Chapter 512: Some People Are About to Have Bad Luck

"That’s good," Lin Chuxia knew what these people were like; they were all fine.

"How are things going with the Department Store and People’s Mall? Our Huamei Mall has been open for over a month now, shouldn’t they have reacted by now?"

Indeed, at the beginning, their mall, whether in terms of clothing styles or service quality, was novel and impressed customers, drawing in a lot of foot traffic. With so much time having passed, the other side should have figured out their countermeasures.

Manager Wang opened the office door and let Lin Chuxia in, pouring her water while snorting.

"People’s Mall is still the same old. They had already shifted their focus to electrical appliance malls since they couldn’t compete with the Department Store. Our mall doesn’t really affect them much. However, the situation at the Department Store, sales haven’t picked up, and I estimate that in some time, they might even encounter some trouble."

"What happened?" Lin Chuxia also became interested.

Manager Wang handed her the water, then began to speak enthusiastically.

"Ever since we went to Rong City, my aunt cut off the supplies to the Department Store. Recently, unable to bear the pressure, they sent Yang Rui to Rong City for stocks..."

Here, Manager Wang sneered. Yang Rui was too self-important and deserved his bad luck.

"Yang Rui had the audacity to approach my aunt thinking he could persuade her with benefits. Little did he expect that my aunt wouldn’t buy any of it and kicked him out right there. At that time, my aunt was at her stall, and she and Yang Rui had a falling out, which was witnessed by many colleagues. My aunt, who already was popular, not only stopped selling to him, but her close business friends also refused to sell to Yang Rui. What’s more shameful is that Yang Rui even brought his mistress along. There was a conflict between my aunt and Yang Rui, and the mistress actually had the nerve to stand up and defend Yang Rui, saying my aunt was being unreasonable..."

Lin Chuxia could already picture the scene.

It has to be said, Tang Lili was really a godsend for them.

"What happened after that?" Lin Chuxia was dying of curiosity.

If it was just my aunt’s refusal to supply the Department Store, with such a huge market, Yang Rui could easily source from other stalls.

After all, the Department Store, with its many years of experience, could recover from a temporary dip in sales, as long as the supply was abundant, and it wouldn’t necessarily lead to chaos.

Manager Wang laughed coldly, her laugh filled with satisfaction.

"What happened after that? I always thought Yang Rui was greedy and self-important but still underestimated him. Without my aunt’s guidance in Rong City, he hired a guide himself to help with purchasing. Just those two days, we also went to Rong City, and we actually ran into him."

"Ran into him?"

This thought promised excitement.

Manager Wang nodded nonchalantly, "Yes, ran into him and even watched a farce unfold."

Turned out, without my aunt’s guidance, Yang Rui caught the attention of some local toughs in the market. The guide he hired was a well-known troublemaker in the market.

The people he targeted, other guides didn’t dare take up jobs from them, and Yang Rui, oblivious, directly approached this hooligan.

This guy had collaborations with several stalls, specializing in duping out-of-town suppliers, selling inferior products as high-quality ones and charging more.

Manager Wang watched as Yang Rui and that woman happily followed the guide, stocking up on flashy but supposedly trendy styles, which actually were not popular mainland products.

"Yang Rui has been purchasing for so many years, even though the stocks were always arranged by my aunt, if he had put in a bit of effort, he should have been able to discern what was fashionable. And as a salesperson, Tang Lili, who sold merchandise for so long, should also be able to discern the quality of goods. Plainly put, these two are like parasites to the Department Store, drawing hefty salaries, but not doing their jobs. The goods, to put it nicely, are products from Hong Kong and Taiwan, which we mainlanders are simply not interested in. Just wait and see," said Wang.

Lin Chuxia’s eyes also carried a smile.

"That likely means not only the Department Store, but some people are about to be really unlucky."

This didn’t require explanation; they both understood each other.

Wang Tianxue masked no disdain, "You should have seen the look Yang Rui gave me then, so smug. He thought he’d bring in trendy merchandise to outdo our mall and show my aunt what he could do. I’m really eager to see how he turns this around."

"Right, we should prepare some peanuts and melon seeds and watch together."

Lin Chuxia loved watching jerks get their comeuppance with her girlfriends.

Indeed, there’s nothing more exhilarating than watching these creeps fall apart without her intervention.

.....................

As October came around, just as Manager Wang predicted, the foot traffic at the Department Store across the street was dwindling and shifting to their Huamei Mall.

It wasn’t just an issue of low sales anymore; they had a massive backlog of products.

These days, the Department Store had to close its doors for restructuring.

In the office, Manager Wang slammed a quotation sheet fiercely onto Yang Rui’s face, his expression livid.

"The same styles, others get them at half our cost. Explain this to me, are we the Department Store such a big sucker?"

"And those clothing styles, did you even check them? What ’this year’s new styles’? I saw those styles three years ago. Not to mention compared to the selection at Huamei Mall, even our local clothing factories wouldn’t produce such outdated styles. Have your brains been eaten by dogs? Is this the stock you bring to our mall to sell, saying you would counter Huamei Mall?"

"At first, you asked me to give you one more chance, and now, I’ve given you that chance. Do you realize that with the situation as it is, our Department Store’s employees are about to starve?"

.........

Now, Manager Wang deeply regretted listening to Yang Rui’s nonsense, thinking that if he personally went to the south to source goods, their mall’s supply issues would be resolved, even naively hoping for a spectacular turnaround.

As a result...

"I see these products have been sitting in the mall for so long without any attraction. You should just return them. As for the difference in cost for the clothes, I won’t pursue it. But let Li head the purchasing department instead."

Yang Rui suddenly looked up, "Manager Wang, I realize my mistake, please give me another chance. I really didn’t know about the purchasing price issues, it was all agreed upon as the lowest price, and these clothes, we also asked for the most fashionable styles..."

At this point, Yang Rui had already figured out what was going on.

"It was that guide, he deceived us. We also tried to find others, but who knows what Ms. Wang’s aunt did, those guides refused to lead us. We found one with great difficulty, only to learn that this guy was in cahoots with the merchants to cheat us out-of-towners..."

Manager Wang looked at Yang Rui with pity, at this point, he still had the gall to bring up Wang Tianxue, actually blaming all the responsibility on her.

He truly had misjudged the person.