This polyethylene plastic pipe reminded Chen Qiang of a business that makes a lot of money, that is, hula hoop.

Chen Qiang, a traverser, doesn't know what inventions and creations, such as nylon stockings and penicillin, he doesn't know anything, but if he can't even get a hula hoop, then it's really IQ time to recharge. What's more, the ready-made polyethylene pipe is in front of him, the ready-made plastic production company is in front of him, and Chen Qiang doesn't have to worry about raw materials, processes and production.

As a sports person, Chen Qiang is more familiar with all kinds of fitness equipment, which naturally includes hula hoops. After the future hula hoop entered China in the 80s, it quickly became popular in the north and south of the country, and later there were many studies, saying that the hula hoop will affect the human spine, Chen Qiang, as a professor at the University of Physical Education, although he has not studied similar topics, but he has also seen a lot of papers in this area.

The Indians of North America had a kind of "hula hoop dance" for a long time, but the hula hoops of the Indians were made of rattan. Among the Aborigines of Australia, there is also a kind of "sports circle" made of bamboo.

In the late fifties, the owner of a toy company in California took a trip to Australia, brought the wooden "sports ring" back to the United States, and then improved it to make a plastic hula hoop, which began to be sold in the United States in July 1958, and in just four months, 25 million hula hoops were sold. You must know that the population of the United States in 1958 was only 170 million, which is equivalent to one in seven Americans buying a hula hoop. By 1960, the sales of hula hoops had reached a staggering 200 million!

When the hula hoop was first launched, the price of each was 93 cents, and in some places the price rose to more than $1 because of the short supply, and for the toy companies that sold the hula hoop at that time, the profit difference of each hula hoop was more than 30 cents, which means that such a small hula hoop brought 60 million profits to the toy company in two years!

Of course, it is only 1940, and the population and market prosperity of the United States are far less than in 1958, and Chen Qiang does not expect to earn 60 million US dollars in two years, and he can earn millions, Chen Qiang is already very satisfied.

Chen Qiang took the polyethylene pipe in his hand, bent it towards the middle, and then asked: "Mr. Beckland, I want to make this a little thinner, and then make a circle, is it difficult in the process?" ”

"Of course it's not difficult, it's easy, it's just a process of molding." Little Beckland spoke.

"Then add some sand to this tube, it should be fine, right?" Chen Qiang then asked.

"Yes, but it's not of good quality, it's not strong enough......," explained little Beckland at once.

"I don't use my head to carry sand, I just add a little bit on one side, like a spoonful." Chen Qiang said.

"If it's just a tablespoon, it doesn't matter at all, and although the polyethylene material isn't strong, it's not so bad that you can't stand even a tablespoon of sand." Little Beckland replied.

"If I want to do large-scale industrial production, do you think it's possible?" Chen Qiang asked again.

"Massive? How big are you referring to? Little Beckland asked immediately.

"For example, I'm going to make such a big plastic ring." Chen Qiang gestured with his hand, and then said, "Can you produce 50,000 a day?" ”

"What do you say? 50,000 a day? Are you going to take this thing to the European battlefield to consume? Little Beckerland exclaimed.

Chen Qiang then asked, "Mr. Beckland, can you produce 50,000 a day?" ”

"Theoretically, yes, but in practice it's very difficult, even if I open a separate production workshop to produce the kind of things you mentioned, the output can be at most 10,000 a day." Beckland replied.

"Why? Is it due to raw materials, or is it due to process? Chen Qiang asked.

"Mainly because of the production capacity, my company does not have such a high production capacity." Beckland spread his hands and continued: "You don't have to worry about raw materials, the materials used to produce plastics are just by-products in the process of refining oil, and now Europe needs a lot of gasoline and diesel, so we need as many raw materials as we want, and those oil refining companies wish we could buy more." As for the process, I think there is still room for improvement, but the current level of craftsmanship should meet your needs. But I don't have that much equipment and workshops, and I don't have that many workers. ”

"Mr. Beckland, I will give you a large order of millions, and I believe that you will increase the production workshop for this." Chen Qiang said with a smile.

……

In order to raise money to produce hula hoops, Chen Qiang went to the bank again and directly mortgaged his entire "Chen Qiang Fitness" brand, which was the only way to get a loan.

Chen Qiang's own gym is not much money when mortgaged, but not long ago, Chen Qiang recruited more than a dozen franchisees, not only in New York, but also in Washington and Boston, there are Chen Qiang's franchise stores, a whole chain brand, of course, you can get more loans than a single gym.

Due to the war in Europe, it was very easy for the United States to take out loans at this time, and many factory owners went to the banks to seek loans in order to expand the scale of production, and the banks also knew that Europe was in urgent need of American industrial products, and now expanding the scale of production was similar to picking up money, so they were also happy to lend to entrepreneurs.

This is the case in a capitalist society, when the economy is more prosperous, the easier it is for enterprises to borrow, because the bank knows that at this time, the loan will be made and will not be lost; And the worse the economy, the worse business lending becomes, because banks fear that the loans they lend out will go down the drain.

After the loan was secured, a sample of the Beckland company was made.

Chen Qiang took the freshly made hula hoop sample, looked at it carefully, and pinched it with his hand from time to time.

After a while, Chen Qiang finally spoke: "The quality is too good!" ”

Little Beckland thought that Chen Qiang was praising him, but after seeing Chen Qiang's expression, Little Beckland was slightly stunned, and Chen Qiang was frowning at this time, looking dissatisfied.

"What kind of expression is this, it feels like I am disgusted with the quality of the product! How is this possible? Customers always dislike the quality of the product is not good enough, how can someone dislike the quality of the product is too good? Little Beckland thought incredulously, and then he asked, "Mr. Chen, do you have any dissatisfaction with this sample?" ”

"How much does it cost to produce such a product?" Chen Qiang asked.

"If you can give me an order for a million pieces, I can reduce the cost to 28 cents." Little Beckland replied.

In 1958, the production cost of a hula hoop was about 30 cents, and considering the inflation factors of the last two decades, the production cost of 28 cents in 1940 was high enough. This is mainly because the process level in 1940 was not good, especially the industrial production technology of polyethylene was not as good as in 1958, so the production cost of hula hoops was as high as 28 cents.

Chen Qiang estimated in his heart that the production cost of 28 cents would cost him at least 50 cents to sell to retailers, and the retailers would sell to customers at a price of about 75 cents, which was a bit expensive for Americans in 1940.

"It's better to lower the retail price of the terminal to less than 70 cents, so that the price I sell to the retailer must be less than 50 cents, so the production cost of a hula hoop should be reduced to 25 cents."

Thinking of this, Chen Qiang said: "Mr. Beckland, I hope to reduce the cost of the product to less than 25 cents. Can it be done? ”

Beckland thought for a moment, then shook his head: "That's impossible, 25 cents can't make such a product." ”

"You can try to downgrade the quality of the product." Chen Qiang said immediately.

"What?" Beckland suddenly had an incredulous expression, it was the first time he had heard such a request.

At this moment, Beckland finally determined that he had heard it right, Chen Qiang's sentence "the quality is too good" was indeed not a compliment, but a dislike.

"Hell, is there really anyone in this world who dislikes the quality of the product too good, and instead wants some inferior products?" Little Beckland looked confused, and he couldn't guess Chen Qiang's intentions at all.

"Mr. Chen, I don't quite understand what you mean, but since you are my customer, I should be responsible for you, I can't provide substandard quality products like you!" Little Beckland said with a sense of justice.

"This American is really brainless!" Chen Qiang scolded secretly in his heart, and then said: "Mr. Beckland, don't you think that meeting the requirements of customers is your performance of being responsible for customers?" ”

"Of course, I have to meet the customer's requirements." Beckland nodded.

"Well, my request is to make a cheaper product, and the quality can be lowered." Chen Qiang said.

Beckland hesitated for a moment, but finally nodded, and at the same time he spoke: "Mr. Chen, if you insist on that, I can only produce products according to your requirements, but I must remind you that no matter what you produce, consumers will not pay for inferior products." ”

I have to say that the European and American countries of that era still paid great attention to product quality, the Germans did not need to say that the control of product quality, the British, the French, and even the Italians paid great attention to the quality of products, and the United States, as the largest industrial country at that time, would not produce inferior products.

This is also caused by the times, early industrial countries, such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, experienced a process from research and development to production, any new product is put into industrial production, the first consideration is the scale of production and product promotion, rather than reducing costs.

The industrial countries that developed later, such as Japan, South Korea, and China, went through a process from imitation to production to research and development, and when these countries began to produce a certain industrial product, this product has been around for many years, so what needs to be considered at this time is to reduce costs, so as to occupy the market. Then, when the industrial capacity of these countries increases, they start to improve the quality until they join the ranks of developers.

For this reason, Americans complained about the poor quality of Japanese goods in the 80s, the poor quality of Korean goods in the 90s, and the poor quality of Chinese goods after the 21st century. However, the Americans in the 90s forgot how poor the quality of Japanese goods was, and they were happy to buy Sony electronics and drive Toyota cars; And after entering the 21st century, Americans have forgotten how to talk about Korean goods back then, they use Samsung mobile phones, and drive modern cars.

This is a process of industrial upgrading, a country's industrial capacity is constantly upgraded, and its product quality will also be continuously upgraded. In fact, when the industry is upgraded to a certain level, high-quality products can be produced.

Of course, the industrial scale of the economy is different, there are still differences, the future of Germany or Japan, due to the scale of the industry, you can only buy high-quality products, people only do high-end. And in China, you can feel what you pay for, if you have money, you can buy high-end goods, and if you don't have money, you can buy low-end goods.

Before World War II, there was no concept of product quality in industrial countries, and almost every factory owner was very conscious of making his products the best, so it can be said that it was an era that truly belonged to craftsmen.

However, Chen Qiang does not need any "craftsman spirit", he wants a cheap hula hoop that can be mass-produced.

In Chen Qiang's thinking, the hula hoop is a consumable, the price should be cheap enough, and there is no need to feel distressed if it is broken, just buy another one. A hula hoop of tens of cents, if it is not bad if it is used for ten years, then how can Chen Qiang make money!

And Chen Qiang doesn't have much money on hand, so he can reduce costs as much as possible and produce more hula hoops. Because the hula hoop has no technical content, it is easy to imitate, so Chen Qiang needs a large number of hula hoops, before the appearance of imitations, as soon as possible to occupy the market, and after the appearance of textiles, Chen Qiang's hula hoop has occupied most of the market, and the follow-up can also get more sales.

Historically, after the hula hoop was listed in 1958, it didn't take long for a lot of cottage products to appear, and various brands of hula hoops appeared in the market one after another, and even European and Japanese plastic processing companies began to cottage hula hoops.

Chen Qiang had no way to stop those copycats, so he could only find another way to seize the market with bargains, even if a large number of copycats appeared in the future, Chen Qiang's hula hoops had already sold enough quantities, and he had already made enough money by then.

The most important thing is people's consumption psychology, the same kind of product, shoppers must be the first to tend to bargains.

The Americans of the future will be like this, criticizing the poor quality of Chinese manufacturing all day long, but they don't see how much they spent to buy this thing, and it is obviously impossible to spend 10 yuan to buy 100 yuan of quality.

In fact, the Chinese products bought by Americans are orders placed by America's own businessmen, and the Chinese do not know what specifications of products you Americans want, and it is not what American businessmen order, and Chinese factories produce what goods, but America's own traders are reluctant to spend money to order good quality things, and in the end they can only throw the pot to Chinese quality.

I once saw a story about an American who came to a furniture factory in Foshan with an Italian sofa worth $5,000, hoping that the owner of Foshan would copy a batch. The boss of Foshan said that we can imitate it, and the cost is 2,000 US dollars.

The Americans said it was too expensive, and asked if it would cost $1,500, and the boss of Foshan said that we would replace the leather at the back and base with artificial leather, and the cost would drop to $1,500. The Americans asked again, can it still be cheaper? The owner of Foshan said that if we replaced the sponge inside with a cheap one, the cost would be reduced to $1,200.

In the end, the Americans chose a $700 plan, placed an order, and left satisfied. In fact, the $700 sofa, in addition to the appearance of the same as the sample, can be saved. Looking back, the Americans took back the $700 sofa and sold it for $2,000, and American consumers still felt that they had made money, and they bought the same sofa as 5,000 yuan for 2,000 yuan, and when the sofa was broken, they scolded again, your 2,000 yuan sofa is far worse than the 5,000 yuan one!

So why don't American traders order some good quality products? Because good quality products are more expensive and not easy to sell. Traders in the U.S. also know that consumers are reluctant to buy a batch of better-quality products at a higher price.

So in the final analysis, it is the American consumer who is greedy for cheap.

Of course, it is human nature to be greedy for cheap, and no one will leave cheap things and buy expensive ones.

For example, hula hoops, one sells for 90 cents, the other sells for 70 cents, and the two look no different from each other, and I believe consumers will choose 70 cents.

Chen Qiang believes that a more affordable hula hoop is also more attractive to American consumers!

As for quality, it doesn't matter.

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Ask for tickets, tickets!