Having just moved in for two days, William could already name the neighbors on his floor, and he recognized faces throughout the entire family building.
He accepted Whitaker Scarlett’s request and headed in that direction, giving away a dozen packs of “Colorful Butterflies,” which really helped him connect with a deputy factory director at National Cotton Factory No. 3—well, the deputy factory director was hard to meet, but William did meet the old lady at the deputy factory director’s home.
The old lady didn’t get along well with her daughter-in-law, so she lived alone with her husband.
The deputy factory director was a filial son, but he was extremely busy with work and didn’t have much time to care for his elderly parents. For instance, recently, the old man had hurt his leg, and the deputy factory director could only find a relative from the countryside to take care of his father. At this time, William stepped in, voluntarily helping out, taking care of the old man without complaint, and fixing up the not-so-functional furniture in their home.
The old man wanted to eat “Alice’s Curry Noodles” on Barway Road, which was a must-pass route for the thousands of workers at National Cotton Factory No. 5. Cotton spinning factory workers didn’t have water heaters at home; they had to go to the factory’s bathhouse to take a shower, bringing a pot or basin to leave their things at Alice’s, and by the time they finished bathing and returned, they might not even have a spot in line… The business was that good; the workers at the cotton factory had to go to work, and William had no job, so every day as soon as Alice’s opened, he was waiting at their door.
When he brought back the curry noodles, they were still steaming hot; how could the two elderly people at the deputy factory director’s house not like him?
The relative helping out at the deputy factory director’s house was almost in tears; if William kept this up, he would surely take her job!
While William was busy currying favor, Whitaker Scarlett was actively promoting her winter coats and duck down jackets.
This time it wasn’t so smooth; when she took the clothes out to sell, the weather happened to warm up, with sunny days every day, not cold enough to wear cotton clothes. She could sell woolen coats, and bell-bottom pants were also selling, even the leather shoes she had brought back to set up her stall were sold out, but no one was inquiring about the winter coats and duck down jackets.
“The colors are quite beautiful, but they’re expensive!”
One female customer commented like this; you don’t find a hundred dollars woolen coat too expensive, but you think the winter coat and duck down jacket priced in the tens is too much?
Looking at the bright sun in the sky, Whitaker Scarlett was also quite worried.
Was it cold in the capital?
Never mind, she packed up a vest made of sheep wool and another men’s duck down jacket she had bought, and sent them to Kay.
The weather in Harborfield was playing tricks on Whitaker Scarlett. It had clearly started to cool down, otherwise, how could woolen coats be selling so well?
In the blink of an eye, several days of sunny weather had passed. The two types of clothing, cold-resistant jackets and duck down jackets, didn’t show their special qualities until there was a significant drop in temperature. The colors were quite bright, but when asked about the price, the cold-resistant jackets were 45 dollars, and the duck down jackets were 55 dollars, causing customers to drop them immediately.
“This jacket is too expensive!”
Jacket?
Whitaker Scarlett had to explain carefully to the customers, but most of them were just there to watch the excitement, and not a single one made a purchase.
Fortunately, Whitaker Scarlett had also brought in other clothes, which were gradually selling, bringing her total earnings to over 5,300 dollars. Adding the leftover stock from before, she had a little over 6,500 dollars in total. She had made a trip to Sablewick and brought back nearly 4,000 dollars worth of goods, yet she hadn’t even made double the profit… The cold-resistant jackets and duck down jackets had cost her over 1,000 dollars in total; if they sold smoothly, she should be able to gather around 2,500 dollars more.
The total capital was not even 10,000 dollars. Could she successfully support a storefront?
To fill three storefronts and make a name for herself in Harborfield , she would need at least two to three hundred pieces of clothing.
The goods she had were not cheap; whether it was the woolen coats averaging over 50 dollars or the cold-resistant and duck down jackets around 25 dollars, 200 pieces would likely cost seven to eight thousand dollars. Adding sweaters and pants to ensure the walls of the three storefronts weren’t bare, with dozens of sweaters and dozens of pants, would add another 2,000 dollars or so!
