This time, Whitaker Scarlett not only took women’s styles but also men’s styles. The stall owner instantly sold over a thousand pieces, feeling good, and took out the last of his stock from the bag containing the duck down jackets: “I also have some sheepskin vests—do you want to take some?”
This person was doing wholesale like telling a comedic story, revealing one punchline after another.
Whitaker Scarlett couldn’t even be bothered to ask the wholesale price: “I’ll take 5 pieces!”
If they don’t sell, she can keep them for her family to wear; there are exactly five adults in her family… Wait, something seems off.
Five people plus Kay.
…
Whitaker Scarlett had already sourced goods from the same stall three times. She had asked for the boss’s address and phone number; the boss’s name was Callan Briggs. This name seemed familiar.
Whitaker Scarlett didn’t think much of it. Callan Briggs must have made money in clothing wholesale since he had a landline at home. Whitaker Scarlett was considering that sometimes just restocking didn’t require her to make a special trip to Sablewick; in 1983, there was no express delivery, but she could arrange for train shipping.
This time, Whitaker Scarlett took nearly 4,000 dollars worth of goods, leaving her with just about 1,000 dollars in capital. She didn’t know if that money would be enough to smoothly secure a shop and do some simple renovations. She hoped this batch of clothes would sell quickly after returning, so she could recoup her investment as soon as possible.
She and Elizabeth hurried back to the commercial city, and William didn’t let Whitaker Scarlett down.
William had wandered around the commercial city for two days and had already preliminarily selected two shops.
Elizabeth and Amanda hurriedly ironed and organized the goods they had just taken. Amanda had never seen such new-style “cotton clothing,” but she trusted Whitaker Scarlett quite a bit: “If Scarlett says it can sell, you’re just worrying for nothing. By the way, I brought some meat and pork ribs from the village, salted them, and there are also two pig’s feet. I don’t know what’s good about that, but Scarlett likes it, so I saved them for her!”
Preparing pig’s feet is quite troublesome; you have to burn off the hair on the skin with fire, soak them in water, and use a small knife to scrape off the blackened skin bit by bit, chopping them into large pieces to simmer slowly with soaked beans… Eating a bowl of that in winter makes one feel so happy.
Whitaker Scarlett’s cooking skills were average, but she was quite good at this dish. After working in her previous life, her conditions improved a bit, and she had a single room to live in. When it came to cooking, there was no kitchen, just a small stove to heat water. Whitaker Scarlett bought a clay pot to stew food, and she often made yellow soybean and pig’s foot stew, naturally honing her skills.
Elizabeth was a doting mother; whatever Whitaker Scarlett said was what it was, even though she also thought pig’s feet weren’t as tasty as big pork knuckles.
Amanda and Elizabeth chatted while working, but Whitaker Scarlett went with William to look at the shops.
One was on “Pinnacle Square,” just a few dozen meters away from the landmark building of the commercial city, the Pinnacle Tower.
The other shop was on West First Street. West First and West Second Streets were the earliest clothing streets in the commercial city, and there were already clothing stores open, but the clothes sold were very cheap, following a low-price route.
Currently, the shops were all state-owned. No matter where Whitaker Scarlett wanted to open a store, she had to find the owning units of the shops to rent the space—private individuals couldn’t hold onto shops unless they were illegally converted residential houses along the street.
William looked at the two shops, neither of which belonged to illegally converted residential houses; they were both state-owned large factories.
Whitaker Scarlett had her eye on a shop at Pinnacle Square, right in the city center of Harborfield , which would remain the largest commercial area for a long time to come.
It was a small building with three storefronts, an asset of the National Cotton Factory No. 3 in Harborfield … Whitaker Scarlett felt a toothache; the National Cotton Factory No. 3 was the unit of Parker Jace’s mother!
Harborfield had six national cotton factories, and the textile industry was a pillar industry in Harborfield in 1983. “A cotton spinning road is half the history of Harborfield ,” and the six national cotton factories employed tens of thousands of workers! With the textile industry thriving, the clothing industry flourished alongside it, with countless clothing factories of all sizes in Harborfield . Whitaker Scarlett went to Sablewick to wholesale clothes, seeking novelty from afar because the local clothing industry in Harborfield was fiercely competitive, requiring fresh styles to succeed.
The most profitable of the six national cotton factories was National Cotton Factory No. 3.
The three small buildings that William and Whitaker Scarlett were most satisfied with were indeed the assets of National Cotton Factory No. 3.
Currently, National Cotton Factory No. 3 was doing well, and a small building in the city center was just sitting there, truly extravagant.
