Chapter 582: Farm Woman 10
’Just think about the laundry detergent and liquid ads from my past life. Didn’t every single one of them use clothes or towels for demonstrations?’ Now that she was in this world, Tan You didn’t mind learning on the fly and putting it to use.
Manager Fan was a reasonable man. Soon, a young assistant brought over two more basins of water. In front of each basin was a filthy, grimy towel.
Manager Fan rolled up his sleeves and did it himself. He was well aware of the effectiveness of the shop’s own soap bars and washing beans. Seeing how confident Tan You was, he wanted to see if this "soap" was really as amazing as she claimed.
The two young assistants didn’t stand idle either. Soon, the three of them were squatting in the shop, scrubbing the towels in unison.
After just a few scrubs, Manager Fan’s eyes lit up. He glanced around and saw that no customers had entered the shop. He made a snap decision and kicked the young assistant next to him on the butt. "Go! Hurry up and shut the main door!"
The young assistant glanced at Manager Fan’s basin of water and understood immediately. He threw down his towel and scrambled to shut the general store’s door tight. "It’s shut, Manager."
’This old man and this young boy are both pretty sharp,’ Tan You thought. She didn’t feel the least bit nervous or uneasy. Instead, she looked at Manager Fan. "So, Manager Fan, what do you think of my soap?"
Manager Fan took the dry towel an assistant handed him and wiped his hands. "We’ve all seen the results, so I won’t beat around the bush. Madam, how should I address you? And what’s your proposal? Are you selling the formula, or...?"
"Just call me Lady Wang. The formula is not for sale," Tan You refused flatly. "I’m counting on it to feed my entire family."
Manager Fan knew at once that the woman before him was no fool. He wasn’t disappointed. He just stroked his beard. "In that case, Lady Wang, how much stock can you supply per month?"
Tan You didn’t even blink. "We aren’t producing at full capacity right now. If we put our entire clan’s efforts into it, a few thousand bars a month shouldn’t be a problem."
Manager Fan didn’t respond to that. Instead, he asked another question. "Lady Wang, you’ve come to my door, so you’re obviously looking for a partnership. How do you wish to cooperate? On consignment, or...?"
"If we were to do consignment, what price would you set?"
"Ten wen? Or twenty?"
"Compared to consignment, I’d prefer to be a supplier. We provide you with the soap, and as for your retail price, it cannot exceed the wholesale price by more than fifty percent. My expected wholesale price is ten wen," Tan You said softly, causing Manager Fan’s small eyes to widen in surprise.
"Lady Wang, the cheapest soap bars in my shop cost eight wen. Are you sure you haven’t made a mistake with that price? As for washing beans, only wealthy families typically buy those."
Tan You smiled. "Of course not. I’m aiming for small profits and high volume. Soap is a consumable. If the price is too high, it will be hard to move a large quantity. One bar of soap a month should be about right for a household. If they’re frugal, it might last them two or three months."
"A high price would also make it difficult to open up the market and distribute the product widely."
Manager Fan understood what Tan You was getting at. "Lady Wang, we at Sihai can buy all of this soap from you at the price of ten wen per bar. As for the retail price you mentioned, I’ll need to discuss it with my boss. That’s not a decision I can make."
Tan You wasn’t in a hurry. "That’s fine. Please, feel free to discuss it with your boss, Manager Fan."
As she spoke, she took out a bar of mugwort-mint soap. "Manager Fan, would you take a look at this one as well?"
What could Manager Fan say? He could only "tearfully" accept the mugwort-mint soap. This time, he agreed to Tan You’s price for the scented mugwort-mint soap: eighteen wen.
Tan You had brought quite a few bars with her this time: twenty regular bars and twenty mugwort-mint bars. The sale came to a total of 560 wen.
Chen Xi and An Wen’s eyes were wide. Although they already knew they would make money, seeing Manager Fan actually count out the coins gave their young hearts a tremendous shock.
Handing the Silver Coins she received to Chen Xi, Tan You turned to Manager Fan and slowly broke into a smile. "Manager, I also brought something to repel mosquitoes. I call them mosquito coils. Would you like to try them?"
Manager Fan feigned displeasure. "So, Lady Wang, you were holding back the good stuff?"
Tan You gave him a wry smile. "I was just worried that if you got too excited, you wouldn’t notice anything else."
"How could that be?" Manager Fan sniffed the air. "I caught a whiff of mugwort just now, but when I tried to place it, it didn’t smell like the soap. I was wondering what it was."
Tan You laughed. She took a neatly wrapped oil-paper package of mosquito coils from An Wen’s small back basket. "Please, Manager, try them out. Consider this package a free sample."
An Wen’s little brow furrowed. ’For free?’
Chen Xi tugged on his sleeve, signaling him not to be so petty. An Wen quickly straightened his expression. His aunt had told him not to let others easily read his emotions when they were out.
Because the children were so young, Manager Fan didn’t pay them much mind. He opened the package of mosquito coils. "Lady Wang, this mosquito coil... how does one use it?"
Tan You said, "Just like regular incense. My family has been using them recently. You can see the children don’t have any mosquito bite welts on their hands or faces."
Manager Fan glanced at the children. Just as Tan You had said, their skin was completely clear.
He pondered for a moment. "Lady Wang, I’ll have to test these mosquito coils."
"No problem," Tan You agreed readily. "Take your time to test them, Manager Fan. I’m not in a rush. If there’s nothing else, we’ll be on our way."
Seeing that Tan You was about to leave, Manager Fan didn’t say much more, but he was thinking ahead. "Lady Wang, may I ask where you live? If the soap sells well later, it will be easier for us to pick up more stock."
There was no reason to hide it. Tan You gave him the address of the original body’s owner and then led her little troop out of the general store.
Once they were out of the general store, Chen Xi let out a long sigh of relief. "Mom, you made money."
"*We* made money," Tan You corrected her. "I didn’t do this all by myself. Everyone worked hard. This is the fruit of all our labor."
For the first time in a while, Chen Xi broke into a wide, toothy grin. "Mom, what are we doing next? Are we going to buy a donkey?"
"Not so fast. Let’s eat first." Tan You had learned to enjoy life and not be too hard on herself. A proper restaurant was out of the question—a single meal could cost several hundred wen, and Tan You couldn’t bear to spend that much.
But she could still find ways to be happy within her limited means. For instance, she now led the children to a wonton stall in town and sat down, ordering them a few meat buns as well.
After they had eaten their fill, they went to browse the livestock market. In the end, Tan You bought two donkeys. To be precise, it was an injured female donkey, and the other, a little foal, was practically thrown in for free.