On the last day before leaving Beijing, Lin Chaoyang called his family together and planned to have a meal together.

Du Feng even specially came over and met again after a week. His condition was much better than before, he was no longer so sad, and he felt much more energetic.

Lin Chaoyang asked about the situation in the clothing city, and Du Feng had a relaxed smile on his face.

"It's not bad. Business is growing steadily and our reputation is getting better and better."

In less than a week, the Asia-Europe Garment City will have been open for one month.

In the past month, the clothing city first experienced blooming flowers in the first few days of its opening, and then saw customer traffic and sales halved again and again.

After the passenger flow and sales declined, the clothing city's business remained stable for more than a week, and then began to slowly increase again.

As of the past two days, the clothing city's daily sales have been over 40,000 yuan. Although this sales volume is still far from Du Feng's ideal, it gives him hope.

He would visit the store every day and chat with customers from time to time. After the chat, he would give small gifts, which was somewhat similar to the market research conducted by many companies in later generations.

After communicating with dozens of customers, Du Feng found that the consumers who came to the Asia-Europe Clothing City to buy clothes were not all high-income groups as he thought.

There are also many ordinary working-class people among them, earning forty or fifty yuan a month.

Buying a piece of clothing in the Asia-Europe Garment City may cost them a month's salary, and some expensive clothes even cost them three or four months' salary, but these customers are still willing to spend money in the Asia-Europe Garment City.

The reason is very simple. Everyone thinks that buying clothes in Asia-Europe Clothing City is safe.

You don’t have to worry about buying fake or inferior products, as there is also a warranty and after-sales service, and the salesperson’s service attitude is also good.

The Asia-Europe Garment City has only been established for less than a month. Even if the service is good and the quality is high, it stands to reason that the word-of-mouth effect will not ferment so quickly.

But if you can't stand it, this is a worse world.

In today's Yanjing, larger state-owned shopping malls like Xidan Shopping Mall are better. Many smaller service-oriented state-owned units have service attitudes that are even more arrogant than those of the elders, and the customers who go there are like grandsons.

A business like the Asia-Europe Clothing City that makes customers feel at home suddenly appeared in the city of Yanjing. Naturally, everyone had to spread the word by word of mouth, and the word-of-mouth spread was ridiculously fast.

Another very important reason is that fake and inferior goods have become rampant in the past two years.

At the beginning of reform and opening up, the word "fake" did not exist in the Chinese dictionary.

But by 1984, in just six years, the number of counterfeit trademark cases in China had reached more than 1,000. These were those that were discovered and dealt with, and the majority were not dealt with.

By 1984, counterfeit goods had formed an unstoppable trend in the country. Throughout the mid-to-late 1980s and two thousand years later, Chinese consumers were troubled by counterfeit goods.

In the early to mid-1990s, when counterfeit goods were most prevalent, in just half a year, procuratorial organs across the country accepted 2,291 cases of counterfeit trademarks. Counterfeit goods were so rampant that people and gods were outraged.

In this wave of counterfeiting that has lasted for decades, the most terrifying thing is not the fraud and the use of inferior products to harm consumers. The most terrifying thing is that you still cannot get rid of the evil merchants who make counterfeit goods.

In 1985, a counterfeit drug case occurred in a certain place. In one small town alone, there were 45 counterfeit drug companies.

Since the 1980s, locals have been making fake medicines such as "hypertensive granules" and "Lifei granules" by adding low-quality Tremella fuciformis and sugar to seek huge profits.

Most of these fake pharmaceutical factories are jointly run by local farmers JZ. They have no pharmaceutical technicians, no quality inspection institutions, and no pharmaceutical equipment.

They use primitive tools such as stoves, iron pots, and bamboo utensils. The factory buildings are all old rural houses, with flies flying around, garbage piled up, and the packaging tables covered with dust.

You can't even imagine how such a black-hearted workshop can deliver their poor medicines to hospitals and pharmacies across the country, but they do it.

Because this town is a model of support and is the first town in a certain province with an industrial and agricultural output value exceeding 100 million yuan.

The difficulty with counterfeit goods lies not in “fakeness” but in “control”.

They say people in the 1980s were simple and honest, and there is nothing wrong with that.

But people's hearts cannot withstand temptation. Sima Yi's oath to Luo Shui, Lu Meng's crossing of the river in white clothes, and the collapse of morality and faith often start from that mouse excrement and smelly fish.

In just a few years, the domestic business environment has undergone earth-shaking changes. Although fakes and inferior goods have not yet reached the proliferation trend in the 1990s, many people have become more vigilant.

Therefore, in such an environment, the high quality and warranty commitment of Asia-Europe Garment City can naturally easily capture a group of consumers who want to spend money to buy peace of mind.

Du Feng talked excitedly about his discoveries and experiences during this period, and finally he looked at Lin Chaoyang with gratitude.

"Brother-in-law, I finally understand what you meant by what you said to me."

Lin Chaoyang said happily: "What I say is not important. What is important is that you can do it. I believe that the business in the clothing city will definitely get better and better in the future."

Du Feng's face was full of confidence, "I will definitely do it!"

After expressing his inner feelings, Du Feng felt a lot more relaxed.

Tao Yucheng said to him, "Don't patronize the clothing city. You have to take care of the video hall as well!"

"What happened to the video room?" Du Feng asked.

Ever since he came up with the idea of ​​opening a clothing city, Du Feng didn't pay much attention to the video hall. He basically checked the accounts every month and left many things to his subordinates.

"Business is not as good as last year," Tao Yucheng said.

Last year, many small video parlors opened by individuals gradually opened in Yanjing City.

They may only have one video recorder, one TV, and one room, but the hardware conditions are certainly incomparable to Du Feng's video studio.

But I can’t help it because the tickets are so cheap. In some small video halls, you can watch a movie for just a dime.

Although there are a few film sources, as long as they have never seen it, the audience is still willing to watch it, and it is not expensive anyway.

As a result, it naturally affected Du Feng's business.

Du Feng listened to Tao Yucheng's description and didn't care too much. Before opening the video studio, Lin Chaoyang told him about the situation that this business might face next.

"There is no way to avoid this kind of thing. People are satisfied with earning 180 yuan a month. What can you do?"

"I'm afraid that if they do this, fewer and fewer people will come to our place in the future." Tao Yucheng said worriedly.

"Then we will also lower the price. In the past, we were just lying around and making money. In the future, this situation will be the norm."

I don’t know if it was due to the ups and downs of the opening of the clothing city, but Du Feng’s expression became calm and relaxed when he talked about the business of the video studio.

Tao Yucheng sighed unwillingly, "Oh! What do you think these people think?"

"People also want to make money, but the ticket price is the same, so why should the audience choose them? In fact, this is the same as us and movie theaters.

You have to have a place that can attract audiences so that people can come to your place, right?"

"That's right." Tao Yucheng smiled and stopped worrying about this matter.

Anyway, in the past year, the couple had already earned 18,000 yuan. With his salary and income level, he might not be able to earn so much in ten years just by working. What else is there to be dissatisfied about?

Besides, it’s not like the video studio won’t make money in the future, it’s just that it will make less money.

"Brother, in fact, if you want to make more money, you don't have to just focus on the video hall. You can try something else." Du Feng suggested.

"It's good like this now. Your business is big and you make a lot of money, but you're so busy all day long that you don't have any time for yourself! You don't even have a girlfriend."

Du Feng gave some kind advice, but he was unexpectedly hit by Tao Yucheng.

"Eat your food."

Zhao Li on the side pulled Tao Yucheng to shut him up. Everyone in the family was amused by this scene.

The next day, Lin Chaoyang's family of five flew to Xiangjiang. The temperature in Xiangjiang in April was over 20 degrees, the sun was shining brightly, and the weather was very comfortable.

The family returned to the Oriental Garden first and settled in for a rest. Lin Chaoyang called Tsui Hark and heard that he had returned to Xiangjiang. Tsui Hark couldn't wait to invite him to the film studio to meet.

So the next day, Lin Chaoyang and Tao Yushu went to the film studio in Kowloon Tong.

Although today's film studios have produced two films written and directed by Tsui Hark, they are still small studios in the Hong Kong film industry.

The company is small, with only three employees, and the only spacious room is the conference room.

When Lin Chaoyang and his wife arrived, there was already a somewhat bald middle-aged man in the conference room. It was John Woo who had just returned from Bay Island recently.

Tsui Hark introduced both parties enthusiastically, and then started talking about the movie.

It is very difficult for film studios at this stage to invest in and produce two movies at the same time.

Tsui Hark has been busy filming "A Better Tomorrow" since the second half of last year. It was only recently that after the filming of "A Better Tomorrow" was completed, he found time to prepare for "A Better Tomorrow."

After meeting, the first thing he did was not to discuss the script, but to set a budget.

When he heard that the budget was only HK$4 million, John Woo immediately complained.

"How can 4 million be enough for a gun battle movie?"

"Four million is already a lot."

Tsui Hark seemed to be appeasing John Woo, but he was actually trying to convince himself.

It is true that Boss Lei and Xinyi City are behind the movie studio, but the boss invests money in you to make you money, not to suck your blood.

"Dao Ma Dan" invited three popular actresses, namely Ye Qianwen, Brigitte Lin Qingxia and Zhong Chuhong, to star. The three people's remuneration alone was more than 3 million Hong Kong dollars.

It has taken more than half a year from preparation to now, and it has not been released yet, which is rare in the fast-paced Hong Kong film market.

The movie has not yet seen any profit, and Tsui Hark is about to release a new movie. Naturally, New Arts City does not want to make a big bet. Tsui Hark and them worked hard to get these 4 million Hong Kong dollars.

"After all, you need to hire one or two stars to make a movie. The actor's salary of 4 million alone accounts for more than half of the investment. How can you make this movie?" John Woo said sadly.

Today's Hong Kong film market is somewhat similar to the mainland film market after 2015. The market is booming and hot money continues to pour in.

The production level has not improved much, and the investment has doubled, and a large proportion of it is the remuneration of the stars.

In the past two years, as long as stars have played major roles in one or two of the top ten box-office movies of the year, their starting salary is 500,000 to 600,000, and those who can take the leading role can easily earn more than 1 million Hong Kong dollars.

If a movie has both the male and female protagonists as popular stars, and a few second- and third-tier supporting roles, it will cost three to four million Hong Kong dollars just for the actors' remuneration.
To be continued...