Chapter 429 - 244: Direct Elimination

Chapter 429: Chapter 244: Direct Elimination

Poor Dai Ming and Huang Fei.

Watching President Lin up ahead, her head bowed in thought, they assumed she was pondering work-related issues at Luocheng Junxiao Square. The two men behind her didn’t even dare to breathe too loudly.

’We’re not familiar with this leader. We don’t know her style. We can’t just speak up; we might say the wrong thing!’

Upon entering the general manager’s office, Dai Ming invited Lin Ya to take the main seat and had his assistant serve tea.

A brand Positioning Map for the mall hung on the wall in Dai Ming’s office. After sitting down, Lin Ya glanced at it briefly before saying, "Bring me the Positioning Map for the first floor. I want to see it."

Huang Fei hurried off to get it.

Only Dai Ming was left in the office to keep her company.

Lin Ya said, "The Luocheng Store’s performance these past few days has been quite good. You’ve shown excellent leadership, President Dai."

This was an affirmation of Dai Ming’s work, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

"However..."

Dai Ming’s heart leaped back into his throat.

"You need to pay attention. Some brands in the mall have shown limited improvement, but others have improved by a staggering amount."

"A staggering increase in sales is a good thing, but you need to check how many of the subsidy vouchers they used. These consumer subsidy vouchers are a mall-wide promotional subsidy. I will absolutely not allow this to enrich a few individual tenants. If there’s something fishy going on here, I will not tolerate it."

Dai Ming sucked in a sharp breath. ’Lin Ya would never bring this up without a reason. She mentioned the subsidy vouchers... could it be that she’s already seen the usage data for each tenant from the back-end system?’

As the general manager, this was something he hadn’t paid attention to, because it simply wasn’t his habit.

Back at Wansheng Group, the entire mall didn’t even have a 1,000,000 yuan SP budget for the whole year. With such a small amount, each store only got a tiny fraction. How much could they really get?

Lin Ya raising this issue was a sudden wake-up call. Now, they were dealing with 1,000,000 yuan in subsidy vouchers per month. What an incredible resource!

Because Luocheng was a prefecture-level city, Luocheng Junxiao Square’s SP budget wasn’t as large as the two stores in Jiangzhou, but 1,000,000 yuan was still a huge amount locally.

"President Lin, this was my oversight. I’ll have the planning department pull the redemption data for the consumer vouchers for each tenant right away!"

After speaking, Dai Ming sent a voice message, telling the head of the planning department to pull the data for him.

Huang Fei came in with an A3-sized printout of the mall’s Positioning Map, spread it out in front of Lin Ya, and sat to one side, ready to answer any of President Lin’s questions at a moment’s notice.

Beads of sweat were already visible on his forehead. He hadn’t expected President Lin to get straight to the point with her inspection.

After looking it over, Lin Ya asked, "This ’Bambury’ brand... A brand like this might have been acceptable at Wansheng Square, but it’s a serious mismatch for Junxiao Square’s positioning."

"Have you made plans to adjust it this time around?"

Dai Ming looked at Huang Fei. Huang Fei nervously explained, "President Lin, this brand has always been very cooperative. They pay their rent on time, and their rent is over 500 yuan per square meter per month!"

Lin Ya’s beautiful eyes turned frosty. She said with displeasure, "Isn’t paying rent on time a contractual obligation? Not paying on time is a breach of contract!"

"Also, so what if the unit price for rent is higher than your first-floor average? We didn’t pressure you on total rental income this year, did we? Do you even understand the Group’s current strategic direction?"

Huang Fei was in a complete panic and didn’t know what to say. He looked at Dai Ming, pleading for help.

Dai Ming was nervous too. ’Why the fuck are you looking at me? You’re the VP of business operations; you know this stuff. Besides, she’s asking you!’

Huang Fei had clearly lost his composure. If his answer was problematic, Dai Ming, as the general manager, would have to bear responsibility too. He had no choice but to take over. "This year, headquarters has been very lenient with the store’s evaluations and has provided a lot of support. But they haven’t made many demands regarding total rental income."

Lin Ya acknowledged his point with a nod, but she still pressed Huang Fei. "Mr. Huang, what is the unit price for this brand’s rent?"

Huang Fei answered, his face pale, "501 yuan per square meter per month."

Lin Ya let out a cold laugh and said to Dai Ming, "President Dai, tell me, does our Junxiao Square care about that one extra yuan?"

Sweat beaded on Dai Ming’s forehead. He quickly said, "President Lin, we definitely prioritize the brand’s compatibility with the square’s positioning. Rent is a secondary consideration."

"In that case, will the two of you have any trouble replacing this brand after the New Year?"

"None! None at all!" the two answered in unison. If they didn’t state their position now, there would be serious trouble.

Lin Ya’s words were already laced with killing intent.

Just then, there was a knock on the office door. The planning department had pulled the data on voucher redemptions for each brand since the start of the mall’s SP event.

Dai Ming took it and glanced at the report. His expression immediately turned ugly, but he could only obediently hand it to Lin Ya.

Lin Ya had already seen this data. She took the report, gave it a token glance, and tossed it to Huang Fei. "Mr. Huang, you take a look too. I don’t understand how Bambury’s voucher usage is so high."

"Its usual sales performance isn’t that high, and its ability to attract voucher-spending customers isn’t that strong. How has it already used 1,000 vouchers in just over a week, generating 1,000,000 yuan in voucher-related sales? And that’s not even counting non-voucher sales. What would its monthly revenue be then? Four million? Five million?"

"Several other brands have the same issue. Their voucher usage is clearly problematic. Is it possible there’s fraud involved to improperly claim the voucher subsidies?"

The "improperly claiming" Lin Ya mentioned refers to tenants recording fake sales—for example, sales that never actually happened.

If a tenant records 1,000 yuan in sales, they can process a "100 off 1,000" consumer voucher. The mall then subsidizes 50% of that 100-yuan coupon for the tenant.

If this kind of activity isn’t strictly controlled, the consequences would be unimaginable.

That was why, apart from the issues Chen Xiao had reported to her, this was a key item on her inspection checklist for this visit.