Homo Sapiens

Dart Port.

As the place where Homo Sapiens Company got its start, it was also one of the most heavily affected regions.

After a series of mergers and integrations, Fengrao House had established Fengrao Supermarket, Fengrao Hotel, and Fengrao Fast Food here. It also controlled the local farmers’ markets, docks, and passenger terminals.

The person in charge of this enterprise was Huang Keming, who had previously worked at Watson’s in Xiangjiang.

He was currently in Dart Port inspecting the operations of various business divisions. After all, this place was right under the big boss’s nose. If any problems arose here, it wouldn’t matter how well he performed elsewhere.

After the full integration, Fengrao House controlled a vast amount of resources.

For example, farmers’ markets, warehousing, transport companies, hotels, supermarkets, and fast-food chains—all of these could actually be linked together into a single industrial chain.

Furthermore, the various plantations and farms of the Fernando Clan were also strategic partners of Fengrao House.

Having managed the supply chain at Watson’s, Huang Keming knew very well that if Fengrao House could connect all these links, it would mean increased efficiency and lower costs.

For example, the supermarket’s previous cost for a dozen (12) eggs was around 70 Pesos, equivalent to 9 Huaguo Yuan, with a retail price of about 90 Pesos.

But after the reorganization, the cost price for eggs had been squeezed down to around 31 Pesos.

The cost prices of various agricultural products had all been reduced to varying degrees, which naturally translated to higher profits and greater competitiveness.

One must understand that the average monthly salary for an ordinary person in Luzon was between 4,800 and 6,500 Pesos, equivalent to 600 to 800 Huaguo Yuan.

With such low wages but a cost of living comparable to a second- or third-tier city in Huaguo, one could imagine the standard of living for the locals.

Naturally, Fengrao House respected the local wage levels, offering salaries that weren’t much different from those of local businesses.

The reason they didn’t offer higher wages was, on one hand, to avoid hostility from local companies, and on the other, to prevent capital outflow.

With low wages, employees had fewer savings, so they naturally wouldn’t spend their money on more expensive items like cell phones, cars, or luxury goods.

But to supplement the low wages, Fengrao House, or rather the entire Homo Sapiens system, adopted another method: employee performance points.

Currently, they used a model where 1 point was equivalent to 1 Peso, allowing employees to use points for a 20% discount when shopping at their own stores.

For instance, if an employee bought a dozen eggs at Fengrao Supermarket for 90 Pesos, they would only need to pay 72 Pesos, with the remaining 18 Pesos covered by points.

Moreover, in practice, employees’ family members were generally allowed to use the employee cards for their own purchases.

The purpose of this was very simple. On one hand, it was to stimulate employee spending and recapture their wages. On the other, it was to crush competitors.

The final objective was to stabilize prices. Even if market prices suddenly surged, Homo Sapiens Company could use its performance points to regulate the price levels within its controlled areas, effectively gaining a degree of monetary sovereignty.

Because the performance points could only be used within Homo Sapiens Company and circulated only in the southern region of Luzon Island, it had not yet attracted the attention of Manila.

Currently, the performance points issued by the various subsidiaries under Homo Sapiens Company accounted for about 20-30% of an employee’s income.

Faced with Fengrao House’s cutthroat competition, the other supermarkets, shops, and fast-food outlets in Dart Port were already starting to feel the pressure.

Although other businesses could also offer customers discounts or give out coupons.

The problem was that Fengrao House was backed by the entire Homo Sapiens corporate system. Its subsidiaries had a large number of employees, and when you included their relatives, the entire city’s spending power was being siphoned away.

...

”Have you heard?” a middle-aged woman with buck teeth whispered.

Another woman, carrying a grocery basket, asked, ”Heard what?”

The buck-toothed woman whispered, ”Fengrao Supermarket is having a 10% off sale on everything tomorrow! They’ll have special doorbuster items too, first come, first served.”

”Really?”

”My neighbor’s relative works at Fengrao Supermarket. This is inside information.”

”Working at Fengrao Supermarket? I’m so jealous of them. They get special prices and an employee discount.”

This news quickly spread by word of mouth among the common folk of Dart Port.

Meanwhile, the owners of other supermarkets and shops looked on with long faces, secretly cursing Fengrao House and wishing for its swift bankruptcy.

But being drawn to small bargains is human nature for many.

Especially for the common people; they weren’t going to pass up coupons from Fengrao Supermarket just because another shop was a long-established business.

Plus, since Fengrao Supermarket’s prices were already slightly lower than other supermarkets, the attraction was naturally even greater.

「The next morning.」

Before Fengrao Supermarket had even opened its doors, a large crowd of women was already lined up at the entrance.

When the supermarket manager and his staff opened the main doors, the crowd instantly surged forward like a tidal wave, rushing into the store amidst shouts and clamor to snatch up goods.

Witnessing this scene, the other shops along the commercial street felt their hearts sink, overwhelmed by a sense of powerlessness.

Meanwhile, not far from Fengrao Supermarket, a recruitment office belonging to Coral Construction Company was also packed with applicants.

Coral Construction Company had recently secured a large number of engineering projects, and its current workforce was insufficient to meet the construction demands, so it began a massive hiring spree for construction workers.

Coral Construction’s actions also served the purpose of providing work as a form of relief.

The fabulously wealthy Homo Sapiens Company had approved five employee housing complex projects at once, one of which was located in the suburbs of Dart Port.

Coral Construction was currently responsible for these five projects. The first phase of the complex in Dart Port was planned for 1,000 households.

Of course, this employee housing wasn’t given to the employees but rented to them. However, the rent was extremely low, planned at 1 Peso per square meter per month, and a portion could also be offset with points.

Perhaps many people believe that when a company’s wages are higher than its regional competitors, its competitiveness will decline.

There’s nothing wrong with that statement.

However, there is one crucial precondition: that the company is not a megacorp.

Often, a company and a megacorp cannot be equated. The rules that apply to companies may lose their effect when applied to a megacorp.

So, what is a megacorp?

It’s a corporation that covers every aspect of life: from cradle to grave, food, clothing, housing, and transport; healthcare and education; culture and entertainment; energy and minerals; finance, the internet, military and warfare, scientific research, and equipment development.

An enterprise that has seized control of the entire industrial chain, from upstream to downstream, is called a ”megacorp.”

Any isolated, single-industry company would find it nearly impossible to compete against a megacorp.

Take Fengrao House, for example. Though it also operates supermarkets, its procurement costs are only about half of its competitors’. How are other businesses supposed to compete?

This kind of dominance across the industrial chain is sometimes just plainly unreasonable.

Although Homo Sapiens Company had not yet evolved into a full-fledged megacorp, it already showed the early signs of one. Coupled with its cooperation with the local Fernando Clan, wiping out those local businesses was a trivial matter.

’The future will undoubtedly be the age of megacorps.’

Li Qingye had long since seen through the essence of contemporary human society, and as such, had a precise forecast for humanity’s future.

’Why am I so certain?’

’Because of technology.’

’That’s right. It’s all because of technology.’