Chapter 552 - Chapter 552: Chapter 539: No Business to Do (1/2)
Chapter 552: Chapter 539: No Business to Do
“Uncle Yutian, Aunt Meng, are you facing some difficulties?”
Since she noticed, Zhuang Yutian saw no point in concealing it anymore. He sighed, and said, “Miss Ning is sharp and observant. We really can’t hide anything from her.”
“Do you notice anything wrong with the shop?”
Zhuang Qingning looked up and examined the shop thoroughly from top to bottom, then hummed in surprise, “The shop seems to be understocked?”
Many of the shelves were bare with no sign of fabric. To say that the shop was understocked was a kind way of putting it. It would be more accurate to describe the shop as barren.
“Right, you noticed it too.” Zhuang Yutian said. “When people come in, they all say that business must be good here, seeing how quickly we sell out. Even our new goods can’t replenish the inventory quickly enough. But only we know that it’s not that we’re doing good business, but rather we have no business to do.”
“No business to do?” Zhuang Qingning seemed more surprised. “What do you mean? Why can’t you do business?”
“It’s a long story…”
Mrs. Meng handed Zhuang Qingning a hot cup of tea and began to explain the situation in detail.
“Since winter began, it’s usually the peak selling season for fabrics. All the cloth shops in the county town look forward to doing good business in winter to carry them through the new year. Therefore, they all started stockpiling goods in autumn to use them in winter.”
“But at the end of last autumn, when we started placing orders, many types of fabrics were no longer available. The quantity was also insufficient. The suppliers said that due to less rainfall last autumn, river transport was not smooth, making it impossible for the cloth from Jiangsu-Zhejiang and Hubei-Hunan to get here. Thus, goods were scarce during this period. We didn’t take it too seriously at first thinking it wouldn’t hurt to order later.”
“But as it got colder, fabric supplies dwindled even more. The orders that were supposed to be filled could not be completed. After much pleading, we barely managed to get some, which was simply not enough for large-scale use. Due to the lack of fabric, we could only watch as business opportunities slipped away before the new year. A lot of agreed-upon transactions had to be cancelled, and we not only lost face but also had to pay some silver as compensation.”
“Since the promised goods couldn’t be delivered, naturally we couldn’t let it go. Your Uncle Yutian went to demand an explanation. The other party was straightforward, refunding the initial deposit and adding twice the amount as compensation. However, we had been doing business for years and the original deposit was small. Even doubling it was not a substantial amount, barely enough to compensate the customers.”
“Since our shop had no goods, we had to find ways to procure more. But with the year ending, all the cloth shops are doing well. Even they do not have enough fabric to sell, so naturally they won’t sell to us at a price lower than what they charge customers. But if we were to buy at the customers’ prices, we would be running at a loss. It’s better not to do it.”