1270 Where Will The Raw Materials Come From

Xia Zhe had never mentioned anything to her about taking care of the two babies at home, dealing with the disputes between the families of the second and third sons of the Xia family, comforting Xu Lan on a daily basis, or about what happened with her maternal family and Qian’e. He had never complained to her and just quietly get things done.

“Why are you such a nice person~” Qiao Mei said sweetly.

“Do you mean you only know that now. Haven’t I always been like this?” Xia Zhe looked down and said to Qiao Mei.

“Of course I know that you’re very nice to me! By the way, do you know any reliable people? I’m thinking about our family’s business. It’s too tiring for my mother to do everything herself. She needs to hire more people to help her. Do you have any ideas?” Qiao Mei asked.

Xia Zhe knew a group of retired soldiers who went back to farm in their hometowns. They would definitely be willing to come to the city to work. However, they all resided in different places at the moment. If they had to come to work in the capital, their accommodation must be provided for.

“What do you want these people to do? Or rather, do you have any concrete plans?” Xia Zhe asked.

“Selling popcorn alone doesn’t make much money nowadays, plus it also takes up a lot of manpower and raw materials. I intend to change to selling buns!” Qiao Mei said excitedly.

When the economy opened up, there would definitely be more people coming to the capital to do business as well as more businessmen traveling to the capital. At the current moment, Li Gui could not manage a big business so she could only start small.

Once there was an increase in the number of people at the train station, it would definitely be a profitable business to sell buns there. People were always in such a hurry to catch the train that they did not have time to eat. Buns would definitely be popular with the travelers as they were both delicious and filling.

When the time came, Qiao Mei intended to buy a shop nearby. Li Gui could make buns at the back and Zhou Shuang and Sun Juan could help to do sales. Then she would find someone else to take charge of the popcorn business. This way, she would be able to earn more money in a month.

“How do you plan to buy the ingredients for the bun filling?” Xia Zhe asked.

Qiao Mei had not thought about this yet. She had only just come up with the idea of selling buns!

Currently, the price of meat on the market was 30 cents a pound if one paid with coupons. Sometimes, when there was less pork, the price would increase to 40 cents a pound. This was still based on paying with coupons. If one did not have coupons and had to go to the black market, the price was much higher.

Even if Qiao Mei had enough meat coupons for 1,000 catties of meat, no one would sell 1,000 catties of meat to her. Firstly, there was a fixed amount of meat released by the supply and marketing cooperative every day. Secondly, there was also a limit on how much meat each person could buy. This was a safeguard against someone buying all the meat and then selling it off at a high price in private.

“I’m so focused on the product that I haven’t thought about the ingredients. How about I make steamed buns with vegetarian filling?” Qiao Mei said vexedly.

If they only used vegetarian filling, they could not set the price too high and would not be able to make much money. The profits would definitely not be as much as selling meat buns. Every family knew how to make vegetarian buns! This was not something rare.

“Do you want me to help you think of a way? It’s not difficult for our family to get meat,” Xia Zhe said as he patted Qiao Mei’s head gently.

“No! I definitely don’t want to depend on the family for help! I have to settle this issue myself. I can’t let the family help me for the rest of my life,” Qiao Mei said stubbornly.

“Fine, fine, fine. Then let my friends help you. Do you still remember those old comrades I told you before?” Xia Zhe asked.

“Yes I do. At that time, our family did not have much money and we had enough help, so we did not ask them to come,” Qiao Mei said honestly.

Some of those people were now selling pigs in their villages, just like Uncle Wang Wu in Foshan Village. They raised pigs at home and would sell them to the supply and marketing cooperative.

However, the supply and marketing cooperative only wanted the good cuts of meat. They did not want the pigs’ heads, tails or offal. The villagers would buy these parts to eat.

Who cared as long as it was meat? As long as there was meat to eat, it did not matter which part of the pig it came from!

If Qiao Mei was able to get her hands on such meat, then she would have nothing to worry about. If she wanted the usual type of meat, she needed to buy them with coupons. Actually, the supply and marketing cooperative also raised pigs themselves, but they did not have enough to sell. Most of the pig offal would have been distributed internally among themselves. Otherwise, people would find out the timing when the pigs were slaughtered and wait at the supply and marketing cooperative early in the morning.

Such pig offal was sold for 20 cents a pound. There was no need to use coupons. It was on a first come first served basis.