Chapter 414 - 240: Chen Xiao’s "Incognito Visit

Chapter 414: Chapter 240: Chen Xiao’s "Incognito Visit

Luocheng Junxiao Square!

Formerly Luocheng Wansheng Square, it had kept its original staff even after being acquired by Junxiao Square!

For all the acquired properties, employee salaries were adjusted across the board. The highest raises were 50%, and even the lowest were over 20%!

The raises were tied to their previous base salaries—those with higher base salaries received smaller percentage increases, while those with lower base salaries received larger ones!

Previously, under the management of Wansheng Group, these commercial management personnel had decent incomes, but the pressure was immense!

The biggest problem was Wansheng Group’s annual requirement that rent increases could not be less than 7%. No matter how good a mall’s customer traffic was, it couldn’t withstand such relentless annual hikes!

When Luocheng Wansheng Square opened ten years ago, the rent was only 200 yuan per square meter per month. After all these years, the first-floor rent had risen to around 500 yuan per square meter per month. This price was on par with the rents at the former Jiangzhou Wansheng Square and Tianlong Square!

However, the quality of the mall itself was far inferior, and its customer base was not in the same league!

Thus, during the Luocheng Wansheng era, this mall was a "chicken rib" for many brands—tasteless to eat, yet a pity to throw away!

The vast majority of brands in this mall weren’t profitable, with some even operating at a slight loss!

However, their sales performance was still guaranteed; the losses were solely due to the excessively high rental costs!

Therefore, every year when it was time for lease renewals, it would turn into a tug-of-war, a battle of wits between the two sides!

The mall would inform the tenants: either accept a rent hike or move out. The tenants would inform the mall: either renew at the current rate or we’re pulling out!

After playing this game until the contract was about to expire, both sides would finally compromise.

But the process was absolute torture, and there were so many brands in the mall to deal with.

This year, however, was different. After the acquisition by Junxiao Business Management!

Luocheng Junxiao Square received a 15 million yuan marketing budget from the group and was required to spend 1 million on SP promotions in its first month of reopening!

In a prefecture-level city like this, the sensational effect was even greater than the impact of the two Junxiao Squares in Jiangzhou each spending 2 million!

After all, the average purchasing power in a prefecture-level city was lower, consumers were more price-sensitive, and they were more receptive to this kind of simple, aggressive discount promotion!

As a result, in the short time since the acquisition, the brands in the mall experienced an explosion in business, with sales nearly doubling!

This gave the merchants a glimpse of a bright future. With a mall like this, they wouldn’t leave even if you tried to kick them out!

For the business management team, when the tenants’ businesses were booming, raising the rent became simple. Besides, Junxiao Group hadn’t even demanded a rent increase this year!

The rental income just needed to match the same period last year. Of course, lowering it was out of the question. If a mall proactively lowered its rent, wouldn’t that be a joke? It would be like announcing, "I’m failing! Please, my dear brand lords, I beg you to stay!"

Junxiao Business Management would naturally not do something so foolish!

One of the annual KPIs for Luocheng Junxiao Square set by the management company was that the rental income level could not be lower than the previous year’s. It didn’t have to exceed it, which meant they could maintain the existing terms.

Therefore, the entire management team at Luocheng Junxiao Square felt absolutely no pressure this year when it came to leasing and renewals!

After the rebranding to Junxiao Square, the massive injection of subsidized coupons led to a huge surge in business for many retail brands. This greatly boosted the merchants’ confidence in the project, and they mentally prepared for another rent hike at this year’s renewal!

But after running the numbers, they realized that if Junxiao Square could host several large-scale promotions like this a year, the location would be well worth it, even with a rent increase!

Party A (the mall) could choose not to raise the rent, while Party B (the tenant) felt that a raise would be reasonable!

In such a situation, it goes without saying how easy the mall management team’s renewal and leasing work had become!

As it was a prime location, the leasing manager, Lu Guangming, had always been quite arrogant. He would grant visiting brand representatives a little bit of face, but only a little.

It was only "a little" because he had superiors: the Vice President of Business and the mall’s General Manager.

Most of the people he dealt with were regular brand development staff, or agents for smaller retailers and local brands!

Representatives from major brand companies or provincial-level agencies, like Xia Bin from Four Seasons Clothing, were honored guests of the general manager and didn’t really need to give Lu Guangming the time of day!

Inside the Starbucks at Luocheng Junxiao Square.

As this was the best commercial project in Luocheng, the foot traffic was decent, even though it wasn’t the weekend.

The Starbucks was basically full. A man in his early thirties walked in, glanced around, and couldn’t help but frown slightly.

Resigned, he walked to the counter and made a call.

"Hello, President Lu, this is Zhang Hua. Yes, yes, I’ve arrived!"

"No problem, President Lu. I’m waiting for you at Starbucks. What would you like to drink? I can order for you first!"

He then ordered two lattes. Looking this way and that, he still couldn’t find a separate, quieter spot.

He would just have to make do.

"Excuse me, is anyone sitting here?"

"No."

"Thanks!" Zhang Hua nodded.

It was a four-person setting, made of two small round tables pushed together with four small stools.

Zhang Hua sat down and glanced at the young man across from him, thinking to himself, ’What a charismatic guy. Luocheng is truly full of remarkable people! There must be something in the water here!’

While waiting for Lu Guangming to arrive, he took a brand brochure from his briefcase.

Then, he pulled out an envelope and slid a gift card out of it. Anyone who had ever bought a Junxiao Square gift card would know that this particular black card had a value of 5,000 yuan!

He tucked the gift card inside the brand brochure and placed it on the tabletop, presumably to avoid mixing it up with his other brochures.