They rested in the hotel for the entire afternoon.
At night, Li Dong said to Sun Tao, "Let's go to Time's store later. Although I've heard of Time, I don't know much about their business model and store size."
Sun Tao nodded and said, "Alright, I'll go with you later."
He had been in Sunan for more than a month. Other than the negotiation time, he had nothing to do. Naturally, he wouldn't stay in the hotel all day.
These days, he had been going around Sunan.
He had a rough understanding of the location and size of Time's stores, as well as the general business situation.
The two of them discussed this matter and didn't drink during dinner.
After a simple meal, Li Dong and the rest headed to the nearest Time's store. Tongzhou was Time's headquarters, and there were quite a number of Time's stores.
Sun Tao introduced as they walked, "Tongzhou is Fang Keng's hometown. These years, the Fang brothers have invested a lot in Tongzhou, and their charity work is in full swing. I heard that Time is going to be sold, and many people in Tongzhou are reluctant."
Li Dong said, "This won't affect our future business, right?"
"It shouldn't. It's just a normal business acquisition, not a foreign acquisition."
Sun Tao's words hit the nail on the head. Li Dong remembered that after Rakuten acquired Time in 2009, there were many people boycotting it.
At that time, Wumart was unexpectedly defeated. At that time, in order to vent their anger, Wumart's higher-ups even told the media that another national brand had fallen.
Because of this, Rakuten made losses almost every year when they took over Time.
In addition, there was a serious loss of middle and senior management, which had a significant impact on Rakuten's entry into the domestic market.
As the two of them spoke, they arrived at the first Time Supermarket.
On a summer night, there were many people out shopping, and Time's main focus was on hypermarkets. The Time Supermarket that Li Dong and the rest arrived at happened to be a large shopping mall.
The shopping mall was full of men and women who came out to shop, and it was quite popular.
Not to mention other things, just looking at the popularity here, Li Dong felt that the supermarket's business would not be bad. If it was bad, it meant that there was a problem with the management.
If it weren't for the fact that Times Square entered the market early, they might not have been able to find such a good place to open a shopping mall in such a location.
They didn't stay in the square for long and went straight into the supermarket.
As soon as he entered the supermarket, Li Dong frowned. It wasn't crowded like he had imagined, nor was it noisy.
Compared to the outside world, it was like two different worlds.
Outside the door was bustling with activity, but inside the door, it was cold and cheerless. The customers were in groups of twos and threes, and there weren't even many people lining up at the cashier.
Seeing this, Li Dong immediately frowned and asked, "What's going on?"
Sun Tao's face was also a bit serious. He thought for a moment and said, "Maybe because of the acquisition, the employees' emotions are a bit unstable. Coupled with the siege of Suguo and other supermarkets, the business is a bit bad."
Li Dong understood that people's hearts were unstable.
But speaking of Su Guo's encirclement, Li Dong wondered, "What does this have to do with Su Guo?"
Sun Tao said helplessly, "In the past two years, Su Guo has become more and more overbearing. In order to seize the market, they have used the wolf pack tactic to the extreme. Whether it's foreign or local retail companies, Su Guo is besieging them. Less than 200 meters outside the door is a Suguo Big Store. The prices there are a bit cheaper than here. Times Square's business has been robbed a lot. "
Li Dong snorted and said, "The surname Ma is really overbearing! Is the surname Ma so awesome these days? "
Speaking of which, he had some connections with the surname Ma. Far away, PP and QQ were in the same industry. In the chat software market, PP's users were almost robbed by QQ.
In the e-commerce market, Ali was also not easy to deal with. Although it hadn't reached the point a few years later, it had squeezed the domestic e-commerce market and there was no place for it to step in.
Forget about these two, he didn't expect that he would provoke someone with the surname Ma.
Su Guo's Ma Jialiang was not weak either. This guy was really strong. Within the Huarun Group, he was even tougher than Chen Lang.
Speaking of which, Li Dong was actually quite influenced by Ma Jialiang.
The most obvious point was that both of them were more independent and liked to eat alone.
Li Dong's strategy of squeezing out several other supermarkets in Jiangbei was almost the same as Ma Jialiang's strategy. At that time, Li Dong did this because he learned from Su Guo.
It felt good to use this strategy to suppress the opponent.
But when he encountered this kind of dog skin plaster, Li Dong had a headache.
Gently sighing, Li Dong said, "Don't worry about Su Guo for now. When I take over Times Square and stabilize the situation, I'll make him pay!"
The reason why Su Guo was so arrogant and tough was nothing more than two points. First, Ma Jialiang's position in Su Guo was stable. Even if he lost money, Su Guo and Huarun Group would let him do whatever he wanted.
Second, he was a local company. The network and popularity accumulated in Sunan over the years gave him a foundation.
When competing with other companies, other companies were afraid of losing money, and the board of directors was holding them back.
After a long time, others couldn't bear it, and the senior executives sent over could not bear such a big pressure, and finally had no choice but to retreat.
But these two points were not a problem for Li Dong.
As a private company, Li Dong had absolute power Far away. No one could refute what he said.
The second point was not a big problem. Times Square had been in Sunan for many years, and its network and reputation were not much weaker than Su Guo's.
The reason why it was losing now was because of the impact of mergers and acquisitions, and people's hearts were somewhat unstable.
On the other hand, the Fang brothers' main energy was not focused here. The Fang family's Zhaofeng Group was also developing well in Hong Kong. The investment environment there was more relaxed than in China, and the Fang brothers' main energy was invested there.
The big boss did not have the energy to manage it, and the middle and senior executives did not have the time to manage it. This was the main reason why Times Square was losing.
In 2003, Times Square's annual sales entered the top 30 of the domestic chain industry.
However, a few years later, except for that year, Times Square's sales growth in recent years was far less than that of other companies. Was it because they were less competitive?
Li Dong didn't think so. The main reason was the problem of human governance.
After thinking about it briefly, Li Dong didn't continue to think about it and stepped into Times Square.
The others also followed. A group of more than ten people was still relatively eye-catching at this time.
Li Dong and the others didn't care. The Times Square had three floors, and Li Dong and the others briefly looked around.
After looking around, Li Dong walked to a middle-aged woman dressed in Times Square's staff uniform and greeted her with a smile, "Big sister, are you busy now?"
This Times Square employee had long noticed Li Dong and the others. Seeing that they only looked around and didn't buy, she had long guessed that these people might be from a government department for inspection.
Although Li Dong was young, the middle-aged woman didn't dare to neglect him. She hurriedly said, "No, no, no, you can say what you want."
Li Dong smiled and asked, "How long have you been working here, big sister?"
"Three years."
"Three years, that's around the time of opening?"
"Yes, I came when it opened. I've been working here for the past three years."
"After working for three years, how's your salary? How's the welfare? Have you bought social security and the like? "
"The salary used to be okay, but things have increased in the past two years, and the salary hasn't increased …"
"…"
Li Dong chatted with the middle-aged woman for a while and had a general understanding of the situation of the low-level employees of Times Square.
After chatting for a while, Li Dong said again, "Do you know that Times Square is preparing to sell?"
"Yes, I heard that there will be a new boss soon."
"Then do you have any thoughts on this matter?"
"What thoughts can we have? We just hope that the new boss won't fire us. If possible, give us a raise. It doesn't matter where we work, as long as we don't lose money. "
This was probably what most people thought. Their loyalty to the company wasn't too high.
Those who were really loyal to the company were probably those in the management. These people were most worried about the problem of changing bosses.
After Li Dong asked for a while, the middle-aged woman almost didn't hide anything. She said whatever Li Dong asked.
In the end, Li Dong frowned and then smiled. "Big sister, we've been chatting until now, but I don't see anyone urging you to work. Don't the foreman and the manager come to patrol?"
"They don't have that much time. It's late at night, and several leaders have gone home. Now there's only a reserve manager in the store. That young man doesn't care much. Just don't hang around in front of him. "
Li Dong nodded, thanked the middle-aged woman, and walked away.
…
After leaving Times Square, Li Dong looked back and sighed after a long time. "I have to find a way to recruit people. Once I take over Times Square, I'll prepare for a big purge!"
As soon as this was said, Sun Tao and the others were shocked.
Big purge, Li Dong was really bold.
When a company was just acquired, the most common thing the new owner did was to stabilize the morale of the company, afraid that there would be a large loss of personnel.
Even if there were ideas, they would wait for the company to stabilize. A big purge as soon as they took over might cause big trouble.
Thinking of this, Sun Tao said in a low voice, "General Manager Li, why don't we slow down a little and just take over …"
"We can't slow down. How much time do we have to waste? Now in the retail industry, who isn't fighting against time to seize the market? We've wasted enough time on Times Square. If we slow down a little, a year will have passed. If we do it decisively, there might be some pain in the beginning, but I can bear this loss. Before the end of the year, Times Square will be under the banner of Far Away, and we'll be in line with Far Away. That's what I want. "
Hearing Li Dong say this, Sun Tao hesitated for a while, but in the end, he did not try to persuade him.
That night, Li Dong and the rest visited a total of four stores. Overall, Times Square's business was still passable, and they were not incurring losses. However, in terms of profits, compared to Far Away, it was not enough.
Everyone was in this line of work, and they could make a general estimate after a short look.
The size and location of Times Square's stores were actually quite good, but to Li Dong and the rest, it was a little lifeless. The employees and customers were not active enough, and there did not seem to be that kind of vitality.
This kind of situation could not be seen in Far Away. Far Away had only been established for a short time, and once the employees and customers entered Far Away, they seemed to have become more active.
Don't think that the atmosphere was not important. In fact, for a hypermarket, the atmosphere was even more important than the quality of the products.
The simplest example was the same customer. If they entered Times Square, they might buy something that cost 100 yuan.
But if they entered Far Away, they would be affected by the surrounding environment. Whether they needed it or not, they might end up buying something that cost 300 yuan.
At this time, what affected them was neither the quality of the products nor the discounts, but the atmosphere and desire to shop.
This could not be seen in Times Square.
Therefore, even if Times Square had entered the top 30 domestic chain sales in 2003, it was almost at the same point now, and it would soon be defeated by Far Away, which was only established in 2004.
In terms of hardware, there was actually not much difference between the two sides.
The main factor was people!
Li Dong had originally planned to keep a group of management personnel, but after seeing today's situation, Li Dong was a little shaken.
Was it really useful to keep those people who did not do anything?
Among the domestic retail companies, the people that Li Dong wanted to poach the most were probably the people from China Resources. These people were like wolves, and this was the kind of management that Li Dong wanted.
As for the other retail companies, in the next few years, they would be defeated by foreign retail groups, and all of them were listless. In fact, Li Dong did not think much of them.
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