"It's a lot of investment." Chen Zhiwen smiled and said. You know, if the supplier bears the initial cost of goods, the cost of opening a new store at Costco is about one million dollars, and now a logistics center may be seven or eight times that of a new store.

"Eric, this matter is not urgent, because we need at least half a year or so to stabilize the current 5 branches, I am already preparing to find new store addresses in five other cities in California, and when these few open, at least until the end of the year, these ten branches, I can also use the current model to supply, that is, the cost will be a little higher, but if we go out of California, we need a logistics center, the West Coast is actually a little better in California, and there are some cities in other states that are okay, but they are too scattered, If the suppliers are all logistics supply, the cost will be too high. Pierce continued.

The main population of the United States is concentrated on the east and west coasts, and there are many cities in between, but they are far from each other, which is also the reason why the aviation industry in the United States is developed, their populations are concentrated in cities, and cities are scattered all over the place.

Chen Zhiwen naturally knew this and asked, "Then when do we need to build this logistics center?" ”

"If we don't need to expand in a hurry, it's fine in two or three years, but if we want to take control of the West Coast soon, it's best to start investing early next year." Pierce suggested.

"Okay, I'll be ready." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said, Costco's expansion, coupled with the logistics center, is also a short-term investment of tens of millions of dollars, but the investment still needs to be invested, otherwise, if there are more stores and no logistics distribution center, the cost of all aspects will increase sharply, that is, self-destruction of the city wall.

The supermarket itself is also a heavy asset industry, once it collapses, you can only step on the accelerator to the end, desperately accelerate, otherwise, sooner or later it will be defeated by other players, especially Wal-Mart, which has known in advance about the warehouse supermarket, and so on in a few years Wal-Mart has sufficient funds, it is very likely to enter the market, which may be a few years earlier than the original history, and as long as they occupy the big city first, others can only choose the rest.

Of course, it is also possible to fight together in big cities, but Sam Walton should not do this, after all, Wal-Mart's biggest competitors are still giant retail companies such as Kmart and Sears, which have a turnover of more than 10 billion US dollars.

"Actually, we can also take out loans, but in this case, our financial situation will be known to the bank." Pierce said suddenly.

"It's okay to take out a loan, but it won't mortgage Costco." Chen Zhiwen smiled and said, he doesn't want to directly mortgage several of his companies now, Red Bull, Midea's arcade profits and Costco are all private companies, and their financial status is extremely confidential, and if they are mortgaged, then the data must be handed over to the bank, although the law definitely requires the bank to keep it secret, but in fact, who knows?

These companies either have high profit margins or high capital turnover, any investor or related industry people see the financial report data to know how great the potential of these new industries is, once leaked, the industry giants find out, but also to enter the market, it will be troublesome.

Midea's arcade machine is a little better, Chen Zhiwen's later memory has an unparalleled advantage, but Red Bull and Costco don't have too many advantages, even if they start now, they have just left the starting point, and if others are willing to spend money, there is still a chance.

This is the last thing Chen Zhiwen wants to happen, so Wal-Mart's stock is the best collateral, but Hong Kong may also need a lot of money at any time, but fortunately, next year, Wal-Mart's stock may rise by twenty or thirty points, which will bring Chen Zhiwen tens of millions of dollars in credit collateral out of thin air.

"OK, you're the boss, and you're in charge of the funds." Pierce said with a smile that he knew that the logistics center was not a problem, in fact, for him, Costco's development speed was too fast, and if it weren't for his boss's additional large amount of capital, normal entrepreneurs would not have this ability at all.

"The development is too smooth, and the demand for funds is also fast!" Chen Zhiwen smiled and shook his head, he was going to start with the functional drinks and electronics industry, and he estimated that these two industries would not consume too much money, and Midea's household appliance project would cost money, but the arcade machine could be easily wrapped, although Red Bull invested a lot in advertising, it was also from its own profits, as long as there was no problem, it would be fine.

Knowing that Wal-Mart's stock price has risen very sharply in recent years, it started to acquire early, so it not only caught up with Wal-Mart's relationship, but also had a very high rate of return on investment projects, and at the same time obtained enough collateral to maintain Costco's extremely rapid expansion.

Other investments, such as the acquisition in Hong Kong, although they consume a lot of money, but like Walmart stocks, Chen Zhiwen knows that it will rise in the future, and as long as he waits, he can get a return, the only exception may be Wharf, a possible fierce acquisition war with Jardine Matheson, and there is a real acquisition, and the huge project of Harbour City is also a very big gold-swallowing beast.

These are basically the limits of Chen Zhiwen's current ability to personally participate in investment, and after these projects are successful one by one, he will have the energy to plan others, but this does not affect other investment projects that do not need to worry about only paying.

One is a small joint venture project with Warren Buffett in Hong Kong, because Chen Zhiwen has already prepared the land and construction, and after the equipment of Berkshire Hathaway arrived, it quickly started to start supplying in Hong Kong, and also exported a small amount to the United States.

The second is the trading company for supermarket goods, in the case of having two major customers in the United States, Chen Zhiwen only ordered the trading company to try its best to open up the market of several major supermarket giants in Europe in the future, such as Auchan, Tesco, Metro, Carrefour, these supermarkets are not very big at present, if it is not for the lack of funds and these few have not been listed, Chen Zhiwen may also invest in a few more shares.

However, from the point of view of the rate of return, the benefits of these companies are still not as good as Wal-Mart's, after all, the European market is too chaotic, not because of the business environment, but because of the fragmentation of culture and language, the local market of these companies is too small, and it takes a higher cost to expand to other European countries, which makes it difficult to achieve the scale of Wal-Mart.

If Europe is really a country, then there will definitely be a giant similar to Wal-Mart in the retail field.

As for other large supermarkets such as Kmart, it doesn't matter at all, after all, the energy of trading companies is also limited, and there is no need to spend too many resources to conquer a giant that is about to collapse in the future, and the water inside such giants is very deep, and it is difficult to enter their supply chain when they are at their peak.

The third is a company that Chen Zhiwen wants to invest in, which is located in Portland, Oregon, in northern California.

After two days of observing the newly opened Costco supermarket in San Francisco, Chen Zhiwen took his group to Oregon in northern California, and with the recommendation of Citibank's recommendation letter, Chen Zhiwen met the person he needed to meet - Phil Knight.

(End of chapter)