After another week in Beijing, Xu Zhi received a reply from the civil affairs department that in principle, the charity fund project could be established, but it would have to go through detailed negotiations.

Xu Zhi is very satisfied with this result, this foundation wants to play the greatest effect, not how much cash to prepare, nor how high the reward for whistleblowing is, but must spread the entire net to all parts of the country, at the latest in 90 years, in all county-level cities in the country to set up offices, and cooperate with local government departments to publicize fund policies, collect information on missing families and rescued children, and then report to the headquarters, using supercomputers for data or photo analysis.

Therefore, the biggest investment in this project is the construction of the whole, and the so-called whistleblowing bonus or even the supercomputer does not account for much of the proportion.

For the new electronic city project, Shanghai City sent a representative and agreed to all the conditions of Xu Zhi, including the ability to build a factory as a sole proprietorship.

The central government also supports the construction of factories in Shanghai or Beijing, rather than Shenzhen.

At present, many cities in China are trapped in the problem of difficult employment for educated youth, and tens of millions of educated youths who have returned to their hometowns have returned to the cities, which has brought huge employment pressure, especially in first-tier cities such as Shanghai and Beijing.

However, Shenhai City does not have this problem, but because of a large amount of Hong Kong investment, there is a shortage of talents. In the end, after comprehensive consideration, Xu Zhi agreed to build a factory in Shanghai, anyway, his main requirement is to be a sole proprietorship and not be interfered with by the outside world.

After the completion of the two major events, Xu Zhi also participated in the groundbreaking ceremony of the International Trade Plaza, the first funds needed by Evergrande Group have been loaned from HSBC, which is also the first time that HSBC has participated in the construction of major projects in Beijing, Vice President Pu Weishi specially rushed over from Xiangjiang, and handing over to the mainland government is one of the important strategic tasks of HSBC in the next ten years.

Xu Zhi and Pu Weishi also had a good conversation, and invited Pu Weishi to return to Xiangjiang together on his private jet. Two years later, in 1986, Shen Bi retired, and Pu Weishi would take over as the new senior at HSBC, where he would take the helm for more than a decade.

Although BEA and HSBC are competitors, looking at the whole world, the scale of the banking industry is so large that there is no need to have a head-to-head battle with HSBC, which already has a monopoly on Hong Kong.

On his second day back in Hong Kong, Xu Zhi went to Gloucester Tower on Pedder Street, one of Hongkong Land's 10 core properties in Heung Kong Central, which was acquired and leased to Watsons through a lease exchange or eviction.

After Xu Zhi entered the company, Jiang Dawei, the general manager of Watsons, was already waiting at the door.

"Chairman, please be seated. Jiang Dawei said with a smile.

Xu Zhi asked, "How is Watsons doing during this time?"

After Watsons became independent from Hutchisons, Xu Zhi injected capital separately to engage in a price war between its PARKnSHOP and Hongkong Land's Wellcome Supermarket for nearly two years, although the main purpose was to consume the funds of the Jardine Matheson system and force the acquisition of the other party, but at the same time as the price war broke out, it was also a nightmare for other merchants in the Xiangjiang market to be forced to be involved.

After the acquisition of Wellcome and even the acquisition of Hongkong Land at the beginning of the year, Watsons' supermarket chain did not restore the previous price, but continued to adopt a low-price policy, one is to cooperate with the Hong Kong government, stabilize the market, and reduce the pressure on ordinary family life, and the second main purpose is to continue to force other large supermarkets to withdraw from this industry.

"Chairman, in the last three months, we have taken over 12 supermarkets, 8 of which are the supermarket chains of the Japanese Moriki Group in Central, and the other are smaller in Yuen Long, Hung Hom and Tsim Sha Tsui, and we are currently integrating their resources into our internal system as soon as possible. Jiang Dawei happily reported.

"Yes, even Senmu Supermarket took it. Xu Zhi is also satisfied that in the early 60s, when the economy of Xiangjiang began to flourish, it attracted many foreign-funded enterprises to settle in, because it was backed by the mainland, and the demand for daily necessities was very large, so many overseas supermarket groups were stationed in Xiangjiang on a large scale.

After the price war broke out, many Chinese-funded supermarkets were transferred to Watsons at a preferential price, but these foreign-funded retailers refused to back down at all.

Then the Sino-British negotiations broke out, the future crisis broke out in Hong Kong, the Hong Kong dollar exchange rate plummeted, and after a wave of events, foreign retail also gradually retreated, and was finally acquired by Watsons.

Jiang Dawei continued: "With the acquisition of Senmu Supermarket, in Central, there are basically no other businesses in the supermarket chain, and even in the whole of Xiangjiang, we have controlled about 80% of the large supermarket chains.

Chairman, are we going to stop the current discount policy and let the market in Hong Kong return to normal levels?"

"You're under pressure, it seems that the influence of the media during this time is not small!" Xu Zhi said with a smile.

Jiang Dawei nodded: "The pressure doesn't matter, but the current media has slowly changed the outlet, from our supermarkets to benefit the people to a large number of reports on the difficult operation of some small supermarkets and family grocery stores under the oppression of large conglomerates, many newspapers have also begun to pay attention to the monopoly problem, worried that we will greatly increase prices in the future." ”

"Their worries are indeed justified, but since they want to not be monopolized by capital in the future, they can go to other supermarkets at high prices now.

Isn't it funny to buy our cheap products now and turn hostile to us?" Xu Zhi said disdainfully.

Jiang Dawei nodded and said: "It is true that the speech in the media is only the right of a few, and most ordinary citizens still only like cheap items. ”

"Then ignore these media and continue to take low-price measures until there are no other major supermarket chains in the whole of Xiangjiang. Xu Zhi commanded.

His purpose is to want Watsons to monopolize the entire supermarket chain in Xiangjiang, and naturally it is impossible to regress because of some media reports, not to mention, monopolizing the supermarket chain and monopolizing the retail market are two different things, because in addition to large supermarket chains, there are various mom-and-pop stores, brand licensing stores, electrical appliance stores, and so on.

Even if it monopolizes the supermarket chain in the future, Watsons will only restore the price to the normal level, instead of maliciously raising the price, this kind of money-making method is too low-level, and how much profit can the market of Xiangjiang be?

Xu Zhi continued: "According to the current situation, there is no problem on the Xiangjiang side, so in the next step, we must go all out to go out, one is the mainland in the north, and the second is Southeast Asian countries." ”

"What about the European and American markets, should we try the water?" Jiang Dawei asked tentatively.

"No, you can't even climb, you want to run?" Xu Zhi directly vetoed: "Looking at the world's large supermarket chain groups, which one has its own basic market, that is, its own territory, Sears, Kmart in the United States and the recently rising Wal-Mart, Auchan, Metro, Carrefour and so on in Europe......

Midea can quickly enter the European and American markets, and Hutchison can also directly go to Europe and the United States to invest in ports or infrastructure, but the supermarket industry is not good, we need to go step by step, first build Xiangjiang into our basic market, then the mainland and Southeast Asian markets, and finally carry out global expansion, the road is to go step by step!"

As a traditional industry, the expansion of supermarket chains cannot be compared with electronic products, therefore, Best Buy, an electronic chain store, can expand rapidly in the United States, relying on the rapid outbreak of the electronics market, and the United States is currently in a blank stage in this market.

Not in supermarkets, there are almost no tricks in this line of work, and there are too many competitors at the same time, not to mention BT rising stars like Walmart.

"I'm sorry, Chairman, but I was too greedy. Jiang Dawei said.

"The European and American markets are indeed huge, and anyone with ambitions will find a way to get a piece of the pie, and you are not wrong in your idea. Xu Zhi said: "But you are underestimating the potential of Asia, supermarkets are one of the industries closest to people's livelihood, and the goods sold are actually for ordinary people."

Southeast Asia and mainland China are currently far from Europe and the United States, but with half of the world's population, as long as they can capture a small share of the market, Watsons can become one of the world's largest supermarket chains, and then it should slowly expand to Europe and the United States. ”

"I understand how to do it. Jiang Dawei replied: "Although the country in Southeast Asia is relatively large, as long as you spend some energy, it is not difficult to sort it out, but the mainland market, except for Shenhai City, other places do not allow overseas retail capital to enter!"

"The reform and opening up of the mainland is already an inevitable trend, but the road is also step by step, the future of full opening is only a matter of time, this piece, you try to make more efforts, the current major provinces in the mainland still have a lot of autonomy, if just go to the provincial capital city to open a branch, should still be no problem, to try to open the brand awareness first, and so on in the future when the mainland opens up the retail market, in the face of global retail giant competition, there will also be a certain advantage. Xu Zhi thought for a while and said: "And how great is the potential of the mainland, you should know very well that there are already 7 PARKnSHOP supermarkets in Shenhai City, right?

"Yes, each of them has broken 100 million, which is simply incredible. Jiang Dawei couldn't help but sigh that there are currently three major economic centers in Shenhai City, namely the urban area, Shekou Industrial Zone and the vicinity of Midea Electronic Industry City.

With the same relationship with Midea, Watsons opened 6 supermarkets in Midea's industrial city and also formed a monopoly.

You know, just the direct employees of Midea Company, the number is as high as 50,000, plus a series of suppliers, family members, and various other service industries, the vicinity of Midea Electronic Industry City has obviously become a small town, in terms of spending power, this side is not less than the urban area of Shenhai City.

Six PARKnSHOP supermarkets control the consumption of everyone here, while the other supermarket is in Shekou Industrial Zone, which also has a large number of Hong Kong people and factories, and the consumption power is also very strong.

"The retail market in Shenhai City is so strong, mainly because of the large amount of domestic demand outside the deep sea, so I hope you will enter the mainland as soon as possible, even if the supermarkets are not big and the number is not large, but first let most mainland people know about our brand. Xu Zhi continued.

In the Internet era, people are always accustomed to the software they use first, but this is not the patent of the Internet, but the evolutionary habit of human beings, and the same is true for supermarkets, as long as they are used to a supermarket, they will always want to shop unnaturally, and there will be a certain rejection of other supermarkets.

Of course, this advantage can only be used as the icing on the cake, and if you really want to retain customers, you have to look at the quality, service and the distance of the supermarket from home.

"I know how to do it. Jiang Dawei replied.