|
The pickle stall
owner with R&D ability
The pickle stall owner
began to sell seven or eight categories of pickle at 1975, but he didn’t decide
to research and develop it until 1979. Before selling pickle, he worked in a
machine and steel factory, whose boss were unwilling to hire him after he
retired from army, fearing that the pickle stall owner would learn so much that
he would set up a factory to compete with his.
The toughest thing
was “having no stall” at first. With everyone having his own fixed position, he
had nowhere to put his pickle. Sometimes, he first had all the things placed
and some customer came in. However, another man advanced and insisted it’s his
position. He had nothing to do, but put them away and look for another stall,
which was considered the toughest. He still remembered that he was driven away
on southern Datong Road on the first day, and he changed place to former Lianbang Community in Louchou
the second day, the third day was in Louchou too, the fourth day was forgotten,
and the fifth day was beside the current stall, which was finally fixed after
1975.
|
|
Business men would
send hearts of cabbages home in the early morning, and pickle stall owner’ wife
began to tidy them up, and then make them into products. The boss would come
back to go on with unfinished ones. He wouldn’t take a break until finished all
of them. Hearts of cabbages were able to be sold after one day’s pickle, but
carrots required more than one day. Cooking peanuts in summer was the toughest,
neither in winter. The boss insisted his cooking would be better, but he would
still buy some finished ones to sell, in order to satisfy customers of
different tastes. He had been researching and inventing new flavors right now,
because the young men were very picky nowadays.
An old grandma,
living in Sanchong, would buy each category of products every time she came, 7
or 8 catty, once 12 catty a time. She continued to pickle them after back, and
send them to others when they remained one quarter’s size. The boss thought
that it’s happier making pickle than doing business, especially when you had
forgotten to put salt. Customers weren’t able to find out after eating and he
could still sell out, which was the happiest. Owing to have forgotten to put
salt, all things were unsold, if so, that would be unhappy. Business was hard
to tell. The boss would prepare a little more, for the sake of shortage, only
to have a large quantity of them remained as a result. The red beans would be
stewed for more than 4 hours. Because he didn’t put condiments, they looked
like light red and close to brown, but they tasted fairly flexible. With
condiments, red beans would be prepared for only half an hour, which looked
fresher. Therefore, there had once been a customer, moved to Penghu,
would do buy his hearts of cabbages and red beans, as he came back to Luchou.
For he said that the boss’ red beans were exactly different from others’.
The pickle stall
owner had a very good temper. Once he had already closed the stall, when a
customer came and asked to have a try on peanuts, asking for more after
satisfied. Then the boss opened another pack to let him try and he asked how
much a catty. With the boss having told him the price, he even had a few more,
saying that “these peanuts were savory and crisp”, and drove off then. Once
again, a grandma bought a bottle of fermented bean curd priced NT$100, and paid
NT$500 for it. Later, she insisted it’s NT$2000. The boss told her that he
hadn’t received NT$1,000 that day. She came to mind that “ah, I misremembered.”
The most important
things of this business were “quality” and “hygiene”. He used to smoke but
quitted for the sake of hygiene. Good taste had him a pride, which was also the
biggest achievement. He felt guilty that he had no way to stay with his family
on holidays, when business was fairly better. Lots of small works used to buy
his goods, but they were moved to Mainland China right now, affecting the
business more or less. The boss thought customers were used to be good at
bargaining, but they paid more attention to quality now. They wouldn’t care much
about the price, only if things were good-quality and hygienic. He seldom
raised the price, although inflation of prices was going up.
Tough as it was
though, the boss decided this business. Firstly, you should have a place, and
secondly, you should do it with your wife, without which, you were unable to
manage. He was so skilled, that he seemed that he could take the right
quantity, no matter how much you want. Actually, his secret was “adding more if
less, and giving for free if more”. It didn’t matter to give more, but not good
taking it back. In order to multiply its categories and reduce cost, the boss
bought some categories from others’, since they have lower cost by mass
production.
|
