11am, Petticoat Lane, Newham, East London.
As the largest second-hand clothing market in London, a day in Petticoat Lane starts with setting up stalls.
On both sides of the street, which is only five or six meters wide, are five-story apartments and shops. Vendors will set up a shed directly on the street to sell second-hand, third-hand or even more traded clothes.
Here, if you are lucky, you can buy new clothes that have been eliminated by the nobles. A brand-new coat made of wool mixed with cotton and silk will cost more than ten gold pounds or even more in the store, but in Petticoat Lane, You can get it for less than a fifth of the price.
However, many of the clothes discarded by the nobility do not fit well, so whether the clothes perfectly fit the body shape has become an effective means for the upper class to observe the social status of others. Hard-to-observe details such as materials, styles, and stitching cannot escape the attention. 'Aristocratic, they can detect it even if their clothes are a little too long.
On the steamship, Stuart judged social status by observing Mavie's dress. The clothes Mavie wore were custom-made at the Morgan Tailor Shop in New Ross City. Mr. Morgan's craftsmanship was no worse than that of the top tailors, and he was as good as the palace tailor. Can compete.
In addition to selling second-hand clothes, Petticoat Alley also sells new clothes made by garment factories. However, these new clothes will be displayed in the window, unlike second-hand clothes that are thrown into the rack for customers to pick and choose.
When Ma Wei and others arrived at Petticoat Alley, the place was already overcrowded. The streets were so crowded that there was no gap at all, and it was busier than a department store.
"The traffic here is really huge..." Daniel couldn't help but sigh: "If you open a store in a place like this, as long as the products are of high quality and low price, you will definitely make money!"
Ma Wei held a map of London and stood on the footboard on the edge of the carriage. He used the height of the carriage to observe the buildings around Petticoat Lane. As he watched, he gradually frowned.
"What's wrong, brother?" Seeing Ma Wei's serious face, Lai Wen asked, "Is there something wrong with Petticoat Lane?"
"This is Newham. The nearest train station is Waterloo Station, but Waterloo Station is on the south side of the Thames and Petticoat Lane is on the north side of the river. In other words, rail transportation is extremely inconvenient." Ma Wei folded up the map and said: "But Petticoat Lane is close enough to Canary Wharf to rely on water transport.”
Flower Street, which is the Whitechapel area that Marvel and others visited before, has a Charing Cross station nearby and is also close to the dock. It has advantages both by land and water. In comparison, Petticoat Lane, although there are many people, is There is no overland advantage.
At the same time, Newham is located to the east of Hamlets and has deviated from the location of the city center. In terms of geographical location, it does not meet Mawei's requirements.
Ma Wei is going to open a potion store. The target customer group must be the middle class and upper class. The high price of potions is definitely not affordable by ordinary workers, so it must be as close as possible to the central wealthy area...
"So are we going back now?" The letter took out the silver flask, opened the lid and took a sip: "I think Mr. Hamlet's house is very suitable for our requirements, that is, it is close to the city center, the transportation is convenient, and the price is good. It’s cheap, but the place is a bit dirty, but how many clean places are there in East London?”
"You're already here, let's go take a look first."
Putting away the map and newspaper, Ma Wei jumped out of the carriage, turned around and picked up Yunia, who didn't want to walk, and took her to a ready-made clothing store with a [For Rent] sign on the outside of Petticoat Lane, and knocked on the door.
The store was very deserted, completely opposite to the bustling Petticoat Alley. A middle-aged woman wearing a purple flannel petticoat was sitting behind the counter, flipping through a book.
Hearing the knock on the door, the middle-aged woman raised her head, put down the book in her hand, stood up and said, "Do you want to buy clothes? We have clothes produced by the Gleason Factory here, all of which are the latest styles!"
Mawei held Yunia in his arms, and walked into the shop with the three people. He raised the newspaper in his hand and said, "I saw the rental information you published in The Times. Do you want to rent this shop?"
"That's right!" The middle-aged woman nodded repeatedly: "This store is in a very good location, right at the entrance of Petticoat Alley. Many people pass by here every day. No matter what store you open, you will never lose money!"
Ma Wei looked around the deserted shop with no customers, looked into the eyes of the middle-aged woman, and made her feel a little embarrassed...
"As long as you don't open a clothing store, you should be able to make a profit..." The middle-aged woman said awkwardly: "The competition in Petticoat Alley is too crazy. The price of an ordinary linen shirt from the Gramm Garment Factory is 1 shilling and 5 pence, but the same linen shirt on the street only costs 11 pence!"
It turned out to be a business problem... Ma Wei thought to himself.
It is a well-known fact that the price of most second-hand items is cheaper than new items, and this is especially true for consumables such as clothes. As long as you wear them once, the price will be greatly reduced - except for beautiful women's stockings.
Products from garment factories are already much cheaper than those from handmade tailors, but among the clothes sold in Petticoat Alley, there are also second-hand products from garment factories!
The people who are willing to buy clothes in Petticoat Lane are basically civilians and workers who don’t have much money. They don’t think wearing second-hand clothes is a shameful thing. On the contrary, it is a normal thing.
This means that the clothing stores opened by middle-aged women at the entrance of Petticoat Lane are not very competitive. The costs are there and the prices cannot be kept down. Who will buy them?
Using marketing methods may change the situation, but middle-aged women obviously don't understand marketing.
"In that case, how much is the rent for your store?" Ma Wei asked.
"10 gold pounds per week!" the middle-aged woman said without thinking: "This price is already very cheap! If you rent my store, you will also get a loft!"
10 gold pounds a week, 40 gold pounds a month, 500 gold pounds a year....
To be honest, the price is really not expensive. Petticoat Alley has a lot of customers, and merchants who know how to run it can make a lot of money every week. However, the potion business run by Ma Wei is quite special, and Mr. Hamlai only needs 100 gold. The buyout price of pounds....
"excuse me."
Ma Wei raised his hat and said tactfully: "Your store is very good, but it doesn't quite meet my requirements. I need a larger store space, preferably a store that integrates the upper and lower floors of the residence."
"oh."
Upon hearing Ma Wei's refusal to rent, the middle-aged woman immediately lost interest. She sat back behind the counter, picked up her book and started reading, ignoring Ma Wei and the others.
"Let's go."
Mawei turned around with Yunia in his arms, and the three of them left Petticoat Lane, took a carriage, and returned to Flower Street.
Winter winter winter!
Winter winter winter!
"Why is it you again?"
A face with heavy bags under his eyes and age spots appeared at the door. When he saw Ma Wei and the others, Hamlai's face suddenly fell: "What on earth do you want to do? Don't waste my time if you don't buy it!"
"Buy." Ma Wei's attitude was very straightforward: "We have thought clearly. For a restaurant with 100 gold pounds, I'm afraid you will never find such a cheap price in London... Do you have a contract?"
"Yes, last time a buyer left a contract, and I copied it in two copies."
As if he was afraid that Ma Wei and the others would regret it, Hamlai dragged a lame leg and pedaled away quickly. He took out several handwritten contracts from the living room cabinet and put them on the table together with the ink bottles and quills. He said firmly: "I don't accept deposits, the money must be paid in one lump sum!"
Very anxious...
Ma Wei smiled, flipped through the contract documents, and after confirming that there were no problems, he picked up a pen to sign and fingerprinted the contract.
After signing the contract, Mavey took out his wallet, pulled out two brand-new gold pound coupons with the image of King Rhodes IV on them, and pushed them in front of Hamlai:
"Thames Bank issues gold pound coupons with denominations of 50 gold pounds. They have anti-counterfeiting identification and watermarks on them. They can be exchanged for the same amount of cash at any bank. Please check it."
Hamlai grabbed the gold pound coupons, looked at the dim white light outside the window carefully, rubbed the paper with his fingers, and said after a while: "The store is yours!"
"If there is no problem, please sign the contract."
Grabbing the quill, Hamlai wrote his name in large strokes, pressed his fingerprints, stood up and said, "I will move out this afternoon. I will leave you the real estate, real estate certificate and business license. What do you think?" When it’s time to move in, when it’s time to move in.”
"good."
Hamlai lamely walked upstairs. When he reached the top of the stairs, he suddenly stopped. He hesitated for a while, then turned around and said, "Mr. Nicholas, I suggest you treat this shop as an investment and sell it as soon as possible." , maybe you can still make some money.”
"Can I ask why?"
"Because there is a devil in this house!" As if recalling some terrible memories, Hamlai shivered and said, "I can hear its voice every night... That's a devil! The devil is Hiding here...I can't say more...you can take care of yourself!"
Hamlai's figure disappeared at the end of the stairs. Mavey sat in the living room for a while and found that nothing strange happened. Yunia, Edward and the Demonic Wooden Box did not feel the 'devil' breath in Mr. Hamlai's mouth. .
"Yannick, you stay, monitor this house, and protect Hamlai and his son from leaving."
"Um."
Mawei stood up, put on his hat, took Junia's little hand, and said to Laiwen and Daniel: "We are divided into two groups. Yannick stays. Felix and Jonas, follow me to find Holmes." gentlemen."
"Brother, why bother?" The message didn't understand: "With our strength, are we still afraid of a little devil? Wouldn't it be better to just catch it out?"
"First of all, we have to find a way to contact Mr. Holmes... Under what circumstances would the three newly arrived Manstein brothers have contact with a great detective?"
Ma Wei said with deep eyes: "After buying this house, we can reasonably hire Mr. Holmes to come in the name of inspection. In the eyes of outsiders, this is the first contact between the three Manstein brothers and the great detective Holmes. The reasons are sufficient and there is nothing to doubt.”
"Secondly, if there is really a demon in this house, then Mr. Holmes will definitely not be able to solve the commission. In this way, we will not only clear the suspicion of collusion between Holmes and other churches, but also logically invite the Church of the Three Destinies to perform an exorcism .”
"Baron Frederick has already taken the blood of mercury to find the second prince Shukri. They will become interested in us. By then, we can use the name of exorcism to lure out the archbishop behind the second prince Shukri... ....”
“Some things will be more effective if we don’t do them ourselves!”
