Chapter 429

? Rested at the hotel for an afternoon.

In the evening, Li Dong said to Sun Tao: "I'll go to Times Store to have a look later. Although I have heard about Times, I don't know much about their business model and store size."

Sun Tao nodded and said: "Okay, I will go with you later."

He has been in Sunan for more than a month. Except for negotiating time, he is free at other times. Naturally, he will not be bored in the hotel all day.

These days, he almost turned Sunan around.

I have done a certain degree of research on the location and scale of the stores of the times, as well as the general operating conditions.

The two agreed on this matter, and did not drink during dinner.

After eating a little, Li Dong and the others set off to the nearest Times store. Tongzhou is the headquarters of Times, and there are not a few Times stores.

Sun Tao introduced as he walked, "Tongzhou is Fang Keng's hometown. The Fang brothers have invested a lot in Tongzhou over the years, and their charity work is also in full swing. I heard that Times is going to be sold, and many people in Tongzhou are reluctant."

Li Dongdao: "Will this affect our future business?"

"Probably not. It's just a normal corporate merger and acquisition, not a foreign acquisition."

Sun Tao's words were on point. Li Dong remembered that after Lotte acquired Era in 2009, many people resisted it.

At that time, Wumart lost unexpectedly. At that time, in order to vent their anger, the senior management of Wumart also told the media that another national famous brand had come to an end.

Because of this, in the early days of the era when Lotte took over, it suffered losses almost year after year.

Coupled with the serious loss of middle and high-level leaders, it also had a considerable impact on Lotte's entry into the domestic market.

While the two were talking, the first Times Supermarket arrived.

On summer nights, there are many people who go out to shop, and Times is dominated by hypermarkets. The Times Supermarket that Li Dong and the others went to happened to be a large shopping mall.

The shopping center is full of men and women who come out to hang out, and the popularity is very good.

Not to mention anything else, just looking at the popularity here, Li Dong feels that the business of the supermarket will not be bad.

If it is really bad, it means that there is a problem with the manager.

To open a shopping center in this kind of location, if the time hadn't come in early, it might not be possible to find such a good place.

Everyone didn't stay in the square for long, and went straight into the supermarket.

As soon as he entered the supermarket, Li Dong frowned. There was no overcrowding or noisy atmosphere as imagined.

Compared with the outside, here is like two worlds.

Outside the door is bustling with crowds of people, but inside the door is deserted, with customers in twos and threes, and there are not many people queuing at the cash register.

Seeing the situation, Li Dong frowned and said, "What's going on?"

Sun Tao's face was also a bit serious, and he thought about it for a while and said, "It may be because of the acquisition, the employees' emotions are a little unstable, and coupled with the siege of several supermarkets in Suguo, so the business is a little bit worse."

Li Dong can understand that people's hearts are unstable.

But when it came to the encirclement and suppression of Suguo, Li Dong wondered: "What does this have to do with Suguo?"

Sun Tao said helplessly: "Suguo has become more and more domineering in the past two years. In order to seize the market, they have used the wolf pack tactics to the extreme. Whether it is a foreign retail company or a local retail company, Suguo is besieging and suppressing shopping. Outside the door Less than 200 meters away is a Suguo hypermarket, and the prices there are a little cheaper than here, and the business of the times has been robbed a lot.”

Li Dong snorted: "The one surnamed Ma is really domineering! Could it be that everyone surnamed Ma is so awesome these days?"

Speaking of which, he has some relationship with several people surnamed Ma, PP and QQ in the distance are peers, and in the chat software market, PP users are almost robbed by QQ.

In the e-commerce market, Ali's person is not good at it. Although it has not reached the point in a few years, the squeezed domestic e-commerce market has no place to intervene.

Forget about these two, I didn't expect to provoke another surnamed Ma now.

Suguo's Ma Jialiang is not weak, this guy is indeed strong, even stronger than Chen Lang within the Huarun system.

Speaking of which, Li Dong was actually quite influenced by Ma Jialiang.

The most obvious point is that both of them have relatively independent personalities and like to eat alone.

Li Dong's strategy of squeezing out several other supermarkets in Jiangbei was almost the same as that of Ma Jialiang. At that time, Li Dong also learned from Suguo.

It feels great to use this move when you're crushing your opponent.

But when he encountered this kind of dog skin plaster, Li Dong felt a little headache.

Heaving a sigh of relief, Li Dong said: "Don't worry about Su Guo. When I take over the era and stabilize the situation, he will be good-looking!"

The reason why Suguo is so strong and tough is nothing more than two points. First, Ma Jialiang has a stable position in Suguo, and he promises to keep his word. Even if it is a loss, Suguo and China Resources will allow him to do anything.

Second, local companies, the contacts and popularity accumulated in southern Jiangsu over the years have laid a solid foundation for him.

When competing with other companies, other companies are afraid of losing money, and there are boards of directors at the top.

After a long time, others couldn't bear it anymore, and the high-level people who were sent down couldn't bear such a big pressure, and finally had no choice but to retreat.

But these two points are nothing to Li Dong.

As a private company, Li Dong has the absolute right to speak in the distance. No one can refute what he said.

The second point is not a big problem. Times has been based in southern Jiangsu for many years, and its connections and reputation are not much weaker than Suguo.

The reason why they are retreating steadily now is, on the one hand, the impact of mergers and acquisitions, which makes people's hearts a little unstable.

On the other hand, the Fang family brothers did not focus their energy here. The Fang family's Zhaofeng Group has also developed well in Hong Kong. Compared with the mainland, the investment environment there is looser. Put all your energy into it.

The big bosses don't have the energy to manage, and the middle and high-level managers don't have the mind to manage. This is the main reason for the decline of the times.

You must know that in 2003, the annual sales of Times had entered the top 30 chains in China.

However, a few years have passed. Except for that year, the sales growth rate of these years has been far behind that of other companies. Is it because of weak competitiveness?

Li Dong doesn't think so, the main reason is the rule of man.

After thinking briefly in his heart, Li Dong didn't continue to think deeply, and stepped into the Times Supermarket.

Others followed one after another. There were more than ten people in the group, which was quite eye-catching at this time.

Li Dong and the others didn't care too much. Everyone in Li Dong took a brief look at the three floors of this era store.

After reading the things, Li Dong walked up to a middle-aged woman dressed in the costumes of an employee of the times, and greeted with a smile: "Sister, are you busy now?"

The employees of this era have long noticed Li Dong and his party. Seeing that they only look at but do not buy, they have long guessed that these people may be inspected by some government department.

Although Li Dong was young, the middle-aged woman did not dare to neglect her, she hurriedly said: "Not busy, not busy, just tell me if you have something to do."

Li Dong smiled and asked, "How long has eldest sister been working here?"

"Three years."

"Three years, that's almost when it opened?"

"Well, I came here when it opened, and I have been working here for the past three years."

"After working for three years, how is your salary? How about your benefits? Have you bought social security and the like?"

"The salary used to be okay, but the prices of things have increased in the past two years, and the salary has not increased..."

"..."

Li Dong chatted with the middle-aged woman for a while, and he also had a general understanding of the situation of the employees at the bottom of the era.

After chatting for a while, Li Dong said again: "Do you know that Times is going to sell?"

"I know, I heard that there will be a new boss soon."

"Then do you have any thoughts on this matter?"

"If we have any ideas, we hope that the new boss will not fire us, and if possible, give us a salary increase. Whether we do it or not, as long as we have a lot of money."

This is probably what most people think, and their loyalty to the company is not too high.

Those who really stick to the company are probably the management, and these people are most worried about changing bosses.

Li Dong asked for a while, the middle-aged woman hardly concealed anything, she said whatever Li Dong asked.

At the end of the question, Li Dong frowned, and then smiled again: "Sister, we have talked so far, but no one has urged you to work, and the foreman and store manager don't come to make inspections?"

"They don't have that much free time. At night, several leaders have gone home, and now there is only one store manager in the store, and the young man doesn't care much, as long as he doesn't hang around in front of him."

Li Dong nodded, thanked the middle-aged woman and walked away.

...

After leaving the Times Supermarket, Li Dong glanced back and sighed after a long time: "We have to find a way to recruit people. Once we take over Times, I'm going to clean it up!"

As soon as these words came out, Sun Tao and the others were shocked.

Li Dong is really bold enough to clean up.

When the company was first merged and acquired, the most common thing for the new owner to do was to stabilize the morale of the army, for fear of a large loss of personnel.

Even if they have an idea, they will wait for the company to stabilize and clean it up as soon as they take over. If it doesn't work out, it will be a big trouble.

Thinking of this, Sun Tao said in a low voice: "Mr. Li, why don't you take it easy, just take over..."

"We can't slow down, how much time do we have to waste? Now in the retail industry, who is not racing against time to seize the market, in terms of the times, we have wasted enough time. Slow down, a year has passed, and we will do something drastic. , There may be labor pains at the beginning, but I can bear this loss.

Before the end of the year, the era will be completely included under Yuanfang's banner, and it will be in line with Yuanfang's pace. This is what I want. "

Seeing what Li Dong said, Sun Tao hesitated for a while, but finally did not persuade him.

This night, Li Dong and the others inspected four stores in total. Generally speaking, the business of the times is not bad, and it is not possible to lose money. However, in terms of profits, it is not enough compared to the distance.

Everyone is in this business, and if you take a look, you can generally estimate it.

The size and location of Times Store is actually good, but in Li Dong's eyes, it's a little lifeless, and the employees and customers are not active enough, as if they don't have that kind of vigor.

This kind of situation cannot be seen in Yuanfang. Yuanfang has been established for a short time. Whether it is an employee or a customer, it seems to be active once entering Yuanfang.

Don't think that atmosphere is not important, in fact, for hypermarkets, atmosphere is even more important than product quality.

The simplest example, the same customer may buy something worth 100 yuan when he enters the era.

But if you go to a distant place, affected by the surrounding environment, no matter whether you need it or not, you may end up buying something worth 300 yuan.

At this time, what affects him is neither product quality nor event discounts, but the atmosphere and desire to stimulate people to shop.

And these are not seen in the era.

Therefore, even though Times had already entered the top 30 sales chain enterprises in China in 2003, it is almost standing still, and it will soon be defeated by Yuanfang, which was established in 2004.

In terms of hardware, there is actually not much difference between the two sides.

The main influencing factor is people!

Li Dong originally planned to leave a group of management, but seeing today's situation, Li Dong was a little shaken.

Is it really useful to leave those guys who are dead and vegetarian?

To say that among the domestic retail companies, the people from the China Resources department that Li Dong most wanted to poach were probably the people from the China Resources department. These guys were like wolves, and this was the management that Li Dong wanted.

As for other retail companies, they will lose ground in front of foreign retail groups in the next few years, and each of them will be depressed. In fact, Li Dong doesn't think much of them.

(To be continued.)