Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

Chapter 1078: Investment Group Targets The Food Street Again

May 30th, Wednesday...

Fu Hui Investments.

Li Shi was thinking about Star Bird Fitness.

He had already spoken to Chang You of Otto Technologies. Both parties hit off immediately and felt that they could cooperate deeply on this project.

To Chang You, even though Guo Licheng’s Deposit Fitness was his first cooperation goal, the Deposit Fitness had limited capacity after all. It could not consume so many smart fitness drying racks.

Previously, he had not been sure if the smart fitness drying rack would be able to make money, so the factory could not invest in too many production lines.

Now that he had earned money and invested all his money into production, his monthly output had reached nearly 10,000 units. If he was willing to invest money into new production lines, it would not be difficult to achieve 20,000 units per month or even higher.

10 smart fitness drying racks were enough for each Deposit Fitness.

There was limited space in the gym after all. He had to leave a lot of space for the strength area, other professional equipment, treadmill ellipticals, and other aerobic equipment. There was also the yoga room, exercise room, and so on. They could not save those.

The 10 devices in each Deposit Fitness would not be able to digest the production capacity of the smart fitness drying rack.

He could not possibly ask Deposit Fitness to open 100 new stores every month, right?

Therefore, this business had to be done with other gyms.

Chang You and Guo Licheng were not worried that this would affect the business of Deposit Fitness because the core competitiveness of Deposit Fitness was not in that.

The smart fitness drying rack entering the various gyms would not only bring more gamers and income to the Fitness Battle, but there would also be live advertisements for Tengda Corporation and Otto Technologies. Once it was opened, there would be considerable long-term benefits.

Therefore, Chang You also intended to use Star Bird Fitness to test waters. He wanted to see if the smart fitness drying rack would be popular in ordinary gyms. That would start a large-scale purchasing business for large-scale chain gyms.

There would be at least hundreds of stores in the country with large chain gyms once this path was proven to be feasible. The number of smart fitness drying racks purchased would be extremely shocking.

If the smart fitness drying rack was placed in the shops of these chain gyms, it would attract the members of these gyms to try it out and experience it. Some of them would choose to buy one and place it at home. This would greatly expand the customer base.

In other words, working with the chain gym was in fact a process of expanding and advertising. The effect would definitely be much better than simply advertising online.

To Li Shi, Star Bird Fitness was obviously a classic example of trying to freeload from Tengda. If he succeeded this time, not only would he be able to freeload from Tengda, but he would also be able to snatch a part of the business of the large chain gyms. Once Star Bird Fitness developed, his investment would definitely be extremely profitable!

The first batch had more than a hundred smart fitness drying racks, Chang You decided to use the next batch to supply the goods.

He also wanted to see if the smart fitness drying rack could succeed in traditional gyms as soon as possible.

Recently, Star Bird Fitness had also begun to make adjustments to the layout of various stores. They had also spread the news to their members by distributing flyers and setting up advertisement boards. The fastest way was to wait for the smart fitness drying rack to be delivered over the weekend before they could directly experience it.

Once this model became popular, Li Shi would consider collaborating with a few other investors to continue investing. He would help Star Bird Fitness open more stores and continue to purchase smart fitness drying racks on a large scale. He would use this unique advantage in the short term to expand as much as possible!

At that moment, there was a knock on the office door. Xue Zhebin pushed the door open and entered.

“Boss Li, I did my research. Tengda is indeed interested in buying or renting the shops on the street near the Thriller Hostel. What’s more, they seemed to have issued an ultimatum yesterday. They would either rent or sell. Food Street would choose to bypass shops that are not cooperative!”

“The situation over there is quite chaotic now. The shop owners might be talking about forming an alliance, but all of them are actually scheming. As far as I know, several shops have already signed contracts with Tengda...”

Xue Zhebin explained everything he knew in detail.

Li Shi could not help but feel energized. “Very good! It’s exactly the same as what I expected!”

“I think they only spoke about long term rental previously. They now have an additional purchase plan. Boss Pei must have provided a huge sum of money. This is enough to prove that Boss Pei values this place!”

Li Shi had already gotten hold of this news when the construction of the snack market had just begun. However, he had never had a good idea of how to drink this soup.

That was because there were many shops around the snack market but they were all in a half-dead state. Wouldn’t it be a huge loss if the shops were in the opposite direction of Tengda’s development?

However, the goal was now clear.

Obviously, Tengda’s goal was to connect the snack market and Thriller Hostel through a one-kilometer-long snack street to form a link!

That way, tourists could walk all the way to the snack market at night after shopping at Thriller Hostel and enjoy all sorts of delicacies.

It was said that a new large project was being built inside the Thriller Hostel. That way, the economy in the surroundings would be further revitalized.

Tengda had obviously thought of a solution to those shops asking for sky-high prices.

The greed of humans was endless. They could not be satisfied with these shops. Otherwise, if the first shop successfully raised the price, they would raise the price as well. They would have to argue with every shop, and this would not end.

Tengda offered the same price for all the shops. They offered two proposals – long-term rents and buy out. That was already generous enough.

If this was not Tengda’s project, Li Shi would definitely think that it was more worth it to buy than to rent.

That was because there was a time value to the funds. As long as the bosses of those shops did not spend the money purely, but chose to use the funds to make more promising investments, the profits generated in 10 years would definitely be much greater than 50%.

However, this was Tengda’s project. That was different.

The yield of Tengda’s project could not be measured by a simple number.

However, the shop owners might not understand this logic. That was because they did not trust Tengda’s business myth as deeply as Boss Li did.

Strictly speaking, these bosses’ joint bidding was more like a shortsighted act.

Tengda had also given a solution to the bosses’ joint bid. That was to divide them.

The original plan was to take a direct path from the snack market to Thriller Hostel. Many shop owners on this path felt that Tengda would buy their shops at all costs, so they were naturally fearless.

However, Tengda had changed its way of thinking. It would choose multiple routes and finalize one based on the actual situation.

The food street might turn around and bypass some shops.

This way, the shops that did not have the chance to enter the snack street were within consideration.

These shops would definitely fight to sign contracts with Tengda in order to obtain this opportunity.

The shops that were originally in a straight line might end up empty-handed.

Under such circumstances, it was impossible for the shop owners to work closely together. After all, a single mistake would cost hundreds of thousands of yuan. Most of the small bosses did not have the guts to do so.

What’s more, they heard that Tengda had added a plan to directly purchase their shops on top of the original long-term rental. That was enough to show that this matter had alarmed Boss Pei and made him transfer a huge sum of money.

Li Shi felt that the opportunity was here!

He immediately said, “We’ll buy shops nearby as well! However, we’re different from Tengda. We’ll only buy and not rent.”

“What’s more, we won’t fight with Tengda. Once Tengda’s route is confirmed, we’ll look for the shops that have failed and buy them at a relatively good price.”

“I think... a 40% premium shouldn’t be a problem.”

Tengda’s proposal was 50% premium, but there would definitely only be one final route to the snack street. Many nearby shops would fail the selection.

The bosses of these shops would probably regret it.

Of course, he could not rule out bosses who were extremely confident in themselves and felt that they could make a career in the food street. However, there would definitely be bosses who were hesitant and felt as though they had missed the opportunity to sell their shops.

Li Shi and the other investors would find these people and purchase them at high prices.

For a shop that had already been confirmed not to be on the food street, this premium was actually very considerable. Someone would definitely sell it.

After buying it, Li Shi would transfer professionals from other industries that he had invested in, such as chain internet cafes, bars, cafes, and the like to be in charge of these shops.

What’s more, Li Shi could also choose to rent a portion of the shops to Tengda at a low price and sign a long term contract.

The snack market would only cover one street in the beginning but what if it were to expand in the future due to increase in traffic?

Moreover, Boss Li’s reputation was completely different from those shop owners.

Most of the shop owners did not have the resources or the ability. They had also rejected Tengda’s good intentions. Tengda would definitely not cooperate with them.

However, Li Shi had the resources and had a good relationship with Boss Pei. Both parties had good working relationships. Even if they could not make it to the ‘internal shops of the Gourmet Street’, it would not be a problem for them to make it to the ‘cooperative shops of the Gourmet Street’.

It would not be a problem for him to drink some soup from the food street as long as he had Tengda’s approval.

There was no reason for Tengda to reject this suggestion. That was because Li Shi and the other investors had bought the shops around the food street. Tengda could not possibly buy all of these shops.

Instead of working with a boss whom they did not know and did not have any resources or abilities, why not work with an old acquaintance like Li Shi?

What Li Shi was most concerned about was the potential appreciation of these shops many years later.

Those shop owners might be suspicious and could not wait that long. However, Li Shi would definitely not be suspicious.

Xue Zhebin nodded. “Alright, I’ll inform the other investors now!”