The next day, before dawn, Shi Lin was called awake.
After a simple wash-up, Shi Lin and Shi Yuying took the freshly made mixed grain pancakes and carried the honey to the market.
From their Xigou Village to the Town market, it took more than half an hour's walk.
People in this era went to the market very early; by the time they arrived at the Town market, the whole market was already very lively.
"I told you last night, you have to go to the market early. You kept dawdling. Look now, there's no space left for us to set up a stall and sell honey."
Seeing that the spots near the intersection were already occupied, Shi Yuying glared at Shi Lin with some complaint.
If it weren't for Shi Lin dawdling all the way, they would have arrived earlier and might have gotten a better spot.
In this era, small markets didn't have perfect rules and regulations, and stalls weren't managed by special personnel. Basically, whoever occupied a spot first owned it.
"Oh, how was I supposed to know everyone was so early?"
Shi Lin was also a bit speechless. He looked up at the sky; it was only about 5:30 AM at most, just barely light.
He didn't expect the Town market to be so lively already. Did people in this era not need to sleep?
He hadn't been to the market much before, only knowing that people went early, but he really didn't know it was this early...
"What should we do now? Should we go to the back and find a place to sell?" Shi Yuying asked Shi Lin.
She actually had no experience selling things at the market; she had only been a few times and roughly knew the situation.
When encountering problems, she was still more used to asking her most educated younger brother.
"Let's walk around first and see if anyone else is selling honey. Anyway, we're already late, so there's no rush for a moment."
For a moment, Shi Lin didn't have a great idea, so he decided to first see if there were any templates he could imitate on the spot.
However, after walking around the market, they didn't find a single stall selling honey, not even similar items.
"What do we do now? Should we just set up a stall in the back?" Shi Yuying suggested.
"Not in a hurry, let's go look at the shops in the front first."
Shi Lin pointed to the shop ahead that had 'Honesty Grocery Store' written on it and said,
"That shop has a good location; many people walk by its entrance. If we can set up a stall at their door, we shouldn't have trouble selling this honey."
"But will they let us set up a stall?" Shi Yuying asked somewhat doubtfully.
"We'll know if we ask."
Saying that, Shi Lin strode forward with his long legs, walking directly towards the grocery store.
Walking into the grocery store, there was only one Middle-aged man inside, who was likely the Boss Lady.
Shi Lin smiled and greeted, "Big sister, hello."
"Hello. What do you want to buy? I'll get it for you," the Boss Lady responded with a smile.
She didn't seem like a very tough person, Shi Lin thought to himself.
"Big sister, do you sell plastic bottles here? I need them to bottle honey for sale."
While walking around the market just now, although he didn't find anyone selling honey like them, Shi Lin did think of some issues.
For example, what to put the honey in? They only brought two large buckets of filtered honey today and didn't bring scales or anything to package the honey for customers. How would they sell it?
Whether others were selling vegetables, chickens and ducks, or meat, they would at least tie a string so customers could carry them easily.
They were selling honey; they couldn't just let customers carry it back in their hands, could they?
"You need them for honey? I don't have plastic bottles here, but I sell canning jars. Do you think these will work? Someone came to the market to sell honey last time and bought canning jars from me too. One jar is exactly one jin, no need to weigh it."
Saying that, the Boss Lady took a glass jar from the shelf and handed it to Shi Lin.
It was a common glass canning jar from later generations, round, with the mouth roughly the same size as the jar itself.
"This works."
Just one look and Shi Lin was very satisfied. This type of canning jar was often used to package honey in later generations, and one jar holding one jin was just right.
"Big sister, how many of these canning jars do you have here, and how much do you sell one for?"
"One dime each, with the lid.
They are all bottles from state-owned large factories, the quality is guaranteed, they won't break even after ten or eight years of use.
How many do you want? If you need many, I can ask my Brother to get some from other stores first."
Seeing that Shi Lin intended to buy, the smile on the Boss Lady's face became even more enthusiastic.
"Okay, if one jar holds one jin, we'll probably need about a hundred."
Shi Lin agreed directly without even bargaining the price.
"Big sister, we'll bottle the honey right at your store entrance later. After we're done, we'll see how many bottles we used, and we'll buy that many. How about that?"
"Of course, no problem."
The Middle-aged man smiled so wide her eyes were barely visible, and she agreed without hesitation.
She did indeed retail these bottles for 1 dime each, but if someone bought a large quantity at once, 8 cents wasn't out of the question.
Shi Lin didn't even bargain, so why would she disagree?
Isn't it just bottling honey at their store entrance? It wouldn't be a problem even if they brought it inside the store!
Seeing that the Boss Lady agreed, Shi Lin and Shi Yuying didn't delay at all. They directly placed the buckets of honey outside the grocery store, opened the buckets, and began filling the jars one by one.
Seeing the Boss Lady excitedly carrying bottles out of the store, Shi Yuying quietly asked Shi Lin:
"Lao Liu, how much money did you bring? I only have a little over two yuan on me, not enough to pay for a hundred bottles."
Shi Lin smiled and said, "I only have that forty cents from yesterday. Dad and Mom didn't give me any money this morning either."
"Then what do we do? How about we buy 20 bottles first?"
"No rush, Fifth Sister, you fill them first, I'll start calling out."
Saying that, Shi Lin raised his voice and shouted loudly,
"Selling honey! Authentic wild honey, only one season a year! If you miss it, you'll just have to regret it! Selling honey..."
Ah?
Seeing Lao Liu suddenly start shouting, Shi Yuying's face instantly turned red, and she buried her head low, not daring to look up and see everyone's reactions.
People in this era were generally more reserved. Asking them to set up a stall already required great courage; asking them to shout was truly difficult...
Shi Lin's shouting instantly attracted many people's attention.
Soon, a Dama came over and asked,
"Young man, how much do you sell this honey for? Does it come with a bottle? Or do we need to bring our own bottles?"
"Sold with the bottle, one jin of honey per bottle. The original price is two yuan a bottle, but since it's our first time selling at the market today, we're offering a discount: one yuan eight per bottle, no bargaining."
Shi Lin spoke very smoothly, and as he spoke, he took out a few small pieces of honeycomb from the side and handed them to the Dama.
"Dama, try our honey and see if it's sweet."
"Ah? Is this for me to eat? It's free, right?" the Dama asked with some surprise.
Honey was a rare commodity in those days and there was no trouble selling it. When this Dama heard someone was selling honey just now, she was already planning to buy some.
She didn't expect to be able to sample it, which was truly a pleasant surprise for her.
"Sampling is free, of course. You can try it, and it's okay if you don't buy it after trying."
Ah?
"You can really try it and not buy it?" someone in the crowd who had gathered asked loudly, not believing it.
Shi Lin looked up at the people who had gathered, smiled, and responded loudly:
"Of course, everyone can come and take a piece to try, it's free."
As soon as he finished speaking, the onlookers came forward one after another. Whether they bought it or not, trying it was always a gain.
Shi Lin, as promised, happily distributed the honeycomb to everyone.
Seeing more and more people attracted by the crowd around them and walking towards them, Shi Lin knew that they definitely wouldn't have trouble selling the honey today.
Indeed, in a short while, many people started speaking up and buying honey from them.
The first person to propose buying was the Dama who had come over initially. She bought three bottles herself and paid five yuan four cheerfully.
With one person taking the lead, more people behind started asking to buy. Some proposed buying after tasting the honey, while others were already planning to buy honey.
The two buckets of honey filled a total of ninety-six bottles, and they were sold out in about an hour!
In the middle, some people also mentioned that others selling at the market sold for one yuan six per jin, and Shi Lin's one yuan eight per jar was too expensive.
But there were many buyers, and if they hesitated for a moment, the result was that the honey was already sold out, and they couldn't buy it even if they wanted to.
In fact, Shi Lin's decision to sell for one yuan eight was based on something.
When they were walking around the market earlier, he had found out that the Supplies and Marketing Cooperative's honey was two yuan per jin and wasn't sold in glass bottles, which is why he set the price at one yuan eight.
As expected, the effect was quite good. The two buckets of honey sold out in an hour, and a lot of that time was spent on them bottling the honey.
If the honey had been bottled in advance, it might not have even taken twenty minutes.
During this hour, they sold honey at the Honesty Grocery Store entrance, attracting many people to the area, which also boosted the grocery store's business.
The Middle-aged man was so busy getting goods for customers and collecting money that she was sweating profusely. Later, she even called her Middle-aged man over to help, and the two of them working together were just able to manage.