Ferdinand had talked himself hoarse before he finally saw Princess Clémentine off. To be frank, he was still somewhat afraid of her. After all, he had taken over someone else's nest, and he couldn't help feeling a little guilty.
Ferdinand returned to working on his supermarket business plan. The most important thing now was staff training, which was also the most difficult part of the plan.
Ferdinand planned to hire a hundred people to start with. They would need to have at least graduated from secondary school and would receive preliminary training. As for training the instructors, he would have to fill that role himself for now!
Come to think of it, he could also ask the old butler to lend a hand. He had managed the several hundred people inside and outside the castle with ease, so he was certainly capable.
Vienna in 1881 was, after all, different from the world of the future. He couldn't simply copy everything wholesale. This was still a world ruled by the aristocracy, and the clerks would have to receive basic training in aristocratic etiquette.
Shopping would have to be separated for commoners and nobles, too. Otherwise, if the aristocratic gentlemen saw a mob of middle-aged women rushing in to snatch up vegetables, they probably wouldn't set foot in the store again!
The second step was finding a location. That was the easiest problem to solve. In a vast city like Vienna, there had to be eighty or a hundred suitable places. He could rent or buy one and simply do some basic renovations.
They couldn't afford to open a multistory supermarket yet anyway, and they wouldn't be able to stock enough goods. The countless snacks and wide range of brands and household necessities found in later generations didn't even exist yet.
He seemed to have stumbled across another way to make money: developing simple, low-tech snacks might have real potential, too. Never mind. He'd better open the supermarkets first, Ferdinand thought.
The third step was stocking up, which would be a bit of a hassle at first. He could buy from wholesale markets for now. Once the supermarkets had grown, he could go straight to the manufacturers.
The fourth step was handling the necessary paperwork. That was no problem at all. He was, after all, a great nobleman, and he had enough pull to get it done.
The last issue was money. Adding together staff training, premises, inventory, and all the other odds and ends, Ferdinand made a rough estimate: a 500-square-meter supermarket would cost around a thousand Pound Sterling.
(Note: In 1881, the Austro-Hungarian Empire's currency was the gulden; after 1893, it changed to the krone. Because currency values fluctuated at the time, there were several conversion results. For convenience, Pound Sterling is used directly. 1 Pound Sterling = 7.32238 grams of pure gold.)
Taking his circumstances into account, Ferdinand decided to open five department stores in Vienna to begin with. Two of them would cater exclusively to nobles, and commoners would not be admitted!
That made training the staff for those stores especially important. If they caused trouble, Ferdinand would have to clean up the mess himself!
The reason Ferdinand was opening only five stores at a time wasn't a lack of money. A mere few thousand pounds was nothing to him!
The problem was that staff training couldn't keep up. In particular, to make sure nothing went wrong after the two stores for nobles opened, Ferdinand sent his own servants to help out there for a while.
Aside from staff training, none of the other work posed much difficulty for Ferdinand.
From market research and staff training to choosing locations, renovating, and stocking the stores, the whole process took a little over three months. His department stores were finally ready.
More than half a year after arriving in this world, he looked at the supermarket he had built with his own hands, and pride welled up in him. This place carried the dreams he had once held!
In his previous life, even if he had worked his whole life, he might never have owned a little supermarket like this in Vienna. Yet now, it seemed so insignificant!
June 18, 1881, was the auspicious date Ferdinand had chosen. His first department store opened, and he had shamelessly stolen Volvo's name.
Of course, this was clearly a supermarket for commoners. The store meant to serve the aristocratic gentlemen wasn't going to be ready for business anytime soon.
As a transmigrator, he naturally hadn't forgotten to advertise. Two days earlier, he had sent all the employees out with banners, marching through the streets of Vienna to announce that Volvo was opening.
The year 1881 was one to remember, in both the East and the West. On February 24, Zeng Jize signed the Treaty of Ili and the Land Trade Regulations with representatives of Russia.
Russia returned Ili, but took vast territories west of the Khorgos River and north of the Ili River in return. China paid Russia nine million Rubles in indemnities.
The Manchu Qing nobles were still living in drunken stupor, while the country was sliding toward the abyss.
Bismarck wanted to prevent Russia and France from joining forces and trapping him between two fronts. Russia, in turn, wanted to ally with Germany to stand against the United Kingdom in the Near East and around the two straits.
On June 18, 1881, Bismarck and the ambassadors of Russia and Austria renewed the Three Emperors' agreement in Berlin. It was set to last three years.
That same day, the world's first supermarket, Volvo, was born. Ferdinand was convinced that June 18 was an auspicious date and would never admit he had chosen it to ride the wave of publicity.
Still, it was an undeniable fact that whenever Vienna's citizens heard of the League of the Three Emperors, they would think of Volvo, too.
Volvo lived up to Ferdinand's expectations. On opening day, two long lines stretched down the street. There were so many people that they had to limit the number allowed inside.
Like the Chinese, many foreigners also enjoyed a spectacle. Some had come simply to shop and find bargains; others were just curious. People were followers by nature. When they saw others buying armloads of goods, they couldn't help joining in. (Those born in the 1980s can think back to the shopping frenzies when supermarkets opened in county towns in the early 1990s.)
The rush lasted until evening. The store restocked three times, and the spectacular scene stunned Vienna. Tomorrow's newspapers would surely have plenty to say about it.
The department store's profits didn't disappoint Ferdinand—in fact, they exceeded expectations. After only one day in business, sales had reached 1,500 Pound Sterling, with a gross margin of 30 percent.
But it made sense. Department stores had never existed before. On opening day, plenty of people had come in out of curiosity and, in a daze, bought a whole pile of things.
This wouldn't last long. Things would gradually return to normal, and sales would surely drop sharply.
Retail had always been a highly profitable business. Even in the fiercely competitive twenty-first century, plenty of small supermarkets in good locations did very well.
Striking while the iron was hot, Ferdinand opened the other four department stores one by one over the following month. Business remained brisk, and their managers were the best people he had picked from among the employees he had trained.
In truth, little supermarkets like these didn't require particularly impressive management skills. The managers just had to follow the system Li Mu had drawn up in advance.
No competitors had appeared yet. They were probably still watching and learning, but it wouldn't be long. In a few months, department stores would spring up all over Vienna.
The most urgent task now was to recruit people and seize the market. No matter how fierce competition became in the future, getting ahead now would give him an advantage later.
His initial success had made Ferdinand more ambitious. He planned to add thirty chain supermarkets within six months, including five for nobles. That would require hiring a great many more people.
Each store would need at least ten to twenty employees. Including logistics and administration, the total workforce would be no fewer than a thousand.
It was a huge challenge for Ferdinand, too. Even Butler Karl had been pressed into service and was now so busy day and night that he had no time to manage the castle.
This left Princess Clémentine extremely displeased. The moment Ferdinand got home, she caught him.
"Ferdinand, why are you running away? It's not as if I'm going to eat you!" Princess Clémentine said, clearly displeased.
"Oh, my dear mother, what can I do for you?" Ferdinand asked with a cheeky grin.
"Are you really that busy? It's only a little department store. Is all this really necessary? Why don't you find someone to help you? If you had to manage the Kohary Family, you'd work yourself to death!" Princess Clémentine said, thoroughly displeased.
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