Chapter 552: Chapter 539: No Business to Do

“Uncle Yutian, Aunt Meng, are you facing some difficulties?”

Since she noticed, Zhuang Yutian saw no point in concealing it anymore. He sighed, and said, “Miss Ning is sharp and observant. We really can’t hide anything from her.”

“Do you notice anything wrong with the shop?”

Zhuang Qingning looked up and examined the shop thoroughly from top to bottom, then hummed in surprise, “The shop seems to be understocked?”

Many of the shelves were bare with no sign of fabric. To say that the shop was understocked was a kind way of putting it. It would be more accurate to describe the shop as barren.

“Right, you noticed it too.” Zhuang Yutian said. “When people come in, they all say that business must be good here, seeing how quickly we sell out. Even our new goods can’t replenish the inventory quickly enough. But only we know that it’s not that we’re doing good business, but rather we have no business to do.”

“No business to do?” Zhuang Qingning seemed more surprised. “What do you mean? Why can’t you do business?”

“It’s a long story…”

Mrs. Meng handed Zhuang Qingning a hot cup of tea and began to explain the situation in detail.

“Since winter began, it’s usually the peak selling season for fabrics. All the cloth shops in the county town look forward to doing good business in winter to carry them through the new year. Therefore, they all started stockpiling goods in autumn to use them in winter.”

“But at the end of last autumn, when we started placing orders, many types of fabrics were no longer available. The quantity was also insufficient. The suppliers said that due to less rainfall last autumn, river transport was not smooth, making it impossible for the cloth from Jiangsu-Zhejiang and Hubei-Hunan to get here. Thus, goods were scarce during this period. We didn’t take it too seriously at first thinking it wouldn’t hurt to order later.”

“But as it got colder, fabric supplies dwindled even more. The orders that were supposed to be filled could not be completed. After much pleading, we barely managed to get some, which was simply not enough for large-scale use. Due to the lack of fabric, we could only watch as business opportunities slipped away before the new year. A lot of agreed-upon transactions had to be cancelled, and we not only lost face but also had to pay some silver as compensation.”

“Since the promised goods couldn’t be delivered, naturally we couldn’t let it go. Your Uncle Yutian went to demand an explanation. The other party was straightforward, refunding the initial deposit and adding twice the amount as compensation. However, we had been doing business for years and the original deposit was small. Even doubling it was not a substantial amount, barely enough to compensate the customers.”

“Since our shop had no goods, we had to find ways to procure more. But with the year ending, all the cloth shops are doing well. Even they do not have enough fabric to sell, so naturally they won’t sell to us at a price lower than what they charge customers. But if we were to buy at the customers’ prices, we would be running at a loss. It’s better not to do it.”

“Since last winter, our business has been like this. Initially, we thought about swallowing our pride and asking our competitors if they had any new sources of supply. But competitors are always rivals. If our business is struggling, others’ business will naturally be better. So, no one was willing to share this information with us.”

“Now, to keep the shop running, we can only ask your Uncle Yutian to make a trip to the provincial city to inquire. If he cannot find any suppliers, he will have to go further south to search for stable and reliable suppliers. However, it would take a considerable amount of time back and forth, essentially delaying our spring business.”

“If things don’t go well, even the summer business would be challenging.”

Aunt Meng sighed, “Now we can only hope to find someone who doesn’t want to do business or can’t continue to do business and wants to dispose of their fabric. But then again, if someone really wants to sell off their fabric, it’s either out of fashion or problematic, dealing with it would just be troublesome …”

“Why did they suddenly stop supplying goods and refunded the deposit so straightforwardly? There must be something going on behind the scenes.” Zhuang Qingning raised an eyebrow and asked, “Is there someone sabotaging you behind your back?”

“You hit the nail on the head.” Zhuang Yutian said with a gloomy face, “I’ve been asking around, and it’s said that Cao Jiande from Cao’s Shop is behind all this. He wants to cut off our business.”

“Cao’s Shop, like ours, is also a cloth shop. Cao’s Shop was originally the largest cloth shop here with good business. However, after Cheng’s set up shop in the county town, their product quality, variety, pricing was far better than Cao’s. As a result, Cao’s business wasn’t as good as before. They had to downgrade their range of products to avoid competition with Cheng’s, making their business just bearable.”

“Then I opened this cloth shop. The fabrics I sold were similar to Cao’s, but since my shop front is not as big as Cao’s and it was a newly opened shop, my prices were not as high as Cao’s. People started coming here to buy fabric since our products were similar, but cheaper. Over time, customers became familiar with us and found you and Aunt Meng trustworthy, so they only bought from us.”

“One could say that I took a lot of business away from Cao’s. Also, last year, thanks to selling mosquito repellent herbal medicine, the business even got better. Probably, Cao’s harbored resentment and decided to plot against us.”

“Interesting, this Cao’s Shop.” There was a hint of mockery at the corner of Zhuang Qingning’s mouth. “Previously, Cheng’s took away more than half of Cao’s business, but they didn’t dare to speak up. But when your business is doing well, they want to force you to close down.”

“Cao’s can’t compete with Cheng’s, so naturally they would go after the soft targets.” Aunt Meng said indignantly.

Zhuang Qingning smirked.

Such is human nature. People would tend to look up to the strong without even a hint of jealousy. Instead, they would be jealous of others around them who were on the same level but slightly better off, and they would want to pull them down.

“The main priority now is to find a way to solve the fabric shortage in the shop.” Zhuang Qingning pondered, “But there’s something I’m rather curious about. We’re in the north, where cotton production is not inferior to that of Jiangsu-Zhejiang and Hubei-Hunan regions. So why do most of the shops here import fabrics from the south to sell?”

“Miss Ning, perhaps you may not know this since you’re not in the fabric business. Although we do produce a lot of cotton here, and people spin yarn and weave fabric, the fabric woven here is not as fine or brightly colored as the South’s. If used for bed sheets, quilt covers or shoe uppers, there wouldn’t be any problem, and they are durable. However, the demand for such fabric is meager. Not everyone makes new quilts every year, so the quantity isn’t as high as for clothing fabric, nor is it as profitable.”