Chapter 1269: Competition and Attention

When Lans heard that the local Brooks Consortium also wanted to engage in some coastal tourism industries, he just smiled contemptuously.

Tourism has existed since ancient times, but not many people can figure out tourism.

Before it became a situation that could bring huge returns to capital, people were not even willing to study this thing!

The core of tourism is attraction. The reason Lans can engage in tourism is the movie city, the movie industry.

Those crazy fans just want to see their favorite stars. Even if it's just a rumor that they appeared in the movie city, these star chasers will soon fly over from all over the Federation, or even from all over the world.

Regardless of whether they saw the stars they wanted to see, they would generate consumption locally, and perhaps consume some movie peripherals, such as star photos, small pendants, etc.

This is the "core competitiveness" of the tourism industry, so he doesn't care at all what those local consortia plan to do.

If they do nothing and honestly continue to strengthen their own industries, then they can persist for a longer time.

If they plan to compete with Lans, then they will only die faster. The more intensely they struggle, the faster they will fall into the abyss!

For Lans, this might just be a joke, but for Roger's Imperial Commercial Group, it is indeed a challenge.

? ￠o

The competition between the two sides became white-hot from the beginning.

The beef sold in the Imperial Commercial Group's supermarkets is basically 20 to 30 cents a pound. This is the cheapest kind of ground beef, but the beef sold in local supermarkets is two or three cents less.

It seems that two or three cents is not much, but for ordinary people, for those working-class people, it is a big gap.

And the beef in local shops looks better and fresher, plus the price is low, undoubtedly, it is also more popular.

This forced Roger to also lower the price of beef to compete for the market, and this is a very typical "capital elimination game," price war.

From the day the concept of capital appeared until now, the competition between capital has been so simple and unadorned. The price-cutting means have been used for hundreds or thousands of years or even longer, and it is still the mainstream of capital competition.

The more simple, unadorned, and uneliminated means, the more it indicates efficiency!

Just like————at this very moment.

"Is the pressure high?", Lans stood at the edge of the floor-to-ceiling window of the office looking at Shell City under his feet. The weather had already turned cold at this time.

However, due to ocean currents and other geographical factors, the winter on the West Coast is slightly warmer than on the East Coast.

People on the East Coast in mid-November have already put on cotton clothes, but here, people mostly wear long and thickened autumn clothes.

Don't look at just a few degrees of temperature difference; just such a simple few degrees of temperature difference can determine people's clothing.

Lans held a cigarette in his hand, looking down at this city, and there was no longer the feeling of————relaxation he had when he stood at the edge of the window looking down at the city years ago.

He is no longer that ordinary small character. He controls the liquor market in three southern states and even controls many votes here. Whether in politics or economics, he is the person people cannot ignore!

Roger sat on the chair behind him, shaking the wine glass in his hand, took a sip, and although no look of defeat could be seen on his face, he also looked somewhat exhausted.

"It's okay, we made psychological preparations. This will be an attempt of ours, and everyone can accept it calmly."

The "pressure" Lans said is the current local "food competition."

The Imperial Consortium has not yet reached out to the manufacturing industry. It's not that they don't want to do this, but they also need to test and try.

Just like a hot spring in the wilderness, people who want to soak in the hot spring will carefully test the temperature with their toes first, and then go down little by little, instead of jumping in directly.

Roger and these people were just "chambers of commerce" before, not consortia. If they want to grow into a consortium, they need to experience battles and wind and rain.

But it's not facing a tsunami storm that destroys the world as soon as they come up, but starting from the smallest "breeze."

Go and feel the cruelty of competition between capital!

He took another sip of wine. In fact, the pressure they are under now is not as relaxed as he said.

Before, he didn't think price wars were scary, but now, he felt the horror of price wars!

Because the price of their goods is relatively high, shipped from Laizhou by sea, they haven't negotiated supply and sales agreements with local farmers, and some farmers don't have a good impression of these outsiders.

Now the Brooks Consortium and them have started a price war, which forced them to face a very cruel choice—

Whether to destroy those goods that are about to expire and deteriorate, or sell them cheaply to ordinary people.

This has always been a problem.

Market, price, rules, ecology, this is not something that can be explained clearly in a few simple sentences.

Now the Imperial Commercial Group is facing losses of varying degrees every day. Every day, that money flows away from their hands like water. This pressure is indeed a bit high.

Lans still looked at the scenery outside the window, "Don't just think about passive defense, but attack, take the initiative to strike."

"Don't be afraid to negotiate with local farmers, give them some conditions they cannot refuse, and sign supply and sales contracts."

"The biggest difference between the Imperial Commercial Group and the local consortium is that you have deeper depth."

"If they acquired a large amount of goods at a price exceeding expectations and couldn't sell them locally, then they would be completely unsellable."

"But you are different. If you can't sell them locally, you can pull them to Laizhou, take them to Indeno State to sell, or even sell them to the Yalan area."

"Even if they are sold cheaper, at least the loss won't be that much."

"Commercial competition, capital competition, has never been about who earns more, but who dies slower!"

Lans turned around and glanced at Roger, "As long as you die slower than them, then you can win the final victory. If they die slower than you, then you either escape or can only say goodbye to your ideals."

"Politics is actually the same!", he said and walked back to sit behind his desk. The sunlight from outside the window shone in, but it stayed at his feet and couldn't shine on him.

"So people will say, the business world is like a battlefield. If it's just about who earns more and who can win, then the whole world would be capitalists!"

He said and paused, "The core of commercial competition is actually very simple and straightforward."

"Everyone is comparing ruthlessness. You gave yourself a knife, and they must also give themselves a knife, and they must stab deeper and more ruthlessly than you, to surpass you."

"So, Roger, taking the initiative to attack is the best response, rather than passively waiting for the other side to make a move. That way, you will be exhausted dealing with the means they constantly appear with."

"You will be 'shaken off' by them and eventually lose the game."

Roger took all these words Lans said into his heart. He was silent for a long time, as if he had made a decision, "I know what to do."

Lans nodded and didn't continue to discuss this issue. He didn't want to intervene in the commercial group's affairs. This is two paths from the path he wants to take.

Subsequently, they chatted about some projects in the new city that had something to do with Roger. Lans urged them not to relax their attitude, and then Roger left.

For whether the Imperial Commercial Group can open up the situation and stand firm here, Lans is not sure.

After all, the Imperial Commercial Group now has no achievements that can be brought out, or fields that belong to them.

Why do all capitals pursue monopoly?

It is because they can master the right to speak in this industry and are not afraid of any challenges. But now it is obvious that the Imperial Commercial Group does not possess these. For their future, Lans feels it is not too optimistic, but this is their own choice.

The cooling of the weather did not affect the progress on the construction site. After the full wages and benefits were smashed down, the workers only hated that they could work at most ten hours a day. Some workers already hoped that they could work twelve hours a day, or even fourteen hours.

The unit price of the salary Lans gave them was much higher than the local one, and there were other subsidies. Such good work is not available every year, and everyone hopes to get more salary.

Sometimes he would also go to inspect the progress of the construction site. Almost every construction site was being built crazily from morning to night, especially in the early morning, when one could see the heat exhaled by those workers who worked all night until dawn connected into a piece, letting the construction site be covered with a layer of misty and wonderful beauty.

The new year arrived as scheduled. Lans watched President Porter's New Year speech in the first year after taking office on TV.

Using TV as an important political propaganda channel has gradually become a consensus among people. Compared to those speeches and activities that require professional writers to write and cannot restore the scene, TV, which directly displays the exciting moment in front of the audience, can play the role politicians want.

This is like an exclamation mark in a newspaper, and the roar of politicians waving their fists on the TV screen are completely two concepts for those audiences!

President Porter showed the public some achievements he made in the first year after taking office on TV, for example, more than two hundred gangs of various sizes were wiped out, and more than one hundred gang leaders were sent to the electric chair.

He called these achievements a "great victory in the war against gangs," and the public ate this set very much. They felt that this President was a person who kept his word. At least he did what he promised, and also began to look forward to his subsequent term.

After the New Year, the first meeting of the Senate of Congress rejected some applications for "lifting the prohibition"

proposed by some people. The Senate believed that the prohibition ultimately played a huge role in promoting society.

For example, public security chaos and domestic violence caused by alcoholism were much lower than in the past, and the number of work safety accidents caused by drunkenness was also decreasing.

The Senate believed that this was all the credit of the prohibition. Although there is still private liquor being sold in society now, for this huge social experiment itself, it was still successful.

People, because they couldn't afford to drink and couldn't be drunk, from a certain point of view————they seemed to have indeed done it.

Besides this, Congress also passed some new bills, such as continuing to relax the standards for federal voters.

Previously, one needed to have a stable income, have a house of one's own, and be a federal person to have a vote.

Now they have lowered it again, no longer requiring one to have one's own house to become a voter and vote for the candidate.

Even if they rent a house, they can have a vote, but a new rule has been added, that is, to become an effective voter, one must have a complete tax payment certificate for the past two years.

At the same time, one also needs to be a federal citizen, be eighteen years old, and have no criminal record.

If all the above conditions are met, one can register in the city where one lives and eventually obtain the right to vote.

The requirements for the voter group were relaxed, but the management became stricter. The old masters completed an upgrade of voter management in places where people couldn't see.

Before the spring, Lans also went to Jincheng once and participated in a committee meeting within the Social Party.

Under the recommendation of Senator Cleveland and Chairman Thomason, he also became a member of the Social Party and obtained the position of "Social Party Consultant."

If his consultant status in Congress is counted, he can now be considered a person who has stepped into the political scene with one foot—the position of consultant is a very empty position. Many people can participate in political discussions in Congress and within the party as consultants.

They might be a middle school teacher, might be a salesperson in a shop, or even might be a homeless person, as long as politicians need them.

However, this does not mean that a consultant is not a politician. Whether one is a politician has always had nothing to do with the position, but has to do with a person's influence in society.

The former president holds the position of consultant to the Presidential Palace. Who dares to say he is not a politician?

Now the Social Party is comprehensively accumulating strength, and the candidates for the midterm election have also been selected early. It can be seen that they are holding their breath, preparing to overturn President Porter in the midterm election.

In April, the weather gradually warmed up, and the "political show" in Laizhou officially began.

The "Top Ten Mayors" selection event jointly promoted by multiple news companies in Laizhou, the state government, and the state legislature began in this spring that still carried a bit of chill.

In the reports about this event on TV, the host was introducing the mayors of Laizhou who participated in this event to the public, as well as the rules of the election.

". ——We will comprehensively evaluate the governance achievements of each mayor participating in the event over the past few years from multiple aspects such as employment rate, public security rate, economic growth level, population increase or decrease, and tax increase or decrease."

"We will calculate the results by percentage, not a specific number. This is to avoid mayors of large and medium-sized cities leading mayors of small and medium-sized cities in terms of numbers."

"Of course, we have considered the difficulty of governance in large and medium-sized cities, so there will be a weighting index in this. We will make an accurate interpretation after scoring."

"This is the first political event in the entire Federation, and even the entire world, to be broadcast to the whole nation through television, making politicians closer to our lives instead of being high above."

"We can more intuitively find the best mayor in Laizhou through this program and display their achievements in front of people."

"This program is not just a spotlight, but also a magnifying glass, a microscope, which can display their excellent side and also let people see their bad side."

"I believe that every mayor participating in our program has absolute confidence in themselves."

"Then, next, I will start to introduce to everyone which mayors are participating in our program."

"First is the Mayor of Manton————"

Accompanied by the host's introduction, the work photo of the Mayor of Manton appeared on the screen, a very large one, and next to it was some of his profile, mainly to let people from other places simply understand him.

Then it was Mayor William of Jincheng, and then the mayors of other cities.

Each mayor participating in the program would be briefly introduced by the host for two minutes, letting people have an initial impression of these people.

This program is very bold and also very avant-garde. Before it was broadcast, there were discussions and even criticisms of this program from Congress and the federal government.

Some older politicians believed that this program was not suitable for broadcast because it would make people lose their awe of politicians.

However, some people also believed that this program was very interesting, could let politicians and the public, and voters have closer contact, and after stripping away the mysterious veil, it was actually helpful to improve the business ability of grassroots administrators and also helpful for political parties and the federal government to select capable grassroots officials.

The popularity of the program was very high. Almost as soon as it was broadcast, it obtained very high attention and ratings. Almost most people were watching this program at this very moment.

On the sofa, a young woman was hugging a child and also watching this program. Her attention was not entirely on the TV, and some was on the boy in her arms.

Just when the host said "The next mayor is William Lawrence from Hucheng————", she suddenly raised her head sharply and looked at the large photo of William smiling on the TV screen.

Next to it was a profile about William, which beautified William quite a bit.

Something like the lowest-level civil servant who realized his life plan step by step through hard work and became the mayor of Hucheng.

Anyone who knows a little bit about the forces in Laizhou will know what the surname "Lawrence" represents now.

The woman in front of the TV set was somewhat distracted looking at William's avatar, until the child in her arms kept shaking her, and the amplitude was getting bigger and bigger, she then reacted.

"I'm sleepy." The little boy rubbed his eyes, "I want to sleep."

The woman immediately stood up, "I'll send you to the bedroom." She held the little boy's hand and walked toward the bedroom on the second floor, but her attention was still on the TV. ===== CHAPTER 1270 =====