Due to the dramatic decline in the business of Hey Tea, the store manager reported the matter to his superior.
“What? You said all the patrons went to Cha Yan that’s opposite us?”
“Did you reduce the speed of production? Are there no customers in line at all? There’s no crowd?”
“Where are the scalpers?”
“What about the fake customers we hired before the opening?”
“Did those not work either?”
At this juncture, the owner of Hey Tea was already frowning hard. Clearly, things were beyond his expectations.
“Get someone to go over to Cha Yan and buy their beverages. Buy every signature drink, I’ll be in the store right away.”
Soon after, the owner of Hey Tea and the store manager were both in the shop. They were keeping their eyes glued to the watermelon juice that they had bought from Cha-Yan that was across their store.
“You said this is the new product they’re promoting today?”
Looking at the ordinary watermelon juice in front of him, the owner of Hey Tea was a little unsure as to why everyone was buying it and why it caused his business to decline even though he had been operating it for a long time.
“Yes, when I went to queue up, almost everyone in front of me ordered watermelon juice.”
“In that case, let’s try it.”
As soon as he tasted the seemingly ordinary watermelon juice, the owner of Hey Tea frowned, not because of anything else, but because the watermelon juice in front of him was simply too delicious.
It was hard to imagine that the ordinary watermelon could be that refreshing.
First of all, there were no impurities in the watermelon juice. It was extremely pure.
Under normal circumstances, after being exposed in the air for a long time, the taste of ordinary watermelon juice would be affected. However, that problem did not crop up in the current cup of watermelon juice.
On the contrary, the watermelon juice had a rich and refreshing aroma. It wasn’t bland at all. Instead, it was sweet and pure, and every mouthful made him feel like he was eating the sweetest part of the watermelon.
“Did you notice what kind of watermelon they used?” The owner of Hey Tea, who had been in the beverage business for numerous years, was keenly aware that the key to the beverage was the raw ingredient—watermelon.
“It seems to be a dark-skinned watermelon, not the kind that we often use.”
“Go think of a solution to find out their source,” the owner of Hey Tea ordered.
Zhou Kun did not know that he had become the key to the competition between the two milk tea stores. He was currently busy because the chat group with the fruit wholesalers, which had been silent for a long time, was once again buzzing with excitement because of the watermelons.
“Boss Zhou, are the new batch of watermelons as good as the dragon fruit that you sold to us previously? How much are they?”
Zhou Kun was originally still hesitating whether he should sell the watermelons according to their weight or as a whole. However, he thought about the fact that all the watermelons that he had sold were sold individually as a whole, which made the bulk of the batch. Hence, it seemed rather inappropriate to suddenly lower the price and sell them at five yuan per 500 grams.
Hence, he sent a message to the group. “They have the same source of origin as the dragon fruit. There are no problems with the quality at all. The price is 30 yuan per watermelon.”
“Since when have watermelons been sold individually?” The members of the group started criticizing one after another.
“30 yuan each? How large are the watermelons?”
“How much do they weigh?”
“Has anyone in this group bought any of those watermelons yet? How are the sales of watermelon?”
Seeing that there were quite a few people who spoke up in the group and that everyone was paying attention, Zhou Kun continued, “Between 2.5 to 3 kilograms each.”
“That’s a bit expensive. How about I order 20 of them first to observe the effects? After all, the price of the dragon fruits that we bought earlier on was high, but they sold well.”
Zhuo Xiong was the first to place an order. He had made an excellent turnaround previously through the sales of the dragon fruit. If that batch of watermelons were of the same quality as the dragon fruit, it wouldn’t be a problem if it was more expensive.
“Then, I’ll order 10 too.”
“10 for me too.”
“It just so happens that the dragon fruits on my store are almost sold out, and the watermelons can make up for the deficit in stock. Give me 30.”
Plenty of fruit store owners in the chat group had placed orders, but the high prices made them feel apprehensive about Zhou Kun’s watermelons. As a result, they merely ordered in smaller quantities.
Zhou Kun tabulated the orders from the members of the chat group and found that they had merely ordered a little over three hundred watermelons in total. However, it was better than nothing. Zhou Kun tidied up the orders and began to deliver the goods.
After getting busy for the entire day, Zhou Kun was so exhausted that he fell asleep in the store. However, the profits of the day were wonderful. The group-purchase of the residents of Jinlan Residences and the additional order placed by Huang Fang totaled up to 200-odd watermelons. Mr. Chen bought 400 while the fruit wholesalers in the group chat bought 300 in total. He had sold 900 watermelons altogether and earned 27,000yuan.
If only he could sell that many watermelons every single day!
Zhou Kun thought about it while lying on the bed.
He didn’t know that his watermelons would be a complete hit in Tong City the following day. Everything started with the batch of watermelons that Ji Gaosheng delivered.
After getting that batch of watermelons, Ji Gaosheng soon delivered them to his clients.
For example, Mr. Huang, a client of his, and his family didn’t take the watermelons too seriously at first.
Mr. Huang’s daughter was a live-stream host who often held live eating broadcasts. That night, she coincidentally received an endorsement for watermelons.
Mr. Huang’s daughter rose to fame back then because of a video of herself eating some cake, which had been uploaded onto the internet.
The video of the cute girl eating cake sweetly soon went viral on the internet.
Huang Ailin, who loved surfing the internet, took the opportunity to engage in the latest trend on the internet where one would hold a live broadcast of themselves eating. Although she was not a top influencer, she was somewhat famous.
Later on, plenty of food and beverage stores, as well as snack stores, sought Huang Ailin to promote their products.
The endorsement that she received today was from an online fruit store that mainly sold watermelons.
In order to better reflect the quality of the promotion of watermelon, Huang Ailin decided to go downstairs to buy a random watermelon. To her surprise, there were two watermelons at home, which were delivered to them by Ji Gaosheng.
When the store owner engaged Huang Ailin to promote the watermelons, he boasted about his product and claimed that it could beat all other watermelons on the market. He requested for Huang Ailin to do a comparison, and he even said that if his watermelons did not taste the best, he would still pay her, but she need not promote it.
“Hello babies, I’m Ailin, and I’m going to recommend some delicious food to you again. First things first, this is a sponsored advertisement, I hope you guys won’t mind.”
Since Huang Ailin had a wealthy family, she would often clarify during her broadcasts that she was advertising or promoting a certain product. Hence, her fans did not dislike her.
Indeed, there were numerous comments left by netizens, such as “As long as Ailin is the one eating, we won’t mind.”
“Ailin is so ethical, she would often inform us if it’s an advertisement.”
“My Ailin looks so adorable no matter what she’s eating.”
“Today, we’re going to try this watermelon, it’s claimed to be better than all other watermelons on the market, so in order to facilitate a comparison, I’ve found a random watermelon. Now, let’s cut them open and have a look.”
“My goddess is so down-to-earth and loves watermelons as much as I do.”
“Watermelon eater passing by quietly.”
“Watermelon eater +1”
“Watermelon eater +666”
Huang Ailin cut open two watermelons in front of the camera, and instantly, a few white seeds were revealed on the surface of one watermelon. On the other hand, Zhou Kun’s watermelon was completely seedless and only the red-colored flesh was revealed because Huang Ailin didn’t cut along the line on the skin of the watermelon.
“Wow, why does the seedless watermelon on the right look so delicious to me?”
“I agree with the comment above.”
“The comment above +1”
“Some watermelons may look seedless and delicious but they’re actually slightly stiff in texture, and their growths were all boosted by hormones.” There were plenty of people who began commenting otherwise.
Due to the fact that the camera was facing the watermelons, the audience could not see Huang Ailin’s face.
When she was cutting the watermelon, she felt that something was amiss. Although the watermelon that she had received from the sponsor was not bad, there was a strong and refreshing aroma when she cut open the watermelon that she found at home. Based on that point alone, the watermelon that she was meant to promote, had already lost.
Nonetheless, the viewers on the other end of the broadcast didn’t know that, and the broadcast still had to proceed.