Although Yang Xin had left earlier, he still assigned a store employee to keep an eye on Li Huai.
It wasn’t that he was worried about Li Huai plagiarizing their promotional plan—what concerned him was whether that scoundrel would pull some underhanded tricks.
Back when Yang Xin was serving as deputy general manager in Mingcheng, Li Huai had been a supermarket store manager and was also one of the candidates for regional manager.
To be promoted from store manager to regional manager, the most critical factor was the sales performance and overall operational metrics of the store under one’s management—a comprehensive evaluation of competence.
But this guy, in his bid for the regional manager position, had deliberately sent people to sabotage other store managers’ supermarkets—planting expired products in competitors’ stores, filing malicious complaints about fire safety violations... It was precisely because Yang Xin saw through his character that he refused to promote him.
After Li Huai left,
the employee reported to Yang Xin, "Brother Yang, that guy seemed really interested in our micro-shareholder event. He pretended to be a customer and asked a lot of questions, even took notes in a notebook. I think he might copy our promotion. Should we inform Brother Ma and the others to deal with him?"
This employee was a core member of the Wanlong Association, so seeing someone trying to steal their supermarket’s promotion naturally made him furious.
Wanlong Supermarket’s micro-shareholder experience event had a participation threshold set at 200 yuan—spending 200 yuan would make a customer a one-day shareholder, while spending 1,000 yuan granted five-day shareholder status. For now, the maximum was capped at seven days.
Since they weren’t sure how long it would take to crush Mingcheng Supermarket, they had to hold back somewhat.
Besides, this kind of promotion couldn’t be run indefinitely. Over time, not only would the supermarket’s profits suffer, but customers would also lose interest. If people stopped coming to shop and only participated for the shareholder perks, it would defeat the purpose of running a supermarket in the first place.
"No need. Let him copy it. The young miss once said, ‘Those who learn from me will thrive; those who imitate me will perish.’ They won’t be able to stir up any trouble."
Yang Xin seemed to remember something and asked, "Oh, right—did he manage to enter the contract signing lounge?"
"No, he didn’t make any purchases in our store. Without a receipt, he couldn’t access the contract room," the employee replied.
Yang Xin nodded, reassured. Just as the young miss had predicted.
"Alright, get back to work."
"Sure, Brother Yang."
After a moment of thought, Yang Xin picked up his phone and called Zhao Tianyi, briefing him on the situation and asking him to send a capable lawyer to gather evidence—anything that could be linked to charges like "operating an illegal gambling operation" or "engaging in unauthorized fundraising."
Truthfully, even if Mingcheng Supermarket didn’t handle shareholder dividend contracts as meticulously as Wanlong Supermarket, pinning such charges on them wouldn’t be easy.
But he had full confidence in Zhao Tianyi.
This top lawyer, highly regarded by the young miss, had his own exceptional methods—he’d surely help steer their rival, Mingcheng Supermarket, onto a "safe" path.
After hanging up, Yang Xin refocused on his own supermarket.
For this micro-shareholder event, they had prepared meticulously for two days. The day before, they had already signed up a batch of micro-shareholders, and thanks to their efforts, today’s sales had officially surpassed 2 million yuan by closing time at 9 PM.
Staring at the striking numbers on the report, Yang Xin felt a surge of excitement. He couldn’t wait to call the young miss, Liu Yutong, and share the news.
On the other end of the phone, Liu Yutong was slightly surprised upon hearing the figure of two million.
This number had just shattered the single-day sales record for any individual branch of Wanlong Supermarket.
Although there was almost no profit to speak of, it was still an excellent start.
"What about Mingcheng Supermarket? Roughly how much did they make?"
"Miss Liu, our projections suggest Mingcheng Supermarket barely reached six hundred thousand," Yang Xin replied, his tone brimming with excitement.
This was the difference—despite their competitor offering steeper discounts, their sales were still being crushed.
"Keep it up. Ideally, we should completely crush them within half a month. Dragging this out won’t do us any good either," Liu Yutong emphasized.
Prolonged supermarket promotions risk conditioning customers into certain shopping habits, much like how Pinduoduo later reshaped online consumer behavior.
From a customer’s perspective, Pinduoduo’s rock-bottom prices and hassle-free refunds were undeniably appealing.
But for businesses, the impact was negative.
If you wanted to prioritize service and quality, you needed a reasonable profit margin. But higher prices would drive customers away—once spoiled by ultra-low prices, they’d balk at anything pricier, forcing businesses into a race to the bottom.
And cutting prices inevitably meant cutting costs, leading to declines in product quality and service, creating a vicious cycle.
Liu Yutong’s stance was clear: she didn’t want Wanlong Supermarket fostering such detrimental habits.
Wanlong had no intention of engaging in loss-leading gimmicks. Instead, it aimed to become a premium chain, prioritizing service, product quality, and the best possible shopping experience.
That’s why this kind of promotion couldn’t last too long.
"Understood, Miss Liu." Yang Xin suddenly remembered something and added, "Oh, some customers have asked if we could give their dividends as cash instead."
"No. That’s non-negotiable," Liu Yutong flatly refused. "All dividends will be credited directly to their membership cards. What they do with those cards—whether they resell them or use them—is none of our concern."
Yang Xin immediately grasped her reasoning. It was like stock market logic: if you wanted cash, you’d have to trade or use your membership balance to buy things for others.
In short, customers could do whatever they pleased—except exchange points for cash at the supermarket.
Otherwise, even with contracts in place, opportunists might exploit the loophole.
After hanging up, Yang Xin relayed the instructions to Yao Qianshan. Given her professionalism, she’d handle any customer complaints deftly.
The next day, during his routine inspection, Yang Xin noticed Mingcheng Supermarket had indeed ended their promotion—only to launch a near-identical campaign under a different name: "Spend & Win Rebates."
The threshold was slightly lower: spend 198 yuan to participate. They’d even set up a live sales tally screen, just like Wanlong.
Admittedly, the mimicry gave Mingcheng’s sales a slight boost, but they still couldn’t hold a candle to Wanlong’s performance.
After all, Wanlong Supermarket was the first to launch this initiative, and it has already generated substantial dividends for some customers, creating a strong word-of-mouth effect and scale.
Take the day before Wanlong Supermarket's dividend program began, for example—sales were only 290,000 yuan, and very few customers met the dividend criteria at that time.
But by the next day, sales skyrocketed to 2 million yuan, meaning everyone who shopped the previous day received at least 300 to 400 yuan in dividends. Essentially, they got their 200-yuan purchases for free—and even made a profit.
Though cashing out the dividends was a bit of a hassle, the excitement was undeniable.
Thanks to the enthusiastic promotion from yesterday’s first batch of dividend recipients, shopping fervor at Wanlong Supermarket reached new heights today.
Meanwhile, Mingcheng Supermarket rushed their campaign rollout, leading to technical glitches. The real-time sales reports kept malfunctioning—sometimes showing absurdly inflated numbers, other times suddenly plummeting—eroding customer trust.
Beyond that, there was another critical factor: service.
Apart from not offering cashback, Wanlong Supermarket’s service was impeccable.
For instance, they installed wet-hand devices—small, ball-shaped attachments in shopping bags—to help customers with slippery hands open them easily.
Their sampling stations were always well-stocked; the moment supplies ran low, they were promptly refilled, and no one hovered over customers while they tried the samples.
They also provided specialized shopping carts—ones with magnifiers and seats for the elderly, and step stools near shelves for children to reach items.
Every detail was meticulously thought out.
