Chapter 84: Merchandising (1)

Zhang Huaxiu was an efficient woman and she reported to work on the third day. Shu Yan spent a day with her and learned that she was a workaholic. She cleaned the storage out in the morning, went over to the market, and bought a tool in between, then she came back and got all the clothing racks ready. 

“Take a break and have some lunch,” Shu Yan called out to Zhang Huaxiu and gave her the seat directly in front of the electric fan. It was almost October, but the days were still very hot. 

“Okay,” replied Zhang Huaxiu as she wiped her hands clean and walked over. There were two dishes plus a soup: cabbage stir fry, braised pork, and an egg drop and tomato soup. The workers didn’t eat with them, so that was enough food for the two of them. 

Noticing that Zhang Huaxiu was eating only the cabbage, Shu Yan took a pair of clean chopsticks and put half of the pork into her bowl. “Have more. We will get more if we need to.”

“Thank you. That’s enough, really. I can’t eat that much.” Zhang Huaxiu looked at her bowl, now filled with meat, and gulped. 

Even though the overall condition had improved, and meat wasn’t as difficult to come by as they used to be, the Zhang’s income still wasn’t great lately. The factories that her parents worked at had only been able to pay them half of their salaries; her sister-in-law stayed home with the child and has no income; she hadn’t brought home a penny in six months; and her brother didn’t make that much. How well could they be eating? Having meat once a week would be a luxury. And, when it did happen, they’d try to let her nephew have the lion share of it. 

It wasn’t just her family that were like that. That was the life of most of those who worked at the factories. They may call it the “iron bowl job”, but in reality, they were stretched very thin these days.

“I forgot to mention the time off policy to you last time. You have two days off a month, and you can pick which days to take off, but you will need to let me know ahead of time,unless it’s an emergency. If you don’t take any time off, I’ll pay you an extra stipend. If you get here on time every day, never leave early, and don’t call in sick, I will pay you an additional $30 as a full attendance reward. I think that pretty much covers it all.” That was what had occurred to Shu Yan a couple of nights ago. It was her first time as a boss, so she hasn’t been very comprehensive. 

Zhang Huaxiu hadn’t expected something so nice. A $30 reward for full-attendance and an extra stipend for not taking her two days’ time off. That’s extra tens of dollars a month. Plus her $450 salary, that added up to quite a bit. 

Shu Yan needed to leave early to pick up her kids, so she left Zhang Huaxiu there to watch the store by herself. She suddenly thought about Zhang Huaxiu’s meals. There were no fast food restaurants available just yet and eating out was expensive. Their afternoon meal cost her $10, an average $5 per person. Calculating it out, Zhang Huaxiu would have to spend $10 a day on food, that’s $300 a month? That was higher than many City Nan’s residents’ monthly income. That’d not be sustainable. Even thirty years from now, a regular company’s meal subsidy was $450.

She had already told Zhang Huaxiu that food would be covered, and she couldn’t go back on her words now. Shu Yan thought about it for a little and said, “One more thing. About your meals. I need to pick up my kids at night and may not always have lunch here in the afternoon. How about this? I will pay you a $60 subsidy, and you take care of your own meals, does that work?”

Zhang Huaxiu’s eyes beamed. $60 in subsidy was a lot. She used to only give her sister-in-law $50 a month for household expenditures. 

“Oh, yes.” She would bring lunch starting tomorrow and just have something light at night to tie her over until she got home. $60! That was enough to feed her entire family. 

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