Chapter 118: Handling the Sweet Bood Potions
Inside the Wisteria Shop, the salesclerks were awfully busy.
There were many customers coming through.
After a long time, a salesclerk excitedly raised the account book and showed it off to Yan Yi, “For the last several days, our potion sales have been very good, the estimated market demand still remains high. How much is still in stock, if there is not much, shouldn’t we raise the price?”
Yain Yi looked at the account book.
The listed data had already made it plain the immense change that occurred several days ago.
It was all because of the beast tide.
Yan Yi clearly remembered the first evening when the alarm was raised. Iron Club Mercenaries had run into the store and purchased a lot of Sweet Blood Potions.
It was like a watershed moment, and from that purchase, more and more people came to buy the Sweet Blood Potions. Even now, customers were still streaming in endlessly.
No one knew that the Sweet Blood Potion would be so useful.
If one encountered a powerful fish school, as long as they weren’t like the ghost face fish school, as long as people tossed out some Sweet Blood Potion, they could attract the fish school elsewhere in the sea and allow their ships to easily escape.
When they encountered other fish schools, they could pour out Sweet Blood Potions and gather the fish school at the surface. Then, they could bombard them continuously with cannons. Although the cost of shells wasn’t low, when the mercenary corps put it into practice, they found that their hunting efficiency had enormously improved, and although their usage of gunpower and artillery shells increased, at the same time, they saved a lot on manpower, physical resources, and time, as well as reducing the battle risks. The harm to squads was lowered, battle strength was preserved, and additional compensation payment didn’t need to be paid out.
The Sweet Blood Potion really was sweet!
In the account book in Yan Yi’s hand, the Sweet Blood Potions’ sales had already exceeded its section and became the Wisteria Store’s new hot item.
The other section was the Green Hat Healing Potion, still affected by the prior disturbance.
“Don’t worry about stock, our warehouse has ample reserves.” Yan Yi’s eyes tore from the account book and back towards the salesclerk.
The day the beast tide alarm rang, Zi Di and Cang Xu had mysteriously appeared again and privately met with Yan Yi to replenish his merchandise.
In the days after, they would appear nearly every day to replenish the potion stock.
The Sweet Blood Potion was 90% of the replenishment, while the Green Hat Potion was the remaining percentage.
Yan Yi continued to speak, “The Sweet Blood Potion sells great because a relatively rare beast tide has broken out and because there is a gap in the market. The market here lacks something like the Sweet Blood Potion.”
“Therefore, we cannot raise the price. Next year, no, as long as some time passes, a competing product with the same effect as the Sweet Blood Potion will appear in Two Eyes Island’s market. Don’t underestimate our rivals, the Secret Medicine Merchant Alliance is a colossus, they are one of humanity’s six great merchant alliances!”
“If we raise the price, we will only profit and benefit in the short term but create a negative effect on our buyers. If we were the only ones with the Sweet Blood Potion, then this wouldn’t be a problem. But in the future, when rival products hit the market, our current market share will be attacked, rapidly reduced, and pushed aside by the rival products.”
“Sweet Blood Potion…this will be our main product from now on. You know we have to take the long view, right?”
“Understood, my Lord.” After the salesclerk received instruction, he altered his opinion and went back to work with satisfaction and hope.
These last few days, the salesclerks worked with surging enthusiasm.
The Wisteria Shop’s business was flourishing, their income improved, and their future looked more beautiful and hopeful.
Yan Yi thought of Zi Di and Cang Xu, the two level seven elders.
What he just said was not what his idea, rather it was Zi Di’s urging that made him rigorously work without the slightest slip-up.
Yan Yi expressed his opinion of the Green Hat Healing Potion to the two elders.
He wanted to contact Hun Tong’s subordinate, the silver level alchemy master and have him analyze the potion so that he could inform everyone the healing potion had no major side effects. Then the prior disturbance would be slandered back.
But Zi Di refused.
This confused Yan Yi.
“We have been framed; the Green Hat Healing Potion is an excellent potion. Since we can reduce the negative effects of the disturbance, why don’t we do so?”
Zi Di saw Yan Yi’s misgivings but didn’t explain them away.
To Yan Yi it seemed that the two level seven elders seemed to be scared of contacting Hun Tong and other people, and it also seemed that they never took the trivial matter of the potion slandering to heart at all.
“Anyways, if this continues, as long as the Sweet Blood Potion sales continue, our new island store position can be saved.”
The Wisteria Shop’s new island position was impressive, and the Flint Merchant Alliance once dispatched their manager to buy it in advance.
At the time, the manager was very haughty.
But now, with the Wisteria Store’s sales figures becoming considerable and greatly making up for their prior gaps, he now had hope he could save his store location.
The Sweet Blood Potion was a hot item and had already caught the Secret Medicine Merchant Alliance’s attention.
The Secret Medicine Merchant Alliance’s manager had valued the two potions and had once asked the merchant alliance’s pharmacist to determine a part of the potions’ recipes.
“The Wisteria Store hasn’t raised the Sweet Blood Potion’s price; it seems their supply of goods is both stable and sufficient.”
“Strange, they don’t have a medicine workshop.”
“That would be terrible.”
The Secret Medicine Merchant Alliance manager was gloomy.
According to the Secret Medicine Merchant Alliance’s rules, every marketplace situation must be reported to the higher ups at the end of the month.
When the higherups saw the situation here, they would think the manager was neglecting their duty for not noticing the gap in the market there and allowing a competitor’s hand to fill the gap.
Therefore, on the third day the Sweet Blood Potion wantonly sold, the Secret Medicine Merchant Alliance manager appealed to the higherups: he hoped that he could acquire stock of a magic potion similar to the Sweet Blood Potion so he could fill in the gap in Two Eyes Island’s medicine marketplace.
The Secret Medicine Merchant Alliance had a huge volume of medicinal products and recipes. Picking one out from within that and producing more of them was not challenging.
Therefore, in the Secret Medicine Merchant Alliance manager’s opinion, he had long prepared to utilize this potion to attack the Sweet Blood Potion’s market share it had for the last few days.
But looking at it currently, the Wisteria Store acted steadily, it didn’t raise the price, and it didn’t have any flaws.
If this continued, when he attacked the market in the future, it would be relatively difficult.
If the rival product didn’t suppress the Sweet Blood Potion, then when his merit was evaluated, it would decline again.
The Secret Medicine branch manager didn’t want to see this happen.
“I must think of something else I can do.”
Naturally, the Secret Medicine branch manager thought of the Flint Merchant Alliance.
“The Flint branch wanted to buy the Wisteria Store’s new island store location, but now that purchase plan has perhaps come to a premature end. The Wisteria Store can rely on the Sweet Blood Potion to save their store location and won’t offer it for sale again.”
“Previously someone caused trouble, leading to the Green Hat Healing Potion’s sales plummeting.:”
“If the Sweet Blood Potion has a mishap, then there is hope for the Flint branch’s purchase to go through. In that aspect, my and their benefits are in alignment.”
The Secret Medicine branch manager went to the Flint branch, and during their discussion, the two managers discovered that both intended on collaborating together.
They clicked together on the spot.
The Flint branch manager vocalized his thoughts, “Perhaps we can find people to continue causing trouble. Didn’t you guys do a good job with the Green Hat Healing Potion previously?”
The Secret Medicine branch manager shook his head and denied, “That wasn’t my doing.”
The Flint branch manager laughed mischievously, and didn’t believe the Secret Medicine branch manager’s words. Swapping places, if he had done that, of course he wouldn’t say he did, such clear proof would increase the information that could be used against him.
The Flint branch manager continued on, “We can continue doing that. The last disturbance’s outcome was very ideal, and to date, the Green Hat Healing Potion’s sales volume hasn’t improved.”
When the Secret Medicine branch manager heard the other person faintly praising him, he couldn’t help but force a smile, “I really didn’t do it. The method was really effective, but also not impossible to resist. It’s very odd that the Wisteria Shop didn’t counterattack in any way.”
“It is a little odd.” The Flint branch manager nodded, “Anyways think about Yan Yi, he is too young and is abilities aren’t too high, perhaps he didn’t think of any.”
The Secret Medicine branch manager shook his head, “Even if he didn’t think of anything, the two mysterious level seven elders most certainly would have.”
“Perhaps this time when we act, the two level seven elders will respond.”
The Flint branch manager’s brows pursed, they had obtained information the two level seven elders, but they didn’t understand much about what they were up to.
Ever since they appeared, the two level seven Wisteria Merchant Alliance elders had been a mystery, they came and went without a trace, and they couldn’t make sense of what they wanted to accomplish, it just so happened that the two potions they tossed onto the market had a big impact.
“If we want to bring false charges against the Sweet Blood Potion, it will be far more difficult than the Green Hat Healing Potion.” The Flint branch manager sighed. The two level seven elders were a psychological pressure on him.
The Flint branch manager’s words made sense.
The Green Hat Healing Potion was consumed by people, while the Sweet Blood Potion was not.
Buyers would undoubtably be more relaxed when using the latter than the former.
At the same time, the Sweet Blood Potion’s effect was obvious to all, and was very difficult to discredit.
Anyways, concerning this point, the Secret Medicine branch manager already had a plan.
He stated, “Our merchant alliance’s magic potion is coming soon.”
“I don’t believe my merchandise stock is smaller than the Wisteria Store’s!”
“Let me display my strength and discipline in competition.”
“You want to undercut them?” The Flint branch manager suspiciously asked.
“No.” The Secret Medicine manager shook his head.
He had already asked someone to calculate the Sweet Blood Potion’s recipe. Although only some medicinal ingredients were identified, it was sufficient enough for him to budget its manufacturing cost.
The Sweet Blood Potion’s recipe was utterly superior, and its production cost wasn’t high.
As expected of one of War Merchant’s products, and the Secret Medicine Merchant Alliance couldn’t pull out a better magic potion recipe to it. Of course, the required production cost was similar.
If the Secret Medicine branch manager chose to cut the price to attack the marketplace, it would indeed rock the Sweet Blood Potion’s position. But if that happen, he would undoubtedly make a loss, and in the long term, it would greatly damage the merchant alliance’s higherups’ evaluation of the manager.