"No matter the cloth from the Ming Dynasty, or the cloth from the East, West, or Southeast Asia, the width is not as large as this Australian cloth."
Hand-woven fabrics are limited by the stretching range of human hands, so the door width is generally narrow. Narrow door width does not seem to be a big problem for making clothes, but for making large-sized items such as sheets, quilts, flags and flags, it will increase the workload a lot.
"...Could it be that this is machine-woven cloth? Such a width is beyond human ability."
"The guest officer is indeed an expert!" The store clerk nodded repeatedly, "These are all Australian woven fabrics."
"There aren't many of these woven fabrics, are there? I rarely see them on the mainland."
"The guest officer is right, it is indeed rare." The shopkeeper said that he could enter Hong Kong. When he saw that the visitor behaved and talked like his colleagues from the mainland, he invited the shopkeeper of the counter to meet him.
The shopkeeper's surname is An, and he is in his forties. He has the face of a chubby middle-aged man who would like to be pleased with the master. The two of them met and exchanged a few words. Chen Lin adheres to the principle of "only speaking a few words when meeting people" and only said that it was his first time coming from Guangzhou to deliver goods. Shopkeeper Ke immediately invited him to the counter room to "serve tea".
Chen Lin saw that it was still early and a local businessman was inviting him. It was a good opportunity to understand the local situation, so he readily agreed.
The two sat down in the counter room, and the waiter brought tea, exchanged names, and chatted about the market conditions. Chen Lin talked about the textile market and news in Guangzhou, and then talked about the local situation.
Shopkeeper Ke is very talkative and talks eloquently about the local fabric market.
It turns out that the retail sales in Lingao's textile market are not as detailed as they were in the Ming Dynasty. Although there are also "satin shops" that specialize in selling silk and satin, "flower cloth shops" that specialize in selling cotton cloth and cotton, and "velvet and satin shops" with various names, there are more "fabric shops" that sell all kinds of fabrics. . "Ruihexiang" run by shopkeeper Ke is an all-inclusive "fabric shop".
"... I don't dare to say that in Hainan, but if you want to say that in Lingao, the only place that can offer a more complete range of materials than mine is the Cooperative General Shopping Mall - even the Friendship Department Store may not have the complete range of goods I have here. . Let’s just say that my shop sign is also handwritten by the veteran.” When the shopkeeper talked about it, his pride was palpable.
No wonder the characters on the store sign were similar in shape but different from each other. Chen Lin secretly complained that the characters were not as good as his father's handwriting.
Rui Hexiang's business covers everything from silk and satin, cotton, linen, woolen... to "banana cloth", a specialty of Hainan Island with a very small output. When it comes to the types of products, they can be considered comprehensive.
However, from a sales perspective, most of such a wide variety of fabrics are just "foils" and cannot be sold much throughout the year. Those that can be sold in bulk are mainly cotton, linen and woolen, and the sales of silk and satin are very small.
"...Local people are mostly not interested in silk and satin." Shopkeeper An said, "The sales volume is only a fraction of that of various kinds of cloth."
"Is it because the price is too expensive?"
"No, no." Shopkeeper An shook his head repeatedly, "Although silk and satin are not produced locally, there are a lot of silk and satin imported from various places, which is not uncommon." He casually quoted the retail prices of several common varieties - although Lingao It was calculated in meters, but Chen Lin quickly converted it into a tailoring ruler. The price is almost the same as on the mainland.
"The price is almost the same as on the mainland..."
"Although the retail price is the same, after all, it is shipped from a long distance, so selling a satin ruler here actually makes less money than in Guangzhou. It's just a good idea."
“Since the price is not expensive, why doesn’t everyone buy it?”
Shopkeeper An said that it was complicated to say this. Considering the total population of Lingao and the "middle-income" people who can purchase silk clothing, the retail sales of silk and satin in Lingao will not be lower than those in Guangzhou at least. However, most of these original silk consumers were naturalized people who "eat Australian food". Because the elders advocated "simplicity", the naturalized people usually wore clothes made of cloth or woolen cloth, and silk and satin clothes were not available.
"Compared to my brother, I also know that 'what is good above will be followed by the people below.' This veteran has taken it upon himself to not wear silk clothes. Even those who can afford to buy and wear them are gradually reluctant to buy them..."
"Yes, I have heard people say this in Guangzhou, saying that this is called 'fashion trend', also called 'fashion'."
Unexpectedly, these two Australian vocabulary words that he learned from Li Yaoer and sold them immediately made shopkeeper An look at him with admiration.
"I didn't expect that Mr. Chen also studied Australian studies!" The tone was quite appreciative.
"Don't dare, I also received some advice from an elder."
"It is a great blessing to have elders to give guidance." Shopkeeper An nodded repeatedly, "Yes, it is this popular fashion. Australians like to use Western woolen clothes to make clothes, and the locals also follow suit. When the weather gets cold, , all wearing woolen clothes..."
Therefore, the sales of this silk and satin in Lingao are really pitiful. Shopkeeper An said that if it weren't for the fact that there are many large foreigners who have recently moved to the local area and have the habit of taking silk and satin, the sales would be even worse.
"Finally, there are elders among Australians who like silk and satin, and a lot of them are sold every year through special channels. It is said that several female leaders are also engaged in 'improving traditional clothing' and have also produced some brand-new styles. If they can wear it first If you use it, this silk material will be easier to sell, and at least the local girls will follow suit..."
Having said this, Shopkeeper An smiled subtly. Chen Lin was a little confused and asked again:
"There are very few fabric shops here. I wonder why?"
"Most people in Lingao buy ready-made clothes, and few make them themselves or hire tailors," Shopkeeper An said. Although Lingao has a large population, most of them are naturalized people who "eat Australian food". They either work in factories, farms, or in various institutions. Their clothes are mainly simple and durable. Australians run their own clothing factories and produce such garments in large quantities to supply the market.
"They make clothes not one by one, but in thousands. It is cheap to buy materials in batches, and machines are used to make clothes in the factory: one person cuts and another person sews. It takes one person to open bags and tack buttons, and with a machine, the work is completed in an instant... You can easily make thousands of pieces of clothing in a day, and the labor cost is almost zero when considering each piece. Therefore, the price of this ready-made clothing is very It’s cheap. Ordinary people will not make clothes, so if a tailor doesn’t have excellent craftsmanship, he won’t be able to survive.”
"Then, wouldn't fabric stores also do bulk business?"
"Haha, what I said is right!" Shopkeeper An nodded and said, "In Lingao, if it is a small fabric shop, it can make a living by just selling in the market. If it is a big shop like ours, it must have a lot of business with large customers. OK."
The customers are naturally garment factories. Fabrics are imported from various places and traded in the trading market at the port. Fabric shops go there to bid and buy in batches.
"Australians used to transport the materials themselves, or buy them directly from foreign merchants. In recent years, they have begun to purchase materials from local fabric merchants."
This is refreshing, Chen Lin thought to himself. Australians are the best at trading. They can obviously buy the lowest-priced fabrics directly from maritime merchants. Why do they let large-scale merchants resell them and earn the difference? Is there something fishy in this?
But you can't ask this question, you can only hide your doubts. As they were talking, there was a sudden commotion outside, and someone seemed to be talking loudly. Shopkeeper An was about to ask, but the clerk had already entered the counter room, his face full of nervousness.
"What's up?"
"Master Qu's family is here..."
Shopkeeper An frowned, stood up immediately and said, "I'll go take a look." After saying that, he turned to Chen Lin and cupped his hands and said, "I'm sorry! There are some things ahead, I'll deal with them first..."
Chen Lin guessed that it was getting late, so he stood up and said, "It's getting late, the shopkeeper, go and do your work. I'll bother you another day."
Shopkeeper An didn't hold back, and said: "Although this is the first time that my brother and I have met, we feel like old friends at first sight. In that case, please come back and talk to me some other time when you are free!" After that, he took out a name card from the box on the table. post.
"This is my name card. If you have any trouble, just come to me on the cabinet with the card."
Chen Lin accepted the invitation and thanked him again and again. Shopkeeper An didn't care about being polite, picked up his robe and walked out.
I saw two people coming into the shop, a master and a servant, both wearing old clothes from the Ming Dynasty. The leader of the house was very aggressive and wanted to punish him. The two shopkeepers bowed and greeted each other, but they could not calm down his anger.
Chen Lin wondered if there was some business dispute? I heard the owner say angrily: "She ran away while buying something in your store! She is not familiar with the place here. How could she have run away if you hadn't abducted her? Now my master has said that this person is yours You have to hand it over, and you have to hand it over even if you don’t!”
The waiter who greeted Chen Lin just now smiled apologetically and said: "Mr. After selecting it, I replied. No one expected that she would climb out of the window and run away! Besides, Wu Yiniang had a maid beside her, and there were servants and coachmen following her outside. So many people were not paying attention, so she couldn’t just run away. On top of the store…”
When Mr. Xia heard this, he was furious. He stretched out his hand and slapped him in the face. He hit the waiter until he turned around and almost fell to the ground. He staggered and barely managed to stand up. He slapped him with his backhand again and knocked him to the ground.
"Who are you! If you dare to argue with me, I'm going against you!" After Master Xia finished speaking, he scolded the servant: "Are you going to die? Beat me hard!"
The servant rolled up his sleeves and was about to take action when Shopkeeper An shouted: "Stop!" After that, he hurried out.
When he arrived at the shop, he saw that the beaten shop boy was still on the ground, so he ordered: "Hold him to the back and ask the doctor to come and take a look!" After saying that, he turned around and cupped his hands towards Mr. Xia and said: "Mr. Xia! I don't know, little one How could the store offend your honor and actually hit someone?"
(End of chapter)
