With the Time Shop, I Too Am the Greatest Conglomerate of All Time

Episode 3. Find a partner (1)

The Seoul subway 25 years ago was still hell.

It took an entire hour from my house in Seongbuk-gu, Seoul to Yongsan Station, and by the time I arrived, I was quite exhausted.

“Whoa, that’s crazy.”

It was hard to breathe because of the barrels people pressed back and forth on the subway.

I came out of Yongsan Station and sat on a nearby bench to catch my breath.

Although it was March, it was still a cold day, so the breath was white.

I could feel the cold air rushing deep into my lungs.

I laughed out loud.

“Joyepta.”

Just being back to the past was enough to satisfy everything.

Has it been 10 minutes?

got up from his seat

Now, I am ready to meet my ‘collaborator’.

It is usually called ‘Yongdan’ or Yongsan Electronics Market, but in fact, ‘Yongdan’ is not a single building.

Electronic Land, Najin Shopping Center, Wonhyo Shopping Center, Seonin Shopping Center, and Toad Shopping Center are a collection of several shopping malls.

Each store had its own unique characteristics.

Electronics Land mainly sells finished products, Wonhyo Shopping Street sells musical instruments and lighting parts, and Seonin Shopping Center mainly sells assembled computers.

Among them, my destination today is Seonin Shopping Street.

I got out of the station and went into the seven-story shopping mall on the far right.

As it is a famous electronics store, it was crowded even though it was a holiday.

I went up the stairs to the second floor.

I stopped in front of a signboard that read ‘K-Come’ in white letters on a blue background.

“Hey, I’ve been looking for this for a long time, but I found it right away.”

In a small space of about 4-5 pyeong, a man in his 20s was organizing computer parts.

‘There is, too.’

That 20-year-old man was the reason I came here today.

He may not know me, but I knew him well.

Daewon Jang, president of KCOM.

In my previous life, I was the president of a computer parts store where I worked part-time for two years.

There were many merchants in ‘Yong-Dun’, the so-called Yong-Pal, who rip off customers, but he was different.

If the parts they were looking for were not the cheapest in their own store, they sent them to another store.

At first glance, it seemed like a silly act, but word of mouth eventually spread, and after three years, it was moved to a fairly large store.

He took good care of the personal circumstances of the part-timers.

In particular, I became close enough to be friends with me afterward, but he could not go against the flow of the world.

In the 2000s, online sales of assembled PCs became the mainstream, and offline stores rapidly shrunk.

Daewon hyung also couldn’t last 5 years and had to close the store.

I don’t know what happened after that, but since I haven’t heard of the recovery, I can only guess that the end was not good.

greeted him

“Hello, boss.”

The man saw me and stopped what he was doing and ran.

“Welcome, what are you looking for?”

“I have already found what I am looking for.”

“yes?”

“The boss.”

Daewon hyung looked at me like a crazy person and then clapped his hands.

“Student, if you’re going to play a joke, go somewhere else and play it.”

It even slipped in.

He spoke without hesitation.

“Boss, isn’t it Window X perfect V that you’re organizing right now?”

“….”

Daewon-hyung didn’t say anything.

If you don’t deal with it, it seems like you’re tired of going, but it’s not.

“It is a good VGA card with 230Mhz high-speed RAMDAC, 2D-3D integrated support, TV reception, and no shake at high resolution.”

I didn’t respond this time, but Daewon hyung’s gaze was already on me.

‘Fufu. Then yes’

“When assembling, plug in the card and then connect the VGA connector, antenna, and audio cable in that order.”

Daewon hyung couldn’t contain his curiosity and opened his mouth.

“How do you know that? This is brand new, so I just got it yesterday.”

It was a natural reaction.

Even if you know the product specifications in advance by looking at magazines, etc., you have to do it yourself to know the assembly sequence.

It was me who had done it countless times in my previous life, so I had no choice but to know.

He smiled as if he was taking medicine.

“Whoa, that’s a trade secret. By the way, don’t you want to do business with me?”

Daewon laughed as if he was surprised by his brother.

“Huh, business? Hey, go to school and study hard. Don’t think useless.”

I didn’t even expect that my brother would agree at once.

If I saw a high school student I met for the first time in Nara, I would have thought that I was a crazy person.

He went back in and continued what he was doing.

He was going to ignore me, but if he was going to go back like this, he wouldn’t even come here.

I was squatting near the store, and when I saw people who seemed to be customers, I got up and shouted.

“Brothers! What are you looking for? VGA card? modem? main board? CPU? It’s all here, come and take a look. It’s okay to just go and have a look.”

Two men, who looked like college students, looked at each other and nodded.

“Would you like to hear it one more time? It’s okay to just go and see.”

“What is it?”

The crew called my brother.

“Sir, you are a guest here!”

Daewon hyung looked embarrassed for a moment, but then came forward with a hospitality smile.

“Come on, what are you looking for? We have all kinds of assembly parts at KCOM. Just speak.”

“I came to look at the VGA card and some RAM.”

“Is that so, is there any model you want in particular?”

“Yes, the VGA card is…”

Customers listened to product descriptions for about five minutes, negotiated a price, and eventually left the store with a VGA card.

They left and Daewon-hyung looked at me.

“Why is this kid doing something he doesn’t even tell him to do?”

“Why? I just want to show that I am worth doing business with.”

Daewon hyung, who was looking at my face, smiled.

“Are you really a weirdo?”

shrugged.

“Now do you know?”

Daewon hyung beckoned.

“Come in, let’s come in and talk.”

yes!

Permission was finally granted to enter.

I went into the store and looked around.

Boxes of computer parts were piled up all over the place, and there was a computer in the corner.

The store was so small that there was not enough space to sit on, but Daewon hyung pushed the box to make a seat.

He took a chair and pointed at it.

“Sit down.”

As he sat down on the chair, he sat down on the parts box and asked.

“You, what’s your name?”

“It’s Jae-Woon Kang.”

“Are you in high school?”

“What grade are you in?”

“It’s the third year.”

“If you are in the third year, you are a student. Are you going to school?”

“yes. I am doing well.”

“School is going well. Then keep going As I said before, don’t do useless things because it’s a waste of time. If you are a student, you have to study hard like a student.”

“I will continue my studies. I like that grade.”

“okay?”

“It’s in the top 10 of the whole school.”

To be precise, it was supposed to be like that during the midterm exam.

My brother looked surprised.

“Tenth in the whole school? hey. You are studying quite a bit.”

It wasn’t yet.

I decided to brazenly push through because it was going to be true soon.

“Why does a student who is so good at studying go into business?”

Daewon-hyung couldn’t open his mouth for a while, perhaps because it was too straightforward an answer.

“..Is there any reason you need money so much?”

There were many reasons.

I couldn’t tell my brother the truth.

Because at that moment, I almost felt like I was going to be treated like a madman.

“There is no particular reason. just good money So I’m going to start earning some money from now on.”

My brother put on a shaky face.

“I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like money. You’re the first person I’ve ever seen so blatantly good.”

“I’m actually a bit honest.”

“Well, anyway. So, if you have something you want to say, do it. I will listen to you.”

I caught my breath.

This is because the real negotiations have begun.

“Like I said before, I want to do business with the boss.”

“..so let’s do business with you?”

The older brother opened his mouth with a face filled with complicated feelings.

“..I have a lot to say, but let me ask you one thing first.”

“Aren’t you going to do palms when you’re in high school?”

“Of course I do.”

“by the way? Even if you have a really good business street, how do you do business with palm trees?”

“The palm will fall.”

“how? It’s not like you can fall for yourself just because you want to fall for it.”

“Your uncle will call you to remove it.”

“uncle? Do schools these days remove palms even when relatives contact them? I wasn’t even young.”

“Ah, both of my parents died when I was five. Now my uncle is my guardian.”

“Uh, that’s right. sorry.”

“Until I’m sorry. He died when he was very young, so I can’t even remember his face.”

“Then your uncle allowed you to fall out? Are you in high school?”

“As I said before, I study a bit. I promised that I would keep my grades even if I didn’t have a palm tree, but they gave me permission.”

“..I know you’re good at studying, but can you really keep your grades even if you miss palms?”

It was possible enough.

“Sure.”

Despite the confident answer, the older brother did not take his eyes off his doubts.

“What if I don’t keep it? Do you think your uncle will continue to look after you?”

“..I don’t think so, but shouldn’t it be maintained?”

“It will be known in time. By the way, what kind of business are we going to do together?”

Finally, the point is

“The assembly computer business.”

“A build computer?”

Daewon hyung sighed.

“Jaewoon, assembly computers are good, because if you assemble parts and make them, you can make them much cheaper than maker PCs, which makes price competitiveness”

“Yes.”

“So our store also sells assembled computers. But at most, I’m going to go out one or two a day, I don’t know why? “

There are several reasons.

Poor reliability compared to maker PCs.

Inconvenient to move due to the volume of the body unlike small parts.

The perception that there are many bad sellers, so-called yong-pals, who rip off customers.

But the main reason is

“Is there a lot of competition because most of the other stores also sell them?”

Perhaps the correct answer was that Daewon-hyung was speechless for a moment.

“…I know, but you still want to start the assembly computer business?”

“Where are you going? Isn’t this what we’re going to do in Yongsan?”

“I’m going to do it in Yongsan, here at the Kcom store.”

once start.

“…you just said that. There are too many competitors. Are you still going to do it here?”

“Yes, I do not intend to sell only to customers who come here to Yongsan.”

My brother tilted his head.

“What else do you mean?”

“We’re going to sell assembled computers all over the country.”

As if surprised, Daewon hyung’s voice grew louder.

“Are you going to sell it nationwide?”

“yes. Outside of Seoul, there are many people from all over the country who want to buy cheap assembled computers. But they can’t come all the way to Seoul just to buy a cheap computer.”

“Let’s say you’re right, but how are you going to sell it? Do you have a sales network?”

At that time, in order to sell goods nationwide, the sales network (distribution network) had to be properly configured above all else.

In simple terms, it was said that my body had to be equipped with a person (agency) to sell instead of Hanani and a logistics system that could send products to the whole country.

Of course, a huge cost was required to establish this sales network.

But my plan didn’t need such a traditional sales network.

“We will create a sales network. From now on.”

An online order transaction system that has only been popular since the 2000s due to communication network problems.

I was thinking of creating that system to replace the sales network.