Chapter 64 Street Promotion
With Yun Zhao, Wang An felt much more relaxed.

Yun Zhao handled all the accounts. At this time, the production pressure of the honeycomb coal factory was not urgent, and with Ergou looking after it, everything was in order.

Although this guy is not good at math, he is quite good at managing specific affairs. It is probably because he has mastered his own way of getting along with people after being in the market for a long time. In addition, the guys in the factory are all neighbors in Doujiafang, so it is easy for them to communicate with each other.

So Wang An made some time for himself and often took a few "sales managers" to the front line, pulling a cart to sell honeycomb coal door to door in the capital.

At the beginning, Wang An directly targeted the common people and tirelessly carried out sales activities in the streets and neighborhoods.

That is the street promotion that is common in the back room. They would just pile up two carts of honeycomb coal and put three or four honeycomb coal stoves on them. On the coal stoves, there would be either an iron pot or a kettle. In addition to the steam bubbling out of the stoves, coupled with Wang An and the sales managers' tireless efforts to attract people, it did attract some people.

Although some wealthy families used special-shaped coal cakes at that time, coal balls in the true sense did not appear until the Qing Dynasty.

Therefore, although the flames in the honeycomb coal stove could not be faked and the heat rising from the cooking utensils was real, the people still had doubts when they saw this round lump of honeycomb coal.

Although Wang An’s prices were cheap, a piece of honeycomb coal only cost two cents.

But how long this coal ball can burn cannot be known by just looking at it twice, and how useful this coal ball is cannot be explained just by words.

What's more, to burn honeycomb coal, you need a special honeycomb coal stove, which is another expense. Although it is not much, it is enough to make people stay away from it for ordinary people who have to count rice grains even when eating.

So after three or four days of vigorous street promotion activities, the results were minimal.

At this rate, Wang An will probably have to wait until next winter to promote honeycomb coal, relying on the very few customers who have used it to spread its reputation bit by bit.

Even so, we can only say that next year's sales will be better, but it is still a long way from Wang An's expected goal of becoming popular in Beijing.

However, although Wang An was anxious, he was not too disappointed.

After all, no matter what era it is, all groundbreaking new products are always difficult to promote in the early stages.

Unless it is pushed forward by administrative force, it is impossible for any product to become popular all over the city right from the start.

Of course there are exceptions, just like the bombardment of advertising in later generations, coupled with excellent products, there may be a chance.

But in the Ming Dynasty, even reading newspapers (Dibao) was a privilege only for a few people, let alone advertising.

It was another fruitless morning. Wang An left the two sales managers to continue their fruitless promotion and walked along the street bored, thinking of finding a restaurant to fill his stomach.

I accidentally passed by a mutton soup shop, and thought that drinking a bowl of mutton soup in the cold weather would be a good choice, so I walked into the shop and asked the shop owner for a bowl of mutton soup and two white flour steamed buns.

The shopkeeper responded and turned around to serve the mutton soup.

Wang An was bored and followed the shopkeeper's movements with an unfocused gaze.

It was the end of the year and the weather was freezing cold.

The shop owner was reluctant to build another charcoal stove, so he moved the charcoal stove for hot mutton soup to the middle of the shop, which could keep the shop warmer and keep the mutton soup hot at all times. But when he opened the lid of the pot, he looked at the slightly cold mutton soup and muttered, "This bowl of mutton soup doesn't make much money, but the coal is burning very fiercely."

As he spoke, he picked up the iron pot, glanced at the coal in the charcoal stove which was gradually turning gray and dull, and then he picked up two more pieces from the corner and put them in with a dull look.

Wang An was moved and asked, "Boss, how many pounds of coal does your charcoal stove burn every day?"

The shopkeeper was stunned when he heard this. In fact, he didn't expect someone to ask him this question.

However, most business people believe in making money through harmony. No matter what their usual personality is, whether they are irritable or silent, if a customer starts a conversation, they can always respond in a friendly manner.

The shopkeeper thought for a moment and said, "I haven't calculated it carefully. Not counting the time when we boil water and cook soup in the morning, just keeping this pot of mutton soup warm will burn 100 kilograms in about five days."

Then he complained, "The price of coal has gone up again this year. Last year it was 1.3 cents, this year it's 1.5 cents. I can't even earn a penny from this pot of mutton soup. It's really not enough to burn!"

Wang An asked again, "How many hours a day does your charcoal stove for warming soup last?"

The shopkeeper thought about it and estimated that it would take four to five hours from opening to closing.

Wang An silently calculated that if he only used a low fire to warm the soup with his own honeycomb coal, it would not take four to five hours, even eight or nine hours would be no problem.

So she smiled and said, "Boss, if I pay you eight cents to keep this pot of soup hot for a whole day, would you be willing to do that?"

"Eight cents?" The shopkeeper was a little confused, not understanding why the customer in front of him suddenly said this.

However, according to the current coal price and the exchange rate of silver into copper coins, he has to burn fifty cents of coal a day.

The key point is that the price of coal is calculated based on silver, which means that the shopkeeper's daily coal cost is not only affected by the rise and fall of coal prices, but also by the exchange rate between copper coins and silver.

The exchange rate of copper coins to silver coins has been falling. In the past, one tael of silver was equivalent to one guan of money, or one thousand wen.

Nowadays, there are many privately minted copper coins among the people, as well as old copper coins that have been worn out over the years. This results in the copper coins having varying qualities and weights.

In addition, in recent years, silver has suddenly become more valuable without people noticing. Not many people use silver in the market, but more people spend copper coins. This has resulted in one thousand two hundred coins being used to exchange for one tael of silver.

Therefore, the shopkeeper listened to Wang An's words and smiled indifferently: "Sir, please don't talk nonsense. Even if I go up the mountain to pick grass and burn it, the dry food I eat a day is more than eight cents."

Wang Anwenyan said with a smile: "I won't hide it from you, boss. I run a coal warehouse. Let's make a bet. From now on, I will be responsible for your coal. If the price exceeds eight cents, it will be mine."

The shopkeeper's eyes widened, and he looked Wang An up and down, and said in disbelief: "Is there such a good thing?"

"Of course not. If you give me eight cents a day, I will keep your soup boiling hot. But there is one thing," Wang An said with a sly look on his face, "you have to replace the charcoal stove in your store with the coal stove at home."

(End of this chapter)