In the 21st century, people who have been accustomed to shopping may not have noticed that the decoration of most supermarkets is extremely simple, except for some invisible warehousing and logistics investment, some of the ground is pasted with floor tiles, shelves, lights, air conditioning is installed, and a supermarket can be officially opened.

Even some supermarkets in the warehouse city, many of them are just simple cement floors.

But before the 80s, all retail supermarkets were the exact opposite.

In the field of department store retail, Sears is currently in full swing, and in terms of decoration, it is extremely luxurious, and the concept of merchants in this era is like this, and the luxury of decoration can attract customers.

At the same time, the location of Sears supermarket is a prime location in the city, and the annual rent investment is an astronomical amount.

Although there is no malicious monopoly between the major supermarkets, the profit margin has formed an industry rule, and in order to avoid vicious competition, the major supermarkets will not open a new store near another supermarket, because this kind of play will destroy the tacit understanding and will not get any benefits.

Ordinary people, on the other hand, have long been accustomed to the prices set by supermarkets because the channels for obtaining information are too narrow, and they don't think there is much of a problem.

That is, until a man named Sam Walton came along and discovered that small profits and quick sales would change the future of the entire retail industry.

So he opened his Wal-Mart supermarket in the suburbs of all cities, and he didn't care whether there were other supermarkets nearby, and everything was simple in terms of supermarket decoration, all the business purposes were to reduce costs, plus Wal-Mart supermarkets would also control costs very strictly in terms of logistics, multi-pronged, and then carry out crazy price wars.

At present, except for the rising Wal-Mart, supermarkets in this era are similar to Sears, crowded in the center of the city.

There was no problem with this business model in the 70s, because before that, the United States had been in a stage of rising urbanization, and all the people wanted to enter the city life with the tip of their heads, which led to all the consumption concentrated in the city, and the supermarket was the right choice to open in the city center.

But after entering the 70s, urbanization began to develop in reverse, and a large number of people began to return to the suburbs of the city, and at the same time, because the automobile began to be fully popularized throughout the United States in the 70s, the traffic congestion in the city made people more inclined to go to the suburbs for production activities, and the suburban shopping places can also provide sufficient parking spaces, because the cost of operation is lower, and the goods are naturally more favorable.

At present, electronic shopping malls in the United States are the same, keen to build in urban areas, but because of the cost of rent, most of the area will not be very large, but can not give customers enough space to choose.

When Xu Zhi decided to create Best Buy, he planned to learn from Walmart's strategy from many aspects, a supermarket is not a hotel, and the most important thing is always a lower price.

Building a mall in the suburbs, one is low-cost and can compete for the local market, and the other can quickly expand in the United States, compete for the entire range of markets, and open up fame and form a big well-known brand.

Of course, this is a strategy in the United States, and investing in any place must be based on the actual local situation, the United States is vast and sparsely populated, and in the 70s, the popularity of the automobile industry increased significantly, which is why supermarkets or shopping malls can gradually start to rise in the suburbs.

In the economically developed Asian region, shopping malls and supermarkets have to be located in the city center due to factors such as dense population, low car density, and difficult parking.

When the economy of a region reaches a certain level, cars are popular, and people have money in their hands, then the shopping habits will change, becoming more inclined to go to places where parking can be convenient, and the shopping habits will also change from what is needed to buy enough goods at one time.

In the United States now, in addition to a few novel and expensive products such as computers, ordinary household appliances such as air conditioners, refrigerators, televisions, etc., are trapped in the expensive labor in the United States, and many times it is more cost-effective to buy new ones than to maintain them.

Currie thought for a while and nodded: "Eric, there is some truth in what you say, but this is just a possibility, when there is no absolute certainty, is it too risky to invest in this kind of shopping mall on a large scale?"

"There are risks, of course, but once you succeed, the rewards are also very rich. Xu Zhi said with a smile.

Judging from the process of the rise of retail companies in later generations, in the United States and some parts of Europe, supermarkets are opened in the suburbs not far from the city center, which is already an inevitable trend, not to mention, it is now the golden time for the development of personal computers, game consoles, music players, and home video recorders, and the market is showing a violent outbreak trend.

At the same time, supermarkets have a huge impact on employment, not only the jobs created by themselves, but also the large chain retail enterprises, which can create countless jobs for the procurement tilt of a region.

And in the current United States, the more jobs are controlled, the greater the influence.

Currie thought for a moment and said, "Then Eric, you mean that you are ready to invest in this model of electronic supermarket chain on a large scale?"

Xu Zhi nodded and said: "Yes, the development of personal computers is changing with each passing day, and the products of DVD players, radios, tape recorders, and game consoles are also crazy because of the rapid development of semiconductor technology.

At present, many large technology companies are going all out to develop various new technologies, but few capital has noticed that terminal sales are actually a promising industry. ”

"It's not that they didn't find out, but they noticed that there was no capital, and those who had capital didn't have confidence. Currie laughs and says that some of the big electronics companies certainly know the future of the electronics industry, but they are focused on their own products.

Today's electronics companies, except for some giants with decades of history, are all capital-light model development, how can they have the ability to invest in terminal sales channels.

Xu Zhi said with a smile: "Currie, I intend to invest a lot of money to invest in more than 300 Best Buy malls in all medium and large cities in the United States, although they will choose to build in the suburbs of non-prime locations, but they still need a huge amount of money, and I hope Goldman Sachs can help me raise enough funds in this regard!"

Is Midea short of money?

Actually, there is no shortage!

Relying on the huge profits of the game industry, Midea's net profit last year was as high as 620 million US dollars, but Xu Zhi will not directly invest his company's funds in such asset-heavy projects.

From the beginning of the 80s, it has been three years now, and Midea's total profit has exceeded more than a billion US dollars, of which except for part of the maintenance of the company's operation, the rest has been invested in the purchase of some high-quality stocks, such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Wal-Mart and so on.

These were the stocks with the highest returns in the 80s, and some were able to multiply in a few years.

Although Best Buy Mall is a huge commercial layout, after all, the real estate market in the United States does not have a high rate of return, and it is a very stupid investment behavior to invest so many properties with your own money.

The investment in heavy assets should naturally entrust the bank to finance or loan, and the Wanda Plaza in the mainland can develop so quickly in the future, which is to make full use of the bank's funds.

Goldman Sachs is an investment bank, and according to US law, it is not allowed to carry out deposit and loan business, but it would be naïve to think that large companies can only rely on loans for financing.

Many of the clients of investment banks like Goldman Sachs are large funds looking for low risk and high returns, and many large companies with stable businesses may not only consider commercial bank loans when seeking financing, but they are also interested in the funds in the hands of large funds.

It's just that direct transactions are too risky, after all, many large funds are pension funds and trade union funds controlled by the government, which are not professional financial institutions, so a financial institution is needed between the two parties to bear the risks of both parties and obtain benefits from them.

This is one of the businesses of investment banking, and other aspects such as stock market fundraising, bond issuance, etc., are all ways to raise funds for companies.

Currie asked, "And how much money do you need?"

"The first batch of loans, $1 billion. Xu Zhi said with a smile: "In addition to building new chain stores, I am also preparing to build three cargo handling centers in the eastern United States, which require a lot of funds." ”

In the retail industry, in addition to the investment in the end-end, the investment in the fulfillment center is also very important and costly.

Currie asked, "The first billion dollars, and how much money will be needed for the future?"