"Don't worry too much about money, it will be much better next year." Chen Zhiwen paused and said.

"That's good, I'm going to go to New York after Christmas, and if the funds can't keep up, I'll hold off a little bit." Pierce said.

"No, the East Coast store opening plan is going on as usual." Chen Zhiwen said.

This year may be the most strenuous year for his many companies, mainly due to Hutchison's acquisitions, privatizations and huge debt problems, and when Hong Kong's property prices rise and Hutchison slims down next year, the financial pressure on other companies will be relaxed.

Red Bull will also start to strategically conquer the European market next year, and Walmart's stock will continue to rise, which will allow the mortgage debt ratio to ease this year, freeing up some credit loans.

Other types of investment are small investments, and even if they have to spend more, they won't cost much, that is to say, the main energy next year will inevitably be Costco's expansion, especially in the East Coast expansion plan, you know, the main wealth and economy of the United States are on the East Coast.

"Actually, it's okay to slow down, our expansion speed is too fast, even if there is no problem with your funds, my personnel may not be able to keep up." After a moment's hesitation, Pierce said.

"Didn't we spend a lot of money on talent expansion and training before? Can't keep up with our expansion? Chen Zhiwen frowned and asked, as early as a year ago, Pierce said that the number and quality of the company's team will not be able to keep up with the speed of expansion, therefore, he specially allocated two million US dollars, in order to hire a large number of experienced people from supermarket peers, from the most ordinary salesperson to middle managers to branch executives, as long as there are experienced and capable people, for this reason, but also deliberately let the current West Coast more than a dozen Costco has maintained far more than the actual demand for operating people, just to ensure that when the new store opens, You can mobilize enough people to go over, and another one, you can also select future store managers and branch executives from this group of people, and so on.

"It's a cost, this is, this is the West Coast, and the East Coast needs to retrain a group of talents, and in addition, considering the supply chain problems, the goods of the suppliers on the West Coast are not necessarily cost-effective to send to the East Coast, so we also need to select the right suppliers on the East Coast, and this time may be about the same as cultivating relevant talents." Pierce said.

"So, you're ready to slowly expand on the East Coast?" Chen Zhiwen also understood what Pierce meant.

The east and west coasts of the United States are far apart, and if it is only a nearby city, even a nearby state, under the call of the company, or give more benefits, there will naturally be many people willing to go to the new store, which may also be their opportunity.

But if you go to the east coast, thousands of kilometers apart, this will make many people hesitate, maybe you can find a group of people who are willing to go, but the number is certainly not as good as building a branch on the west coast, so you need to focus on the east coast, slowly expand, and by the way, cultivate relevant talents locally.

As for the suppliers, it is also a fact, some of the suppliers here may not be suitable for the East Coast, fortunately, the trading company in Hong Kong will not be affected too much, just change the port to go ashore, because the distance has become farther, there may be more freight, but the industry in the United States, many are trucks, even if there are trains, they need to be transported many times, and there is no way to unify transportation, logistics costs will seriously increase.

"Yes, now that we have the foundation on the West Coast, give me a year, I will open about 3-4 Costco on the East Coast, and I also need to sum up the experience there, maybe it will be different from the West Coast, if it goes well, we can start building more stores in the year after that." Pierce analyzed.

"Okay, you said that, of course I agree." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said, the expansion is too fast, it is indeed not good for the future of the company, since there is a shortage of talents due to the distance between the east and west coasts, it is better to stop for a while, so that Costco can straighten out its own problems, find its own shortcomings, cultivate more talents and find more suitable suppliers, etc.

Although in the first two years, Chen Zhiwen gave Costco not a lot of money, but compared to ordinary supermarket chains, it is enough, compared with the initial development of Wal-Mart, it took ten years to expand or be heavily indebted, and all aspects of the money should be spent on investment because of financial problems and had to be delayed, until after the listing to obtain a large amount of funds to improve, although Costco is a warehouse supermarket, but the essence of the operation is similar, Chen Zhiwen's support in all aspects is equivalent to allowing Costco to directly skip the most difficult years in the front, I haven't been worrying about funding.

"Mainly on the East Coast, I haven't operated there, many people's shopping habits may be different from the West Coast, it's better to be cautious, however, the West Coast side can continue to expand, we have to take a few nearby states first, and let the entire West Coast become our territory." Pierce said with a smile.

"That's good, but don't worry too much, in the short term, no one will invest in our industry." Chen Zhiwen smiled and said.

In the original history, Costco was the first warehouse supermarket in a broad sense, founded in 1976, and the second was Sam's Club, a subsidiary of Wal-Mart, which was established in 1983.

Although Sam Walton discovered Costco earlier, Chen Zhiwen, as the major shareholder of Wal-Mart, also probably knows Wal-Mart's financial situation, and all the funds are tightly used for Wal-Mart's expansion, and there is no room to enter the unfamiliar field of warehouse supermarkets.

Maybe it will be possible to wait another six or seven years, when Wal-Mart develops to the point where it has sufficient funds, but at that time, Costco will naturally gain a firm foothold in its own field, and when the megacities in the United States are occupied by Costco, and after gaining a large number of local city members, it is very difficult for anyone to beat Costco in the same field.

Not to mention whether the cost can be compared to Costco, the proportion of people who are willing to spend money to buy members in a city alone will not be very high, and they have been developed into members by Costco, plus shopping habits have been cultivated, and other supermarkets of the same type want to grab people? It's hard to do that in the Internet era.

However, there is another possibility, because Costco is developing rapidly, although the financial situation is not disclosed, it may attract the attention of some people, but non-professionals want to beat Costco, which has already entered the track, it is better to wait a few years to challenge their Walmart.

"Then I can also experience the supremacy of Celtic supermarkets." Pierce said with a smile.

Chen Zhiwen nodded and said: "Yes, sooner or later, we will also become one of the overlords of the retail business in the United States, but because of the restrictions of warehouse supermarkets, we cannot build so many quantities, and in terms of total scale, we are still not as good as ordinary supermarkets." ”

"It's good to be one of them, and I'm very satisfied." Pierce said.

Chen Zhiwen shrugged and said: "No, no one will, everyone has something to pursue, and when we get to that position, we will pursue more." ”

"Hahaha, maybe, but that's also your time, and my biggest pursuit is to open Costco in every big city in the United States." Pierce said with a smile.

"Then you'll be America's super-rich, too." Chen Zhiwen smiled and said that when he bought Fedmart of the Pierce team, and then hired them back to become the management of Costco, he promised them that the entire team would get a certain amount of shares, and now with more than two years later, Costco has developed very smoothly, and the Pierce team has also obtained 4% of the shares as promised.

It's just that in order to develop, Chen Zhiwen needs to inject capital several times, which will dilute their stake ratio, and today, the entire Pierce team still has 2.69% of the shares, although it doesn't seem like much, but if Costco goes public in the future, these shares can easily be turned into dollar cash in tons.

"Choosing to follow the boss may be the right path in my life." Pierce said with a smile, following Chen Zhiwen, not only gained a huge amount of wealth, but also controlled such a large potential star supermarket, which is unimaginable for countless people.

"The most correct choice for each other." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said. Without Peirce's team, even if Chen Zhiwen is based in the United States, he would not be able to build Costco, and if that were the case, he would have to focus on buying Walmart shares or buying supermarket shares in Europe.

It's a pity that several future retail giants in Europe developed earlier than Wal-Mart, and their scale is larger than Wal-Mart, but the future potential is far less than that of Wal-Mart, so when the funds were not enough, they naturally would not choose them, and now their own funds are more valuable, and they will not choose to spend on them, maybe wait until 80 years later to consider this matter.

Pierce continued: "Eric, in the East Coast development plan, I plan to start with a new York store, which is bigger than this one in Los Angeles, so that the New York branch can be our Costco storefront. ”

"Yes, you can do this kind of thing yourself, New York's economy is much stronger than Los Angeles, and it is also suitable for building a large supermarket, and there are more parking spaces and so on. Chen Zhiwen naturally agrees with this idea.

"Then when the architectural drawings come out, I'll send them to you by air." Pierce nodded.

In the past, when Costco expanded, it was always based on convenience, and sometimes it was just to buy a warehouse directly and rebuild it, but now it is different, basically self-made, unified architectural style.

"How far is the new logistics center from here?" Chen Zhiwen asked.

"It's not very far, almost 20 miles, but it's just bought over there, and it's still a wasteland, Eric you want to see it?" Pierce asked.

"Let's go check it out, it's okay anyway." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.

(End of chapter)