Chen Lin originally planned to spend most of his time at the silk counter, looking at the local fabric market in Lingao. I never expected that I would be attracted by the bizarre scene in front of me as soon as I entered this department store, and I couldn't help but follow the flow of people and look around. I looked at the counter shelves one by one.
He squeezed and came to a round wooden counter. This counter was unusual. Not only did it not sell any goods, it was even taller. It was similar to the counter of a pawn shop - and like a pawn shop, it was equipped with a wooden fence. Could it be that Is this a pawn shop? It's just that there is no sound of counting tickets at the counter, but only jingling sounds from time to time.
While I was wondering, there was a sudden sound on my head. When I looked up, I saw an object like a book protector hanging on the wire. With a whirring sound, it whizzed past the wire. Looking along the wire, I saw that with the circular counter as the center, dozens of wires hanging in the air like a spider web radiated out in all directions, connecting the surrounding counters with this place.
If you look closely, you can see that there are two such circular high platforms in the store. These three high platforms are arranged equidistantly along the central axis of the store.
Chen Lin thought about it for a moment and realized: This is where the counting room table is. The most taboo thing in store management is that the clerks directly handle money, and Australians are no exception. Pay attention to the sales counters and see the clerks issuing accounts, and then put the received money receipts and accounts into the wallet, hang it on the wire, and push it hard out. After a while, the clerk returns to the counter, takes off the wallet, takes out the bill and change, and hands them to the customer along with the goods.
His family has been engaged in industry and commerce for generations. Although he is young, he has a lot of experience. You will immediately understand the benefits of this "barbed wire spider web". The most effective way for large merchants to prevent their associates from "flying goods" and "flying money" is to collect payments centrally and deliver goods against receipt. He heard from his father that there were several large North-South goods stores in Suzhou that did this. But for a store as big as Friendship Department Store, a lot of manpower is needed to run orders back and forth. This "iron network" saves time and effort. Although it is not very sophisticated, it is very clever.
Australians are indeed talented people. Chen Lin thought to himself, actually, if you think about it carefully, Australians have a lot of "wonderful skills", but they have brought more new methods and new ideas. Some of them are not their first, but they can always do it more thoughtfully and smarter than their predecessors.
Macao studies are indeed unfathomable.
After walking around the store, I didn't find a place selling fabrics. I asked the clerk and found out: I had to go to the second floor.
Li Mei spent a lot of thought on the specific design. This Friendship Department Store not only looks like a county-level department store that replicates the old times, but its layout is also basically based on the traditional Chinese shopping mall model. It’s just that the quantity and consumption capacity of commodities in this time and space are very limited, and they can only be considered specific and minute in terms of variety and scale.
The first floor is for high-frequency consumer goods, which are the so-called "fast-moving consumer goods"; the second floor is for clothing, shoes, hats and various textiles. The layout is also more sparse than the first floor, and it is spacious and bright for customers to try on and compare. The third floor sells valuable goods, such as famous cigarettes and wines, jewelry, watches, leather goods, etc. The number of people consuming is small and the flow of people is small, which allows the target customer groups to choose and compare calmly.
This layout started from the modern department stores in the Republic of China era in old time and space, and has continued into the new century. Shopping malls in countless Chinese cities replicate this layout. However, with the increase in scale and development of the times, furniture, household appliances and other products have been added.
Chen Lin climbed up the spacious stairs to the second floor. The clearance height on the second floor is not as high as the first floor, but there are many windows, the shelves and counters are not so dense, and there are many fewer customers. As soon as I went up, my eyes lit up. The environment here is much better than below.
On the second floor of Friendship Department Store, ready-made clothing is the largest sales category, occupying almost half of the second floor. The garment manufacturing industry did not originally exist in this time and space. Regardless of whether you are rich or poor, the women at home either make their own clothes or ask a tailor to make them. There is no system for mass production. Even items that require mass production, such as military jackets and official uniforms, are also produced in wholesale packages and piecemeal. After the Senate landed, they used the equipment they brought to establish the first garment factory to mass-produce uniforms and work clothes for soldiers and workers. Later, he began to make clothes for the elders. Gradually, the custom of buying and wearing ready-made clothes spread among the naturalized people, and then gradually extended to ordinary people. Therefore, the ready-made wardrobe table here immediately aroused Chen Lin's strong interest.
He had seen clothing stores in the big world of Guangzhou. Not impressed. Because the clothing stores in the Great World mainly sell to the naturalized cadres and their families of the northbound detachment, as well as the newly naturalized staff recruited locally. The product category highlights “practicability”. Except for the special "Australian underwear", what Chen Lin saw in clothing stores were all boring "uniforms" with different materials and almost identical styles.
Of course, when it comes to Daming's clothes, there is nothing new in style. But at least the patterns, decorations, and colors are more colorful. There is a big difference compared to the Australians who dominate the world in black, blue, gray and white.
However, the clothing department on the second floor of Friendship Department Store overturned Chen Lin's impression of Australian clothing. The many styles of clothing on display here, the complex colors, and the novelty of the patterns completely surpassed Chen Lin's previous understanding of "clothes" - especially women's clothing. "It turns out that this clothing can do this!"
Australians attach great importance to "display" when selling clothing. All kinds of clothing were fixed on display boards, hung on hangers, and put on wooden figurines - the latter made him feel a little uncomfortable every time he saw it. Although these human figurines are completely "freehand", with no hair or facial features, the outlines of their bodies are very lifelike.
In Chen Lin's opinion, wooden humanoid figurines were either buried artifacts or statues of gods in temples. Putting on clothes and displaying them in a shop in such a grand manner made him feel uncomfortable.
This can probably be regarded as the "overseas wonder" of Australians.
Chen Lin browsed at the counter of the women's clothing department with great interest. Women have always been the main consumers of textiles in any time and space. As a fabric manufacturer, the Chen family has always paid great attention to "fashionable patterns".
Almost all the clerks in the women's clothing department are women, wearing gray open-collar tops and skirt suits, with long name tags on their chests. They all smile and greet attentively. As he passed, someone came over to greet him.
Chen Lin was not used to being greeted by female waiters and said: "Just looking around, not buying anything."
About half of the entire second floor is devoted to women's clothing. Not only are there a lot of styles, but the colors and styles are much bolder than the ready-to-wear stores in the big world. Chen Lin had heard of the legendary short skirt that exposed the knees many times, but had never seen it with his own eyes. Even the Australian female students I saw on the boat were dressed in shocking outfits, and their skirts were still around the knees. However, several of the various dresses displayed on the wooden figurines here completely expose the knees.
"I didn't expect Australians to actually have such clothes! It's so short, and most of the way you move, your thighs will be exposed..."
Just thinking of this made Chen Lin's face heat up. If he thought about going up and down the stairs, or running and jumping in a hurry, wouldn't it, wouldn't it... Chen Lin didn't dare to think about it anymore. Somehow, he remembered the Australian schoolgirl he saw on the boat. There was an inexplicable commotion in my heart.
He quickly stopped his thoughts and silently reminded himself to put his career first. Does it matter what the style of women's clothing is? The key depends on the materials used! Yes, materials!
Chen Lin focused on the ingredients. He soon discovered that the choice of fabrics for women's clothing was very complex. Not only are all kinds of fabrics known to him used, but also multiple fabrics are often used on the same set of clothes. Various colors, accessories, laces, patterns... Some of the patterns were very new and he had never seen them before - they were probably brought by the Australians. And a long strip of fabric that seemed to be made of gauze and had a hollow pattern specially sewn on the edge of the clothes aroused his interest. I asked the female waiter and found out that this is called "lace".
This is really good stuff, Chen Lin thought. It looks much better when used to decorate the edges of clothes than simply piping them with strips of material. Piping edging can only make a fuss about color and width. The style and texture of this lace can be produced in many ways. He studied it carefully and roughly knew that it was woven, but he could not tell the specific craftsmanship at all.
There is also a huge market for this lace. I wonder if it can be introduced in the cotton spinning factory this time. Chen Lin thought to himself, he should ask Chen Xiaobing in the next few days.
He immediately called the female salesperson and wanted to buy a lace shirt.
"I wonder what size Baojuan wears?"
Now it was hard for him: firstly, he did not have a "treasure family", and secondly, although traditional clothes had to be tailor-made, the clothes they made were loose and not strict in size. When he saw the female clerk holding out five sizes for him to choose from, he immediately fainted.
"This is as casual as you want..."
"Sir, the sizes of these clothes are very different. If you are only one size off, you won't be able to wear them." The female waiter was very considerate, "So, how tall is Baojuan? How much does he weigh?"
Chen Lin thought to himself: How could I know! He had an idea and said: "Her height and figure are similar to those of a girl."
"That's one size fits all." The female clerk nodded, "Wait a moment, I'll give you an invoice."
After buying the clothes, he went to the fabric counter to browse. There are indeed a wide variety of fabrics here, but there is nothing particularly outstanding when compared with Rui Hexiang from Shopkeeper An, they are just about the same. Chen Lin was slightly disappointed.
Seeing that it was getting late outside, I looked at the big clock on the wall and saw that it was already five-twenty. Chen Lin didn't dare to go shopping anymore, so he quickly turned back and went downstairs.
It was still a long way from the Longhao Bay Hotel. Fortunately, he had just noticed that there was a rickshaw waiting for passengers at the edge of the square. He would give a small account so that the driver could run faster and catch up.
(End of chapter)
