"It's hard to say, maybe a few days, maybe half a month, and in two days I'm going to go to Portland, Oregon, and maybe stay there for a while." Chen Zhiwen said.

"City of Portland?" Pierce recalled the information about the city, and didn't think about why his boss was going.

"You do your thing, if I don't finish it before I go back to Hong Kong, you can send me the information by air later, or fax, and you can call me if you have any questions." Chen Zhiwen thought for a while and said.

In this era, although there is no e-mail, there is also fax, but this thing is different from the scanning of later generations, it requires people to input words one by one, which is more advanced than telegrams, and lower than text messages, and is in between.

Because it needs to be entered, it may be more time-consuming if the number of words is large, and it is easy to make mistakes, so it is not easy to detect, so when there is a lot of content, the speed of transferring documents may not be as fast as sending documents by air.

"Okay, then I'll communicate with you when the preliminary training plan and cost budget are completed." Pierce nodded.

While talking, the two walked to the catering area, which sells cooked dishes, which are different from the cooked dishes in China in later generations, mainly roast chicken, sausages, cooked beef, etc., Costco supermarket in order to facilitate the shopping crowd, also opened a restaurant in the cooked food area, more than 20 tables are placed in several rows, customers can drink coffee here, can also eat snacks or eat a meal, in addition to cooked food, there are also hamburgers, sandwiches, cakes, ice cream and other foods, the variety is not at all compared to McDonald's, It can not only make people not worry about whether they need to go to the supermarket after eating, but also increase the profit of the supermarket itself.

"Let's eat here at noon." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile that he is often used to eating food in five-star hotels, and it is not bad to eat an ordinary fast food, just like in his previous life, he occasionally goes to eat a snack in Shaxian County, and the taste is very good.

The boss delivered the goods, and the others were naturally fine, everyone found a place to sit down, and the waiter knew that it was the company's senior management, so he hurriedly ran over to entertain him.

After a while, everyone's lunch was served, and Chen Zhiwen ordered a cup of ice cola, a small roast chicken, and a small hamburger.

"This roast chicken tastes good." Chen Zhiwen took a bite and praised it, no worse than the Orleans roast chicken in later generations.

"I know that all of our Costco fast food chefs are poached from big chains, mainly McDonald's, Burger King, which are more famous, and their techniques are better." Pierce said with a smile.

"Wouldn't it infringe patents? These fast-food chains have a lot of patents on food condiments, right? Chen Zhiwen asked.

"No, we didn't use their unique seasoning, in fact, just change the proportion of a few ingredients, there is no legal problem, the taste is actually similar, everyone goes to McDonald's to eat, that is, a brand problem, other stores want to do the same taste is not difficult, there is also the cost problem, the fast food industry is similar to our supermarket, dislocation competition, different positioning, never taste difference." Pierce said with a smile.

"Do you know a lot?" Chen Zhiwen smiled and said.

"Of course, in fact, I was going to sell Fedmart last year, and I was going to go into the fast food restaurant business, and I still studied this industry." After eating the salad, Pierce said, "Opening a fast food restaurant in Costco now is a good thing to do for my retirement." ”

"Are you going to join McDonald's?" Chen Zhiwen asked.

"No, it's a fast food restaurant called KFC, I know the founder of this restaurant, but unfortunately I'm older than me, and I couldn't sell the whole company a few years ago, otherwise, the future of KFC must be very good." Pierce said with some pity.

"KFC, I've heard that." Chen Zhiwen's face was surprised for a moment, and then it returned to normal, the name of KFC He naturally knew that if there was excess funds in the future, he could also buy it to operate and play, but now, there is no idea, this kind of industry has no influence, the earning power is medium, and the market size is far less than too many normal industries, and it belongs to the category of dispensable.

"The taste of KFC is not bad, but the development is much later than McDonald's, and now it is too difficult to catch up, the acquisition of KFC is a well-known liquor company, KFC has developed well in recent years, and McDonald's competes in many places, but it is very short of funds, and a little profit every year is taken away by the head office to maintain the alcohol business, not to mention normal expansion." Pierce shook his head and sighed.

Chen Zhiwen asked: "Isn't KFC a choice to join?" ”

"You also need to invest your own money to join, and you need to advertise when you join yourself, otherwise no one knows the KFC brand, besides, which investor invests in KFC, it is also necessary to inspect the market, and the head office does not spend money on marketing and advertising, how many people will invest?" Pierce said with a smile: "As far as I know, McDonald's spends more than $50 million a year on advertising, and KFC is not even a fraction of it. ”

"There is no chance, McDonald's has basically covered most of the United States, and the popularity is also the highest, other brands, if they do not compete well, there is no chance at all, the cost of success may be 2-3 times the cost of McDonald's, and any capitalist is not a fool." Chen Zhiwen smiled and said, "That wine-making company may not be a fool either. ”

The first-mover advantage is not only in the high-tech or Internet industry, but also in the real industry, a brand has succeeded, and if you don't make a big mistake, other brands want to catch up, you have to pay several times the cost, and no capitalist will do this.

"That's true, KFC really doesn't have much of a chance." Pierce nodded.

"Unless KFC can enter a very large new market that McDonald's has not yet entered, it will have to change its products and go other ways." Chen Zhiwen said that the mainland in later generations is KFC's turnaround, although the final scale is still not as good as McDonald's, but if there is no domestic market, it may have become an unknown person long ago.

"That's impossible, McDonald's has already entered the Asian and European markets, and KFC has no chance." Pierce said.

"So, you should also understand why I'm in a hurry to expand Costco on a large scale, supermarkets are such things, you can enter with capital, we have to take advantage of the fact that others haven't reacted, we have to build up the scale first, and when they find out, even if they can enter the market again, they will need to pay a greater price." Chen Zhiwen said with a light smile.

(End of chapter)