Rebirth in 1984, starting from beekeeping in the mountains

Chapter 32 Glass jar!

This time, Fang Hongan walked straight along the hottest area of ​​the market.

Walk through the crowd.

Finally we arrived at a row of houses on the edge of the market town.

This row of houses is the one closest to the market.

Due to the continued popularity of the market, the scope of Qianmaping Market expands every year.

Gradually, this area of ​​houses was also included in the scope of the market.

Some homeowners have also started to use their brains and made some renovations to their houses.

The room facing the market was simply converted into a shop front, and then either rented out or the owner sold some things.

Because the policy has not been completely liberalized, most of the products sold are agricultural and sideline products.

Rice, noodles, oil and the like are the mainstream.

There are also some handmade products such as bamboo strips, hemp ropes, and straw raincoats...

Because the location is fixed, we can come to you if any quality problems arise.

Gradually, the business of some stores was actually quite good.

Fang Hongan found a store in the middle and went in.

This shop sells a wide variety of items.

There are millet and rice, as well as bamboo products such as baskets, winnowing baskets, and scoops.

It's full of all kinds of things, like a grocery store.

Fang Hongan took a quick look and his gaze finally stopped on the glass bottles placed on the wooden board near the outer edge.

These glass bottles are not the kind of glass bottles used for storage in later generations.

In this era when industry was still quite backward, it was not popular to specialize in producing such things.

What we see in front of us are actually the products after eating those canned fruits.

Canned fruit was once a luxury food.

However, after canning factories were built in almost every place in the 1970s, the production of canned food increased rapidly.

Taking the Xiaonan area at that time as an example, Fang Hongan alone knew of three large and small fruit canning factories.

While these canning factories increased production and lowered the selling price of canned food, they naturally promoted the booming sales of canned food.

These canned fruits have gone from being a luxury item to a food that ordinary urban residents can afford.

Because it is easy to carry and the packaging is high-end, many people use it as a gift when visiting relatives and friends.

In the Xiaonan region in the 1980s, if a bag of white sugar was a "face-saving gift" when visiting relatives and friends in rural areas, then in the county towns, canned fruit was almost synonymous with a hot gift.

The popularity of canned fruit has also boosted the production of canned bottles made of this type of glass.

Because of the shortage of materials, the low level of mechanization in production and the high cost of packaging cans, most canning factories recycle the leftover cans.

A bit like the later beer bottles.

However, unlike beer bottles, canned fruit bottles have large openings, are easy to place, have good sealing properties, and can be repeatedly sealed, so many families will keep a portion of them for storing things.

A more classic usage is to use it as a spice jar in the kitchen to store seasonings such as salt, MSG, and chili powder.

This practice was first popular in cities and later spread to rural areas.

Therefore, some people in the market specially collected them and sold them as goods. In the market of Qianmaping, Fang Hongan saw people selling this at at least five stalls. This store was also the same.

In fact, Fang Hongan also brought more than a dozen of these cans this time.

It is not used for selling alone, but as a honey container, used when selling honey.

Unlike other mountain products that can be weighed and wrapped in paper or rice dumplings leaves and placed in bamboo baskets, honey is a liquid, so if you want to sell it, you must solve the packaging problem.

Fang Hongan and Wang Tong tried many methods, but in the end they could only collect more than ten such glass bottles.

Each one is filled with honey, which weighs about one pound.

It was far from enough to sell all the more than 100 kilograms of honey today. At that time, Wang Tong revealed that there would be cans of this kind for sale in the market, so the two decided to purchase a batch after the sales started.

However, Fang Hongan's purpose here was not just to buy cans.

"Little brother! Want a canning jar?"

Seeing Fang Hongan enter the store, a fat lady wearing a headscarf came up to greet him enthusiastically, pointing at the glass jars on display and said, "These cans of mine are all from Factory 8. Look, there are labels on them!"

She picked up a can with a label still on it and handed it to Fang Hongan.

Factory No. 8, the largest fruit canning factory in Xiaonan area, is much better than the other two factories in terms of taste and packaging.

Fang Hongan took it in his hand and weighed it. It was indeed much heavier than those he brought with him.

"Look at how translucent this can is, and how thick the wall is. It's very durable!"

"The opening threads are all intact and tightly covered!"

"Take it back, your wife will definitely praise you..."

Seeing that Fang Hongan was interested, the fat aunt started to introduce him enthusiastically.

Sales promotion was not popular in those days, but this fat aunt had developed quite good sales skills in this market.

Fang Hongan smiled and nodded, then asked directly, "How much is one?"

"Six cents each!" Auntie Pang said with a smile, "I sell them at this price every market. I've been selling them for almost a year. I won't cheat you, don't worry!"

Fang Hongan waved his hand: "I want more. Can you make it cheaper?"

"More... more?" The fat lady was stunned for a moment, then shook her head and said, "Of course! The canning factory charges four cents a can, and we charge four and a half cents a can. We also spend money to transport it here, and some of it will be damaged on the way. The total cost is more than five cents. If we sell it for six cents, we can only make a few cents!"

"It's all hard-earned money! If you don't believe me, go ask inside. They're selling goods from Factory 8, but they're asking the same price as me!"

"Don't worry, it's only 6 cents each, you won't lose anything!"

She looked miserable at first, but then she turned to further sales promotion in a very familiar manner.

Fang Hongan did not respond. He waited until she finished speaking before he said seriously, "Don't I want a few?"

"Hmm?" The fat aunt blinked and looked at Fang Hongan woodenly. It was obvious that she didn't quite understand what Fang Hongan meant.

Don’t you want a few?
What do you mean?
Aren’t there just a few kinds of seasonings in every restaurant?

She has been selling for so long, and the most she has ever seen is one person buying three.

"How many...how many do you want?"

"At least... 50! Maybe... more!"

"5...50!" The fat lady paused for a full ten seconds before she suddenly turned around and shouted inside like a lion, "Old man! Come out quickly! There's a young man here who wants 50 cans!"

(End of this chapter)