1430 Money Offensive (1/2)

The mode of transmission of Mad Cow Disease, also known as Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, starts from a diseased cow. Any meal which contained bones or diseased cattle organs carried the risk of passing on the disease. If the cattle feed was contaminated, healthy cattle can become infected.

Assuming that there was some kind of dog food that could cause similar problems, a similar transmission pathway would be through a sick dog. A previously healthy dog would've become sick, or at least a specific organ system of the dog. Thus, people assume that the dog ate contaminated food.

In developed western countries, the transmission route had come to a stop at this point.

But in some other countries, the route of transmission has not stopped here.

Most Chinese people didn't eat dog meat, but there were a few people who enjoyed it.

Stray dogs, although not necessarily always from birth, are stray dogs. They may have had owners that loved them at some point but were abandoned by their owners later on due to certain extenuating circumstances. Before they were abandoned, they might also have enjoyed the dog food fed to them by their owners every day. It might have been the domestic dog food that Zhang Zian fed the stray dogs every day, or it may have been the dog food promoted by Qi Tong. Any kind of dog food was a possibility.

Of course, this thought had flashed through Zhang Zian's mind because he had been to the waste purchase station and saw the filthy environment there for himself. It was filled to the brim with flies, mosquitoes, mice, cockroaches, fleas, and arthropods... In that sort of environment, it wouldn't be surprising if you left the place with the strangest diseases.

In the past, news broke out that a high-tech security unit had an accident or made a mistake in transporting a batch of sealed drums containing radioactive elements. In short, several sealed drums had been misplaced. Several villagers found and picked them, thinking they were somewhat sacred because they didn't recognize them. Since they had neither common sense nor much of formal education, they did not know that the brightly colored labels on the sealed were warning signs of radioactive elements. There was nothing sacred or good in them. When they went home, they broke the drums open. As a result, the whole family got sick and died.

Similarly, the people in the waste purchase station were also uneducated. They might also have been affected by the same radioactive material or some other strange diseases. When it came to bags of dog food with an ambiguous ingredient list, immediately suspecting the issue to be the dog produce or meat was a source of serious mockery for them. Since this assumption was not based on actual scientific evidence, it was best left to the professionals to carry out a professional diagnosis.

However, Zhang Zian didn't want to accept that the dog food origins were ambiguous. If there was any problem, it would affect the reputation of the store. Moreover, he was disgusted with Qi Tong's behavior of buying competitors' staff to gain a slight advantage.

Seeing Zhang Zian's refusal, Qi Tong didn't give up immediately. He knew that the quantity of dog food purchased in this shop was too large. He didn't care what the dog food was used for, but he could not lose out on such a major business opportunity.

”Brother, don't rush to a decision so soon. At least listen to the price before you decide!” Qi Tong pushed the dog food back to him.

”All right then, how much does it cost?”

They looked at each other with a smile. Zhang Zian asked as a matter of routine when he could not avoid people whom he had bumped into and could not run from.

The price caught him off guard. Since this was imported dog food, it couldn't have been cheaper than domestic dog food in any way.

”For example, this bag is 2.5 pounds, which is about 1 kilogram. The suggested retail price is 69.99 yuan.” Qi Tong said.

Zhang Zian frowned. The price was very cheap, especially because it was imported. Since the tariff was only about USD$10, it should have been cheaper in the United States... However, this may have been done to seize the market, beat the competition, start an early price war. If there were customers who did not have much money but wanted to buy imported dog food, they should've been easy to sell to.

But this was still way over his budget because most of his dog food was meant to be fed to stray dogs. The stated price was still too expensive compared with domestic dog food.