Xia Xiaolan truly had no intention of asking Tang Hongen for help.

Favors grow thinner with use. So far, she hadn’t been able to help Tang Hongen at all – it had been entirely one-sided assistance from him. She couldn’t keep shamelessly making requests. Besides, with the most challenging part – securing the storefront – already resolved by Bai Zhenzhu, why would she ask Tang Hongen for help?

Tang Hongen wasn’t Doraemon – he couldn’t simply produce whatever Xia Xiaolan wanted.

Moreover, why should he help with everything and provide constant protection?

Liu Yong had barely mentioned it when Tang Hongen overheard. Neither Xia Xiaolan nor Liu Yong knew anyone here or when Tang Hongen’s meeting would end – they couldn’t have calculated the timing to let him overhear deliberately.

When Tang Hongen asked, Xia Xiaolan explained truthfully:

“Since my uncle is in the renovation business, we’ve noticed several times that renovation materials are particularly hard to buy. Paint sellers aren’t next to tile shops, lighting stores aren’t near furniture shops. To renovate a house, drawing designs is easy, finding workers is easy, but gathering renovation materials means running all over the city! Since Uncle focuses on renovation projects, I thought I’d open a store specializing in construction materials – paint, tiles, flooring, and lighting fixtures all in one place. It would make Uncle’s future projects easier and be convenient for customers looking to buy renovation materials.”

Building material centers would become common in later years.

Of course, Xia Xiaolan couldn’t manage an entire building material center now, and market demand wasn’t that high, but she could start with a building materials supermarket.

When a customer enters wanting to buy two cans of paint, they should leave thinking that just painting the walls isn’t enough – new walls need new floor tiles or wooden flooring. Just like how future supermarkets will always have sales, whether on paper products or vegetables. Everyone needs daily necessities, and while the low prices were related to supermarkets’ bulk purchasing power compared to small vendors, the real strategy was using discounts to attract consumers who would then leave with all sorts of unexpected purchases.

Having made the trip to the supermarket, who would leave with just ten discounted eggs?

Buying eggs leads to buying noodles, noodles need sauce, and for balanced nutrition, some vegetables too… If everyone only bought discounted eggs, the supermarket would go bankrupt.

Getting consumers into the store was half the battle – there would always be something to attract them, and complementary sales were invisible bundling that many people didn’t notice.

This was the model Xia Xiaolan wanted to implement, willing to forgo profits for the first couple of years just to establish the framework. The small commodities market area wasn’t high-end enough, but for the next decade or more, many goods would circulate through the People’s Bridge Small Commodities Market. Manufacturers would gather and exchange information there. Xia Xiaolan needed to build the framework – now she’d spend money stocking inventory, but later these manufacturers would be begging for counter space.

Supermarkets operated this way – suppliers even had to compete for spots because supermarkets controlled end-user sales channels!

Large appliance stores did the same. Whether imported or domestic washing machines, refrigerators, and televisions, besides brand-exclusive stores, wouldn’t they want space in large appliance stores? The big stores had more choices – Gree, Meiling, and Midea all waiting in line. Brand-exclusive stores didn’t get such treatment.

Department stores followed the same model – clothing brands, cosmetics brands, restaurant brands… as long as the mall had foot traffic, brands would compete to get in.

Xia Xiaolan didn’t explain all this – she just said she wanted to make purchasing convenient for people planning renovations, benefiting both others and herself, hence wanting to open such a store.

Tang Hongen listened attentively.

He had thought Xia Xiaolan was too hasty, but after listening, he understood why she wouldn’t focus solely on university studies.

Regardless of profitability, since the renovation industry was just emerging, the same applied to construction materials retail. Entering now meant being an industry pioneer – if Xia Xiaolan waited until after her four years of university, others would surely have seized this opportunity.

To put it crudely, never mind whether nature called – Xia Xiaolan wanted to occupy the outhouse first.

By the time others realized this business opportunity, she’d have several years of experience. Others could eat her dust!

“Have you already chosen a location? You move quickly. This business must require significant investment?”

A few tens of thousands of yuan certainly wouldn’t be enough. Regardless of who backed ‘Yuan Hui’, even investing all the profits from the guesthouse renovation project might not suffice. Tang Hongen expected Xia Xiaolan would ask for help, perhaps with another bank loan.

Xia Xiaolan smiled and nodded:

“The investment is indeed substantial. I couldn’t manage this business alone. As you know, I start university in late August, and being so far apart, even finding time to visit Pengcheng requires planning. So I found two partners – we’re pooling both money and effort, working together to get the store running.”

She wasn’t asking for money?

Nor requesting any help.

Standing behind Tang Hongen, Secretary Peng couldn’t figure out Xia Xiaolan’s angle.

Tang Hongen pondered for a moment, “If you need any help, just say so. Uncle Tang can still solve some small problems for you.”

People are strange – if she had persistently asked for help, he would have resisted. But since she asked for nothing, he felt she had it tough and wanted to help voluntarily.

Secretary Peng couldn’t understand middle-aged men’s thinking.

He remained very wary of Xia Xiaolan – a mind capable of achieving top provincial scores was indeed formidable.

…

Xia Xiaolan truly didn’t want help.

Tang Hongen’s position was roughly what she had guessed, and constantly relying on him wasn’t realistic. Having secured the storefront, Xia Xiaolan decided to manage on her own. She and Bai Zhenzhu had viewed the building – it needed renovation inside. The four-story building had over 1,200 square meters of total space.

Even if Liu Yong worked without profit, purely helping out, renovation costs would still be substantial. While the space couldn’t compare to large retail stores, larger standalone commercial buildings weren’t available in 1984 unless Xia Xiaolan built one herself… but she couldn’t afford that, and the renovation market hadn’t reached that level either.

“With limited space, we need to carefully plan how to use each floor.”

Bai Zhenzhu had advanced the rent money. Given the space, the rent wasn’t high – only 3,500 yuan per year. However, they required five years’ rent paid upfront. Xia Xiaolan didn’t mind, feeling she’d gotten a great deal. Not raising rent to market rates and collecting five years at once was very straightforward. It wouldn’t even take five years – probably just two years before the People’s Bridge Small Commodities Market area would be booming!

Of course, the building’s owning unit had their considerations – collecting five years’ rent upfront meant having cash in hand, while they couldn’t foresee future prosperity.

Xia Xiaolan was waiting for Kang Wei – once all three major shareholders were present, they could discuss business properly!