The vendor was even more surprised than Xia Xiaolan:
“You even know about cold weather gear?”
In later years, everyone would know about cold weather gear. But it truly became popular in the late 1980s, with thick nylon fabric as the outer layer that could prevent water droplets and wind penetration. It prioritized weather protection before warmth, with insulation and membrane materials along with warming polyester… It was completely different from cotton clothing.
Light and warm, the nylon fabric could be dyed in various bright colors.
Xia Xiaolan touched the light and fluffy cold weather gear, hesitating slightly.
Liu Fen secretly pinched it, feeling that the filling didn’t seem like cotton, and the outer material was slippery, unlike cotton fabric. What kind of coat was this? Were they trying to cheat Xiaolan?
“Xiaolan—”
Liu Fen raised her voice. Though timid, her worry about Xia Xiaolan being cheated overcame her timidity – this was maternal strength.
“Mom, let me look more carefully.”
If cold weather gear was available, could down jackets be around too?
“Do you have down jackets? Can you get them?”
The vendor thought for a moment, “You mean duck-down jackets? I have those if you want them.”
Duck-down jackets were just emerging. They had existed before but were worn by mountain climbers, called “climbing suits.” Ordinary people couldn’t afford them and didn’t know where to buy them. Only in recent years, as the economy improved and people could afford them, did clothing factories start producing them – called duck-down jackets, though the technology wasn’t mature enough to use pure down as filling, so they used duck feathers instead.
The vendor wasn’t worried about Xia Xiaolan finding them expensive. Duck-down jackets were new items, but their wholesale price was less than wool coats!
If Xia Xiaolan could sell wool coats, taking more than ten pieces at once, she could handle these.
Wool coats were the most expensive items. Xia Xiaolan’s goods matched department store quality but sold for slightly less. Her fashionable styles were so popular that even Shangdu’s tailors secretly copied the patterns.
The vendor couldn’t leave his stall, so he asked a friend to help. After an hour, he brought Xia Xiaolan duck down jacket samples.
These felt different from the cold weather gear. Xia Xiaolan could feel individual feather quills, and there was a faint duck feather smell when held close to her nose – 1983’s down jackets.
The wholesale prices: cold weather gear was 22 yuan for men’s and 20 yuan for women’s styles, with unlimited colors and styles.
Duck-down jackets were 6 yuan more expensive: 28 yuan for men’s and 26 yuan for women’s styles.
A duck-down jacket’s wholesale price was only half that of a wool coat… Xia Xiaolan was tempted to invest all her remaining money in cold weather gear and down jackets. But no, these were all short styles, far cheaper than cotton coats or military coats.
Would anyone buy them back in Shangdu?
Shangdu women might prefer wool coats over warmer down jackets. Expensive things were prestigious and well-known, and they weren’t as bulky as cold weather gear and down jackets.
The style of young girls wearing thin undershirts with knee-length or ankle-length down jackets wasn’t popular yet.
Xia Xiaolan suddenly looked up, “Do your clothing factories produce knee-length duck-down jackets and cotton coats?”
The vendor eyed her warily, wondering if she was trying to bypass him and order directly from the factory.
Then he relaxed – factories wouldn’t even start their machines without hundreds of pieces ordered.
“You’re doing retail. How much stock could you take? You can only choose from these styles.”
For orders of several dozen pieces, custom styles weren’t possible. Factories needed to draft designs, make patterns, source materials… With all this effort, they wouldn’t even look at orders under 1,000 pieces per style.
Never mind, she couldn’t afford such an investment.
Although Xia Xiaolan was confident she could negotiate a down payment arrangement, even bypassing wholesalers to get factory prices directly, 500 pieces would cost over 10,000 yuan, and 1,000 pieces would be 20,000.
Even if she and Liu Yong scraped together all their savings, they probably couldn’t gather 10,000 yuan.
Her uncle would be lucky just to break even on this business venture… Don’t rush, don’t rush, Xia Xiaolan told herself to stay calm. Rushing leads to mistakes, and there would be many opportunities to make money. Risking everything wasn’t worth it.
She was in this for the long term, not playing poker!
“Do you still want the cold weather gear and duck-down jackets?”
“Yes, 20 pieces of cold weather gear and 20 pieces of duck-down jackets…”
This time Xia Xiaolan took both women’s and men’s styles. The vendor, having just sold over a thousand yuan of goods, was in a good mood and pulled out his hidden stock from the duck down jacket bag: “I also have sheepskin vests – want some?”
The vendor was conducting business like a comedy routine, revealing one surprise after another.
Xia Xiaolan didn’t even bother asking the wholesale price: “I’ll take 5 pieces!”
If they didn’t sell, her family could wear them – there were exactly five adults… Wait, something wasn’t right.
Five people including Zhou Cheng.
Xia Xiaolan had now bought from the same stall three times, so she asked for the vendor’s address and phone number. His name was Chen Xiliang. The name sounded familiar.
Xia Xiaolan didn’t think much about it. Chen Xiliang must have made good money in clothing wholesale since his home had a landline. Xia Xiaolan figured that for restocking, she wouldn’t need to travel to Yang City especially. Though there wasn’t express delivery in 1983, they could use train freight.
Xia Xiaolan had spent nearly 4,000 yuan on goods this time, leaving barely a thousand yuan of capital, which might not be enough for renting and basic renovation of the shop. She hoped these clothes would sell quickly back home to recover the investment.
When she and Liu Fen returned to Shangdu, tired from their journey, Liu Yong hadn’t disappointed Xia Xiaolan.
After wandering around Shangdu for two days, he had preliminarily selected two store locations.
Liu Fen and Li Fengmei rushed to iron and organize the new stock. Li Fengmei had never seen such modern “cotton clothing” either, but she trusted Xia Xiaolan: “If Xiaolan says they’ll sell, you’re worrying for nothing. By the way, I salt-preserved the meat and spareribs I brought from the village, and there are two pig’s feet. Don’t know what’s so good about them, but that girl Xiaolan likes them, so I’m saving them for her!”
Pig’s feet were troublesome to prepare. You had to burn off the hair with fire, soak it in water, carefully scrape off the blackened skin with a knife, and then slow-cook the large chunks with soaked beans… Eating a bowl in winter brought such happiness.
Though Xia Xiaolan’s cooking skills were average, she was quite good at this dish. In her previous life, after starting work, she had a single room with no kitchen, just a small stove for boiling water. She bought a clay pot to cook in, and mostly made stewed pig’s feet with yellow beans, naturally becoming skilled at it.
Liu Fen doted on her daughter – whatever Xia Xiaolan said went, even though she thought pork knuckles tasted better than pig’s feet.
While Li Fengmei and Liu Fen chatted as they worked, Xia Xiaolan went with Liu Yong to look at shops.
One was at “February 7th Square,” just dozens of meters from Shangdu’s landmark February 7th Tower.
The other shop was on West First Street. West First and Second Streets were Shangdu’s earliest clothing streets, with some clothing shops already open, though they sold cheap clothes, following a low-price strategy.
All shops were state-owned now. Wherever Xia Xiaolan wanted to open her shop, she needed to find the property’s owning unit to rent it – private individuals couldn’t own shops unless they were illegally converted street-facing residential houses.
The two shops Liu Yong had looked at weren’t converted residential properties; they both belonged to state-owned factories.