Before the opening of the Laba Festival, let the guys send out some leaflets and small advertisements, there is no commercial promotion of this model in this era, but fortunately, the literacy rate of Jinling is the highest in the Ming Dynasty, Jiangnan was originally the place where the literary style is at its peak, most of the citizens of Jinling are literate, of course, most of them recognize some commonly used words but do not know how to write.

In addition, the guys' verbal propaganda in their own precincts also played a role. Before the development of petroleum chemical fibers, before the large-scale use of chemical fertilizers. The total crop yield has increased only for 2,000 years, which is why a population of 100 million would collapse.

The clothes of this era come from the cotton, hemp, mulberry, livestock and wild animals planted on the land, and the output of the land is limited, the grain must be ranked first, the grain production in the south of the Yangtze River is high, there is more land to plant mulberry trees and cotton, the supply of clothing has been much looser than in the north, but the overall supply is still in a state of shortage, the year ago is the peak period for making clothes, and the wax month is the best month for the sale of cloth in a year.

Many cloth merchants control the number of sales in the second half of the year, hoard cloth, and sell at a higher price in the lunar month, so as to get more profits. Wumart Department Store is aimed at the middle class in Nanjing, that is, middle-class households, upper households and wealthy households, rather than positioned in the upper class, and the future development direction is also for this group with the most consumption potential. Wumart's low-key publicity for these communities did not alarm those big merchants, and in the eyes of the century-old stores on those bustling streets, the small shops of three or five were not taken into account at all.

The cloth in Li Jing's hands is of little high quality, and the Li family does not master the printing and dyeing technology, mainly producing grey fabric. That is, white cloth, customers can go to the local dyeing workshop to dye it into their favorite color according to their own preferences. Small dyeing workshops also operate this kind of service, from a few feet to a few horses. The advantage of this cloth is that it is cheap. The cloth seized from the pirates was dyed in good colors. But they are all mainly blue, gray, and black, and there is no too high-end.

Li Jing took into account the special effect of the Laba Festival, and decided that whoever bought a piece of cloth would give a two-pound pack of Laba porridge mixed with eight kinds of rice. Wrap it in yellow paper and tie it on all sides with a paper rope. These two catties of rice are miscellaneous grains, not worth much, and they are only limited to the day of the Laba Festival. But the experience for the customer is different. Sending things during the festival is the first time the people of Jinling have heard of it.

The news spread, and there were already many people waiting to buy cloth outside the shops that opened in the morning. The white grey cloth in Jinling is two coins and five cents of silver on weekdays, and the price rises before the Spring Festival, and it is about three dollars of silver in the wax moon.

A standard grey cloth is 40 centimeters wide and 13.3 meters long, which is four zhang long and 40 feet long in this era. A deep coat requires about four and a half feet of cloth. One piece of cloth is probably enough to make two robes for an adult man. The middle and lower households in Nanjing mainly buy white grey fabric, and the higher ones will buy printed and dyed cloth. The richest of the next class will consider buying high-quality, well-thought-out weavers, jacquard, printed and dyed high-grade fabrics and even silk fabrics.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, it was very common for young girls and married women to go to the streets and shops, and many of them were bought by husband and wife. When it comes to women's openness, Beijing is even more open than Nanjing. The men over there are more afraid of the government, and generally the lawsuits are fought by women, and even if the men follow, they are blocked by their wives.

It even happened in Beijing, when the Ministry of Rites Shangshu went to work, he met an old woman near the East Chang'an Gate, and was scolded and avoided by his entourage, but he didn't expect the old woman to be angry, and he angrily reprimanded: "You are a mosquito-sized official, and you dare to pose in front of the old body, the old man has lived in Beijing for 60 years, and what kind of high-ranking official has not seen thousands of thousands." He scolded Lord Shangshu in disgrace, and then walked away. After Lord Shangshu arrived at the cabinet, he talked about this matter with a smile with his colleagues, and his colleagues laughed and said that he was not a big official. It can be seen that the folk customs at that time.

Li Jing specially came to a seven-storey Wumart department store near Dagongfang to inspect the sales situation on the spot, this is the largest store, because Dagongfang belongs to a relatively good community, and there are no too small stores for sale. Li Weier and Li Yueer also came to help with the four maids.

Squire Jian and Bai Yu took two men to help maintain order, and the counter inside could only receive customers from ten families at the same time. You can only come out and put one in. Customers line up at the east gate, the west gate is the exit after shopping, the main gate is open but no entry or exit, and customers queuing outside can see and hear the situation inside.

The first customers to come in were a middle-aged man of thirty-five or sixteen years old and his wife. They walked around, looked at the goods, and went straight to the linen counter.

"Official, you see, this kind of fine linen is really finely woven, and it costs three dollars of silver for a horse, and then it costs thirty big dollars to ask the Dajin dyeing workshop to help dye it azure, just for you and your son to make a deep coat and a long gown. One more horse for you two to make a shirt, short brown, trousers," a woman of about thirty said to her husband, and the middle-aged man next to him, with a thin face, dressed in green clothes, looked like a low-level official like a scribe of the government. Life is relatively much better than that of ordinary people.

"The lady has a good eye, this fine linen weaver is really good, there are few broken threads and knots of joints, dyed azure, must be worn to a straight silhouette, just suitable for her husband to be an errand in the yamen. Yu'er is studying in Guozijian, and it is also suitable to wear azure. Why don't we buy two," the middle-aged man said.

"Man, bring us two of this fine linen."

"Okay, two horses of fine linen" The grey cloth of the Li family is all twelve zhang large rolls, one roll of three horses totaling one hundred and twenty feet, which is easy to transport. As he spoke, the man directly carried a piece of cloth to the counter, took out a ruler and began to measure the cloth in person. Making new clothes for small families is one of the biggest household expenses of the year, and housewives keep an eye on it carefully to prevent them from suffering less. As soon as the man's wooden ruler was taken out, the woman felt wrong, it seemed to be a little longer than the normal ruler, and the small households were housewives who made clothes for their families, and needlework was inseparable from the ruler, and the length of the ruler could not be more familiar. But I'm not too sure, after all, it's far away, and it's not very obvious that there's an extra inch.

Soon the eighty feet of fine linen were measured, and the man said, "This lady, your cloth is complete, you see, there is no problem, we will cut and unpack it for you." The scribe's wife hastened to measure it again with her hand. These housewives have vicious eyes, and they are half a foot in their hands, and they have all been practiced all year round, and they will not be bad. After measuring it, some people were in a trance, and they were shocked, this was obviously an extra eight feet of cloth, so they measured it again, and it was still eight feet more.

"This little brother, are you sure you are not wrong, this cloth is two horses"

The guy was immediately unhappy, but he still said politely: "This lady, although our Wumart Department Store is open on the first day today, but our family is also based on credibility, and will never be short of a small amount, pit customers, if it is less, my owner has a word first, one inch less to pay a foot, one foot less to pay a zhang, one less zhang to pay a horse." You see the New Year, the weather is so cold, there are a lot of customers waiting outside, our store has invoices for the goods, you can come back to us if you have any questions. Or you can make way for the back first. ”

The middle-aged man on the side thought that the cloth was insufficient, and just as he was about to speak, he was gently kicked by his wife.

"Please also ask this little brother to wrap me up. It's six pieces of silver, and you can keep it," said the lady, hurrying.

"Madame, I can't collect money here, you see there's a sign at the exit that says Cashier. You go there to pay the money, and then there will give you an invoice, you take the invoice to me to pick up the goods, two copies of the invoice, I leave one copy, you take one copy, any quality problems can be solved in the store with the invoice. I'll wrap it up for you first."

The couple went to the cashier to pay the money and receive the invoice. The invoice requires the purchaser to put his fingerprint on the upper and lower parts, and there is a row of small stamps inserted in the square on the cashier's desk. Only half a centimeter wide, one centimeter long, and two inches high, respectively, engraved with one foot, two feet, five feet, one zhang, and one horse. There are also two brass seals. One is the store seal, one is actually a row of copper wheels below, looking at the appearance of being able to rotate, the cashier directly stamped the two copies of the invoice, two seals of a horse, a seal of cloth varieties, and a seal of the branch of Wumart Department Store, and then picked up the copper seal and clicked it down, and the print was actually the date and date.

The couple returned to the counter, and by this time the man had rolled up the cloth and packed it in a tote bag made of the cheapest linen grey cloth. The handbag is also printed with the four big characters of Wumart Department Store.

"Madame, give me your invoice," said the man.

The woman handed the invoice to the man, who skillfully folded it in the middle of the hole, pressed it to the edge of the counter, and tore it in half neatly.

"You take this half, as long as we have a certificate for the goods that go out, if you have any quality problems, you can go back to the purchase office to find us with the invoice. In addition, today is the first day of opening, the whole month of La, our store opened a big reward, all who buy more than one piece of fabric have a chance to draw, we Wumart Department Store in Jinling a total of 55 stores, concentrated in the largest Dagongfang store lottery. You have two entries to buy two horses, the west door is the exit after shopping, and the six girls standing there are in charge of the lottery, and you can pull out two small paper balls from their cardboard boxes. If you win the lottery, you will also receive the prize from them. There is also today is Laba Festival, buy a piece of cloth today and get a two-pound package of eight kinds of miscellaneous grains Laba porridge gift bag. These are two Laba congee gift packets, put them in the bag for you, you can count them. ”

The two opened the bag to take a look, and sure enough, there were two packets of yellow paper inside, which were estimated to be Laba porridge. Both of them were a little excited. Two packets of rice are enough to cook two meals of Laba porridge for the whole family to drink. All that's left is the wrapped two pieces of cloth.

The two took the invoice to the lottery. It was the first time for the two of them to draw a lottery, and they were a little excited. Since ancient times, the people of the country who planted flowers liked to gamble, and this kind of activity was the most popular among the people. It's more of a game with a jackpot. Just as the Spring Festival is approaching, adults can also have fun. The two discussed it and decided to pay one for each person.

"Husband, you come first, you are on duty in the yamen, you are noble, and your luck must be good."

"Hehe, since Madame said so, let's come first for the husband. Well, that's it. As he spoke, he took out his hand through the round hole in the top of the cardboard box, and placed a small ball of paper on the table.

As soon as they heard about the lottery, they happily volunteered to be responsible for the prize. Responsible for taking prizes for guests is Mei Lan Zhuju four maids.

Li Weier opened the paper ball and smiled.