Chapter 302: A Suitable Candidate

After the banquet ended, Sugihara Aisa said goodbye to the drunken crowd and took a taxi home.

She hadn't been home long when she heard the phone ringing.

Who would be calling so late?

She was a bit puzzled, but she answered the phone anyway.

As soon as she picked up, a gentle female voice came from the other end.

"May I ask if this is Ms. Sugihara Aisa from Yamazaki Bookstore?"

Sugihara Aisa was stunned, but quickly replied, "Yes, it is. May I ask who is calling?"

"I am Satake Maki, we have worked together before."

Hearing this name, Sugihara Aisa subconsciously began to recall.

Back when Akiwara Yuto had his new book signing event, she seemed to have worked with this Ms. Satake.

But why would the other party call so late?

She was a bit confused, but she still exchanged pleasantries before beating around the bush to ask her question.

Satake Maki smiled and replied, "Ms. Sugihara, have you ever considered changing jobs? Still in the bookstore industry, of course."

Sugihara Aisa hadn't expected this intention, but after weighing it, she still planned to refuse.

The bookstore industry was currently in a slump, and it was good enough that she had a stable job at Yamazaki Bookstore.

After all, she was considered a veteran employee who knew everything about Yamazaki Bookstore, and she was well-versed in the bookstore's operations.

If she were to rashly jump to a new company, who knew what the consequences might be.

Some of her "old friends" had jumped ship rashly in the past, only to find themselves unemployed in the blink of an eye.

But just as she was about to refuse, Satake Maki continued, "Ms. Sugihara, the annual salary for this job is 8 million yen. Please consider it."

Hearing this number, Sugihara Aisa, who had originally intended to refuse, immediately hesitated.

In Tokyo, the average salary for a regular bookstore clerk was only 3 million yen a year; even for a veteran full-time clerk like her with many years of experience, the salary was only 5 million yen.

And the promised pay raise had been delayed by the store manager due to the industry downturn.

She weighed the amount and said in a polite tone, "Ms. Satake, may I ask what kind of work I would be doing?"

Satake Maki smiled and said, "It's the same as your previous work content, just with a slightly higher work intensity and a broader scope of business."

Sugihara Aisa was a bit puzzled, but she indicated that she understood.

Then she asked for the time and location of the interview and hung up the phone.

After putting down the phone, she gently clenched her fist.

This was an opportunity, and she had to seize it!

At 9:00 a.m. three days later, Sugihara Aisa specifically took time off, changed into professional attire, and arrived at the interview location: a conference room on the third floor of the Tsutaya Bookstore company.

But in this conference room, she saw someone she hadn't expected.

Akiwara Yuto, why was he here?!

Although puzzled, Sugihara Aisa quickly remembered her status, immediately calmed down, and handed over her resume.

Then she bowed, "Hello, I am Sugihara Aisa, here for the interview. I have 8 years of work experience at Yamazaki Bookstore."

Akiwara Yuto still had an impression of this "acquaintance," so he smiled and nodded, then proceeded to flip through her resume.

He had already seen these paper details in the email; what he most wanted to know was her judgment on the future development trends of bookstores.

After all, his plan for the future was to build a bookstore brand that spanned the entire country.

The person executing this plan needed to have a sufficiently clear and flexible mindset.

"Ms. Sugihara, as far as I know, during your time as the person in charge of the literature section at Yamazaki Bookstore, you increased the sales of literary books by 30 percent. Can you tell me how you achieved that?"

Sugihara Aisa organized her thoughts and began to explain.

"What I did was simply to maximize the time saved for readers. Or rather, I just let the majority of readers see the books they most wanted to buy."

Akiwara Yuto became interested and continued to ask, "Please elaborate."

"Generally speaking, the patience of most readers is very limited; they often do not spend most of their time in the book area.

So I placed the most famous or popular books on the market in the most conspicuous positions, allowing them to see them at first glance.

Besides that, I also put up a weekly book recommendation on the wall to attract the readers' interest."

Akiwara Yuto asked, "Then how do you handle those niche books?"

According to Sugihara Aisa's method, she would put popular books in conspicuous positions, but for readers looking for specific books, it was not particularly friendly.

Sugihara Aisa replied, "Usually I put one or two copies, inserted into the upper or lower shelves, and if they don't sell for a long time, I will ask the distributor to return them later."

She paused, then added, "I believe that since these readers need specific books, they should also have more patience. If they can't find them, they can go to other bookstores to look."

Akiwara Yuto glanced at her, "I remember that the slogan of many bookstore clerks claims to treat all readers equally. What do you think about that?"

Sugihara Aisa gave a bitter smile, "Akiwara-sensei, a bookstore is a business after all, and we must maintain profits. If the bookstore's profits are too low, it might not continue to operate later. Isn't that a loss for all readers?"

Hearing these words, Akiwara Yuto showed a satisfied smile.

He had been worried that she was the type of pure idealist who would constantly advocate for treating all readers equally.

A very important point of the second-hand bookstore chain he planned to develop later was the placement of books and the stocking of books.

If he hired someone stubborn who insisted on stocking niche books and giving up important display space, it would undoubtedly destroy the overall profit of the bookstore.

Someone like Sugihara Aisa, who knew how to maximize profits, was actually his best choice.

"Ms. Sugihara, let me ask a question: if you were to run a bookstore chain, what method would you use to increase its profits?"

Sugihara Aisa thought for a while, then said, "Akiwara-sensei, my suggestion might not fit the current market, but I would adopt a diversified form."

"Diversified?"

"Yes, while selling books, I would simultaneously introduce coffee, groceries, and even CDs, and set aside an extra area to operate these businesses.

In this way, we can obtain more profits beyond the book business."

Akiwara Yuto didn't expect the other party to actually provide this suggestion, and for a moment, he was quite surprised.

In his previous life, bookstore chains like Fangsuo, Yan Youji, and Sisyphe in the country all followed this path.

But this was Japan in 1993, and the bookstores on the market were still chasing sales per square foot; her vision was undoubtedly ahead of the times.

It seemed that this Ms. Sugihara recommended by Satake Maki really had something different about her.

Akiwara Yuto smiled and then continued, "Ms. Sugihara, I have a second-hand bookstore chain plan..."