This polyethylene plastic pipe made Chen Qiang think of a business that made a lot of money, that is, the hula hoop.

Chen Qiang, a time traveler, doesn't know anything about inventions, such as nylon stockings and penicillin. He knows nothing, but if he can't even get a hula hoop, it's really time to recharge his IQ. What's more, the ready-made polyethylene tube is right in front of him, and the ready-made plastic production company is right in front of him. Chen Qiang doesn't have to worry about raw materials, craftsmanship and production. In this case, as long as he is not a fool, he can create a hula hoop.

As a sports person, Chen Qiang is quite familiar with various fitness equipment, which naturally includes hula hoops. After hula hoops entered China in the 1980s, they quickly became popular all over the country. Later, many studies have appeared, saying that shaking hula hoops will have an impact on the human spine. As a professor at the University of Sports, Chen Qiang has not studied similar topics, but has also read many papers on this.

Among the Indians in North America, there was a kind of "hula hoop dance" very early, but the hula hoops of the Indians were made of rattan. Among the natives in Australia, there was also a kind of "sports circle" made of bamboo.

In the late 1950s, a toy company owner in California would travel to Australia and brought the wooden "sports circle" back to the United States. After improvement, he made a plastic hula hoop and started selling it in the United States in July 1958. In just four months, 25 million hula hoops were sold. You should know that the population of the United States in 1958 was only 170 million, which is equivalent to one in every seven Americans who bought hula hoops. By 1960, the sales of hula hoops had reached an astonishing 200 million!

When the hula hoops were just launched, each sold for 93 cents. In some places, the price rose to more than $1 due to supply shortage. For toy companies selling hula hoops at that time, the profit difference of each hula hoop was more than 30 cents. In other words, such a small hula hoop brought 60 million yuan to the toy company in two years!

Of course, it is only 1940. The population and market prosperity of the United States are far less than that in 1958. Chen Qiang didn't expect to earn 60 million US dollars in two years. Chen Qiang was already very satisfied.

Chen Qiang held the polyethylene tube in his hand and bent towards the middle, then asked, "Mr. Beckland, I want to make this thinner and then make it into a circle. Is it difficult to craft?"

"Of course it's not difficult, it's easy, it's just adding a molding process." Little Beckland said.

"Then there should be no problem adding some sand into this tube, right?" Chen Qiang continued.

"Yes, yes, but the quality of this thing is not good and not strong enough..." Little Beckland explained immediately.

"I'm not using my head to transport sand, but just adding a little bit on one side, such as a tablespoon," Chen Qiang said.

"If it's just a tablespoon, it has no effect at all. Although the polyethylene material is not strong, it won't be able to stand even a tablespoon of sand." Little Beckland replied.

"If I want to carry out large-scale industrial production, do you think it is feasible?" Chen Qiang asked again.

"Massive? How large are you referring to?" Bakerland asked immediately.

"For example, I want to make such a big plastic circle." Chen Qiang gestured with his hands and then said, "Can you produce 50,000 pieces a day?"

"What did you say? 50,000 per day? Are you going to use this thing to consume it on the European battlefield?" Little Beckland exclaimed.

Chen Qiang continued to ask, "Mr. Beckland, can you produce 50,000 pieces a day?"

"It's OK in theory, but in fact it's very difficult. Even if I open a production workshop alone to produce what you said, the output of at most 10,000 per day can be at most." Beckland replied.

"Why? Is it the raw material or the process?" Chen Qiang asked.

"The main reason is that my company does not have that high production capacity." Bakerland spread his hands and continued: "You don't have to worry about raw materials. The materials for producing plastics are just by-products in the process of refining oil. Nowadays, Europe needs a lot of gasoline and diesel, so we need as much plastic raw materials as possible. Those petroleum smelting companies hope that we can buy more. As for the process, I think there is still room for improvement, but the existing process level should meet your needs. But I don't have so many equipment and workshops, nor so many workers."

"Mr. Beckland, I will give you a large order of millions. I believe you will add a production workshop for this." Chen Qiang said with a smile.

...

In order to raise money to produce a hula hoop, Chen Qiang went to the bank again and mortgaged his entire brand of "Chen Qiang Fitness" and then obtained a loan.

Chen Qiang's own gym doesn't cost much money, but not long ago, Chen Qiang recruited more than a dozen franchisees, not only in New York, but also in Washington and Boston, and Chen Qiang's franchise stores. A whole chain brand can of course get more loans than a single gym.

Due to the European War, it was easy to borrow money in the United States at this time. In order to expand production scale, many factory owners went to banks to seek loans. The banks also knew that Europe urgently needed American industrial products. Now, expanding production scale is similar to picking up money, so they are happy to lend money to entrepreneurs.

This is the case in the capital society. The more prosperous the economy, the easier it is for corporate loans, because banks know that they can make sure to make profits when they go out; and the worse the economy, the worse the corporate loans, because banks are worried that the loans they release will be wasted.

After getting the loan, the samples from Bakerland Company have been manufactured.

Chen Qiang took the newly made hula hoop sample, looked at it carefully, and occasionally pinched it with his hands.

After a while, Chen Qiang finally spoke, "The quality is so good!"

Little Beckland thought Chen Qiang was praising him, but after seeing Chen Qiang's expression, Little Beckland was slightly stunned. At this time, Chen Qiang was frowning with an unsatisfied look on his face.

"What kind of expression is this? It feels like I'm disgusting the quality of the product too good! How is this possible? Customers always disgusting the quality of the product not good enough. How can anyone disgusting the quality of the product too good?" Little Beckland thought incredible, and then he asked, "Mr. Chen, are you dissatisfied with this sample?"

"How much does it cost to produce such a product?" Chen Qiang asked.

"If you can give me one million orders, I can reduce the cost to 28 cents." Bakerland replied.

In 1958, the production cost of a hula hoop was about 30 cents. Considering the inflation factors in the past 20s, the production cost of hula hoop in 1940 was already high enough. This is mainly because the process level in 1940 was not good, especially the industrial production technology of polyethylene was not as good as in 1958, so the production cost of a hula hoop was as high as 28 cents.

Chen Qiang estimated in his mind that the production cost of 28 cents was at least 50 cents for him to sell to a retailer to make a profit. The retailer sold to a customer would cost about 75 cents. This was a bit expensive for Americans in 1940.

"It is best to reduce the retail price of the terminal to below 70 cents, so the price I sell to the retailer must be less than 50 cents, so the production cost of a hula hoop is best reduced to 25 cents."

Thinking of this, Chen Qiang said, "Mr. Beckland, I hope to reduce the cost of the product to 25 cents. Can it be done?"

Beckland thought about it, then shook his head: "That's impossible, 25 cents can't make such a product."

"You can try to reduce the quality of the product." Chen Qiang said immediately.

"What?" Beckland suddenly had an incredible expression. This was the first time he had heard such a request.

At this moment, Beckland was finally sure that he had heard it right just now. Chen Qiang's words "The quality is too good" were indeed not praise, but dislikes.

"It's really a hell, there are people in this world who really think that the quality of the products is too good, but they want some inferior products?" Little Beckland looked confused. He could not guess Chen Qiang's intentions at all.

"Mr. Chen, I don't quite understand what you mean, but since you are my customer, I should be responsible for you. I cannot provide products with unqualified quality like you!" Little Beckland said with a look of justice.

"This American is really a stubborn person!" Chen Qiang cursed in his heart, and then said, "Mr. Beckland, don't you think that meeting the customer's requirements is your responsibility to the customer?"

"Of course, of course I have to meet the customer's requirements." Beckland nodded.

"Okay, my requirement is to make a cheaper product, and the quality can be reduced a little." Chen Qiang said.

Beckland hesitated for a moment, and finally nodded. At the same time, he said, "Mr. Chen, if you insist on that, I can only produce products according to your requirements, but I must remind you that no matter what you produce, consumers will not pay for inferior products."

It has to be said that European and American countries in that era still paid great attention to product quality. Needless to say, the Germans controlled product quality. The British, French, and even Italians paid great attention to product quality. The United States, as the largest industrial country at that time, would not produce inferior products.

This is also caused by the times. Early industrial countries, such as the United States, Britain, and Germany, experienced a process from research and development to production. After any new product is put into industrial production, the first consideration is production scale and product promotion, rather than reducing costs.

The industrial countries that later developed, such as Japan, South Korea, and China, experienced a process from imitation to production and then to R&D. When these countries began to produce certain industrial products, this product had appeared for many years, so what needs to be considered at this time is to reduce costs so that they can occupy the market. Then, when the industrial capacity of these countries improves, they begin to improve quality until they join the ranks of R&D.

Therefore, Americans complained about the poor quality of Japanese goods in the 1980s, complained about the poor quality of Korean goods in the 1990s, and began to complain about the poor quality of Chinese goods after the 21st century. However, Americans in the 1990s forgot how poor quality of Japanese goods were. They were happy to buy Sony's electronic products and drive Toyota cars. After entering the 21st century, Americans forgot about what they said about Korean goods back then, they used Samsung mobile phones and Hyundai cars.

This is a process of industrial upgrading. When a country's industrial capacity is constantly upgrading, its product quality will continue to be upgraded. In fact, when the industry is upgraded to a certain level, high-quality products can be produced.

Of course, there are different industrial scales in economies. In the future, Germany or Japan, due to the scale of the industry, you can only buy high-quality products, and others only do high-end products. In China, you can feel what it means to get what you pay for. If you have money, you can buy high-end goods, and if you don’t have money, you can buy low-end goods.

In industrial countries before World War II, there was no concept of product quality. Almost every factory owner consciously made his products the best. It can be said that it was an era that truly belonged to craftsmen.

However, Chen Qiang did not need any "craftsman spirit". What he wanted was a cheap hula hoop that could be produced on a large scale.

In Chen Qiang's thinking, a hula hoop is a consumable product, and the price is cheap enough. If it is broken, you don't have to worry about it. Just buy another one. If the hula hoop that costs tens of cents is not broken for ten years, then how can Chen Qiang make money!

Moreover, Chen Qiang doesn’t have much money on hand, so he can reduce costs as much as possible and produce more hula hoops. Because the hula hoops do not have any technical content and can be easily imitated, Chen Qiang needs a large number of hula hoops. Before the imitation products appear, he will occupy the market as soon as possible. After the textiles appear, Chen Qiang’s hula hoops have occupied most of the market and can also obtain more sales in the future.

Historically, after the hula hoop was launched in 1958, many counterfeit products appeared not long after. Hula hoops of various brands emerged one after another. Even plastic processing companies in Europe and Japan began to counterfeit hula hoops.

Chen Qiang had no way to stop those copycats, so he could only find another way and use bargains to seize the market. Even if a large number of copycats appeared in the future, Chen Qiang's hula hoops had already been sold in enough quantities and would have made a lot of money by then.

The most important thing is people's consumption psychology. For the same product, shoppers must be the first to prefer bargains.

This is how Americans in the future are. They criticize China's manufacturing quality all day long, but they only spend more money on buying this thing without looking at it. It is obviously impossible to buy 100 yuan for quality for 10 yuan.

In fact, the Chinese products bought by Americans are all orders placed by their own merchants in the United States. Chinese people don’t know what specifications you want, and what American merchants order, but Chinese factories produce whatever products they want. However, American traders are reluctant to spend money to order good quality things, and in the end they can only blame China’s quality.

I once saw a story where an American came to a furniture factory in Foshan with an Italian sofa worth $5,000, hoping that the Foshan boss would imitate a batch. The Foshan boss said that if we can imitate it, the cost is 2,000 US dollars.

The American said it was too expensive and asked if it was OK for 1,500 US dollars. The Foshan boss said that if we replaced the genuine leather at the back and base with artificial leather, the cost would be reduced to 1,500 US dollars. The American asked again, could it be cheaper? The Foshan boss said that if we replaced the sponge inside with cheap ones, the cost would be reduced to 1,200 US dollars.

In the end, the Americans chose a $700 plan and placed an order and left with satisfaction. In fact, the 700 sofa, except for the appearance of the $700 sofa, saved everything you can. After looking back, the Americans took the $700 sofa and sold it for $2,000. American consumers also felt that they made a profit. At 2,000, they bought a sofa that was the same as 5,000 yuan. When the sofa broke down, they scolded you, and the sofa was far worse than the 5,000 yuan!

So why don’t American traders order some good quality products? Because good quality products are more expensive and hard to sell. American traders also know that consumers are unwilling to buy them by ordering a batch of better quality and higher price products.

So ultimately, American consumers are greedy for small gains.

Of course, being greedy for cheap is human nature. No one will keep cheap things and buy expensive ones.

For example, a hula hoop, one sells for 90 cents and the other sells for 70 cents. The two look no different, and I believe consumers will choose 70 cents.

Chen Qiang believes that a cheaper hula hoop can also attract American consumers to pay for money!

至于质量嘛,那不重要.
Chapter completed!