know, the units that the city has connected us with this time are indeed numerous," Shen Yunfang said, taking the opportunity to sing her own praises. "You know our farm is just getting started, and we haven’t built many vegetable greenhouses this year. Not to mention G Province, just for our city’s population of several million, our few greenhouses certainly won’t be enough to meet the demand."
"Hehe, it seems that Comrade Xiaoshen is doing big business," Director Hou clearly didn’t take Shen Yunfang’s boasting seriously. "If you really don’t have that many vegetables on your side, then I won’t make it difficult for you. As a civilized unit, we can pass on such a good opportunity to other brother units if needed." He was trying to checkmate Shen Yunfang.
Liu Jianqiang and the others were getting anxious upon hearing this. Now that they might not buy anything at all, what should they do? Their gazes unanimously turned to their sister-in-law.
Shen Yunfang acted as if she hadn’t heard the sarcasm at all, still smiling and saying, "Director Hou, aren’t you jesting with me? With so many units to choose from, we have to differentiate between those that are closer and those that are more distant, don’t we? When our farm was first established, our power company was a great help, and we have not forgotten that. So no matter who else might get less, we cannot shortchange your department, Director Hou."
When the farm was first contracted, she had gone to the power company to get electric lines set up, which was indeed not easy. Even with orders from above, the workers were not so easy to deal with. At that time, Shen Yunfang, eager for the farm to have power as soon as possible, had given the workers plenty of benefits. Consequently, the electricity was set up much faster.
"I know you’re busy, Director Hou, and for our little vegetables, you have to hustle inside and out. Rest assured, we are not strangers. We can’t have you busy yourself for nothing. Look, how about this proposition? Our vegetables, because they’re produced in the winter – just before the Spring Festival – the prices are certainly higher than in the summer. Our farm’s pricing is fifty cents for string beans per pound, forty cents for eggplants, forty-five cents for persimmons... and celery is eighty cents a pound."
The more Director Hou listened, the uglier his expression became. Is this what one calls slightly expensive? It’s downright exorbitant. In summer, the most expensive string beans are just slightly over ten cents per pound, and many vegetables are priced at five or ten cents a pound. She’s calling this price not expensive? How can she say that with a straight face?
Of course, Shen Yunfang noticed the change in Director Hou’s expression and immediately continued with a smile, "Director Hou, you are a discerning person and should know that fresh vegetables in winter are scarce in the Northeast. Even if there are any, they’re shipped from the south. Not to mention the base price of the vegetables, just the shipping cost added to each pound means you can’t buy them for less than eighty cents or a dollar, right?"
Shen Yunfang wasn’t lying this time. In the Northeast during winter, fresh vegetables are usually transported from the south and are typically consumed by the powerful and influential. Even if one could spot them in the black market, the prices were still very high. Shen Yunfang herself had sold fresh vegetables in previous years, where a pound could go for a dollar, and even then, they were in such high demand that supply couldn’t keep up.
"Heh, you can’t calculate it like that, Xiaoshen. You also said that’s vegetables from the south, and your vegetables are from the north, right?" The implication was that there was no need for transportation, so how could it be priced the same as the southern vegetables.
"So, we’ve knocked a large chunk off our farm’s price. You’ve got to understand, even though we’re not adding transportation costs, planting winter vegetables over here means we have to add fuel expenses. We keep our greenhouses warm by burning coal, and we’ve specially had several carloads of coal delivered from G Province mines. When you really crunch the numbers, this cost is no less than the transportation fee." Shen Yunfang was of course devising ways to up the ante for her own vegetables. "Director Hou, thinking about it this way, isn’t the pricing for our vegetables reasonable?"
"Of course, setting a price is setting a price, but since we have a good relationship, I should definitely offer some kind of discount to Director Hou, right?"
Director Hou’s beady eyes gleamed as he watched Shen Yunfang, waiting to see what kind of discount she could offer.
It seemed as though Shen Yunfang pondered for a moment before she said, "Director Hou, my vegetables have been registered with the provincial governor. If I directly lower the price for you, then I wouldn’t be able to sell to others. How about this: we still go by our farm’s pricing on the official accounts, but privately, I’ll give you a three-cent discount per jin of vegetables. How does that sound?"
Director Hou had been in purchasing for years, he knew all the ins and outs. And direct kickback offers like from Shen Yunfang were rare indeed.
In the past few years, he had been scraping and bowing, handing over money to buy goods from others. It had only recently gotten better, but even when he purchased goods, people usually just gave him some extra items; direct cash was rare.
Director Hou, cunning and shrewd as he was, immediately understood when Shen Yunfang mentioned a three-cent discount per jin of vegetables—it was a kickback for him. Three cents might sound small, but his company had nearly four thousand people in it. If they really bought vegetables from her, wouldn’t that be tens of thousands of jins? At three cents per jin, that’s three hundred yuan for ten thousand jins.
Director Hou took a sharp breath. This figure was nearly equivalent to his three months’ salary.
Shen Yunfang just watched Director Hou’s face change, knowing that this deal was as good as done—he would definitely agree in the end.
Sure enough, after a while, Director Hou regained his composure, "Five cents off per jin."
"Heh, Director Hou, you’ve also got to let us make a little, right? We’re covering land lease, hiring workers, plus all sorts of miscellaneous expenses like utilities. Really, we don’t make much from selling vegetables, you’ve got to let us earn something too, right?" Shen Yunfang watched Director Hou the entire time, mainly to observe his expression.
"Comrade Xiaoshen, don’t talk about that anymore. Your family’s business is so big, you surely can’t be fighting with us common folk over profits," Director Hou found his footing and shamelessly began to hard bargain.
After this back and forth, they finally reached an agreement at a four-cent discount per jin of vegetables.
