The boss was even more surprised than Whitaker Scarlett:
“You know about cold-weather clothing?”
Who in the later generations doesn’t know about cold-weather clothing? But it really became popular in the late 1980s, with thick nylon fabric as the outer layer, preventing water droplets and wind from penetrating. First, it talks about cold protection, then warmth, insulation, and thin film materials, and the warmth of polyester… It is completely different from cotton clothing.
Lightweight and warm, nylon fabric can also be dyed in various bright colors.
Whitaker Scarlett hesitated as she touched the lightweight, fluffy cold-weather clothing.
Elizabeth secretly pinched it and felt that what was inside didn’t seem like cotton; the outer material was slippery and not cotton fabric. What kind of jacket is this? Is someone trying to trick Scarlett?
“Scarlett—”
Elizabeth raised her voice. She was timid, but her worry about Whitaker Scarlett being deceived overcame her cowardice; this is the strength of a mother.
“Mom, let me take another look.”
Now that there was cold-weather clothing, would duck-down jackets also be available?
“What about duck down jackets? Can you get those?”
The boss thought for a moment, “You mean duck down jackets, right? We have those too.”
Duck down jackets had just emerged. There were originally such clothes, but they were for mountaineers, all referred to as “mountaineering clothing.” Ordinary people couldn’t afford them and didn’t even know where to buy them. It was only in the past two years that the economy had become slightly more prosperous, allowing some ordinary people to bear the price, so naturally, clothing factories began to produce them—called duck down jackets, but the technology was not mature enough to extract the duck down separately as filling; the jackets were filled with duck feathers.
This person wasn’t afraid that Whitaker Scarlett would think they were expensive; duck down jackets were a novelty, but their wholesale price was even lower than that of woolen coats!
Whitaker Scarlett could sell woolen coats, daring to take more than ten at a time.
Woolen coats were the most expensive. The goods Whitaker Scarlett took were of the same quality as those in department stores but sold slightly cheaper than in stores. Plus, the styles she picked were novel, even the tailors in the commercial city wanted to secretly copy them.
The boss couldn’t leave his stall, so he called a friend for help, and after an hour, he brought Whitaker Scarlett a sample of the duck down jacket.
This had a different texture from the cold-weather clothing. Whitaker Scarlett felt the individual hair shafts of the jacket and could smell a faint duck feather scent when she held it to her nose; it was undoubtedly the duck down jacket from 1983.
When she inquired about the wholesale price, the wholesale price for men’s cold-weather clothing was 22 dollars, and for women’s, it was dollars, with no restrictions on color or style.
The duck down jacket was 6 dollars more expensive, with men’s at 28 dollars and women’s at 26 dollars.
The wholesale price of a duck down jacket was only half that of a woolen coat… Whitaker Scarlett felt an impulse to invest all the remaining money into cold-weather clothing and duck down jackets. But no, these clothes were all short styles, far from being as cheap as cotton jackets or military coats.
Would anyone really buy them back in the commercial city?
Compared to the better-insulated duck down jackets, the women in the commercial city might prefer to wear woolen coats. The expensive style was well-known, and wearing it was not as bulky as cold-weather clothing or duck down jackets.
A young girl wearing a thin base layer inside and a duck down jacket that reached her knees or even her ankles was not a popular dressing style yet.
Whitaker Scarlett suddenly looked up, “Does the clothing factory you source from produce knee-length duck down jackets and cotton jackets?”
The boss looked at her warily; was she trying to bypass him and source directly from the factory?
But then that tension dissipated; without a few hundred pieces in an order, the factory wouldn’t even start the machines for you.
“You are retail; how much can you take? You can only choose from these styles.”
Taking a few dozen pieces, it was indeed impossible to customize styles. The clothing factory needed to draft, create patterns, and source materials… After all that hassle, let alone a few dozen pieces, for a style with a production volume of less than 1000 pieces, the factory wouldn’t even glance at such an order.
Forget it; she couldn’t afford to mess around with that.
Even though Whitaker Scarlett was confident she could negotiate a method of paying a deposit first and then the remaining amount, even bypassing the wholesaler to get goods at factory prices, 500 pieces would cost over ten thousand dollars, and 1000 pieces would require 20,000 dollars
Even if she and William scraped together all their savings, they probably couldn’t come up with 10,000.
Her uncle’s business this time didn’t lose money, which was about it… Don’t rush, don’t rush, Whitaker Scarlett told herself to stay calm. Rushing leads to mistakes; there are many opportunities to make money. Putting all her savings on the line at once was completely unwise.
She was aiming for long-term development, not playing a game of chance!
“Do you still want cold-weather clothing and duck down jackets?”
“Yes, I’ll take 20 pieces of cold-weather clothing and 20 pieces of duck-down jackets…”
