The grand opening of Shu Yan's shop was on October 20th. Lao Hu, Chen Fei, and factory owner Boss He all sent flower baskets over. Lin Hui couldn't make it in person, but also sent over a flower basket. Shu Yan bought 4 pairs herself. Eight pairs of flower baskets lined on both sides with a red carpet in the middle leading straight to the front door. In front of the front door, there was also an arch made out of balloons. The most eye-catching item was a large colored TV sitting on a table to the left of the front door and a bicycle leaning up against the table. These were part of the prizes for the raffle today.

In addition, Shu Yan hired six others to help her pass out flyers. Two of them right outside the shop – with one of them responsible for distributing the flyers and bringing the customers inside, and the other one helping with the raffle. The other four scattered over West City Nan Road and the nearby area. The goal was to let everyone shopping in the nearby area know that there was a new women's clothing store here. These were all marketing schemes that were not yet in existence, and they had immediately caught a lot of attention.

Citizens of this country had always had the natural tendency to want to get in on the action. Seeing the crowd surrounding the shop had instantly attracted more people. Part of them were also here from seeing the flyers.

Different from most of the boutique shops, Shu Yan mixed and matched many sets of clothes and hung them up on both sides of the wall for all to see as they walked inside the shop. Many of the young women liked them instantly. All women liked to be pretty and also possessed the ability to spot what was pretty. Shu Yan's taste in clothes, being decades ahead of them, she needed only to casually match the clothes to make them appear fashionable.

"This set of clothes look so pretty. Hey, Boss Lady, I have a yellow windbreaker at home, do you think it'd work with this set?" She liked the entire set but didn't want to spend that much money, so she thought perhaps she could only purchase the top and the pants.

"Yellow? What kind of yellow?" The customer has a beige windbreaker in her hand and inside was a colorful shirt and jeans. The shirt was bright colored and wouldn't go with any dark colored clothes.

"Something a bit darker than this yellow," said the customer while pointing at a dress.

Shu Yan looked at where she was pointing and said, "This yellow... probably won't work too well. But you can change the shirt out to a white one and would look very clean, it'd even make you look elegant."

Shu Yan looked for a yellow jacket and laid it over the outfit to show her. "This is not the same style, but you can get an idea."

Sure enough, it wasn't as pretty as a beige windbreaker. The customer was now struggling with her decision.

And that's how women were like. They might be thinking that they only needed to buy the inner layer of clothes, but after seeing the sets at the shop, they'd always feel that their own jacket wasn't as good as the one demonstrated at the shop.

"You bought that windbreaker last year, right? You haven't bought one this year yet. Why don't you go and try this one on? Just buy this one if you like it." Her friend next to her suggested.

"Alright, I'll give it a try first."

Shu Yan nodded and had Yingying take her to the fitting room.

The young woman's friend has a stronger personality and didn't like others following her and explaining things to her. Shu Yan got the drift and went over to take care of another customer.

Two fitting rooms weren't quite enough, and there was a bit of a line outside. As more and more customers came inside, Shu Yan had to split her time between greeting the customers and manning the cash register. She never had a moment free time.

"Boss Lady, I will take this set." The young woman, who had been struggling with her decision, came over with the entire set of clothing. The set was just too pretty. Once she had put it on, she was turned into a modern girl instantly.

"Sure, windbreaker is $69, top - $38, jeans - $45, that came out to be $152. We have promotional activities today. You already have three pieces here. If you pick one more, we can give you one for free. Plus, if you hit $200, you will get a $20 discount. It's like getting five pieces of clothing for $180. It's totally worth it," said Shu Yan as she folded up the clothes.

"Eh... okay, let me take another look." The woman was swayed right away.

"Okay. Fall is coming soon; you can take a look at the cardigans. It will also go well with this set. Then you can add a pair of black pants; they will go well with anything." Shu Yan casually grabbed over a couple pieces of clothes to show her. "This is a cashmere knitted cardigan. Touch it, it's very soft. Only $45. That would put you at $197. Take four pairs of socks and you will make an even $200. This pair of pants are $35 and it's basically free."

The woman thought it through. Sure enough, it was $152 already. She only needed to pay $28 and she'd have a cardigan, a pair of pants, and four pairs of socks. That was certainly a steal.

"Okay. I will take them."

After Shu Yan had finished wrapping them up, she gave her a receipt. "Take this receipt and look for the girl by the front door. You can poke a balloon for a raffle. Top prize today is a television. Good luck!"

The 21" colored TV cost Shu Yan 2,000 yuan. It was the grand prize. First prize was the bicycle; second prize was an electric fan; and third prize was a tea pot. After that, there were tops, pants, socks, etc. Socks made up the most of them. She got them wholesale specifically from a factory. The raffle was fair and that way the customer would always be able to win something.

Sure enough, even when they only got a pair of socks, the customers left with a smile.

A lot of the customers came after they saw the prizes on the flyers but were attracted by the clothes once they got there. Shu Yan had mostly picked the simple and elegant designs, and they'd fit most everyone.

"Boss, how much would these come out to be?"

"$384 total. Minus the cheapest one, comes to $364." Shu Yan calculated the total quickly.

"This undershirt is $20?" The woman hesitated for a bit and asked, "What's the second one from the bottom?"

"That will be this jean jacket - $45."

"Then pick me something that's about the same price as this jean jacket." The second one from the bottom was $45 and the lowest was $20, that's $20 difference between them.

This was a smarter woman. Shu Yan picked an undershirt of a better quality. "This one is $38. It'd look good on you."

"Now we are over $400, I get $40 off?"

"For that, your total will have to be $400."

The woman debated for a bit longer. "Okay, I will take this $38 undershirt. Boss Lady, $30 more off. Don't forget."

"Don't worry. Since your total exceeded $288, you qualify for a member's card. With this member's card, you will be able to have 5% off on your next visit. And for each dollar you spent, you will receive a point. You can trade the point in for gifts. Would you like to get it?"

"Does it cost anything?"

"No. It is free with $288 plus purchase. If you are interested, please write down your name, age, and address. Even better if you can leave a phone number." Shu Yan, once again, lamented how inconvenient it was without a cellphone.

After they had seen the first batch of customers off and Shu Yan just got a drink of water, the next batch arrived.

"Boss, can't you just give a 10% discount?"

"I am sorry, that's our rules for the promotion. You already have $90 worth. You just have to add something small to make it $100 for the $10 off. Whatever you choose is practically free." Shu Yan picked up a hat and a scarf from the shelf and said to her, "What do you think of this hat? You can wear it when the weather gets a little colder. It's only $12; it's like having it for $2. It's a steal."

10% off might seem the same as 10% after reaching a certain amount, but they were very different. 10% off directly meant the customer could buy just one item and get the discount. If there's a minimum purchase, the customer would have to hit that amount first. For example, if they already have $80 ~ $90 worth of merchandise, they would only need a little bit more to get a $10 discount. Most customers would try to look for another item, and it'd be difficult to make it exactly $100, so the customers would go over by a few dollars. That way they would have bought more and the seller could make a little more.

Just like buy 5 get 1 free. Many customers would feel that they were missing out if they only bought 3 items, so they'd buy one more in order to get that free one; that way they'd feel that it was a bargain.

These were all commonly-seen sales techniques in the future. Shu Yan fell for that a lot herself and now she could easily adopt them.

"Boss Lady, I will take these few. How much do they come out to be?"

"Boss Lady, how much are these socks?"

"Boss Lady, does this come in a different color?"

All of a sudden, Shu Yan was running around in circles.

Shu Yan just sat down for a break when Zhang Huaxiu came running over. "Boss, we are out of jeans."

"Not even the backroom?" asked Shu Yan in surprise.

"No, we are all out." Zhang Huaxiu was both excited and worried.

"That's fine. If we are out, we are out. Have the ones still picking to hurry up. Else things would be sold out." Shu Yan wanted to create a sense of urgency.

Things were just better when they were fought over; that was not a good characteristic in human nature. Once the customers heard that the jeans were sold out, many worried that what they had their eyes on would be sold out also, so they all grabbed them in their hands and picked the ones that they like to pay for them.

When more and more customers came in, Shu Yan had the one handing out flyers by the shop fetch the ones from the outside to come back in to help out.

When they finally had a break, it was already one in the afternoon. All of them were exhausted. Shu Yan stood up and clapped her hands. "Thank you everyone. I have bought some food. Let's have lunch first." She went to get the temporary helpers as well. "Come join us for lunch."

The temporary workers didn't normally get free lunch, but everybody had worked so hard that Shu Yan called them over to eat with them.

"Thank you, Boss Lady." The few temporary workers were happy when they heard that. They were even happier when they saw that there were fish and meat on the table.

"Thank you for your hard work. Help yourself." Shu Yan gave them each a beverage. "Let me know if there's not enough. I will go get some more."

"This is enough. This is plenty."

Shu Yan thought since there were so many of them, she had specifically ordered two orders of braised pork. The layer of glistering grease on top made them look particularly tasty.

They got busy all over again in the afternoon; all the way until after 8 PM before everyone had another chance to sit down and take a break. Shu Yan looked up and saw all the emptied racks inside the shop. She felt both tired and relieved. Her cousin had always said that clothing business was the business in the 90s. There was a saying that if one wanted to make money back then, you go into the clothing industry. She had always thought that her cousin had made it up. Turned out it was true.

"Thank you everyone. I got some beverages and bread. Each of you can take a set."

The temporary workers get paid daily. In addition to the bread and beverages, Shu Yan paid them 12 yuan for a day, an increase from the agreed upon 10 yuan a day.

"Come back tomorrow at 9 AM. Don't be late. It's getting late. Hurry up and go home."

The few temporary help got their pay and food and chatted and laughed on their way out. It was their first time running into such a nice and generous boss.

"Xiuxiu, you two can divide up the remaining beverages and bread. Don't worry about picking up the shop tonight; we will do that tomorrow morning. You should get going," said Shu Yan.

"Then I will take off now, Yan-jie." Yingying lived a bit further away and the latest bus was 9:30. She needed to make her bus.

"Alright, be careful on your way."

Shu Yan and Zhang Huaxiu lived in the same district. They had been going home together when they had been working late.

Shu Yan rolled up the money inside the drawer and put them in her purse. She was quite worried about having so much money on her. Luckily, she had Zhang Huaxiu with her.

The two didn't care to talk too much on their way back. Even Zhang Huaxiu was nervous with all the money. The two were able to finally relax some after they had reached their little district.

"How much inventory do we have left?" Shu Yan had prepared quite a bit of merchandise, but she hadn't expected business to be so good that she was out of most of them.

"We are sold out on windbreakers and jeans. Jean jackets too, and skirts. We are out of quite a few colors."

Shu Yan went silent for a little bit and said, "Let me head over to your place. I need to talk to your sister-in-law."