Chapter 81: Better prospects
The holidays arrived. Since his mother's shop was still fairly well staffed, Su Can spent relatively little time at the family store. Meanwhile, the five stationery shops Wang Ming managed were thriving. At the very least, their purchasing channels had helped several distribution and logistics agents in Xiahai grow considerably.
Su Can had his reasons for opening only five shops rather than more. Stationery retail depended heavily on location. Excluding shops that sold a mixture of goods, there were probably fewer than thirty specialist stationery stores in all of Xiahai. Some of those stores had fairly sluggish local markets because of their locations and surroundings. But Su Can knew this would soon change. As the golden age of the stationery industry arrived, more shops would spring up like mushrooms after rain.
Once these cultural supplies sales networks took shape, what would truly stand out would probably be brands.
As the Shushan Cultural Supplies Chain stores opened one after another, Su Can felt he had probably taken the first step in his branding strategy.
The locations Wang Ming selected were all near schools, hospitals, and residential neighborhoods, and had considerable potential. The markets around several state-run secondary schools in Xiahai City were already dominated by established competitors. No. 3 Middle School, No. 1 High School, and several vocational high schools were Xiahai Cultural Supplies' "territory." Naturally, Su Can could not compete with his own mother there.
Instead, Shushan chose the remaining untapped areas: No. 2 High School, No. 7 Middle School, First Elementary School, and several other well-known schools at the elementary and secondary levels. Its market share in these areas could roughly reach fifty percent. With one broad sweep, the Shushan chain had captured the greater part of Xiahai's prime stationery retail market.
Since Shushan opened,