When Shu Yan arrived at the shop, Zhang Huaxiu and Yingying had already arrived. The two of them were truly hardworking. Their work hours started at 9 AM, but they always arrived at 8 AM. During the last two days, they were even coming at 7 AM to help organize the clothes. She must give them bonuses when she pays them next month.
It was always a two-way street between bosses and employees. Shu Yan was an employee in the past and understood the sadness associated with not being appreciated. Now that she was an employer herself, she felt that compensations should be merit based and good employees should be rewarded accordingly.
"Xiuxiu, go check and see how many more windbreakers we have left in storage then take a look to see which styles, colors, and sizes were the top selling ones." Shu Yan put down her purse and counted out 200 yuan of change for the cash register before she started booking the entries for yesterday.
Now that she has two formal employees at her shop, Shu Yan was mostly responsible for working the cash register. She would only hand over the responsibilities to Zhang Huaxiu when she has to step out. As she was going to pay the two of them commissions for the amount of sales they have done, Shu Yan needed a detailed record of all of the receipts. She didn't want any confusion at the end of the month.
"I just checked. This beige windbreaker is the most popular. We only have a small and a large one left. The second best is this pink one and this pair of pants are doing quite well also, medium is the size that is going the faster. For the black coat, the large size goes the fastest. I had written them all down in this notebook," said Zhang Huaxiu as she handed a notebook over to Shu Yan. All the styles and sizes were clearly listed in there.
Zhang Huaxiu was very detail oriented; Shu Yan only took a look and didn't bother going into the storage. She put the notebook into her purse. "You take over for the morning. I am going to pick up some more merchandise from the train station. I will be gone for two hours at the most. And..." Shu Yan waved for Xiuxiu to come closer and whispered to her, "Put the special prize into the balloon and put it in an obscure spot up top."
"You want to put the special prize up today?" What would it be like if someone won the television?
The special prize was a 21" television that was over 2,000 yuan in value. Shu Yan didn't even add it in the first two days, just in case. A television that was over 2,000 yuan; if it was drawn within the first two days, what would they use as a draw afterward? Today was already the third day. If it was drawn, it would bring about another round of gimmick. If not, they could always give it to a customer on day five or six. One way or another, Shu Yan did not plan to keep the television. Her intention was truly to give it away.
"Go ahead. It will be fine. And put the first prize balloon somewhere easy to get to. It's been a few days; we need some decent prizes for excitement." Having said that, Shu Yan left with her purse in tow.
Back then, there were very few taxis on the street and they were difficult to find. It was very inconvenient not having her own car for her business. Shu Yan knew how to drive, but the original owner certainly did not. She'd need to take some time out to get herself a driver's license, so she could buy a second hand truck. That ought to make life much easier.
Shu Yan ordered quite a bit this time, and she couldn't carry them back all on her own. Luckily, the shipment station has delivery services; it was just a matter of paying them a little extra.
When she got back to the shop, Shu Yan noticed that it was bustling with noises outside her shop with a large crowd standing around. She couldn't even push through them. She asked someone next to her, "What is going on here?"
"Did you just get here? Someone just won the first prize here. It's a bicycle. We all thought it was a scam, but someone truly won it. I heard that she only bought a $20 shirt and won a $200 something bicycle. How lucky was that? A lot of people have gone inside to shop already. If someone won the television, tsk tsk. That would totally be worth it." The bystander, looking at what was going on, was tempted. "Alright, I am going to go take a look inside as well. I can't wear these, but my wife can. Her birthday is coming up anyway."
Ah, so someone had won the bicycle. Shu Yan smiled slightly. Just as she had expected, putting it in the most obvious spot would ensure that someone would get it. The promotion activities that had seemingly started to die down had picked up once again.
Shu Yan apologized to the delivery man, gave him two cases of cigarettes, and had him wait there for her while she pushed through to the front of the shop. She clapped her hands and said, "Hi, everyone. I am the owner of this shop. I had just learned that someone had taken the first prize. There was only one first prize originally, but seeing how enthusiastic everybody is, I have decided to add one more first prize."
Seeing that Zhang Huaxiu had rolled over another bicycle, all the bystanders standing around started clapping.
Regardless of whether they could win it, they could join in for the fun first.
Shu Yan lifted her hands, gesturing them to quiet down before she carried on. "Well, don't just focus on the first prize. Do you see this TV next to me? This is the special prize for our grand opening and it hasn't been claimed yet. Everybody still has a chance to claim it. This is a $2,300 21" TV. You don't want to miss out on it. Everybody needs clothes. All you need to do is to buy one article of clothing, let it be a shirt or a pair of pants, and you will have a shot at it. I just want someone to take this with them."
"Boss, you sure I can take it with me if I drew it?"
"Of course. So many people are watching and my shop is right here. I won't ruin my own reputation over a TV."
The sales in the shop have reached another high. Shu Yan and her girls didn't even have an opportunity to organize the merchandise that Shu Yan had just brought back from the train stations and customers were already buying them off the ground.
"Does this pair of jeans work for me? How much is it?" One of the customers asked Zhang Huaxiu.
"Let me take your measurement for you," said Zhang Huaxiu as she took the customer's waist size very professionally. "This one is a bit on the big size for you. For jeans, you want something more fitting. This pair of jeans are the newest style this year. Many of the actresses wear it. Just $25. It works well with this shirt. $70 total. You pick another jacket and the total will be over $100 and you can have $10 off. You can wear this set all the way till the winter. If you don't mind being a little bit cold, you can wear a pair of fall pants and a cotton padded top under the jacket in the winter. It is totally worth it."
Many of the customers were only planning on buying one piece of clothing, but after hearing the salesperson's explanation of the promotional activities, they now wanted to buy a full $100 for the $10 discount. Once they had three pieces, they felt that they were missing out and might as well get a total of five pieces, so they could be eligible for the free one.
In the end, everybody who went for the drawing had bags in their hands. Even if they didn't get the television, they were still happy with the socks or the scarf.
"I got it! I got it!"
Hearing the excited voice, Shu Yan thought someone had claimed the television. She rushed outside. If someone had claimed the television, she must take the opportunity to publicize it greatly. When she rushed out, she learned that it was the second prize that was claimed. It was won by the man who had asked her earlier.
"Congratulations, Mister, for claiming the second prize. You can pick one of these $100 electric fans from over here." Shu Yan congratulated him loudly.
The man left happily with the fan in his hands. Even though he had the television in mind when he bought the clothes, he knew that that was a long shot. He hadn't expected he'd win the electric fan. His wife had been grumbling that the weather has been getting too hot lately and that they needed to get an electric fan. Now that he had won one, his wife would be happy when she saw it.
Seeing that someone had left with an electric fan, the bystanders were even more excited. They had all come to this street to shop for clothes; it didn't matter which shop they bought it from. And they can enter the drawing if they bought from this shop.
None of the temporary helpers went out to distribute flyers but were all helping out inside the shop. Even so, Shu Yan still felt that they were a bit short handed.
"That comes to $112. You paid $120. Here's your $8 back." Shu Yan was busy with collecting money and giving out changes. She had no time for sales activities at all.
When the rush finally died down, it was already noon time. Shu Yan handed Zhang Huaxiu some money to get lunch, grabbed her purse, and was about to take off.
"You don't want to have some food first, boss lady?" asked Zhang Huaxiu while holding onto the money.
"No, no food for me. I need to head to the factory to get more merchandise. Clean up a little bit around the shop in a little and refill the racks with merchandise. Then take turns to take a break." By the time she got to the front door, Shu Yan turned around and added, "Everybody had worked so hard. Get a few more meat dishes. Don't worry about saving money for me."
"I will," said Zhang Huaxiu with a smile.
***
Shu Yan was lucky this time and was able to get a taxi on the side of the road. It cost 30 yuan to get to the factory; that was a bit on the high end. But, right now, time was money. So Shu Yan took the cab to the factory.
"Boss He, I see you have new styles out again," said Shu Yan when she saw quite a few new short jackets and padded jackets.
"I saw quite some new styles at your shop last time so I made a special trip to City Yang, bought a few different styles of clothing, and made them here myself. What do you think? Not too shabby huh?" said Boss He happily.
"They are quite good." Shu Yan nodded. "Do you do shirts here? I have a couple styles of shirts that I would like to have produced." Shu Yan wanted to come up with a couple styles of shirts. She'd do the design herself and look for a factory to produce them and sell them in her shop.
Boss He shook his head. "I am quite busy already and won't be able to pick up more orders, but I can refer you to a different factory. He has only recently switched over to new equipment and has experienced employees. His products are every bit as good as mine."
Being in the clothing business could be risky. If you fell out of the current trend and nobody wanted to buy your products, your factory wouldn't be able to get any orders. And that's the situation that Boss He's friend was in.
"I will be tied up the next couple of days. Maybe after my promotional period is over. Then I will have you take me to your friends'. In addition, there's something I want to talk to you about. I have been very busy lately. Do you think you can deliver my orders to me in the future if I give you a call?"
Boss He mulled over it for a little bit and said, "I can deliver if you order 50 or more."
"Okay, that works." Shu Yan nodded with alacrity.
Shu Yan's order was over 50 today, so Boss He had the truck from the factory deliver them to Shu Yan directly.
Shu Yan's shop was busy all the way until that evening and Shu Yan added 5 yuan to the temporary workers' pay. "We were so busy today that I didn't even have the chance to buy bread and milk. Take this and buy yourself something to eat."
"Thank you, boss lady."
After they had left, Shu Yan saw that Zhang Huaxiu and Yingying were still organizing the clothes and smiled. "I won't give you extra for now, but you will get bonuses at the end of the month."
"Thank you, boss lady," said Yingying sweetly.
Unlike the temporary workers, other than the base pay, they also got commissions. For every article of clothing that they sold, they would receive 1% in commission. Yingying did some calculations that afternoon during her break, she had sold 700-yuan worth of clothes just this morning. That's 7 yuan in commission. Adding in afternoon and evening, that's 20 yuan in commission; that's 600 yuan a month. Just thinking about that made Yingying feel that she was washed over by excitement.
Zhang Huaxiu , standing next to her, was still a bit dazed. When she started working here, she thought her base pay plus benefits added up to be slightly lower than what she used to make at the factory and hadn't given the commission much thought. But now her commission looked to be higher than her base pay. Conservatively, her 300 yuan commission plus base pay and all sorts of subsidies came out to be over 600 yuan. Over 600 yuan. Her brother, as a mid-level manager at a factory, was only making 500 yuan a month salary.
"Alright, let's go. Let's close down the shop and go home." Shu Yan hasn't seen her two kids all day long and she wondered how they were doing at home. All she could think of right now was her two children.