This must be Manager Xia’s strategy.

This had to be Manager Xia’s strategy!

This thought kept surfacing in Old Duan’s mind, and he couldn’t suppress it.

When Manager Xia makes a move, you can immediately tell his expertise.

Soon, Du Zhaohui had people open up the lottery stage.

Many people queuing outside were just there to join the festivities – after all, it was Chinese New Year, and they came to check out this newly opened electronics mall. The building itself was particularly large, though only the main retail area was currently open, with the remaining sections still under construction.

Fortunately, people in the 1980s weren’t too particular about such things.

Having somewhere to shop was good enough.

The plaza was especially spacious, with a large stage initially hidden behind curtains at the roadside – nobody had suspected there was more to it.

When Du Zhaohui had people pull back the curtains, there was a car displayed there.

Next to the car were two motorcycles.

While they didn’t recognize the WenQuXing electronic dictionary, the mountain of packaged Bai Mao laundry detergent was impossible to miss.

A large banner announced “Shopping Lottery.”

It didn’t matter if some couldn’t read – there was an announcer with a microphone explaining everything!

As soon as the news was announced, the entire crowd erupted.

People pushed forward, wanting to hear more clearly. Fortunately, there were security guards from Cheng Rong Plaza and police officers assigned from the local precinct to maintain order.

Originally, most people came just to see what the commotion was about – Cheng Rong Plaza had been advertising constantly, and they didn’t want to miss out on the excitement.

But once they announced this shopping lottery, many people’s minds immediately started working, though they were somewhat skeptical, worried it might be fake or have some catch!

“Can you win prizes?”

“Do you have to spend exactly 100 yuan? Not even 99 yuan works?”

“Will they give away a car if someone wins? Isn’t it suspicious that the plaza would give away a car for free?”

“Well, it’s not free – you have to buy something first…”

These were the questions from ordinary folks.

Meanwhile, the wholesale vendors exchanged knowing glances, their thoughts more cunning.

Only a fool would pass up a good deal.

Whether or not the plaza was running a shopping lottery, they needed to source some goods anyway.

While ordinary people saw the 100-yuan shopping requirement as a threshold, for vendors, it was practically nothing!

Unable to spend 100 yuan on goods?

No, even 1,000 yuan was too little – some people came from out of town, and if they didn’t buy enough in one go, they wouldn’t even cover their travel expenses, let alone make a profit.

The vendors had different concerns from ordinary people:

“You get a lottery ticket for every 100 yuan spent? How many tickets can one person get?”

“So if I spend 1,000 yuan, I get 10 tickets, and 10,000 yuan gets me 100 tickets…”

Some had a calculating gleam in their eyes – if they bought 1,000 yuan worth of goods, could they get the merchant to write a receipt for 2,000 yuan?

The lottery tickets were free money, and so were the prizes.

Plus, they needed to compare prices – perhaps these wholesalers, after moving into this fancy electronics plaza, had raised their wholesale prices. That would make it a losing proposition, and they’d need to source goods from wholesalers outside the electronics plaza instead.

While everyone had different thoughts, they all pressed forward eagerly.

The host on stage tapped the microphone:

“Hello, hello, hello—”

The sound system amplified his voice.

“Everyone, please quiet down and listen to the rules! First, this shopping lottery event is organized by Cheng Rong Plaza. Lottery tickets can only be obtained at the service desk with shopping receipts. This is Cheng Rong Plaza’s opening celebration – we’re not profiting from this. Please keep your lottery tickets safe – damaged or counterfeit tickets are invalid! Second, spending 100 yuan on a single purchase gets you one lottery ticket, 200 yuan gets you two tickets, and so on. For example, if a customer spends 398 yuan, they get three lottery tickets, meaning three chances to win! Of course, getting three tickets for 398 yuan might seem a bit unfair – spend just two more yuan, and you get four chances, right?”

Everyone laughed at the host’s words.

Only a fool would spend 398 yuan – if you’re already spending that much, what’s two more yuan?

But they didn’t realize merchants always had more tricks up their sleeves than customers. Electronics weren’t like meat at the market where you could cut off just a bit more – where would you find something that costs exactly 2 yuan to round up the total?

Planning to spend even 400 yuan would inevitably push you over, turning into 400-something.

Well, in that case, might as well round up again to get five lottery tickets—

Unknowingly, they were already caught in the trap.

Looking back, they had only come to see what the fuss was about, never intending to buy anything.

The host waited for the laughter to die down before adding:

“For our opening day, we’ve prepared 15,000 lottery tickets. All tickets have their results hidden under a scratch-off coating. Until the coating is scratched off, nobody knows which ticket has the ‘First Prize’ printed on it. I’ll emphasize again – there’s only one first prize, which is a car! There are 2-second prizes, each winning a motorcycle! There are 10 third prizes, each winning a WenQuXing electronic dictionary. Everyone knows about cars and motorcycles, but you might not be familiar with electronic dictionaries. For those with school-age children or anyone wanting to learn English, congratulations – this is an English learning dictionary. Input an English word, and it immediately translates it to Chinese and can even pronounce it…”

How’s that for product placement? Not awkward at all?

Ha! There are far more awkward advertisements out there.

Business is business – Xu Jing and Ma Hai not only had to provide free electronic dictionaries as prizes to Cheng Rong Plaza but also had to pay Du Zhaohui for advertising.

Du Zhaohui was no longer the foolish rich kid who randomly gave away cars and houses to female celebrities.

Having sold off all his properties and luxury cars, Young Master Du was going all-in on this business – if he didn’t make money, was he supposed to starve?

Of course, considering Xia Xiaolan’s influence, the so-called advertising fee was just nominal, very small.

More importantly, it was to let Cheng Rong Plaza’s management understand that such rules couldn’t be broken.

Du Zhaohui himself set the example – in the future, if any manager tried to sacrifice Cheng Rong Plaza’s interests to do personal favors, Du Zhaohui would show no mercy!

After forcefully inserting the WenQuXing electronic dictionary promotion, the host brought the topic back:

“Don’t think that with 15,000 lottery tickets, it’s too hard to win the car or motorcycle. It’s all about luck – everyone has a chance to be that lucky winner! Of course, for the plaza’s grand opening celebration, even if you don’t win a first, second, or third prize, there’s still the ‘Lucky Prize’ – winners can claim a bag of Bai Mao laundry detergent with their ticket. Look how many bags of detergent we have here – ten thousand bags! Among the 15,000 lottery tickets, over 66% are winners. Out of every 10 tickets, at least 6 will win a Lucky Prize!”

These odds of winning were quite good.

Someone shouted:

“What if you scratch and don’t win anything?”

The host held the microphone and replied, “If you scratch off the coating and see the words ‘Welcome,’ that means no prize – what else can we do? It just means Cheng Rong Plaza welcomes your visit and hopes you’ll come again.”

Haha, these words made everyone laugh.