旧物小铺

☎️ A Phone Call, An Old Shop The story began one morning in 1980.
In 1980, Father passed away, leaving behind this little vintage shop and three hundred yuan. The caller was Old Chen, Father’s former colleague, calling to repay a debt — that sum of money would be the entire capital to reopen the shop.
You take over the counter. Ice lollies, enamel mugs, frog-style sunglasses, Yanwu dual-cassette recorders, you place them on the shelves one by one.
To tend the shop is to tend to life itself.
🔔 Only Three Tasks a Day: Restock, Greet Customers, Close Shop Bring goods from storage compartments under the counter onto the display surface, ring the welcome bell once, and open for business.
When a customer steps up to the counter, you gauge their pocket and budget, hand them items matching their needs, collect payment and give change.
Customers will not come of their own accord, nor leave on their own — when to invite the next visitor all depends on your timing to ring the bell.
Ring the bell again after dark, then tally the day’s accounts: how much you earned, how much you paid out, how much remains.
A customer’s budget is their balance. Each purchase deducts from it. Once their balance can no longer cover the goods on display, they leave.
📻 Seventy Vintage Articles, Each With a Line Only Those Who Lived Through the Era Could Write Three-fen ice lollies, bamboo-cased thermoses, frog-style sunglasses, Jiefang canvas shoes, Hero fountain pens. Yanwu dual-cassette recorders, Shanghai-brand wristwatches, Motorola brick mobile phones.
Seven categories, four quality grades. Every item bears an annotation: “Even if the inner flask breaks, the outer shell can last another ten years.” “Clip it to your waist; when it rings, everyone at the table turns to look.” “You get two fen back returning the bottle, so empty bottles are never thrown away.”
You know these things, just like the older generation does.
🧣 Ten Regular Customers, Each With Their Own Temperament Some chase low prices, some care about prestige, and some only ask whether you have the goods in stock.
Aunt Lan, shrewd enough to watch carefully while her soy sauce jug is filled to the brim; Grandpa Shuan, who counts every matchstick when buying matches. Huzi, the gang leader of local kids who orders toys for the whole alley; Dayong, a young factory worker eager to dress like “city folk.”
Mr. Huang, who only buys imported goods with complete paperwork; Master Xie, who can repair old electronic parts to recover forty percent of their original value.
Their usual purchases vary. Whatever sits in the shop window shapes what the customers crave that day. Whether you can sell the same item to a certain person hinges entirely on whether you understand their temperament.
🚲 One Trip Out, One Choice Only: Supply and Marketing Cooperative or Scrap Yard The Supply and Marketing Cooperative sells goods by piece, with fixed prices and daily limits. Items costing more than thirty yuan are never listed.
At the scrap yard, you hunt for secondhand goods in batches. The more money you spend, the higher grade of goods you may find — yet only three stock lots are available each day.
You can visit only one of the two places per day. You need to figure out what to restock before you go. What you find relies on your eye for quality.
📰 A Copy of Today’s Newspaper — Buy cheap today, profit from the price difference tomorrow “Southern freight disrupted; imported candy and coffee to rise in price tomorrow.” “Sugar crop shortfall; candy and canned goods prices to increase tomorrow.” “State-owned sugar mill releases large stockpiles; candy prices to drop tomorrow.”
Price hike alerts, price cut alerts, demand forecasts, policy trends — three to five notices each day. Reading the newspaper means learning what merchandise to stock tomorrow.
🏮 The Wall Calendar Turns Page by Page; Life Must Go On Day After Day The wall calendar follows real time: thirty days a month, twelve months a year. Rent is paid weekly, daily living expenses deducted every day. The funds in your account must hold out.
The year printed in the newspaper keeps advancing, starting from 1980. Keeping this small shop running depends on far more than how much profit you make on a single day.