Chapter 495: 495 Selling Bean Sprouts

“As Tong Tiehu’s voice dropped, nearly everyone present turned their heads towards Qiao Xiaomai who was standing at the edge of the marketplace.

Everyone knew that bean sprouts were a new vegetable introduced by Qiao Xiaomai.

Yet now, the Tong Family had started selling them. What was happening?

Qiao Xiaomai stood at the edge of the marketplace, her face taut, expressionless, a subject for everyone’s scrutiny.

Seeing this, Tong Tiehu coughed lightly and explained loudly, “This skill of growing bean sprouts was thought up by our family and has nothing to do with Qiao Xiaomai.”

“In the future, if Qiao Xiaomai also sells bean sprouts, you all can continue to buy from her as usual.”

That was how he put it, but when he spoke the words “thought it out ourselves”, he involuntarily lowered his voice.

His face was thin, feeling guilty uttering such a claim.

Despite his guilt, Mrs. Zhang didn’t feel an ounce of it. She took a few steps onto the stage, her eyes on the crowd below, a cheerful smile on her face, “Bean sprouts are a penny per pound, there’s this much in a pound. If you have a small family, you could eat it for two days.”

Mrs. Zhang gestured, demonstrating roughly the amount one pound of bean sprouts would yield.

To be honest, bean sprouts had truly been a pleasant surprise to Mrs. Zhang.

She never in her wildest dreams imagined that one pound of beans could yield seven or eight pounds of sprouts and, beyond the beans, all they needed was water!

One pound of beans cost three pennies.

One pound of beans could sprout into eight pounds of bean sprouts.

One pound of bean sprouts sold for a penny.

By doing the math, from one pound of beans, she could make a profit of five pennies.

If they sold ten pounds of bean sprouts each day, then that would be a profit of fifty pennies.

This was just in the village. If they were taken and sold in town to the Zuixian Building or Jiji Residence, then they’d make over a hundred copper coins a day.

Over a hundred copper coins a day adds up to over three thousand copper coins in a month, which is over three taels of silver.

Add in the profit from malt sugar and vinegar, and this business venture becomes entirely feasible!

Chen Guilan, also among the crowd, couldn’t resist asking upon hearing this, “Xiaomai sells the sprouts at a penny for two pounds, why are you selling at a penny per pound?”

“If we sell it at a penny for two pounds, we won’t earn much at all.”

If one pound of beans costs three pennies and bean sprouts were sold at two pennies per pound, then selling all eight pounds of sprouts from one pound of beans would only bring in four pennies.

By this calculation, the profit margin would only be one penny.

One penny was a bit too little.

Before, when Qiao Xiaomai was selling it like that, it was to build a good reputation, but the Tong Family didn’t need to curry favor, Tong Tiehu was the village chief, an actual official.

The most urgent matter for the Tong Family right now was to make money!

Mrs. Zhang spoke up, clarifying to Chen Guilan, “I don’t know how Qiao Xiaomai does it, or what her yield is. All I know is that the price we’ve set is entirely reasonable. We can only produce four pounds of sprouts from one pound of beans, a pound of beans costs three pennies and a pound of sprouts costs a penny. After doing the math, one pound of beans only results in a profit margin of one penny.”

With these words, she arbitrarily halved the yield of bean sprouts, but Mrs. Zhang’s face remained unperturbed.

When doing business, isn’t it all about talking the talk?

Hearing this, Chen Guilan turned her gaze back to Qiao Xiaomai, her eyes filled with anticipation.

The Tong Family’s price was too high. They should just let Qiao Xiaomai sell it!

An unnatural smile appeared on Xiaomai’s taut face, “What price the Tong Family sells at is none of my concern. In the future, I’ll grow sprouts when I have the time, and I won’t when I don’t.”

“By the way, I’ll be planting some fruit trees in the coming days. Anyone who is free can come to my place. I can pay seven pennies a day.”

With that, she turned around and began walking towards her home.

Tong Sanlang had already informed her of the Tong Family’s pricing. She remained indifferent.

Since the Tong Family had come up with a way to grow bean sprouts, she’d let them have at it.

After all, she wasn’t the Bureau of Commodity Prices. It wasn’t her concern how much the sprouts were being sold for by the Tong Family.

If people were willing, they’d buy. If not, they won’t eat, after all, it’s just a vegetable.”