Volume 2 Chapter 4 Part 2
“Please excuse my unsightly behavior. Still though, this slime is truly amazing. With this slime, even if Ryouma-sama opens a laundromat, there should be no problem. Ah, with this speed, this price, and this result, Ryouma-sama’s laundromat will surely flourish.”
Ah, he seems to have gone off on a trip by himself…
“Then, how big of a bag would be good? It’s quite embarrassing, but I don’t know much about the market price.”
“Right… I’ll have several sizes brought over then.”
As Serge-san said that, he called a female servant over and had her bring several bags to us.
“As Ryouma-sama can see, I’ve arranged the bags from smallest to biggest, starting from the left to the right. The left most can take in an average man’s portion of clothes.”
“A slightly bigger one would be better I think. Families in general have more laundries, and amongst the bachelors there are many who find laundry to be troublesome and end up stockpiling them.
And also it’s cheaper for 4 and 5 pieces of clothes to go for 1 medium copper coin, than 1 medium copper coin for 1 piece of clothing. Like this, the customers will find this to be to their advantage. There’s also not much of a difference between one piece of clothing and five pieces when it comes to the efforts I have to put in on my side. And moreover I’m not even aiming to gain that much profit as all I’m aiming for is to make enough to get by. Lastly, I believe if I make one batch cheaper, then I’ll be able to make a profit as plenty of people will come and use my services repeatedly.”
In my previous life I was really indebted to these kind of cheap businesses… Even for lunch I’d go buy from those Gyudon chain stores.
The shop I bought from was also pretty much decided. During my previous life, I went there all the time, and so the people there already thought of me as a regular customer. I don’t know how much I’ve paid all in all to the stores around the place I lived in, in my previous life. But I’m not dissatisfied at all, rather I’m really grateful for being supported by them in my previous life. With that in mind, I think it’s important to create repeat customers for one’s business.
As I was thinking that, I noticed that Serge-san’s eyes were actually sparkling as they gazed at me.
“Wonderful. Ryouma-sama, to actually look into the future and not be influenced by immediate profits. Ryouma-sama already seems to possess amazing managerial insight. This Serge is in admiration.”
Most of the people in Japan know that, you know? Even kids could up with this, I’m not amazing at all…
I just spoke a little of something from my experiences in my previous life, so being praised over something like this makes me feel quite uneasy. To the people in Japan that seriously study management, I’m really sorry.
“Then in that case, how about this bag over here? This bag can take up to 3 to 4 people of a normal family’s 2 day’s portion of clothes.”
“And it seems that for a bachelor, this bag should be able to take even up to 1 weeks’ worth of laundry. Yes, this is quite good, let’s go with this. Also, I’d like to take around 2 or 3 bags that’s double the size of this one, as well as one whose size is five times this one. Will that be possible?”
“It’s possible, however isn’t it too big?’
“The bag from a while ago will be targeted to individuals. The bag double its size will be for small parties of adventurers. The one five times the normal bag’s size will be recommended for smithies with plenty of disciples, construction workers, and other big groups.
If we were to calculate the bag targeted at individuals as a man’s portion for a day, then for a week it’ll be as 7 people’s portion. Doubling that will get us 14 people’s portion, and five times the first bag will get us a portion for 35.
The bag targeted at individuals will go for 1 medium copper coin or 10 suits. The double-sized will go for 1 medium copper coin and 8 pieces of small copper coin for 18 suits. The bag five times the size of the first bag will go for 4 pieces of medium copper coins for 40 suits.
Since there’s a discount based on usage, I believe the number of people that will think of using the service will increase. In the instance where they don’t’ have enough people, then they’ll talk to other people about the laundromat in order to gather people. In the end, talk of the laundromat will spread and everyone will know about my laundromat.
And because there will be more people who will use the service, there will be more clothes to wash. A bag that would normally go for 14 portions if an individual were to fill it up, could then be filled up by 14 people for a day. Like this, the customers will use the laundromat almost every day, and I’ll also get a medium silver coin and 8 small copper coins almost every day as well.