Game Market 1983 Chapter 16

Chapter 3 part 6 : Attacking the American Market

I was speechless as I retorted:

“What did you say just now? You guys are selling our product for 100 bucks more than the market price, and you’re saying this has nothing to do with us!?”

“It’s not like we’re ordering the items from your company, right? The products that we’re selling are all bought from nearby stores for $199. All we’re doing is just reselling it to the customers. Shouldn’t we, as a business, take some profit?”

“Then wouldn’t the solution have been to contact us with the product order first!!”

“You should have brought a catalog to us from the beginning and negotiated a deal.”

‘Wow~ This guy is not getting it. How does a person like this even exist?’

As the clamor got louder at the counter, a middle-aged man, who looked like a manager for the store, came towards us.

“What’s the problem?”

“This gentleman claims to be an employee for the MHES and it looks like he came over because he heard about us selling this console for $299.”

“Yeah? Excuse me, but you’re disturbing the other customers. If you keep making a ruckus like this, then please leave the store.”

“Both the manager and the employee sold their conscious. I can’t believe this…”

“If you keep causing a disturbance here, we’ll call the cops.”

“Yes~ Alright. I’ll quietly leave for today, but I won’t let it pa.s.s like this, so just wait.”

“Whatever you say~”

The manager displayed his unnaturally white teeth and unpleasantly grinned. As I headed out to the door while taking turns glaring at them, I heard the sound of them mocking me.

“The monkey acting like he’ll do something when he has no guts~ Hahaha~”

‘Yeah? So this is your choice?’

I squeezed the door handle and violently pulled at it. Toy World… I swear that as long as I’m in the U.S., I’ll do everything I can to bankrupt your entire chain…

-Grind

I was furious enough to taste the blood inside my tightly shut mouth.

“Mm!? You want to change the package design again?”

“Yes. I want to nail in a huge price tag sign in this blank s.p.a.ce.”

In response, Mr. Yamas.h.i.ta looked at me with a bewildered expression.

“What are you saying!? Hey, this isn’t some kind of a kid’s snack and yet you want to embed the price on the package…”

“Is there a law that states we can’t display the price on an electronic product?”

“No… Of course there’s no law like that, but we can’t just change the package every time the market price fluctuates, can we? And…”

“And what?”

“First of all… The market is growing just like how we want it to, and Toy World is buying up the consoles from other stores, so doesn’t it have nothing to do with us?”

“What are you spewing right now? If this situation continues, it will surely make a negative impact on the American game market. The damage of selling the MHES for 100 dollars more will directly be born by the consumers; 100 dollars is the price of two cartridges. We’re losing from this.”

“Ah… right, right…”

This b.a.s.t.a.r.d is acting like an idiot immediately after his ‘rebirth’. I’ve treated him kindly because he was related to Mr. Yamauchi, and he has a mind like this? Big disappointment. At that moment, Elise, who was watching us from the side, asked me with a worried voice:

“What should I do with the current consoles that are getting ready to ship? The stores are constantly asking for the arrival date…”

Mr. Yamas.h.i.ta hurriedly nodded his head and opened his mouth:

“Since those products were already paid for, quickly go ahead and ship them.”

“Yes, I’ll…”

“Don’t ship them.”

Elise was startled by my response and stared at me while hugging the doc.u.ments for exportation.

“Return all the money to the stores, and give them compensation money for breaching the contract as well.”

“Ka… Kang-kun!! What the h.e.l.l are you saying!?”

“From now on, not a single unit of the MHES can be shipped without my permission. Elise, immediately contact the packaging supplier and request them to embed the $199 sign in a noticeable place on the box.”

“Yes sir.”

Elise promptly nodded her head and headed out of the management office. Afterwards, Mr. Yamas.h.i.ta scratched his head and asked me a question.

“Kang-kun, what are you really planning. You’re seriously bent on terminating this deal with the delivery company instead of working this out!? We’ve worked so hard to get to this point!!”

“The demand is enough for our product. The current supply of the MHES that is sprinkled around the market will be gone by the end of this month.”

“And after that?”

“While our products are clearing out this month, we will establish a Mintendo membership club.”

“A membership club?”

“It will be the start of our specialized chain store to sell our products with a.s.surance to the customers.”

This was the beginning of a strategy to isolate the humongous giant: Toy World.

The very next day, we visited the president of Toy Box, Mr. Wilson, who was the first one ever to to accept our product. After hearing the before and after situation, Mr. Wilson nodded in agreement to my plan.

“Yes, Toy World’s tyranny is severe, after all. They didn’t do that with just the MHES, they would also buy any popular toy, no matter what, and jack up the prices later and sell them… The customers have nowhere else to purchase them, so they have no choice but to bite their tongues and purchase the toys from Toy World… But a specialized chain store? What exactly is that??”

“We would gather cooperating individuals, such as yourself, Mr. Wilson, and create an exclusive club. This would allow us to directly oversee the entire distribution and marketing process.”

“Ah~ That’s a great idea.”

“If a store becomes a member and gets caught supplying devices to Toy World, we would terminate all contracts with that store. The leftover devices would be distributed to other membership stores. In addition, stores will be given extra incentives based on the monthly sale rankings.”

“Then that’s all the better for us~!!”

Mr. Wilson wore a satisfied expression after hearing my response and enthusiastically clapped. He seems a little too fervent when we haven’t even carried out the plan yet? Is he going to faint with shock after hearing the next piece of information? Elise, who went out to survey the market with me, brightly smiled as if she was having the same thoughts as me.

“And one more thing, I want to propose a suggestion to you, Mr. Wilson.”

“Mmm? If it’s something I could do, I’ll do whatever I can to help out.”

“Please close up this shop, and become the first manager of our Mintendo’s premium chain store.”

“What did you say…?”

Money plays an important role in obtaining comfort when living in this world. A building that was in front of Toy World was coincidentally empty, so making the contract was smooth sailing. After investing a tremendous amount of labor, we were able to prettily design the interior with an elegant white tone, and we laced the store with attractions like various Donkey Kom and Marigee related character models that were imported from j.a.pan.

President Yamauchi, who was initially in the toy making industry, had jumped into the character models field. Gaining support from the popularity of Super Marigee, the character models were also rapidly selling like hotcakes.

I gathered every ounce of knowledge that I knew about keychains to dolls and sent the request to j.a.pan so the types of items should increase more and more?

The current market was in a frenzy because the supply of the MHES was completely dried out. For the past month, I’ve been running around everywhere like a wandering martial arts master and only contacted cooperated stores. As a result, the number of affiliated stores were less in number than before, but in exchange, every store had a high level of loyalty towards us.

“To own such a pretty store like this… this is like a dream. I’m absolutely fortunate to be able to meet Mr. Kang.”

“Your position has been relegated from a store owner to a manager, but in exchange, the revenue should be much higher than before.”

Mr. Yamas.h.i.ta stared at the premium store that was getting ready to open tomorrow, and asked Mr. Wilson with a gaping mouth:

“A premium store of this size in the middle of New York… Mr. Wilson, you were incredibly rich all along…”

“What? No~ This is all Mr. Kang’s…”

I stabbed Mr. Wilson in the waist and flashed a wink.

“This is all due to meeting Mr. Kang~ Hahaha~”

In actuality, this premium store was established mostly with my own money. I could’ve asked President Yamauchi to set up a store with the company funds, but it wouldn’t have been easy to squeeze money out of that miser, and I thought that it would be a huge help for me in the future by owning a store in the middle of New York, so I made the decision to invest. Of course, because I was a foreigner, I set up a co-ownership with Mr. Wilson and Elise acted as the witness. These two were the most trustworthy people in America after all~[1]

On the opposite site of the street, the Toy World employees and the owner stood side by side and stared at us with an uncomfortable air. As I intentionally smiled brightly and extended a greeting to them first, they spat *splat* and went back inside their store.

‘Let’s have a real war together. I’ll show you f.u.c.kers that I can play around with money too.’

The opening of the first premium store was a moment of explosion where every item in stock was being sold at once. Two weeks before the opening, we put up a huge advertis.e.m.e.nt in the newspapers so all of the customers would rush to our premium store. Elise and I actually had to help Mr. Wilson take on the crowd.

The stretched line was followed by the ever-increasing amount of sales, then a familiar face of a man was staring back at me with a smirk. It was an employee of Toy World from across the street, Mr. Smith. Behind him was Jason, who had tried to scam the customers. I momentarily felt a flare of anger rising up, but I tried to smile the best I could and opened my mouth:

“h.e.l.lo, are you here to purchase the MHES?”

“Yes. I want to order 100 units of the MHES?”

“Ah~ 100 units? But don’t you see this sign, esteemed customer?”

I pointed at the small notice sign with my chin. On the sign was written:

-To make our MHES available for a wider audience, customers are limited to two units only. We ask for your understanding.

“Just now… So you’re saying you won’t sell the item?”

“Not at all~ We’re selling, but it’s limited to two units per person. I don’t know if Mr. Smith is also a fan of Mintendo, so how could I not sell it to you.”[2]

“Kukk… Just give me two units for now. I’ll come back later…”

“Since it’s two sales per day, you’d be coming back every day~ Thank you very much.”

I placed the MHES, from the stack behind the counter, on top of the counter and continued talking with a bright tone.

“This will be $398. Thank you, customer.”

However, after seeing the package, Mr. Smith had no thoughts of handing the money over, and he was staring intently at the box.

“What the h.e.l.l… is this? When was a label like this on the box?”

-The MHES is $199. If you bought this for more than that, then you were scammed. If there is a store like that, then please report it to the address below. We will compensate for the difference as soon as possible and take measures against the seller. Our Mintendo is on the customer’s side.-

Below the notice was a huge text labeled $199. I tilted my head to the side and asked Mr. Smith:

“Excuse me, customer? Are you going to buy it? People are waiting behind you…”

“You d.a.m.ned monkey f.u.c.ker!!”

“If you’re not going to buy it, p.i.s.s off you hospitalized r.e.t.a.r.d.”

Korean cursing is truly miraculous. Should I describe it as being able to anger the opponent without swearing?

[1] Remember the enormous amount that Kang-kun received from playing the Game & Watch?
[2] Kang-kun is referring to Mr. Smith in 3rd person while directly speaking to him