"I couldn't have imagined that even tires were sold." Chen Zhiwen saw the tires hanging on the wall in front of him and said with some surprise.

The United States is a big car country, basically every adult has a car, it is normal for the supermarket to have a special area for car daily necessities, Chen Zhiwen should be thinking about glass water, wipers, cushions, etc., I didn't expect that there are tires here, because he has been to several different supermarkets in the United States before, and there is no such thing.

"When I come to Costco to shop, I basically drive, so providing car services is the direction I am ready to focus on, originally I was going to sell gasoline, but the qualification of gas station is not so easy to get, and it takes a while to go through the process, so I can only start with the maintenance of the car." Pierce explains: "

There is a special car repair position at the back of the supermarket, I hired two experienced masters from the outside, specializing in solving the trouble of the car for customers, the service price is also according to Costco's business model, it is very cheap, the profit is very low, and there is also free manual car washing equipment. ”

"It's a good way to attract car owners to become our VIP customers." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.

In the United States, the labor cost is very high, the general car to the car shop maintenance, the cost of parts may not be high, but the labor union is very expensive, so most of the small problems are solved by the car owner himself, but the big problem has no choice, can only go to the auto repair shop.

However, as long as you can do more sales, you can make small profits, the price of the general auto repair shop is high because of the instability of fewer customers, but the number of Costco customers, naturally is not a problem, the number of customers, even if the salary of several maintenance masters is high, it can also be spread low on each car, in turn, low-cost auto repair services can also become an attraction point to attract users to become Costco VIP customers, and as long as they become VIP customers, consumption in other aspects is naturally there.

"At present, almost 15% of our VIP potential customers are attracted by car services." Pierce said.

"It's really good, take down the qualifications of the gas station as soon as possible, as long as our oil price is cheaper, it will attract a lot of people." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said, although Lao Mei is very rich, most of their cars are high fuel consumption, and the price of oil has tripled last year.

This is also in line with Costco's planning direction, users come to buy enough daily necessities for two or three months at one time, and if they can provide a lower fuel price and appropriate car maintenance services, it will basically cover all the needs of users for shopping.

This is actually the background of the success of Costco in later generations, together with Wal-Mart is also such a logic, small profits but quick turnover, is the fundamental reason for the rise of supermarket giants, no matter what kind of retail model, as long as this is the principle, to reduce costs, it will be able to succeed.

"It's just that there's another problem, if our oil prices are too cheap, it may move some people's interests." Pierce said.

"That's true, but it's not a big problem, just send gifts, as long as the value of the gift is high enough, it is equivalent to a discount." Chen Zhiwen thought for a while and said.

There are a lot of goods in the supermarket, the price is different, the variety is different, the price of all kinds of supermarkets is different, and each supermarket almost has its own coverage territory, so even if which one is cheap, it is difficult to compare, especially the user, it is also difficult to know, only long-term consumption long-term comparison will be found, but the price of oil is different, a few cents cheaper will cause hostility in the industry.

This is actually the trouble of Costco in later generations, because it infringes on the interests of other gas stations, under the pressure of nearby gas stations, fuel dealers in this state do not sell fuel to Costco, forcing Costco to go to the next state to transport oil, but in this way the cost has increased a lot, this business is not cost-effective, but it doesn't matter, this is just a means to attract users, it doesn't matter if you don't make money, and then when Costco is really large, the so-called pressure will naturally be ineffective.

However, now Costco has just opened, or to be low-key, gifting itself is also a means of promotion, as long as the price does not fall, nearby gas stations will not unite, because the promotion will stop at any time, as for when they find out that it is abnormal, then then it will be said, as long as Costco relies on this means to gather enough VIP customers.

"It's okay, send some drinks and beer or something, it's not bad, and most young Americans like these." Pierce said with a smile.

A few people walked and chatted, and after shopping the whole supermarket, they came to the office in the northeast corner, a three-story office.

In the era when there were no computers, all the information was calculated on paper, and all kinds of materials in the office were about to pile up.

"It's going to open in three days, and it's been very busy these days, and things are a little messy." Pierce said with some embarrassment.

"It's fine." Chen Zhiwen nodded, under normal circumstances, when his boss came, at least his subordinates would tidy up the office space, but even so, there are still so many materials, you can imagine what it would be like to be busy before.

Relatively speaking, although Costco's area is large, its SKU (product category) is much lower than that of supermarkets such as Walmart, so the workload of other supermarkets can be imagined. The high operating costs of supermarkets in this era have a lot to do with this!

"Pierce, is there a computer on the market now for supermarket statistics?" Chen Zhiwen asked.

Pierce thought for a while and said: "I heard that Kmart ordered tens of millions of dollars of computers from IBM last year to assist the operation of their internal supermarket, but how to do it, outsiders don't know, I have also consulted, IBM's price is too high, and the price of another Wang's computer is okay, but they have no experience in working with the retail industry, and they still need to redevelop, and it is estimated that it may take about 3 million US dollars." ”

"That's too expensive." Chen Zhiwen frowned a little and said, even if it is a cheap Wang's computer, the quotation can catch up with the investment of the entire supermarket, this price is far more expensive than the expensive American labor, only some special industries can afford to use such an expensive computer.

Wang's computer is the most famous Wang An computer in later generations, the founder Wang An will become the world's fourth richest man in a few years, the richest Chinese, his industry is industrial computers, relying on cheap cost performance to grab IBM's market, in the early 80s, worth more than 2 billion US dollars, but unfortunately missed the era of personal computers, coupled with internal contradictions in the company, and finally collapsed.

Pierce nodded and said, "I also calculated the cost, but I decided to use labor." ”

"Okay, but you have to keep an eye on the technology industry, if there is any new technology or the cost is greatly reduced, the computer should still be used." Chen Zhiwen said.

Wal-Mart can rise in later generations, an important factor is the early 80s electronic reform, although hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested, but the success of reducing costs and improving logistics efficiency, Chen Zhiwen naturally hopes that Costco can also seize this opportunity, but it is estimated that it will be after the personal computer era.