“It’s slightly worse, but considering that the population density of Los Angeles is larger than other cities in California, these differences are acceptable. In fact, when we build new supermarkets, we also take into account the nearby population, such as where we are now. The San Francisco supermarket is a little smaller than the one in Los Angeles, but not much, and the one in Torrance is a lot smaller," Pierce explained.
"Well, it looks good." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said. Although there are not many people in the supermarket, everyone is pushing large trolleys and there are a lot of goods in the trolleys. It can be said that one person's shopping here is better than that in an ordinary supermarket. of more than ten.
The core of a warehouse-type supermarket is to allow members to come once in a while and then go on a shopping spree, either filling up their own small warehouse or filling up their own cars. This business model will lead to low foot traffic, but instead It also reduces Costco's demand for labor. You know, in the United States, one of the main costs of supermarkets is labor. The quantity is small, which also allows Costco to calmly offer high wages to poach experienced people from other supermarkets. .
Pierce continued: "Eric, there is a problem that may become a problem for us in the future. Costco's middle management talents are all transferred from Fedmart. Now Costco only has 5 supermarkets, so it is not a problem for the time being. But if we continue to build new supermarkets, there will not be enough people in this field.
Moreover, the business models of Fedmart and Costco are still different, and people poached from other supermarkets cannot get started directly, so I hope that the company will allocate a special amount of funds to cultivate talents. "
"How did you train Fedmart in the past?" Chen Zhiwen asked rhetorically. The cultivation of talents is a must-have plan for any company. Small companies can also recruit people directly, but large companies cannot. They must have their own internal training plans. The more large companies rely on this set of planning, such as large automobile companies or large Internet companies, they recruit people directly from universities and rarely recruit people in the community, unless there is really a shortage of people or the people being recruited are very capable, and Or the position is special and cannot be trained internally.
Pierce shook his head with a smile and said: "FedMart has no specific plan in this regard. We recruit normally and train slowly, because we have only opened a dozen supermarkets in more than ten years, and the staff turnover rate is relatively low. There is no rush at all." There is a shortage of people.
Now Costco is expanding very fast, and its model is different from traditional supermarkets. If it continues to expand at the current rate, it may be severely understaffed by next year. By then, it will either have to stop expansion, or it will have to If it is barely operated, there will be very big hidden dangers. "
"How to cultivate it?" Chen Zhiwen asked.
"I don't have information in this area yet. I also want to slowly improve it and make the talent training plan into a standard. And this can only be learned slowly when training new people. We and the new people are both in the process of learning. "Pierce said: "The easiest way is to recruit more people. A supermarket needs 10 managers, so recruit 20, spend more labor costs, and then make everyone familiar with it, and directly transfer people when opening a new store. In the past, new stores will also recruit more people. In the same process, the company will gradually improve the training process and shorten the labor cost and time cost of training. However, in this case, the company's profits will be reduced a lot."
"It doesn't matter if you lower it a little. In addition to hardware costs, personnel costs are also part of opening a new store. Besides, the more stores you have, the lower the operating and purchasing costs will be." Chen Zhiwen said nonchalantly: "It's just that locals are willing to go to other places. ?"
Pierce said: "That's no problem. Even if you go to a foreign store, it will basically take a period of time, maybe half a year or a year. When the staff level of the new store is sufficient, you can come back. Supermarket operations are actually not a high-tech job. We The people recruited locally also have other relevant experience, and they become familiar with it quickly.”
"It is true that supermarket operations are fast to learn, but new stores are often the most tiring. Especially our supermarkets need to open memberships. The success or failure of supermarkets often depends on the first half year. If it succeeds in this half year, the supermarket will basically be successful. , if it fails, it will be difficult to turn around later." Chen Zhiwen thought for a while and said: "Pierce, I think we need to train a group of elite talents specifically to provide guidance for new stores. The more experienced they are, the more successful the new store will be. The greater the possibility, it may even exceed the previous store.”
"This is a very good idea." Pierce thought for a moment and agreed: "We cultivate a team that is good at developing members in the early stages of supermarket opening. As long as they do a good job, they can basically reduce our risk of opening new stores. .”
"Then we should specifically recruit highly educated talents and give priority to top students majoring in retail, marketing, and psychology. We can also ask some professors and experts in this field to provide guidance and analyze how to make it easier to attract people to become members. I need to combine these The knowledge is compiled into words and then becomes an important secret of Costco." Chen Zhiwen said boldly: "Money is not an issue, spend it when you need to. In addition, the training plan for general management talents you just mentioned will also be implemented together."
During this period, Chen Zhiwen has actually gotten rid of the initial lack of funds. Red Bull has developed very smoothly. The sales volume in the US market is considerable, and it is far from reaching its peak. There is a lot of room for market growth. This is just to prevent other beverage giants from entering in the future. Now All of Red Bull's profits are even used up for future profits, and they are desperately advertising. In addition to inviting celebrities to endorse and bombing TV stations with advertisements, they have also begun to contact Hollywood groups to insert soft advertisements in movies and television, and have also begun to purchase high-quality products at many sports venues. Billboards, although Red Bull currently cannot spare the funds to do other things, as long as it can develop well, it will be the greatest help to Chen Zhiwen.
As for Midea, the household appliance industry is indeed average, but the high-profit industry of arcade machines has already begun to bloom. After a year and a half, let alone the return of a net profit of 100 million US dollars a year like Taidong Company, as long as 30% to 50% is enough. .
The biggest success is naturally Wal-Mart's stock. This stock is still rising and it is high-quality credit capital.
Costco is also losing money now, but the first supermarket in Los Angeles, if the investment costs are not shared equally, can be said to have started to make a profit. Warehouse supermarkets can make profits so quickly, and the most important thing about the supermarket is that it has a huge amount of cash. Liuliu, the retail giant of later generations, actually makes more than half of its net profits based on cash flow, not retail profits.
Except that there will be a tough battle in Hong Kong soon, in other aspects, there is basically no economic pressure. The only thing that requires continued investment is the continuous expansion of Costco. This is the core strategic plan at present, even better than the Wharf in Hong Kong. Or maybe Hutchison is even more important.
If funds are no problem, hardware expansion will naturally not be a problem, and if the personnel problems caused by rapid expansion can be solved, then everything will be foolproof.
"Okay, then I will ask the human resources department to make a preliminary plan, and I will show it to you after it is written." Pierce asked: "Eric, how long do you need to stay in the United States?"
(End of chapter)
