Why is This Troublemaker So Damn Rich?

"Sir, I'm here to report on this morning's meeting with NLB's development contact about the location."

'Development?' He immediately realized Zhao Rui must be referring to Yang Hui. He had told him this morning that Yang Hui was the head of Yanghe Commerce, but Zhao Rui had probably misunderstood and thought he was their head of development. President Zhang didn't bother to correct him.

He glanced at the time. Since Yang Hui hadn't arrived yet, this was a good chance to get an update on the situation from Zhao Rui.

"Sir, that Yanghe Trading Company may not be big, but it's got quite an attitude. When I got there, he just gave me one line: we have to change his spot. He also said there was nothing to discuss with me and that he wanted to talk to the person in charge."

Hearing this, President Zhang stopped his OA approvals and looked at Zhao Rui seriously. "Xiaozhao, did you get into a conflict with the client?"

"No, sir. He's the one being arrogant. Xinyue Square is such a prime location. What merchant doesn't come here and act politely? But him? He gets a great spot on the first floor, and not only is he picky, but he outright demands we change his location to whatever he wants. Who does he think he is, LV?"

"Besides, we spent a long time coordinating this current spot. You and the Project General Manager had to personally step in to secure it. Now he just says he doesn't want it and tells us to find him a new one. Do you think a new location is that easy to arrange?

"If you ask me, they aren't the only ones who can run an NLB store. Futong Commerce is also quite capable, and with all the foot traffic in our mall, the store should do well regardless. Plus, Futong Commerce isn't as picky about the location and is much more cooperative."

𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

President Zhang listened without commenting. Zhao Rui knew that Han Chao had visited yesterday, so President Zhang wasn't surprised that he brought up Futong Commerce.

"Also, someone from Futong Commerce contacted me. They wanted me to report to you that they're willing to offer a higher rental rate than the current spot has. That would help us meet another portion of the project's rent collection quota."

This part did catch President Zhang's interest. The current rental rate for the first-floor spot was already 500 yuan per square meter per month. Futong Commerce was willing to go even higher? The only issue was that he hadn't yet received the commercial terms for the Yanghe Commerce deal from the regional office, so it was hard to compare.

Thinking of this, President Zhang picked up the phone and called the Deputy GM of Business at the Qingzhou Xinyue Plaza First Store to ask about the commercial terms of their deal with Yanghe Commerce. When he learned the terms were a pure 6% commission on sales, he fell silent. Xinyue Square had never signed such a deal with any brand. It was outrageous. At the same time, it demonstrated that Yanghe Commerce's capabilities were anything but ordinary. He then recalled how much importance President Tian had placed on Yanghe Commerce's NLB project during lunch.

A flood of thoughts ran through President Zhang's mind. Standing to the side, Zhao Rui had also overheard President Zhang's disbelief as he repeated the question several times to confirm the rental terms.

"A pure 6% commission? Sir, how could terms like that ever get approved? They don't meet the standard commercial terms for a lease. From the store level, through all the functional departments in the region, then all the functional departments in the greater region, all the way to headquarters... nearly twenty people have to review the OA. How could that possibly pass?"

This wasn't a simple matter of clicking 'approve.' If upper management decided to assign blame later, whoever signed off on it wouldn't be able to escape responsibility. As a leasing manager, he couldn't understand why. It never even occurred to him that Yanghe Commerce could have that much clout. To date, he'd never heard of any retailer, not even retail companies with market caps in the tens of billions, being able to pull that off.

President Zhang shook his head. "I don't know either. We'll see what the commercial terms for our store will be. If it's the same, we'll find out what's going on once we run it through the process. It's just that these terms will have a huge impact on our rental income."

He had arranged two store units for Yanghe Commerce, each around 200 square meters. Based on the current rental rate, the monthly rent for each unit was 100,000 yuan. If they went with the 6% pure commission model for Yanghe Commerce, even if the store made one million in sales a month, Xinyue Square would only get 60,000 yuan in rent. That was a loss of 40,000 yuan per month for each unit. For both units, the total loss in annual revenue would be 960,000 yuan.

And that was an optimistic estimate, assuming NLB could achieve one million a month in sales. If they couldn't hit that number, the losses would be even greater. The project's rental income budget had been submitted at the beginning of the year, and the greater region was not going to lower the store's target. That meant the 960,000 yuan shortfall would have to be passed on to the brands renewing their leases in the second half of the year. They would have to raise the rent for other tenants to make up for the income lost on Yanghe Commerce.

President Zhang had thought of this, and so had Zhao Rui. As a leasing manager, rental income was one of his KPIs, which gave him even more reason not to cooperate with Yanghe Commerce.

"Sir, if those are the terms, then we shouldn't just refuse the NLB store, I'd suggest we not work with them on Zen either. Even if our region approves it, the greater region never will."

President Zhang looked at him, understanding the implication. Zhao Rui had an aunt in Xinyue Square's greater region who was in charge of leasing. Her rank was equivalent to a regional deputy general manager. While she wasn't considered senior management within the greater region, her position was still quite intimidating to those at the store level. Moreover, she was one of the people who had to approve these commercial terms on the OA system. Zhao Rui's meaning was clear: he would use his personal connection to report the situation to his aunt and have her reject the terms.

He fell silent. From a personal standpoint, he didn't want to work with Yanghe Commerce either. But judging by President Tian's attitude, he was quite supportive of the deal. The question was just how strong that support was. If President Tian was dead set on working with Yanghe Commerce, would that President Zhao—Zhao Rui's aunt—dare to oppose a regional general manager? After all, in terms of both rank and influence within the group, President Zhao was much weaker than President Tian. The only thing was, she was in the greater region, so President Tian had no direct authority over her.