Roy and Debra got out of the car and walked along the open plaza to Wal-Mart, a supermarket in the suburbs.

There was nothing to say all the way, Roy just poured out heavily, which made Debra also feel entangled, countless question marks in her mind turned and swayed, she wanted to ask Roy one by one, what did she mean just now, but she also knew that if Roy didn't want to say, even if she asked, all she got was a disdainful white eye.

She thought again, maybe it was because she didn't understand it at all, so Roy told me, right?

Thinking of this reason, the depression in her heart also dissipated a lot.

Just like most Wal-Mart supermarkets, this supermarket is also two floors, each floor is at least the size of a football field, and the goods are displayed on the shelves in one area after another, dazzling, countless, and everyone who walks into the supermarket feels that the huge explosion of material resources brought about by the modern commodity economy.

Debra followed Roy, looking left and right, daily necessities, snacks, appliances, fruits...... She wanted to buy it, but Roy didn't mean to stop at all, just wandering around by herself.

"Roy, do you want to buy something? I can help you find it. ”

Roy came back from his dazed musings and asked, "Do you know what kind of business this belongs to?"

"Supermarket. Selling things. ”

"In business, it's called the 'retail' industry. ”

Debra nodded obediently, though she didn't care what the relationship between retail and supermarkets was.

Roy recalls to himself: "Actually, not long ago, mom-and-pop stores were the main retail methods in various parts of the world, but now ...... As long as Wal-Mart opens its stores, all ordinary supermarkets and mom-and-pop stores will close. Do you know why?"

Debra thought about it, and it seemed that Wal-Mart was almost unified as Roy said, and except for Costco, a small supermarket, it was rare to see the mom-and-pop stores or other affordable supermarkets of her childhood on the streets. "There are a lot of reasons, maybe it's because people like to go to big supermarkets, and Wal-Mart has a lot of things, it's cheap, and more importantly, it's a big parking lot, so it's very convenient to shop." ”

She felt like she had lost 100,000 brain cells to answer the question. Because she often visits the supermarket, she thinks she has a fairly comprehensive answer. She stared at Roy, waiting for the other party's judgment.

The answer is: extremely cheap. Roy sighed, Wal-Mart has been called a "price butcher" by the industry, everywhere the store goes, the surrounding retail industry will collapse, with this mountain in front of it, can online shopping really be done? He can't imagine how Amazon's Bezos can fight his way out of the low-price market.

He wants to build an insurmountable e-commerce platform, and its moat of blockade, monopoly and dictatorship is low price.

What network effect, what first-mover advantage, what variety, what service in place...... They are all existences that can be imitated, surpassed, and destroyed.

Low price, continuous low price, this is the core wall that can lock customers.

Don't underestimate the spending power of low-income groups, historically most of the rich started by making affordable products. For example, the richest man in Japan is the owner of Uniqlo, the richest man in Germany is the owner of a cheap supermarket, and the richest man in Spain is the owner of Zara, which makes cheap clothes. In the future, Bezos, the owner of low-cost e-commerce, eventually became the richest man in the world.

You can see how important the price is.

Many entrepreneurs target the market at high-income groups, thinking that the rich make easy money and the poor make hard money, which is actually problematic.

The key is not who makes good money, but whether you can really make money from a certain class group?

Roy is very confused now, he saw that Cleaver opened an e-commerce company, and he felt that he would open one too, but his opponent was not Cleaver, but the "price butcher" Wal-Mart.

This company is destined to be a super complex company that will also grow into a big company in the future. He himself could not guarantee that he would be able to make a profit, let alone hire a CEO to manage it for him.

Therefore, this time, he had to go into battle in person, overcome the fear of complex management in his heart, find the key to the core breakthrough of the e-commerce company, and become qualified to challenge the giant Walmart step by step, so that he could have a chance to survive in the big waves.

However, Roy's previous research results were that most of his products were sold at a higher price than Wal-Mart.

It is easy to sell a product expensively, but it is difficult to reduce the cost of a product and sell it at a low price.

How is this game going to be played?!

Debra was quietly accompanying Roy in a daze, if it was before, she didn't want to waste time like this, but now she usually has very little time to have a private meeting with Roy, and suddenly felt that it was very peaceful and happy to look at Roy frowning and thinking deeply.

She didn't know why Roy was bothered, and she definitely couldn't solve Roy's life problems, but she knew that after today, there would be surprises. She is confident that Roy will work miracles again.

I try to think all day long, it is better to learn what I have to learn.

Roy is the same, feeling time slip through his fingers, a hundred years of passing, a dream, but his head is empty, it is better to do something else.

"Let's go, look elsewhere. ”

When the two came out of the supermarket, they saw the green trees in the suburbs, the clear blue sky, the thick white clouds, and the warm sun, and Roy was in a better mood.

After they got into the car. Roy casually asked, "Debra, have you ever mail-ordered a product?"

Debra shook her head, "I've seen eBay's website before, and it's mostly second-hand, so it's not of much use to me. ”

"I've heard you say that your family lives in the middle of nowhere, right?"

"Well, that place is remote and backward, there is nothing but wheat fields and farms, and I don't want to go back for the rest of my life. ”

Roy smiled mysteriously, "That's right. I dare say that although you have not ever mail-ordered, your father's and grandfather's generation must have done by mail-ordering. In this respect, you don't have a rural fashion. ”

"How is that possible!" Debra didn't believe it at all, could those dirt buns at home still buy things on the Internet? I'm afraid that I can't afford a computer, let alone install an Internet cable.

"Why don't we make a bet?" Roy raised an eyebrow and smirked.

[ps] Are there any classmates who buy things on Amazon and don't feel cheap?

If there is, that's right. The reasons are complex. But if you're in the U.S., you'll feel like it's so cheap compared to Amazon.