TOIGC 81

Chapter 81 ….

The Easiest Service Industry in the World (2)

“Nailed it!”

Through the magic mirror, you could see outside from the inside, but not the other way around—the sole private sanctuary on the seventh floor. Standing there, Yoongi spotted the JSD roaming the seventh floor and cheered inwardly.

Ideally, he would have loved a visit from the JD himself, but just having the JSD show up on grand opening day completely locked in the long-term stability of the business. What is more, it wasn’t just the JSD; a considerable number of lieutenant colonel-and-above US military officers and two-star-and-above South Korean army generals were also milling about the seventh floor.

Of course, they weren’t here just because they possessed massive purchasing power. Aside from the JSD and his inner circle, everyone else here either had heavy purchasing power or direct connections to those who did. Catching sight of one another, they quickly began cozying up and building ties.

“Absolute perfection. Nailed it!”

The fact that the seventh floor of Yaikai Department Store had transformed into a social hub for the core elite was deeply encouraging, causing Yoongi to shiver with excitement inside the rather cramped office.

<Really happy? that> “Of course I am. Sure, I’ve done a bunch of things and made them work since coming back to the past, but this is the first time I’ve turned my own original idea into a success rather than just copying the future. I genuinely feel like I’ve proven to myself that I can actually pull this off.” <Well, ‘where Anyway, I a congratulations. could entertain even exactly life one past suppose that the there’s thought wasn’t way.’ where will, you your> “Thanks a lot. Really appreciate it!” “Got it. I’ll throw you a lavish memorial feast before long.” <What? A Seriously? lavish spread?> “Yep, for real. You’ve got something to look forward to.” <Oh yeah!>

Leaving Choi Deok-bae behind as he excitedly zipped right through the walls, Yoongi spent a while observing the seventh floor through the magic mirror.

Then came 11:00 PM.

Finally, the JSD and the other high-ranking VIPs cleared out of the seventh floor. Two hours later, with pitch-black darkness shrouding everything outside, Ryu Geun-tae stepped into the office.

“Great work today.” “No, not at all. It was an exhilarating experience for me, too.”

Wiping the sweat trickling down his forehead with a handkerchief, Geun-tae took a seat opposite Yoongi. A small table, two tiny chairs, a single office desk, and a chair. That was all this office—hidden away in a makeshift seventh-floor storage space—contained, and Geun-tae was the only person allowed inside. The existence of the magic mirror had to remain a secret known to an absolute few.

Consequently, this terribly cramped space quickly grew humid from the body heat radiating off Yoongi and Geun-tae. Even so, the two paid zero attention to the stuffiness, launching straight into a conversation overflowing with excitement.

“What did the JSD have to say?” “He said he was truly grateful. He told us that if any trouble ever pops up with the department store—like customs clearance issues—we should let him know directly, no questions asked. He also mentioned that if soldiers cause any trouble at the store, we should contact his subordinates first instead of the police, claiming it’d get resolved a whole lot faster.” “Ah, looks like we won’t have to worry about unruly customers, then.” “You think so?” “Yeah. I saw a pretty hilarious scene down on the second floor earlier.”

When Yoongi recounted the incident with Major Park, Geun-tae split his sides laughing, even squeezing out tears.

“Man, come to think of it, I watched the staff’s expressions as they left for the day, and every single one of them was beaming. They were all nervous at first because the main clientele would be soldiers, but with zero troublemakers around, they’ve certainly earned themselves some relaxed expressions.” “True. Yaikai Department Store is going to remain a Karen-free zone for as long as the military regime holds power. The second that regime collapses, we’ll have to open our doors to the general public, so dealing with difficult customers will be inevitable then.” “Still, the fact that they’re nonexistent right now is what matters. We’ve got to make the most of the current situation.” “That’s exactly what I’m hoping for.”

Wearing a satisfied smile, Yoongi posed the question he was most curious about.

“What do the sales numbers look like for today?” “Brace yourself.” “Oho, now that’s got me hooked.” “There’s a good reason I showed up here a full two hours after closing time.”

Geun-tae flashed a wide grin before spreading out all nine of his fingers toward Yoongi.

“A whopping 900 million won! Nine hundred million! Our daily sales hit 900 million won!” “Whoa!”

Yoongi let out a joyful shriek, and Geun-tae, equally ecstatic, pounded both knees with his fists and bounced up and down in his seat.

“If Uncle had heard this, his jaw would’ve hit the floor. Too bad he got shipped off to Japan on business.”

Choi Chul-gyu was currently away on a business trip because training was required regarding the Japanese corporate branch.

“He’ll probably lose his mind when he gets back from his trip. Heh, I’m just so glad I wasn’t the one sent away.” “Nine hundred million… that really is a dreamy number.”

Back in this era, 900 million won was a sum exceeding 3 billion won in modern terms. In an era where per capita national income hadn’t even cracked $10,000 annually, a single department store pulling in 900 million won in a day was nothing short of astronomical. Considering a profit margin easily clearing 40%, today’s daily sales profit exceeded a staggering 360 million won. With returns this massive even after factoring in labor and maintenance costs, Yoongi and Geun-tae’s excitement simply refused to cool down.

Man, if I had a cold can of beer right now, I’d want to chug it in one go.

Thanks to resolving to act his age as a minor and holding back from actually drinking, Yoongi didn’t touch any alcohol, but having come from a rough construction background, he sure loved a cold brew. After sweating buckets under the scorching sun, washing down cup ramen with a cold beer tasted like pure heaven.

“Mr. Chairman, you know what’s even crazier?” “What is it?” “This is strictly the ‘main branch’ revenue.” “Ah!”

Yoongi instinctively clenched both hands into tight fists.

“With the mini department stores, we literally don’t have enough time to compile the numbers right now. That said, our top-performing branch cleared over 15 million won today.” “We moved Hermes!” “Indeed we did!”

Even in an era of a $30,000 national income, Hermes remains a towering wall. To have moved Hermes items in a $10,000 income era meant the mini department stores were already functioning as effective distribution channels. Furthermore, considering the sheer number of those mini branches, one could easily anticipate that the commercial district’s total revenue would eventually eclipse the main department store.

“Secretary Ryu!” “Yes!”

Before either could dwell on it further, Yoongi and Geun-tae both jumped to their feet.

“This isn’t the end—it’s just the beginning!” “Yes, I know!”

The moment those words left his mouth, Yoongi’s expression and aura snapped right back to his usual self.

“Shall we head back to being our usual selves, then?” “Yes.”

Tucking his excitement away deep inside, Geun-tae followed Yoongi out of the tiny storage room. Yet, an unmistakable aura of triumph still lingered in both of their strides.

The sheer, staggering potential of Yaikai Department Store, racking up 900 million won in sales on its very first day. Naturally, these sales figures weren’t leaked to the outside world, but those keeping a close eye on Yaikai were analyzing its success through other metrics.

The boom was so massive that people actually traveled up from the provinces just to match the grand opening. On that day, the Cheonggyecheon area was packed so densely with people that the phrase “a sea of humanity” didn’t even do it justice. Even though restaurants had been prepared within the commercial district in advance, the demand completely overwhelmed them, spilling over until every single eatery outside the district was packed to capacity.

Naturally, competing department stores were among the groups closely monitoring Yaikai’s booming success, which inevitably threw them into a deeply awkward predicament. Yaikai was the sole beneficiary of import privileges. Even with years of meticulously calculated planning, it was utterly impossible for these rivals to replicate Yoongi’s milestones in a matter of mere days or months.

Still, grasping at straws, they began petitioning the authorities for meetings and dispatching staff straight to brand headquarters overseas. Of course, these actions were taken by external competitors who had nothing to do with Yaikai itself.

On the other hand, some companies sought to do business with Yaikai based on hard sales data.

Namely, the banks.

Noticing the massive influx of cash flowing through Yaikai, banks rushed to establish business ties with them. Branch offices and headquarters alike bombarded Yaikai with phone calls to secure appointments, and some even sent representatives to visit the headquarters in person.

Yet, every single appointment had been turned down so far, and every visitor sent packing.

For one simple reason:

[No need to rush.]

To this day, Yoongi had never taken out a single bank loan. Truthfully, if Yoongi had lacked past experience, he probably would have aggressively leveraged loans. However, his life experiences as an ordinary working-class citizen had bred a deep aversion to debt. To a commoner, debt was essentially a lifelong purgatory of repayments. Having actually relied on minor predatory loans multiple times just to cover living expenses—and suffering immensely because of it—Yoongi had never taken out a bank loan once leading up to the completion of Yaikai Department Store.

While he had technically borrowed money from his grandfather, that was a private transaction between individuals and hardly counted as a bank loan. Of course, 14 years had passed since his return to the past, and through deep studies in business management, Yoongi no longer held purely negative views on the concept of debt.

I finally get why liabilities count as assets.

If debt were purely a bad thing, it wouldn’t be included on a balance sheet. Yoongi had finally ‘internalized’ the realization that taking out a loan is the right move so long as you can generate a higher return than the interest rate.

“So, you still haven’t settled on a specific bank?”

Sipping tea with Choi Chul-gyu in the conference room, Yoongi nodded.

“Nope. No need to rush, right?”

Repeating the exact same sentiment he had expressed earlier, Yoongi watched Chul-gyu nod in agreement.

“Your main bank must be tearing their hair out by now. They probably figured out your connection to Yaikai internally.”

In the 2010s, digging up corporate info takes just a few clicks on the internet. The 80s were a completely different story, however. Even listed corporations required a physical visit to the stock exchange to submit documents just to view their records—let alone an unlisted private corporation like Yaikai.

National Tax Service officials knew, of course, and powerful figures with the leverage to grill those officials could find out. But digging into the background of Yaikai meant poking around behind the JSD. As a result, the political elite remained largely in the dark regarding Yaikai’s true identity.

If the ruling elite was struggling this much, regular corporations stood no chance. With tax officials keeping their lips sealed tighter than a vault, ordinary businesses had zero clue who the actual owner of Yaikai Department Store was. At best, Yoongi’s primary bank could only infer that he was heavily linked to Yaikai, while other banks didn’t even have that much. In fact, even his main bank merely suspected, ‘Could the Samwoo Group be pulling some kind of inheritance trick here?’ leaving it painfully obvious how clueless the rest of the financial sector was.

“Anyway, the places reaching out are absolute heavyweights. Min-guk Bank, Nae-hwan Bank, Sun-han Bank, Nong-ryeon… honestly, there are too many to bother listing.” “Naturally. The connections backing our Yaikai Department Store are out of this world, plus we’re essentially a brand-new firm with no tight, exclusive banking ties yet.”

The rice was already cooked, but Yoongi was letting it steam a little longer for an even better meal.

Follow-up Question: What kind of bank do you think Yoongi will ultimately choose to partner with for Yaikai’s massive expansion?