Then, upon comparison, they realized that their company, Meiyijia, had no advantage whatsoever when facing Anjing. The retail prices at Anjing convenience stores were simply never higher than at Meiyijia.

Anjing also beat them on franchise fees, renovation costs, equipment usage fees, and supply prices. How could Meiyijia possibly compete? Yet they had no way to lower their fees, because the store owners who had already joined their franchise would surely cause a commotion. But if they didn't lower their fees, they clearly couldn't compete with Anjing. Still, the market was massive, and they could always manage to lure some people in.

After establishing its market presence in Shenzhen, Anjing naturally pushed into Dongguan, establishing a local branch and beginning to develop franchised stores. Before this, they had already opened a few directly-operated stores to serve as models for potential franchisees to visit and inspect. Initially, they supplied their stores by cooperating with the logistics and warehousing centers of Anjing Online Supermarket. Anjing Trading Company and Anjing Online Supermarket were two enterprises under the same owner, so cooperation was seamless. Anjing Online Supermarket even supplied goods at cost, not making a single cent from Anjing Trading Company.

Consequently, once Anjing's franchised convenience stores entered Dongguan, they developed very rapidly. Anyone planning to invest in a convenience store would inevitably choose to franchise with Anjing after a careful comparison. Furthermore, Anjing Online Supermarket and its associated physical stores already wielded considerable influence in Dongguan. Although Meiyijia was also very famous in Dongguan at the time with significant brand influence, a simple comparison revealed Anjing's superior advantages. It required less investment for similar profits, but Anjing's supply prices were lower and its retail prices were cheaper, which naturally attracted more customers.

The reality proved it. For the same bottle of beer, a Meiyijia convenience store charged 3.5 yuan, while an Anjing convenience store charged only 3 yuan. The choice for customers was obvious. And since both were franchised chains, it was perfectly normal for a single street to have both a Meiyijia and an Anjing, meaning competition was everywhere. When the two were compared, it was easy to understand why Anjing was developing faster than Meiyijia.

However, this was also a product of the times. Before the 2000s, franchised convenience stores were rare. Most entrepreneurs opened their own independent sundry shops and sourced goods from wholesalers. Back then, grocery wholesalers were common. One phone call and they would deliver mineral water, sodas, beer, sunflower seeds, peanuts, and cigarettes right to your door. This was a far cry from a decade later, when franchised convenience stores populated every street and alley, while independent shops sourcing their own goods became increasingly scarce.

Customers also preferred shopping at these franchised stores, as they felt it was less likely they would be cheated. People's trust in brands was growing stronger. There was little choice, as too many people had been tricked. You could go to buy a bottle of Master Kong Iced Tea and accidentally walk out with a "Kang Shuai Bo" instead. Besides two slightly different characters, the packaging was identical; if you weren't paying close attention, you would never notice. And you couldn't even say they conned you—it was your own fault for not looking carefully. They weren't selling a counterfeit; the product was genuinely Kang Shuai Bo, not Master Kong. You were the one who mistook it, so who could you blame?

As a result, running your own store and sourcing your own goods became a dead end. Over time, anyone looking to open a shop naturally turned to franchise brands. The number of franchised convenience store brands also multiplied as more people recognized the business opportunity.

Meiyijia took ten years to reach 1,000 franchised stores, another ten years to reach 10,000, and then just five more years to expand to over 30,000, generating 50 billion yuan in annual income. By comparison, Anjing had taken only five years to reach 1,000 franchised stores. Besides its initial financial advantage, the most crucial factor was the market environment. In other words, promoting convenience store franchises was much easier now than it had been a few years prior.

Meiyijia was established in 1997, but it started out operating large supermarkets. Its predecessor, Meijia Supermarket, was founded in 1990 and grew to a chain of 50 supermarkets with an annual revenue of several hundred million yuan, making it the first true supermarket chain in the country. Later, when foreign giants like Carrefour and Walmart entered Dongguan, Meijia gradually lost its edge, unable to compete. Only then, in 1997, did the company pivot to franchising convenience stores.

At that time, ninety percent of the population in Dongguan consisted of migrant workers. The sprawling industrial zones had no room for large supermarkets. These workers toiled day and night, often working overtime late into the evening, leaving them no time to visit the large supermarkets in the town or city centers. They still had shopping needs, however, and the sundry shops in the industrial areas became their primary places of consumption. Meiyijia fully seized this opportunity, opening its convenience stores directly inside the various industrial zones.

Initially, Meiyijia also started with company-owned stores, and its growth was painstakingly slow. In its first year, it opened only five or six stores. By the second year, it had expanded to just over twenty, and by the third, over fifty. It wasn't until 2003 that Meiyijia expanded beyond Dongguan, opening its first store in Yangcheng. By the end of 2003, Meiyijia had 430 stores, a milestone that took six full years to achieve.

In 2004, Meiyijia began its push into Shenzhen. At almost the exact same time, the first Anjing convenience store opened its doors. By the end of 2006, Meiyijia's store count in Shenzhen surpassed 100, while its total in all of Guangdong province approached 1,000, with just over 980 stores. In early 2007, it smoothly broke the 1,000-store mark, and by July 2007, the total had reached over 1,300. Now, it had grown to over 1,800 stores.

Meanwhile, Anjing Convenience Store had just surpassed 1,000 franchised stores, appearing to lag considerably behind Meiyijia. However, the development speed of Anjing's franchise was accelerating, and catching up to Meiyijia seemed to be only a matter of time. Moreover, Anjing was also developing large-scale supermarkets and had ventured into online sales through the Anjing Online Supermarket, where customers could place orders online for door-to-door delivery.

After establishing a foothold, Anjing Trading Company began building its own logistics and warehousing centers. After all, Anjing Trading Company and Anjing Online Supermarket were two separate companies with two different management teams. Yi Anguo had not incorporated Anjing Trading Company into the Anguo Group's management scope. In Yi Anguo's mind, Anjing Trading Company was the business he had gifted to Hu Jing. Similarly, he had never incorporated Li Sisi's Chuan Yu Restaurant into Anguo Group's management structure. Although he later invested some money in it, he considered it a gift to Li Sisi, with no expectation of any return.

While entering the Dongguan market, Anjing Trading Company simultaneously expanded into the Yangcheng market, establishing a branch there. Next came Huicheng and Zhuhai, aiming for full coverage of the Pearl River Delta city cluster. The future goal was to cover all of Guangdong province before expanding to neighboring provinces like Guangxi, Fujian, and Hunan.

Recently, Yi Anguo had been spending more time with Zhao Liying. They met frequently to discuss investing in film and television production.

"I'm planning to establish Liying Media to invest in a few film and TV projects," Yi Anguo said, pulling Zhao Liying into his arms and kissing her. "I have the capital, but I'm a complete novice when it comes to the entertainment industry."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.