"Thank you, oh, hello, Asian friend." The white man looked up and saw that the person greeting him was Asian. He paused for a moment, but showed no discrimination.
Watching the other person choose earrings, Song Tianyao slowly asked, "My boss asked me to find a way to collect hair of various colors. May I ask, do you have a few wigs?"
"You mean this?" The young man tossed his long, flaxen hair. "Four kinds: yellow, dark red, silver-white, and this flaxen one."
"What's your favorite color?" Song Tianyao asked, looking at the other person.
The young man pointed to Song Tianyao's hair. "Black. My friend, this is United States. Black hair is very cool. Haven't you noticed there aren't any black wigs on the shelves? Because there aren't many."
"The wigs here are much worse than the United States ones I saw at Lane Crawford Department Store in Hong Kong." As Tang Boqi walked in, Song Tianyao said to him, "If they're not counterfeit, then there's only one possibility."
"The supply of goods cannot meet the demand, causing wig factories to pursue quantity at the expense of the original quality," Tang Boqi interjected.
Song Tianyao smiled at Tang Boqi, "The last time I saw someone as smart as you was a few months ago."
"And then? You became friends with that smart guy?" Tang Boqi gestured to the shop assistant to hand over a wig and asked casually.
Song Tianyao shook his head. "He was killed by his brother."
"This wig is made in a local San Francisco factory." Tang Boqi didn't hear clearly, but instead looked through the tag hidden inside the wig and said, before turning to Song Tianyao: "What did you just say?"
"It's nothing, I just said we wanted to check out that factory." Song Tianyao waved to the shop assistant. "How much is it? I want to buy this one, and could you please tell me where this wig is made?"
As they walked out of the store again, Tang Boqi said to Song Tianyao, who was holding a wig, "Do you think I should go to Wall Street? Or should I continue making wigs for these crazy white men like you?"
"I really hope you'll go into the wig business," Song Tianyao said to Tang Boqi earnestly.
Tang Boqi started his motorcycle. "I don't even know if what you said is true or false. Your mask is even more impressive than mine, and I've never thought about cooperating with anyone in the fake hair business."
"Cooperation? Of course not. What I want to cooperate with are United States who can act as agents in the United States for the wigs I produce in Hong Kong. You, the son of a Chinese laundry shop owner, obviously don't have that kind of channel." Song Tianyao put the brown wig on his head to try it out. "Just because you wear a brown wig doesn't mean people will think you're United States."
Chapter 207 Masks and Masks
Song Tianyao and Tang Boqi pretended to be businessmen who wanted to open wig shops in San Francisco and Los Angeles' Chinatown. Holding the wigs they had just bought, they visited a wig factory in the San Francisco South Bay. The owner of the wig factory was a Jew. While other Jews were heading to Israel from all over the world to celebrate the establishment of their own Jewish state, this Jew chose to stay in San Francisco to make some money before going to build up Israel.
This wig factory is not large; it has only one production workshop and two sets of assembly line machinery. From rinsing to styling, the entire process is mechanized, and only ten employees are needed to keep the wig factory running efficiently.
"These wigs seem to be in high demand in California lately. I'm planning to open two wig shops in San Francisco's Chinatown and Los Angeles' Chinatown first," Song Tianyao said to the factory owner who was accompanying him on a tour of the workshop. "How many wigs can these two sets of machines produce per month?"
"It's not just California, Mr. Song, all the young people in United States are crazy about this stuff. Tattoo artists, clothing factories, and wig shops will be the most profitable businesses. Those young people need to change their wigs every two or three days." Factory owner Marcus pointed to four busy electric high-needle machines and said, "Every month, the two sets of equipment in this workshop can produce three hundred wigs comparable to France brands. If the store's requirements aren't too high, it can reach four hundred to four hundred and fifty."
Song Tianyao held the brown wig he had bought from the store, examined it for a moment, and said to Marcus, "It seems this wig can't compare to the France ones."
Marcus led Song Tianyao to a buzzing hair curling machine that was gathering, arranging, and pressing raw hair neatly. "France standards require the hair curling machine to press and arrange the hair three times, but in reality, one pressing and arranging is enough."
He then walked to the high-quality hair knitting machine. "The standard for France products is that the hair knitting machine processes the hair three times. The wig you have has only been processed once. As for the higher-end, top-quality products, they are hand-knitted by artisans in Paris, France. My clients remind me to reduce some processes and increase production."
"The factory seems to have very few workers." Song Tianyao nodded in agreement and asked Marcus, "Why not add more equipment and workers?"
"Adding equipment? First of all, there's no stockpile of raw materials that would require additional equipment. The two production lines occasionally have to temporarily shut down due to raw material shortages. Besides, this wig production line equipment is the latest model; a single set costs $70,000. You know, large expenditures always require careful consideration. However, I prefer machinery to manual labor; at least machinery is a one-time investment. But look at those workers—six people, three in a group, responsible for taking the produced wigs out of the setting oven and packaging them; the remaining four, two in a group, are responsible for operating and maintaining the machinery. They only work eight hours a day, and the packaging workers earn US dollars 320 a month..." "The mechanics earn US dollars 360 a month. Each of them earns enough in a year to buy two brand-new Ford family cars! I'm waiting for more advanced machinery that only requires one person to operate each set. With only ten workers, my wig factory, with just ten workers, has to pay US dollars 40,000 in wages every year, not counting those damn overtime pay. Now you know why I don't expand the production line. However, if you want to open a wig shop, although the factory has enough orders, I can still supply your shop with about seventy wigs every month." Marcus walked to the high-speed, noisy high-needle machine in the workshop before speaking to Song Tianyao in a complaining tone.