"That’s right," Zhang Zian smiled. "I am planning to expand my business. You know, selling pets doesn’t make much. Diversification is the trend. I am ready to diversify my services as well."
Aunt Liu laughed to herself, "There are not many customers in the store. It looked like he could not support the store anymore, so he had to make a few bucks off of bathing cats.
"Yo, my cat," she patted the American shorthair cat on her arm, "she is quite well behaved most of the time, except when it comes to taking a bath. I have never successfully given her a bath ever since you sold her to me. Every time I try to bathe her, she gets water everywhere and jumps around in the apartment. She even destroyed my genuine leather couch and rosewood furniture. Look, you provide a bathing service here. It has to be a professional service that’s much better than mine, right? Zian, please help me out and give her a bath."
Same trick again. Zhang Zian thought, "She is exaggerating her loss to make me feel bad and then she will take advantage of me without an excuse."
He nodded, "No problem."
Aunt Liu’s face lit up and it seemed as if all complaints were lifted off her chest immediately. She thought, "As soon as you start bathing my cat, you will have to bathe her every time."
"I didn’t bring much cash with me today… Come on, take 10 yuan." She pulled out a wrinkly 10 yuan note and was about to give it to Zhang Zian. In the meantime, she was hoping that he would not take it and push the money back to her.
Zhang Zian didn’t accept the money. He raised three fingers and said, "300. The charge for the bathing service is 300 each time."
Aunt Liu’s mouth dropped wide open and could not speak a word.
"Hey, Zian, you are joking again, right?" Aunt Liu forced a smile. Her hand holding the 10 yuan paused in the air.
Zhang Zian shook his head, "Nope. How dare I joke around with Aunt Liu? I told a small joke a minute ago and your face turned green. I am worried you would have a heart attack if I kept joking around."
"300 yuan to bathe a cat? Zian, are you crazy? I have never heard of a bathing service as expensive as that!" Unpleased, Aunt Liu rebuked.
Zhang Zian said calmly, "Aunt Liu, that’s my price for bathing services. If you think it is too expensive, you are more than welcome to bathe your cat in another store."
Aunt Liu was really irritated, "Now you tell me, why is it so expensive? Do you do a splendid job? Or is your water much more expensive than other stores?"
Zhang Zian replied seriously, "Aunt Liu, you misunderstood. I am not bathing your cat but you are."
"What?" Aunt Liu, Wang Qian and Li Kun were all astonished.
Zhang Zian turned around and pointed at the pet’s bathing room on the first floor. There was a note on the door saying: self-service pet bathing: 300 yuan per use.
"Everyone has been to a buffet. There are no people to wait tables. You go get whatever you want. There are self-service laundromats where you put in the money and do your laundry. This is self-service pet bathing, which means the owner bathes their own cat. I am only providing the space."
Aunt Liu burst her anger into laughter. "I am bathing my cat and have to pay you 300 Yuan?"
Even Wang Qian and Li Kun didn’t agree. Master, are you ripping people off?
From Zhang Zian’s perspective, the price was fair.
There were two types of people who would use the cat bathing service. One was those who absolutely hated bathing cats. The other was those who were too lazy and wanted to spend the money for convenience.
Apparently, Zhang Zian’s target customers were the first group of people.
The biggest problem when it came to cat bathing was that cats hate getting wet. Some might not fight back as much but they just would sit still and get bathed. It would be easier for the owners to bathe their own cat. However, if the owners had the skills, they didn’t really have to send their cat to a store for bathing services.
When Fina was here, cats would all listen.
In this case, it would improve the connection between the owners and the cats if the owners bathed the cat themselves. It was much better than having another person take care of business.
Also, Zhang Zian was the only person in the store. If he bathed the cat, who was going to watch the store? Bathing and drying would take at least half an hour if the cat cooperated. What if a customer walked in while he was bathing a cat?
If he were to hire someone, even if it was a part time helper, he would have to pay at least 2000 yuan a month, which was only slightly higher than minimum wage. In that case, he had to bathe more than ten cats to break even. Otherwise, he would lose money. Zhang Zian also had other considerations—unless it was someone he got along with for a long time, he won’t be able to tell whether the new employee would be a good fit. If the employee pretended to be nice, but was actually a mean person, he might do something damaging to the store or mistreat the pets behind Zhang Zian’s back. Everything needed to be thoroughly considered.
Zhang Zian was being very cautious when it came to running the pet store. Running a business is more serious than playing an online game. There is no S/L magic. He could lose everything if he made one bad decision. He might hire some help later on when the store got busy, but not now.
Aunt Liu disagreed. "Crazy! This is crazy! For 300 yuan, I can bathe my cat three times in another store. In your store, I have to pay you and also do the work…I cannot believe you turned into Mr. Scrooge after all these years living in another city. Your parents would be ashamed of you! If you are not going to change the way you do business, your store won’t last long."
At first, Wang Qian and Li Kun thought that this lady was nice to Master. Now, they obviously felt the tension. If she was nice to Master, she would not curse like that.
Zhang Zian shrugged, "Whether my store lasts or not is really not your business. All prices are clearly marked in my store and it is totally up to you if you want to pay for the service. If you are not bathing your cat today, please show yourself out."
He was kicking her out. It wasn’t fun to squabble with a middle-aged woman. It didn’t even mean anything to him even if he won.
Aunt Liu was so angry that she stomped her foot heavily, turned around and was about to leave. Someone came in at the same time.
It was a coincidence that the person was also holding a cat.
It was a young girl around 20 years old. Long bangs covered her eyebrows. She was wearing big glasses with thick frames. Only a small portion of her face was not covered. She was wearing a huge sweatshirt and sweatpants with no makeup on her face. Her image was quite slovenly and homey.
The girl saw that someone was about to walk out the door and jumped to the side like a little rabbit to give way to the person inside the door.
Amazing Fate pet shop still used the old-fashioned glass doors where there are signs saying "push" and "pull." It was not like the high-end automatic doors in the jewelry store.
Aunt Liu saw the girl was holding a cat. She changed her mind quickly and stepped aside. She waved at the girl so she would come in.
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