When Callan Briggs saw her, he waved from a distance, “New goods, new goods!”
Scarlett squeezed into his stall. Compared to other stalls with very cheap wholesale prices, Callan Briggs’s business didn’t seem as good. It was quite difficult to choose to wholesale mid to high-end clothing in the early 1980s. Callan Briggs’s total wholesale volume wasn’t as high as others, but he might not earn less; while others might only make a profit of one or two dollars per item, the wholesale price of a sweater at Callan Briggs’s stall exceeded ten dollars, meaning selling one was equivalent to selling three for others. Not to mention his outrageously expensive high-end woolen coats, which naturally earned even more!
“You’ve delayed a bit this time.”
Callan Briggs thought, wouldn’t the winter clothing and duck down jackets he was supposed to take back be stuck with him?
Even so, he couldn’t possibly give Scarlett a refund; she was beautiful, but not every man in the world loved beauty. Boss Chen thought “Unity” looked better.
Scarlett also noticed his single-mindedness in making money, “Where’s the new stock?”
She didn’t want to tell him the sales figures for the winter clothing and duck down jackets.
Callan Briggs pointed to a coat hanging behind him: “Are you brave enough to sell this?!”
Behind Callan Briggs hung a black double-breasted uniform coat, a men’s style!
No wonder Callan Briggs was trying to provoke her; Scarlett usually dealt in women’s clothing and had only taken a few men’s winter clothing and duck down jackets last time. A men’s double-breasted uniform coat?
At that time, men’s formal wear was generally loose and oversized suits, with wide pant legs, broad shoulders, and long sleeves… Scarlett could imagine how striking such a coat would look on a tall man, like Kay, who would definitely catch people’s eyes. The men in the commercial capital weren’t short either, and Scarlett believed she could sell this type of men’s wool coat.
“What’s wrong? Is this coat hard to sell?”
Callan Briggs’s eyes flickered, “You have no idea how sought after it is; I saved it for you because you’re a regular customer.”
Scarlett didn’t believe a word; she was hardly a regular customer, having only taken stock three times.
“Tell me your wholesale price; if it’s cheap, I can help you sell a few.”
Callan Briggs felt deflated; was she really that hard to fool?
He gritted his teeth, “…At least 80 dollars each; this is cashmere fabric!”
Scarlett instinctively countered, “It’s called cashmere.”
Cashmere, a rare specialty animal fiber, is a precious textile material, internationally known as “the diamond of fibers” or “soft gold.” The Kashmir region in America was once a hub for cashmere exports to Europe, and internationally, cashmere is commonly referred to as “Kashmir.”
But could a genuine cashmere coat really have a wholesale price of only 80 dollars?
Scarlett didn’t even need to touch it; the dim lighting meant she didn’t have to lean in for a closer look to know that Callan Briggs was lying. In 1983, cashmere fabric would not be sold domestically; even if there were a few cashmere products, they would only appear in high-end foreign-related places like Friendship Stores in the capital or the Vanguard Hotel in Zoriville… basically, products prepared for foreigners staying in America. Even with a stack of “Unity” currency, one couldn’t buy them; foreign exchange coupons were required.
In the 1980s, cashmere was a foreign exchange-generating commodity. Enterprises that could produce cashmere were all aiming for export, selling cashmere to earn foreign currency. “Unity” was not an internationally recognized settlement currency; to import various equipment, the country needed foreign exchange, and enterprises needed it too!
Take 1983 as an example; the export price of a cashmere sweater was around 25 US dollars. How much fabric would a cashmere coat require?
The diameter of a human hair is about 75 microns, while cashmere’s diameter is generally 15-17 microns. To weave this fine cashmere into fabric requires a high level of skill in the “dehairing” process. America only developed its own cashmere dehairing machines in 1965; before that, cashmere raw materials were directly exported, as there was no technology for deep processing.
In the early 1980s, more advanced dehairing equipment from Canada was introduced, and the export of American cashmere products entered a period of rapid increase. One could say that 1983 was a time when domestic cashmere enterprises were busy generating foreign exchange; how could there be many cashmere coats for sale in the wholesale market of Sablewick ?
Why did Scarlett know all this so clearly? In her previous life, after graduating from university, she worked as a salesperson, but not selling appliances or anything like that; she sold large equipment… For a while, she even sold dehairing machines, and they were domestically produced. Loving her work, she had to understand the history of the relevant industry from start to finish to sell the machines!
Her memory had surprisingly improved so much; she still remembered the information she had memorized many years ago, and it was no wonder she could recall the math exam paper from 1984. Relying on her good memory, she confidently crushed the deceitful businessman Callan Briggs:
