Chapter 521 Is Your Brain for Holding Water?

"But the two things don’t conflict."

Lin Jiang was taken aback.

’If the two don’t conflict, it means her dad has already reached an extremely high position.’

’That’s...’

’...fucking impressive...’

...

Back at Huipin City, although there were still people shopping inside, the mall’s senior management had all noticed that fewer and fewer customers were coming in each day. If this continued, they would be heading down the same old road to ruin.

But no one dared to voice their concerns, and a strange, oppressive atmosphere permeated the entire mall.

At that moment, Liu Chenyou and Li Shuting were making their rounds on the mall floor.

Liu Chenyou held a report in his hand, and his expression was grim.

It had been less than four days since the grand opening, and the volume of goods being procured had already dropped significantly.

For a mall, this was not a good sign.

"Do you have Berkeley’s procurement data?"

"Only from a few individual suppliers," Li Shuting said.

"We’re falling behind across the board. For identical products, their procurement volume is five to ten times greater than ours."

"This is not a good sign. If this keeps up, we’re not going to make it. We have to come up with a solution."

As the procurement manager, Liu Chenyou was more concerned with the mall’s performance than Han Guangqi was.

Although his salary wasn’t high, his under-the-table "gray income" was at least tens of thousands a month.

But that was all dependent on a high volume of procurement.

If things kept going like this, his own income could no longer be guaranteed.

"Manager Liu, maybe we can try a different model? We could use sales targets and bonuses to motivate employees. That would guarantee our sales volume."

"Explain your idea."

"We can set a sales quota for everyone. They’ll have to sell a certain amount of product each day to receive their month-end bonus. That should increase their motivation and significantly boost our sales volume."

Liu Chenyou thought for a moment. "That’s actually a pretty good idea. We’ll schedule a meeting to discuss it. We can’t let things go on like this."

Li Shuting nodded smugly, pleased with herself for having made such a constructive suggestion.

’If my idea is adopted by upper management, it’ll count as a valuable contribution. If I’m lucky, the leaders will remember my name. That would be a huge boost for my future career.’

"This watermelon you sold me is terrible! It’s not sweet at all. I want to exchange it for another one."

Hearing the voice, the pair looked up.

They saw a middle-aged woman holding half a watermelon, standing at a counter and speaking with an employee.

"You’ve already eaten a third of it. How am I supposed to exchange it?"

The employee looked disgusted, clearly thinking the woman was just trying to cause trouble.

"When I bought it, didn’t you say your watermelons were guaranteed to be sweet? Here, you try it. See if it tastes good."

"Our watermelons are guaranteed to be sweet. You probably just got unlucky and picked one that wasn’t. We can’t guarantee every single one will be sweet. How about you buy another one?"

"I already bought half a watermelon, and now you want me to spend more money? Isn’t that going too far? What kind of business are you running?"

"The main thing is, you’ve already eaten a third of the watermelon. How can I process a return for that?"

"I took it home and cut a few slices. My family each had a piece, and when we discovered it wasn’t good, I brought it right back. It’s not like I purposely ate a bunch of it just to return it," the woman reasoned.

"Didn’t you guys say that if something tastes bad or fruit isn’t sweet, we could bring it back for a return? So why are you refusing now? Is this false advertising?"

"Since when did we say you could return fruit just because it isn’t sweet?"

A look of clear impatience crossed the employee’s face, but he was still trying his best to hold it in.

After its reforms, Huipin City had indeed given every employee a raise, but it was only about 20%. This was nothing like Berkeley, where the smallest pay increase was a doubling of one’s salary.

The disparity between the two companies wasn’t just in salary; there was also a huge difference in time off.

Huipin City still maintained a six-day work week with one day off. At Berkeley, after their reforms, each employee’s time off added up to over 150 days per year.

This, in turn, meant that Huipin City’s employees were not as enthusiastic about their jobs as Berkeley’s.

It had gotten to the point where many employees were looking for a chance to leverage their years of experience and jump ship to Berkeley.

However, Berkeley had no current hiring plans, so they had no opportunity to go. Otherwise, they would have left long ago.

"An online influencer posted a video saying you could return fruit if it wasn’t sweet—that your policy was the same as Berkeley’s. That’s the only reason I came here to shop."

"I don’t know about that policy, but even if it were true, we couldn’t take it back after you’ve eaten so much. Besides, look at any supermarket other than Berkeley. Who else would give you a refund just because your fruit wasn’t sweet?"

"Fine, don’t give me a refund. I’m not hurting for the money. I just won’t shop here anymore. I’ll take my business to Berkeley."

The employee had a completely indifferent attitude.

’It’s not like I’m making a commission. She can buy her stuff wherever she wants. It has nothing to do with me.’

"Ma’am, please wait!"

Just as the customer was about to leave, Liu Chenyou walked over and shot a stern look at the employee.

"Give the customer a refund for the watermelon. We’re in the service industry; we must serve our customers well."

The employee looked reluctant, but he processed the refund anyway.

Once that was settled, Liu Chenyou turned to the woman with a pleasant expression.

"Ma’am, I sincerely apologize. This has been an unpleasant shopping experience for you. We will strengthen our management to ensure this sort of thing never happens again."

"That’s your problem, not mine. In any case, I won’t be coming back here."

The woman’s face was full of disdain. "All talk and no action. You’re a far cry from Berkeley."

Without sparing him any dignity, the woman turned and walked away.

Humiliated, Liu Chenyou turned and unleashed his frustration on the employee.

"What the hell do you think you’re doing? Do you even want this job or not? What did we tell you during training? Did you forget the principle of ’the customer comes first’?! I’m docking your pay by 500 this month. Maybe that’ll help you remember."

"Why are you docking 500 from my pay? Besides, you’re not in charge of me."

The male employee was defiant, not caring about his nearby colleagues and customers, and directly clapped back.

"My own supervisor said that we should avoid giving refunds if we can. What right do you have to tell me what to do?"

"You!"

Liu Chenyou gritted his teeth in anger. He was losing face, being watched by so many people.

But it was true they weren’t in the same department, and he had no authority over the employee.

"I will report this to your Manager Zhang. Just you wait."

With a cold snort, Liu Chenyou walked away.

Li Shuting shot the male employee a cold glance.

"If you don’t want to work here anymore, just say it. Talking to a superior like that... you’re going to get yourself in trouble sooner or later. Watch yourself."

After lecturing the employee with borrowed authority, Li Shuting hurried to catch up with Liu Chenyou.

"Wenqi."

They hadn’t gotten far when Li Shuting spotted Zheng Wenqi strolling in from outside, a bag in her left hand and an ice cream in her right.

Hearing her name called, Zheng Wenqi walked toward them.

"What is it?"

Liu Chenyou glanced at her, his expression extremely foul.

"Why are you just now getting here? And another thing, we’ve had complaints recently about hair being found in our house-made braised foods. What do we even pay you for? This has happened several times now!"

Having lost face in front of the male employee, Liu Chenyou was now venting all his frustration on Zheng Wenqi.

Zheng Wenqi, in contrast, wasn’t the least bit flustered. She took a lick of her ice cream and said,

"Is your brain filled with water? I’m responsible for food procurement, not health and safety. Someone finds a hair in the food, and you’re going to pin that on me? Are you kidding me? That’s ridiculous."