Dolly could see that the first floor of this shop was quite spacious.
It was estimated to be at least over ten times larger than her own storefront, with a wide and comprehensive range of goods.
Inside, customers could pick out items themselves, and there was also a dedicated counter for tobacco and alcohol, displaying an entire window of various liquors.
At the moment, an employee was removing the protective wooden boards embedded outside the glass windows.
She shook her head and continued following Mr. Nash toward Osborne Street.
Currently, Clark Street had about seventy to eighty houses from south to north, stretching roughly two to three hundred meters in total.
It housed over two hundred households, with a population of approximately five hundred to eight hundred people.
Within Clark Street, there were underground taverns, tailor shops, second-hand furniture stores, small cafes, and bakeries.
There were three grocery stores.
The southern end of Clark Street led to Jude Road, with Piero Grocery Store located at the street entrance.
In the middle of Clark Street was her family’s small Nash Grocery Store.
The northern exit of the street led to Dorothy Street, where there was also a Lobit Grocery Store.
The three stores operated under different business models.
The Piero Grocery Store before her eyes was the largest in scale.
The operator, Piero, collaborated with investors, sharing profits between the two.
The investor behind him had purchased the building but was not involved in its management.
The shop’s decoration and operations were handled by Mr. Piero, who employed five or six staff members.
Mr. Piero himself did not live in the shop.
His family resided in a five-bedroom apartment near Soho, belonging to the standard middle class.
Every day at six o’clock, Piero would arrive at the shop punctually for work, and at seven o’clock in the evening, he would leave on time.
With investors backing him, Piero’s store was stocked lavishly.
Goods were always delivered proactively by various wholesalers.
As for the Lobit Grocery Store at the northern exit corner of Clark Street, it had long been a thorn in Lisa’s side.
The situation of Lobit Grocery Store was slightly better than that of the Nash family’s grocery store.
The building was one story taller, and the shop was twice as wide.
The third floor served as living quarters, the second floor as a warehouse and kitchen.
The first floor was the shopfront, with one employee hired.
Lobit’s wife also made and sold some simple bread.
Lisa didn’t harbor any resentment toward Piero Grocery Store’s thriving business—she accepted it wholeheartedly.
After all, their level was different; even their tobacco and alcohol displays were filled with high-quality goods she couldn’t obtain.
But this Lobit Grocery Store, like Nash Grocery Store, sourced its goods from Osborne Street.
Ever since Lisa fell ill, Mr. Lobit had been sending his employee to Nash Grocery Store every few days to inquire.
He even suggested that if Nash Grocery Store couldn’t keep going, they should sell their old stock to him.
After all, business had been slow lately, so an old woman like Lisa shouldn’t trouble herself with such worries.
This infuriated Lisa to no end. She leaned out the window and scolded the employee, and they hadn’t returned since.
That’s why she’d rather let her family mismanage the shop than close it for even a day and become a laughingstock.
Along the way, Dolly subtly inquired with Mr. Nash about the customer base of these two stores.
Her family’s shop made a monthly profit ranging from eight to three Pounds Sterling.
This indicated that they still had a basic customer base of several dozen to a hundred people.
These customers were mostly neighbors or patrons of the underground tavern across the street.
When they were too lazy to go to the end of the alley, they would come here to buy things.
There were also some casual customers—passersby cutting through to Jude Road or Dorothy Street.
Lobit Grocery Store occupied the northern exit of Clark Street, adjacent to Dorothy Street.
Dorothy Street was bustling with life, home to dozens upon dozens of cheap bakeries, coffee shops, pubs, small restaurants, candy stores, two small grocery stores, and mobile street vendors.
Due to the affordable food, thousands of workers ate on Dorothy Street every day.
Most of Lobit Grocery Store’s customers were also these transient crowds.
In contrast, Piero Grocery Store, located at the southern exit, did not rely on such casual patrons.
Jude Road was a wide avenue spacious enough for four carriages to travel side by side. Dolly and her grandfather were walking slowly along this street.
As she looked around, she truly witnessed Victorian style for the first time.
The main street was lined with terraced houses built from brown stone—uniform in appearance, heavy in texture, adorned with classical decorative details, yet mostly appearing rather worn.
The road was traversed by lacquered carriages, cargo wagons, hand-pulled carts, and even people riding unicycles.
Whether it was the workers on the roadside or the gentlemen seated in carriages, every single one wore a three-piece suit and a felt hat.
Poor women wore simple dresses for ease of work, without the eye-catching “chicken tail” bustles.
Women with a bit more financial flexibility wore Bustle skirts with padded hip supports.
Most of the terraced houses along Jude Road housed small-scale processing factories.
Such as button factories, shirt factories, pin factories, and hatpin factories.
Of course, there were also charity schools, clinics, inns, two mid-sized restaurants, a police booth, a coffin shop, a second-hand porcelain store, and a coal shop.
In the smaller alleys connecting to Jude Road, there were also a few grocery stores, though all were very small, similar in scale to Nash’s family store.
According to the original body’s memories, Piero Grocery Store had long supplied tobacco, alcohol, and tea to the two inns and two mid-sized restaurants on Jude Road.
It also provided nearby factories with white paper, ink, pens, and all other office supplies.
With stable high-value business and a steady flow of casual customers, this grocery store could be said to be thriving and dominating the neighborhood.
Dolly pondered for a moment.
Comparing her own store’s current situation to this nearby large store.
In terms of customer base, product variety, and pricing, it had absolutely no competitive edge.
Large stores had high customer traffic and large purchase volumes; the larger the purchase volume, the lower the wholesale price offered by distributors.
Small stores with limited customer traffic had smaller purchase volumes, higher wholesale costs, and thus slimmer profit margins.
If a large store engaged in even a slight price war, a small store could easily go under.
However, if her own small store continued to be as chaotically managed as it was now, it wouldn’t even need competition—it would shut down on its own in a couple of days.
Dolly thought to herself, if it were any other industry, it might be different, but retail was another matter.
No matter which life, no matter which era.
She could not accept a family-owned retail store shutting down right under her nose.
Before long, Dolly and her grandfather arrived at Whitechapel Road.
Passing through the White Chapel open-air market, they squeezed through the crowded throngs.
Street vendors on both sides packed the road tightly, hawking their wares to every passerby.
“Sir! Have a cigar, just a penny.”
“Fish pudding, two pence a jar…”
“Buy some perfume, miss? Rose-scented… one Shilling.”
After navigating through the market stalls, they reached the street behind and headed toward Spitalfields.
The wholesalers here have primarily sold farm-produced fruits, vegetables, and dairy products since the seventeenth century.
Sixty or seventy years ago, Watt’s steam engines took over London, and railways spanned north and south.
Industrial development progressed rapidly, with every trade advancing swiftly.
Goods processed in factories became the mainstream on this street.
Dolly took the list of items to restock from her pocket and handed it to her grandfather to hold.
Mr. Nash looked at the handwriting on the list, which seemed slightly different from Dolly’s usual script—the strokes were more elegant.
However, he didn’t dwell on it, instead noticing the difference in the types of goods compared to usual.
“Liquor, cigars—why aren’t we restocking either of these?”
Mr. Nash remembered that the cigar inventory was nearly depleted.
Dolly stated plainly, “I did the math.
Take these cigars, for example. The wholesale price here is usually five pence per box.
A box contains six cigars, and we can only sell them for six pence, making a profit of one pence.”
For cheap tobacco products like these, there’s a standard market price—no poor person would buy cigars costing more than three pence.
The wholesale price is also quite fixed. Unless it’s smuggled mid-range cigars, there’s little room for negotiation.
“The environment in our shop isn’t suitable for storing cigars; they easily get damp.
That’s why the neighbors don’t like buying them from our store. Even if we stock five boxes, they can take a month to sell.
And that only earns us five pence in profit.”
“It’s better to use that money to stock items that sell faster.
Like tea, soap, salt, and powdered sugar.”
Mr. Nash understood but found this concept somewhat hard to grasp.
In their line of business, everyone pursued a wide and comprehensive range of goods.
Even if it was a struggle, they insisted on having a variety of products in the store.
No grocery store would refuse to sell tobacco and alcohol.
However, upon second thought, his granddaughter seemed to have a point.
Given the actual situation in their shop, the profit from tobacco and alcohol was meager, yet the wholesale prices weren’t cheap, tying up funds in inventory.
If they set aside convention, it did seem like the right thing to do.
…
Author’s Note: