Chapter 52 (1/2)
Chapter 52
Chapter 52 – The smell of cotton from the street stalls
“h.e.l.lo. I’m Jirou, and I’m starting a store here from today on. Please take care of me.” [Jirou]
Early in the morning, I greeted both of my neighbouring shopkeepers who were preparing their own stores for the day, and opened my first store in the other world (not that I ever had a store in j.a.pan either).
Right now it was still only my first store, but I had an endless stock of things to sell, so I thought of opening a second or third store depending on the circ.u.mstances. Well, there was a limit to the profit that could be made from a street stall, so if I really wanted to make money, I shouldn’t be wasting my time on this (since wholesale stores were definitely more profitable), but there was something alluring about having my own store.
It was a bit of an exaggeration to call it a store, as it was really just a simple stall in the corner of the market, with products lined up on a tablecloth-covered table. The table and things were prepared by Rebecca-san, who was here keeping me company again today because she was worried about me.
Having a shop a.s.sistant in a stall was such a rare experience that it made my heart dance in excitement. It felt like I was at a festival, or rather managing a festival…
If I were to compare it to a school festival, would it be something like a cla.s.s stall? At any rate, I was just reselling what I bought in j.a.pan.
The products that were lined up in the market were purchased from j.a.pan just yesterday. The goods placed in the online auctions had also been steadily receiving bids, which made me dare to stock up a little more.
I only bought more low profit items, rather than the highly profitable wool that sold at the flea market.
–Since my current funds were very low, I thought perhaps it would have been better to bring something that would reap a huge profit at once, even if it would be a little risky.
However, that would probably stood out too much – in a bad way. Even the amateur knife I made earned me ten gold coins, so if I had brought something worth serious money from j.a.pan, 1000 gold coins in a month wouldn’t be impossible. But continuously bringing products from j.a.pan that might reap such huge profits would have been dangerous, and perhaps put me at a high risk of catching people’s eyes.
It would be an unusual sight to other people if they were to see a young man selling never before seen items at a bargain, with an elf in tow. In the first place, just having an elf companion made me stand out from the crowd. (However, it was a relief that no one realised Diana was a slave due to the tattoo covering the slave mark.) I didn’t want to catch any more weird attention than I was already receiving.
That was the reason why those kinds of huge dealings should only be done after I get acquainted with some trustworthily rich people.
There was absolutely no need to rush down the path to wealth, as I already have more than half of what I wanted anyway.
So that’s why, for the market, I focused only on merchandise that would bring a decent amount of profit without bringing needlessly unwanted negative attention.
If you are reading this on any other place than rinkagetranslation.com, this chapter has been stolen and is neither the most recent or complete chapter.
The story goes back to yesterday.
In high spirits about opening a stall at the flea market, I was arranging the yarn that I had bought in bulk at the 100 yen shop a couple of days ago. As they were sold out in an instant the last time, and it was easy to lie about the origins of these kind of materials, I had stocked up on them while thinking, “This seem to be a product that would sell easily.”
Although I use the general term “yarn,&r
dquo; they actually come in different kinds, from 100 percent wool to acrylic, and even types that technically couldn’t be called yarn. That was why I had thought of opening a stall that dealt in all kinds of yarns in the market. Even so, I had only purchased 100 percent wool yarn from the 100 yen shop this time.
I decided to price the yarn at 30 El (approximately 4500 yen) for one ball. The acrylic ones had been sold for 10 El each the last time, so I was a little bold this time. If all 50 b.a.l.l.s were to be sold, that would equal 225,000 yen. It would be considered an exceptional profit if I could earn that much in just one day (not to mention, I was also selling it in a market).
Fuhahaha!
At that moment, I wondered what would happen once I began operating my stall in the market. The yield might be so lucrative that it would be frightening.
Nevertheless, once I started selling them, I realized that the result wasn’t what I had initially expected. The yarn didn’t seem to sell that easily.
Actually, the yarn did sell, but they weren’t exactly selling like hotcakes. Occasionally, there would be wealthy-looking ladies buying three or four of them while commenting that the yarns were cheap, but that was just about it.
Seeing as there were customers that commented that the yarn was cheap, I knew they weren’t priced too high. I wasn’t sure where the problem lay. The previous time, all the yarns were purchased by the first lady that came…
Ah, I see. I soon realized the root of the problem. It was simply because there wasn’t a high demand for this item. Yarns are not a daily necessity, and even if the price is cheap, the item would be of no use to my customers if they could not knit. But for those who do knit, cheap yarn definitely interest them. That’s all there is to it.
Nevertheless, the result was as planned since I had still made a profit. The customers who bought the yarn were mainly wealthy-looking ladies, so if I retain them as customers, they should purchase from me regularly.
If I was able to nurture my relations.h.i.+p with my customers, earning their loyalty, I would say that the start of my business in Erishe was on the right track.
Loyal customers could be considered “fans” in a good way, or to put it harshly, “devotees.”
They would keep coming back for more on a regular basis and recommending us to other people in the area. It is highly unlikely that they would change to another supplier.
To reach that point, customers would usually go through these stages:
Possible Customer → Customer → Repeat Customer → Loyal Customer
Once you retain people as loyal customers, it will not only help maintain stable sales, but also give other potential customers a favourable impression of the stall, too.
It’s my goal to achieve 1000 customers with j.a.panese-style customer service!
At around midday, I tried enquiring the woman who bought eight b.a.l.l.s of yarn about the actual demands for this item.
Apparently, the skill of knitting itself is fundamentally taught orally by mothers to their children. The number of people who possess this skill is also lesser than in the past (Though the number of people with the knowledge is scarce, it appears there are still people who know how to do so due to the selected few who acquire this as vocation). Additionally, it seems that the price of knitting materials such as yarn had increased.
Even though she was happy that my yarn was cheap, I was told by the woman, albeit politely, that the quality was slightly inferior. It seemed that they would be fine for everyday usage, but wouldn’t be suitable to be presented as a gift to someone.
Un… Un?
…I didn’t know that they were cheap in that sense. Even though they were purchased from 100 yen shop, I hadn’t expected that the quality would be that bad. In other words, they were “cheap” in terms of quality…
Rather, if I could even sell this quality of yarn at 4500 yen each, how much would the high-quality yarn in this world sell at?
When I asked the woman, I was told that it would be around 150 El each.
22,500 Yen! For just one ball of yarn!
One might need at least four b.a.l.l.s of yarn just to knit a m.u.f.fler. That is to say, just a single m.u.f.fler would cost a little less than 100,000 yen. That sudden jump in price is no small amount!
Hmm. I guess there is a need to improvise the plan if there is a high supply of high-end yarn…
Frankly, I wanted to rake in the cash as soon as I could, but I didn’t want to attract attention by being too profitable.
Would it be safe to gain the profit this way? I suppose the scenario was likened to a young foreigner selling vicuña’s wool that he had acquired from somewhere on the roadside in j.a.pan.(2)
That wouldn’t do.
I don’t want to stand out too much, if possible. Even selling the b.a.l.l.s of yarn at 4500 yen each was already unreasonable, so I didn’t want to go overboard…
For example, if I were to bring high quality yarn over from j.a.pan and sell all 50 of them at 100 El each here, I would be earning a total of 5 gold coins. That would be equivalent to earning 750,000 yen in just a single day. If that were to be the case, it wouldn’t be strange even if I were to end up being mugged. At the moment, I don’t have the means to defend myself against robbers. It would be different if I were in an area where military police were around, but it would be bad if I were attacked on my way back to the mansion.
I had previously decided not to sell papers, so as to avoid drawing too much attention to myself since they were so profitable, if I sell other items that would yield similar amounts of profit instead, it would have contradicted my initial aim.
—So, after encountering such circ.u.mstances yesterday, I decided to open up a “sewing supplies and accessories” stall in the market, selling relatively cheap sewing and embroidery threads, cotton and linen yarn, and b.u.t.tons. I displayed a few handicraft items, too.
After I had done the research on the prices of each item, I priced all of them at 70% of the market price, except for the wool yarn. The price I chose on the yarn was only slightly cheaper than the market price, and I displayed only a few of them at a time, so as to appear that I was carrying only a limited quant.i.ty of the yarn. However, the yarn was of high quality this time. This was so I could identify and sell them to only potentially good customers.