Since Li Dong had made up his mind, Sun Tao did not try to stop him.
Although Sun Tao's decisiveness was a little lacking, he did things swiftly and decisively.
Seeing that the situation could not be changed, he immediately said, "Then the most important thing now is to recruit people and find a supply channel. Shall we have a meeting later?"
Li Dong nodded and said, "Ask the person in charge of the merchandising and HR departments to come over."
He then added, "Ask Shen Qian to come over as well. I'll see you in the conference room in half an hour."
Sun Tao nodded and hurried out of the office.
…
An hour later, Li Dong assigned the tasks.
The directors of the HR and merchandising departments had a bitter look on their faces. The task this time was not an ordinary task.
Ten stores were waiting to open, eight were preparing to open, and the remaining sixteen were aiming to open by the end of the year.
With more than thirty stores, they would need to recruit at least two thousand people to support this scene. For the first ten stores to open, they would need to recruit seven hundred people according to the plan. In addition to the manpower needed for the next opening, they would need to recruit at least a thousand people.
Now that it was nearing the end of the year, it was not easy to recruit so many people at once.
Fortunately, Pingchuan was a provincial capital, and the recruitment this time wasn't for professionals. Holding a few more job fairs and advertising, although the task was a little difficult, it was still achievable if they put in some effort.
The HR director was grumbling because it seemed like they would have to work overtime this month. They might not even have a day off.
Compared to the HR director, the person in charge of merchandising was the one who was feeling bitter.
They only needed to run around the city to recruit people. This time, they had to open up new channels, and the suppliers were all from all over the country. In addition, there were not many people in the merchandising department. He might even have to go out on a business trip to run the channels himself.
Li Dong did not care what they thought. It was fine as long as they could complete the task.
He was paying these people high salaries. If they could not even complete this task, then what was the point of keeping them?
After sending away the two department heads, Li Dong said to Shen Qian, "You have nothing to do recently, right?"
Shen Qian rolled her eyes and said, "What do you mean? You think I have nothing to do? I have nothing to do in the public relations department. I have to want to do something. Why don't you give me a promotion? "
Li Dong coughed and quickly said, "Since you're fine, I'll give you a mission."
"What mission?" Shen Qian asked warily.
"It's not a big deal. I want to get another loan. You're familiar with the bank. Try to get them to speed up the loan."
Hearing Li Dong's words, Shen Qian heaved a sigh of relief.
Getting a loan was indeed not a big deal, but Shen Qian still said, "You can't get something for nothing. I don't have that kind of influence."
"Don't worry, I'll use the land in the Hua Manor as collateral. Land prices have risen again recently. That piece of land in Hua Manor is now valued at at least 150 million yuan. That shouldn't be a problem, right? "
"No problem!"
Shen Qian immediately gave an affirmative answer. With collateral, the bank would be more than happy to give you a loan.
"How much are you going to borrow?"
"Forty million is the minimum, so it's just nice to round up a hundred million. If you can get more, that's fine too. I'm short of money now. "
Li Dong rubbed his forehead. Far away's foundation was empty now. It would not do if they did not have some money in reserve.
Far away might be facing a war soon. Those few supermarkets' foundations were much stronger than Far away's. If they really dragged it out with Far Away, Far Away might not be able to afford it.
Other than that, the distribution center also had to prepare a sum of money.
Although they might not be able to negotiate in the near future, it was still necessary to prepare in advance.
Other things aside, he had to prepare a portion of the money for the land. The rest could be delayed until next year when Baidu's shares could be sold. At that time, Li Dong would not be worried.
After handing the mission to everyone, Li Dong did not bother about it anymore.
Speaking of starting a business, Far Away had experience.
The reason why it felt difficult this time was because time was too tight. However, it was not that everyone did not prepare beforehand.
Although it was a bit difficult now, it was not impossible.
…
November 2005. Far Away's name once again appeared in the eyes of the people of Pingchuan.
The recruitment section of the major newspapers was filled with recruitment advertisements for Far Away. The streets and alleys were filled with advertisements for the new opening of Far Away's stores.
Almost all the talent markets had employees from Far Away.
The City TV station also did advertisements for Far Away for half a month. Faraway Supermarket. These few words made everyone's ears numb.
When it came to advertising, Li Dong was willing to spend a lot of money.
Originally, a few other supermarkets were prepared to cause trouble before the new Far Away store opened. For example, they wanted the Industrial and Commercial Bureau and the Fire Department to cause more trouble.
However, Li Dong personally came out and talked to a few leaders in the City. Very quickly, these little tricks were put to rest.
Speaking of which, Far Away was now a big player in Pingchuan.
Far Away alone had 40 stores in Pingchuan. In addition, Far Away's headquarters was about to be located in Pingchuan. There was a high possibility that the distribution center would be located in Pingchuan. The Pingchuan government was not stupid. They naturally had to protect this big player, Far Away.
Without the intervention of the government, the supermarkets knew that they could not stop the opening of Far Away's new store.
Since they could not stop it, then they had to rely on their own abilities.
In the following time, all the major supermarkets quietened down. However, Li Dong knew that this was the calm before the storm.
He did not need to guess to know that these people were up to no good. When it was time to open, there was a high chance that these people would make a move.
After all, if they did not defeat Far Away, there would be no place for them to survive in Pingchuan. Business was to make money. Far Away was now snatching their rice from their bowls. Who would be willing to accept that?
Time passed day by day. Li Dong was constantly on edge.
He could not relax at this stage. Who knew what the other party would do next?
In order to prevent the supermarkets from sabotaging his store, Li Dong even sent out the security team that had not completed their training yet.
Now, the few stores that were about to open had more than three security guards guarding them.
Li Dong was mainly afraid that these people would cause trouble. If they damaged the store's location on the day before the opening, then there would be big trouble.
Now that the opening date had been announced, if they could not open for business, Far Away would not only lose face, it would also create the impression that they were not trustworthy. This was something that Li Dong could not tolerate.
Of course, these supermarkets were all well-known companies. They might not do such a thing.
However, it was hard to predict a person's heart. In addition, there were some small and medium-sized supermarkets in Pingchuan. Who knew if someone would take advantage of the situation to rob them?
Needless to say, Li Dong's worry was not without reason.
In less than two days, in the middle of the night, Li Dong received a call from Zhou Haidong. The security team had caught a few people who wanted to cause trouble.
There were a total of four people who wanted to cause trouble. In the middle of the night, they brought axes and other tools to the entrance of a new store. A few security guards were not paying attention, and the anti-theft door was knocked open. The glass door was not smashed.
Fortunately, before they could do anything, the security guards subdued them.
After sending them to the police station, Li Dong did not care about anything else.
The smashed glass door was quickly replaced with a new one. Li Dong was also more vigilant. These people really dared to play dirty.
Just in case, Li Dong sent out all the security personnel one after another.
Perhaps the first time they were caught, the people in the dark gave up. After that, the sabotage did not happen again.
Far Away's ten stores were getting closer and closer to the opening date.
At this time, Li Dong was not nervous anymore. Things had come to a head, and all the necessary preparations had been done. Next, it was up to them to see what they could do.
…
November 30th, the last day before the opening of the store.
Although the weather had turned cold, Sun Tao was still sweating when he entered the office.
In order to make preparations, he inspected all ten stores in the morning, and then rushed back to the company without stopping. He was very tired.
Li Dong poured a glass of water for him and asked, "How do you feel?"
Sun Tao drank the water and took a deep breath. Then he smiled and said, "I haven't worked so hard for a long time. I remember when the first store in Dongping opened, I felt like this. Later, when the stores in Mound City and Mount Tong opened, I got used to it and did not feel nervous. Now, I finally experienced it again. "
Li Dong felt the same as Sun Tao.
When the Dongping store opened, he could not sleep at night.
On the first day, in order to wait for the sales results, he did not sleep until midnight. After knowing the results, he was so excited that he could not sleep at night.
But when the store opened, even though Mound City had set a new record, Li Dong was not so excited and expectant.
Sun Tao was just casually talking about his feelings. Then he said, "The preparations are all done. There are no big mistakes. I have asked them to correct some small problems, and there are no big problems."
Li Dong was slightly relieved and said, "Next, it depends on the results. If we can encircle those few stores, then we can just copy them. In the future, Jiangbei will be dominated by us."
Sun Tao smiled. He could only look forward to this idea.
If he really wanted to dominate Jiangbei, Far away did not have the strength to do so. After all, there were still a few supermarkets with deep foundations.
Compared to Carrefour's exclusive stores, those few supermarkets in Jiangbei had a much stronger foundation, and their stores were no less than Far away's.
Far away still had to work hard to beat them.
After chatting for a while, Liu Qi hurried into the office.
Seeing Li Dong and Sun Tao, Liu Qi immediately said, "General Manager Li, CEO Sun, there is news."
"What news?"
"Tomorrow, the other supermarkets will be holding promotions. They have already started advertising, and the discount is not small."
"That's it? What else? "
Li Dong asked. He had already guessed that there would be a promotion, so it was not surprising.
When he was in Qingyang, he had done it in other supermarkets.
But those supermarkets only had a discount now, and it seemed like they were all bark and no bite.
Liu Qi hurriedly said, "General Manager Li, they are giving a big discount this time. Our new store only has a 5% discount, and they are giving us a 10% discount!"
Li Dong's expression changed. He knew that there might be a price war, but he did not expect it to come so soon.
In the retail industry, especially supermarkets and stores, the profit was not low.
Far away's current profit was about 20%. Of course, this was the gross profit.
After deducting taxes and other expenses, they could barely maintain a net profit of about 10%.
They could still make money with a 5% discount, but with a 10% discount, it was almost the cost price.
Li Dong heard this and quickly said, "Is it a full discount or a partial discount?"
"Full discount!"
Li Dong and Sun Tao's expression changed. A 10% discount? They were going all out against them!
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