FEDMART is a listed company. Chen Zhiwen’s acquisition requires an application to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. However, as a small and medium-sized supermarket, it is also at the bottom of the U.S. stock market. The Securities and Futures Commission will not care at all. Citibank did some activities and passed the application. It was passed in a week, and with the approval of the board of directors, who control more than the average stock, the transaction price was directly set.
As for the U.S. Department of Commerce, like the Securities Regulatory Commission, it doesn’t care about small supermarket chains at all. The supermarket industry is not on the list of industries that the U.S. Department of Commerce does not allow foreign investment. Unless foreign investors acquire very large supermarkets in the United States, the Department of Commerce will They may intervene, otherwise, they would be very happy to see foreign capital come to the United States to invest in this kind of infrastructure industry. Just like a few decades later, European and American governments would very much welcome Chinese capital to build hotels in the United States. Who doesn’t like this kind of investment that creates employment without affecting national security?
However, in order to avoid being discovered by Hong Kong, Chen Zhiwen still used a Bermuda-registered head office to acquire Fedmart. If no one cared about it, no one would care about who was behind the acquisition of a supermarket.
On August 26, 1974, with the consent of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, FedMart was successfully delisted and became a wholly-owned enterprise.
After the acquisition was completed, Chen Zhiwen came to fedmart's headquarters again.
This is an office with only three floors. The staff inside are mainly administrative staff such as customer service, purchasing, logistics, human resources, etc. It is only two minutes away from the nearest Fedmart supermarket.
Everyone at Fedmart also knew that the Asian man Pierce accompanied was his current boss. Many people were a little nervous, fearing that there would be layoffs when the new boss came. This was because the company had been After losing money and the oil crisis, the U.S. economy has been in poor shape, and many outside companies are also laying off employees.
The office building was not large, and it only took ten minutes to go around. Then, Pierce and Chen Zhiwen came to an office. There was a smell of paint inside, which Pierce had recently prepared for Chen Zhiwen.
Pierce personally made a cup of coffee for Chen Zhiwen and said, "Mr. Chen, I heard from Mr. Ron that you like this brand of coffee, and I specially prepared some for you."
"Thank you." Chen Zhiwen looked normal on the surface, but he could only laugh awkwardly in his heart. He didn't have any coffee that he liked to drink. But when he met Ron before, the coffee he prepared was pretty good, so he just said that he liked it very much. .
"Mr. Chen, now that Fedmart is yours, what's the next development plan? Apart from purchasing cheap goods from Hong Kong, are there any other plans?" Pierce asked after sitting down.
"Of course, I plan to inject money to open a new store, but it will be another brand, and the operation method will be different from Fedmart." Chen Zhiwen said after putting down the coffee.
"New brand? Is it also a warehouse supermarket? Or another type?" Pierce asked.
"It's still a warehouse-type supermarket, but the customer target I want to target is not commercial purchases, but everyone." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.
The development history of warehouse-style supermarkets has been around since the 1940s, but the scale was not very large before, far from being comparable to more traditional department stores and new supermarkets led by Wal-Mart. Until 1976 in the original history, Solo supermarkets Pierce's re-entrepreneurship created a new new model.
"Everyone? How is this possible? Give up membership?" Pierce said: "FedMart also tried to cancel membership before, but the effect was very poor."
Chen Zhiwen denied: "It is not that we have given up on membership. The membership system will still exist. Members are also the core part of warehouse supermarkets. However, the target group of warehouse supermarkets is wrong. They only regard nearby factories and companies as customers. This scope is too narrow. If we want to develop better, we must develop all nearby consumers as customers. The civilian market is the largest market in the world. If we don't seize this market, we will never be able to compete with other types of supermarket chains."
Before 1976, the main service targets of warehouse-type supermarkets were nearby factories, companies, commercial institutions, government departments and their employees, etc. These companies and institutions purchased large quantities and purchased only a small variety of products, and warehouses The characteristic of traditional supermarkets is that there are not many varieties, but the quantity of each type is large.
This is also the origin of the creation of warehouse supermarkets. In an era when all kinds of supermarkets are flourishing, warehouse supermarkets have gradually survived by virtue of their fixed institutional customers and have become a small category in the retail industry.
But success comes with failure. The large-scale purchasing of institutions gives warehouse supermarkets a chance to survive, but it also limits their development. After all, the purchasing volume of these companies is limited and is far inferior to the customers of other supermarkets-- --everyone. Moreover, when the competition in other supermarkets becomes fierce, they will also notice the category of corporate procurement, and it is not difficult to get into it and grab a job. Just give a discount. This is also the fundamental reason why warehouse supermarkets gradually struggled to develop into the 1970s. One reason is that in terms of capital, warehouse supermarkets with a scale of several hundred million dollars simply cannot compete with traditional retail giants with a turnover of billions or tens of billions.
"How can we get normal people to pay the membership fee? Although the amount is not large, most people will not spend money first before shopping." Pierce asked in confusion. Fedmart has tried to invite ordinary people to shop before, and this has been broken. It has followed the rules of warehouse supermarkets, but it has no effect. It is too difficult to get ordinary people to spend money. Without a membership system, it is not possible to let them shop like ordinary supermarkets. Ordinary residents obviously prefer to go to normal places. supermarket.
"So we need new methods." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said, "I know you tried reform a few years ago, but failed. The most fundamental reason is that the number of SKUs (commodity types) in warehouse supermarkets is too small. Ordinary users don’t have many choices, and generally they don’t buy in large quantities, but now is a good time because everyone has little money during this period.”
"The recent economic situation is indeed not good. Even company purchases have dropped a lot. The cost of our warehouse supermarket is much cheaper than other supermarkets. But what should we do to attract surrounding users to consume?" Pierce asked with a frown, asking for membership. It won’t work without a membership system, and it won’t work without a membership system.
"In the current economic situation, oil prices are high and prices are high. In theory, the most cost-effective way for users is to buy enough cheap goods at one time and store them at home. This is the lowest cost. This is also in line with the operation of warehouse supermarkets. method, and what we have to do is to encourage this kind of consumption." Chen Zhiwen smiled and said: "We are going to launch a membership system that can return cash."
