Chapter 79: Stuffed Animals
Lu Lin gently tappe the table with his fingers and said, "Next, we can store a batch of winter gloves and sell them when a cold wave hit."
However, they already sold gloves last year. The sales volume might be limited this year, so they could consider selling something else.
"How about the scarf business you mentioned?" asked Chen Xiao Mi.
"That's an idea." There were people who couldn't even afford clothes in this time and space. This scarf business might be a little extra, but there were rich people who spent money like water.
Chen Xiao Mi glanced at Lu Lin and said, "How much saving do we have now?"
"There are about three hundred taels," Lu Lin said.
Chen Xiao Mi nodded, "Quite a lot!"
Lu Lin nodded and said, "That's right, we are doing pretty well. And I think this year will be a bumper harvest year, price of grains will be cheap. We can store a batch of food."
Chen Xiao Mi nodded and said, "This sounds good."
Chen Xiao Mi was considering maybe they could go the mountain and dig a few caves to store a batch of food in case of a lean year or some natural calamities. With Lu Lin's convenience store of, it shouldn't be difficult to transport a batch of food to the hidden caves in the mountain. The price of food in lean years would increase by several times.
Chen Xiao Mi made a sigh and said, "Autumn is coming! The animals in this time are chunky, they need some fat to pass winter."
Lu Lin got so alerted, "Chen Xiao Mi, are you thinking about going hunting now? Look at your belly, I'm telling you right now, that's a big no! Stop being so nostalgic, what if you meet a bear in the mountain?"
Chen Xiao Mi said guiltily, "I didn't say I want to go hunting right now. Speaking of bear, the bears in your hometown look so adorable!"
"Bears in my hometown?"
Chen Xiao Mi took out a keychain ornament that Lu Lin gave him and said, "I'm talking about this, see, how cute!"
Lu Lin had a look at the 'bear', it was a cartoon keychain ornament, a mini stuffed bear.
......
Lu Lin smiled and fiddled the ornament in his hand, "Ah! You are talking about this, hmm, shall we make some and sell in our store? We can even make big ones, so the kids can cuddle them."
Chen Xiao Mi thought about it and said, "It's a really good idea."
There were few toys on the market for children here. And rich people in town who doted on their children and grandchildren were more than willing to pay a ridiculous amount of money to buy dolls for them.
Lu Lin threw himself into the preparation as soon as he made up his mind.
They had enough fabric in stock.
Filling the dolls required a large amount of cotton. Lu Lin bought some quilts from the market, he decided to use the quilt cotton to stuff the dolls.
The eyes of the dolls were more important. Lu Lin ordered a batch of wooden beads, he planned to dye those beads with ink once he got them.
Granny Shen and Wan Li's wife Yun Niang were asked by Lu Lin to make the first samples of the dolls.
Granny Shen and Yun Niang had no concept of dolls, neither of them had heard such a thing before. Their first samples looked a little strange to be honest. However, Mai who had never seen such a thing before fell in love with them immediately, he grabbed one and fondled it admiringly, he kept asking Lu Lin whether he could cuddle this doll when he went to bed.
Granny Shen and Yun Niang tried a few more times and it paid off, the dolls were getting better and better.
Granny Shen and Yun Niang had been putting in extra hours, so Lu Lin had to find a few people to join them.
Of course, Lu Lin wouldn't tell the workers about the complete method of making dolls. Granny Shen and Yun Niang gathered the workers together and taught them separately. Some were in charge of making ears, some were feet, some were outfits for dolls, some were the accessories and ribbons.
Because everyone only did one part of it, the workers were all rather confused about what was going on.
However, the workers were so grateful that they had work to do, it was always good to be able to make some money and support the family. The sales of the schoolbags had dropped, and the workload assigned to everyone was much less. So the workers were all so motivated and excited when Granny Shen and Yun Niang assigned new work to them.
......
In Su He's house.
"Wife, what you are making is so strange!"
Su He nodded and said, "It's a bit strange. I'm guessing that I'm only doing a small part of it. The finished products must be amazing, just like the schoolbags."
The same thing had happened when they made schoolbags before. Initially, everyone thought that what they were making was so weird and the business was doomed to fail.
However, as soon as the schoolbags hit the market, it went crazy, the business took off immediately. Unfortunately, the sales had dropped significantly recently due to the saturated market and the copycat shops.
"That's most likely to be the case, but what they are making, I'm so curious. "
Su He narrowed her eyes and shook her head. Among the female workers, only Granny Shen and Granny Shen knew what exactly they were making. And no one dared enter their rooms without permission, so Su He had no idea what this new product was.
Some days ago, Lu Lin seemed to have bought ten cotton quilts, he bought ten more last night. Su He didn't know why Lu Lin bought so many quilts. It was not that cold.
"Mom, did you bring me a bun?" Su He's son tugged at her sleeve.
Su He looked at her son with an apologetic expression and said, "I didn't buy you a steamed bun today, I'm sorry. Tomorrow, I will deliver my goods tomorrow, we will have money by then, is that okay?"
The child was a little disappointed when he heard that there was no bun. But he cheered up as Su He promised him that he would have a bun the next day.
Seeing her son being coaxed, Su He secretly let out a sigh of relief. Before this, she didn't have much work and she worried they couldn't make ends meet this month, and now she had more work to do as Lu Lin was about to launch a new product.
......
Granny Shen and Yun Niang were busy making dolls, while Chen Xiao Mi was filling the dolls with cotton. It was not easy to evenly fill the whole body of the dolls.
Chen Xiao Mi didn't like to do needlework, but he really enjoyed stuffing the dolls, he felt like he could use his strength to do the job.
Granny Shen and Yun Niang's work site had been moved to the main bedroom because it was more spacious.
There were all kinds of dolls lying on the ground, the tables, the bed of the main bedroom.
Chen Xiao Mai was mad with joy. He hugged this doll on the table then he jumped to the bed to and hug the other one.
Even though it was Granny Shen and Yun Niang who were in charge of the actual work, the dolls were all designed by Lu Lin. Lu Lin was held in higher esteem by Granny Shen and Yun Niang now.
Granny Shen and Yun Niang made a lot of small dolls. The small dolls used less fabric and cotton, and the cost was lower.
Granny Shen and Yun Niang had recently become more and more proficient, so Lu Lin designed a life-size bear doll for them to make.
Chen Xiao Mi looked at Lu Lin and said, "Is this doll too big? Who would buy it?"
Lu Lin shook his head and said, "No, this doll will be our shop's signature doll, the most-treasured doll in our shop, we will display it at the center of our shop, anyone walks past our shop will turn head."
Although Chen Xiao Mi felt that no one would buy such a large doll, he believed every word that Lu Lin said. After designing the sample of the doll, Lu Lin asked Granny Shen and Yun Niang to put down their work and make a pair of the signature dolls first.
......
Summer gradually passed and the fan business in the store gradually cooled down.
Shen Chi sat in the shop and held his chin in frustration. "We haven't made many sales recently."
Chen Xiao Cai looked like he wasn't bothered at all, "Don't worry, if we can't make many sales, those copycat stores are not doing great either."
Recently, there appeared many copycat stores selling schoolbags and fans in Willow Town. Those stores had pushed down the prices very low, which meant that no one was able to make a profit. Xia Haisheng who stole their rental wasn't doing well either. Chen Xiao Cai wasn't bothered by the current situation, he knew Lu Lin would launch new product soon, plus they were not losing money.
Shen Chi pouted.
Chen Xiao Cai said confidently, " Lin Gege sent us a letter saying he is going to launch a new product called dolls in a few days, don't worry, Chi, our business will boom soon."
Shen Chi blinked and said, "Great! But what are dolls? "
Chen Xiao Cai shook his head, "I don't know, either. Whatever they are, I'm sure we can make a big profit."
Shen Chi grinned and nodded.
......
Lu Lin's workers made more than 800 dolls in the past few days.
Lu Lin put the dolls on the racks on the day of Autumn Market. People were hurrying to and fro on the market, Lu Lin's shop was thronged with visitors. Quite a few people surrounded Lu Lin's shop to admire the dolls.
"Grandfather, I want that, I want that."
A chubby boy who was holding an old man hand pointed at the lifesize bear doll in the store and shouted loudly.
The bear doll in the shop was very tall. He wore a beautiful robe and he was even wearing some accessories on the neck. The wooden eyes were so well made, they were brimming with radiating vigor.
It was surrounded by several circles of small dolls like yellow duckies, chooks, bunny rabbits and little snakes.
Each of the dolls had different looks but they were all exquisitely made, each and every of them looked very eye-catching.
"Manager Wan, how much does the biggest doll cost?"
Wan Li shook his head and said, " I'm sorry, Councilor Li. This bear doll is not for sale, it's our most-treasured doll in the entire store."
Councilor Li nodded understandingly and said, "The most-treasured doll, of course it's not for sale."
"You heard it. It's not that Grandfather doesn't buy it for you, Manager Wan said it wasn't for sale."
When the chubby boy heard that, he threw a tantrum by sitting on the ground and crying.
The old man looked at his grandson and said helplessly, "That one is not for sale, I can buy you other ones. If you don't stand up and wipe your tears now, you won't get anything."
The chubby boy rolled his eyes and got up immediately, he pointed at several dolls in the store.
"Then I want that bunny rabbit, the smiling one," he wiped his tears and got busy picking dolls, "The chook in the blue robe, the kitty who is playing with a ball, wait, wait, I also want..."
"You said bunny rabbit first, I will buy you that bunny rabbit."
Wan Li nodded and said, "The bunny rabbit is 600 cents. Do you want to pick one more, we have a deal at the moment, one for 600 cents and two for 1 tael of silver."
The chubby boy tugged at Councilor Li's robe and begged, "Please make it two, grandpa."
Hearing this, Councilor Li nodded and bought two for his grandson.
With that the boy showed an ear-to-ear grin.
Councilor Li handed Wan Li the money and said, "Manager Wan, your Sino Commercial House is really good at making money."
Wan Li smiled and said, "We feel so flattered, Councilor Li."
A continuous stream of customers came to the store, rich people would buy one or two for the kids, the well-off ones would buy a small one for the kids.
You could see kids holding dolls on the Autumn Market everywhere.
When kids saw other kids who were holding dolls walking past, they naturally would ask their parents to buy one for them. Wan Li didn't get one break the whole day.