Humen: A Clothing Empire Built On Small Stalls

160 years ago, Lin Zexu's tobacco sales in Humen made the tiny Pearl River Estuary in Humen famous in the world. Today, the ancient fortress of Tiesuo Tongguan has been replaced by the fashionable town of Chinese women's clothing. Thirty years ago, there were only two tailor shops in Humen to tailor clothes for people, which had nothing to do with fashion. In the 30 years after the reform and opening up, Humen Garments has formed a clothing industry cluster of considerable scale from a spontaneous city to a factory built along the trend, and then guided by the government. At present, Hong Kong, the international fashion capital, has released a new fashion style (clothing), which Humen can learn on the same day. The next day, Humen will complete the design, production and marketing. ◎ Cloth appearance (late 1970s and early 1980s) Muddle through with 10 pairs of pants In 1982, Uncle Liang, a Humen man, was still a young man who worked hard to earn money. That year, he and his friends spent 16000 yuan to buy a boat to sell winter melon and other vegetables to Hong Kong. When he returned to Humen, he always hid dozens of meters of nylon cloth on his boat and returned to Humen with fear. One day in 1980, Boss Su, the first garment maker in Humen, went to Shatoujiao, Shenzhen, and bought hundreds of clothes from the then Friendship Mall. He didn't dare to leave so many goods in the daytime. At night, he specially hired a walking tractor to load clothes under the carriage and cover it with fodder. He secretly pulled the clothes back to Humen by night. Zhang Yongtong, a native of Laoguancheng, came to Humen to work in the 1950s. He used his camera to record the development of Humen for more than half a century. He has an old photo: there are a lot of people gathered on both sides of an empty old street. These people gather on a hundred meter long stall to "go shopping". This photo was taken around 1979. It is a street next to Humen Zhixin Park. In those years, the clothes and fabrics secretly brought back by Uncle Liang and Boss Su often appeared on the stalls in the photos and were very popular. A shirt and trousers can earn at least a few yuan. When recalling the situation of "stall training" in those years, these two bosses, who are now rich in money, said: "In those years, there were too many people like us in Humen, Houjie, Chang'an and other places who bravely joined the commodity economy tide in the early days of reform and opening up. We go back and forth between Shenzhen Shatoujiao, Hong Kong and Humen in three days and two, and bring back foreign goods that are scarce in the mainland in various ways, including more than once returning to Humen from Shenzhen Shatoujiao in 10 pairs of pants to avoid inspection. " It was precisely because of the courage and hardships of this generation that the "foreign goods street" under the lens of Zhang Yongtong's old man came into being around 1979. This street soon became famous and gradually attracted a large number of businessmen from the Pearl River Delta and the mainland. When the popularity is high, thousands of people can gather there every day. Enthusiasm for wealth cannot be extinguished by "encirclement and suppression" Around 1978, Humen people who had successfully fled Hong Kong in their early years returned home to visit their relatives and brought back some clothes, hats, socks, electronic watches and other items. At the beginning of the reform and opening up, people wore "grey", "yellow" and "blue" clothes. These "foreign goods" opened the eyes of Humen people at that time, and people who were reluctant to wear or have many goods would be sold next to Zhixin Park. A piece of clothing can be sold for several yuan to dozens of yuan, which was a lot of wealth at that time. At that time, the spring breeze of reform and opening up was just blowing, and Humen people with strong business spirit naturally would not waste opportunities. The water transportation from Humen to Hong Kong was very convenient. At that time, it only took a few hours (now it only takes more than one hour). Like Uncle Liang and Boss Su, they will go to Hong Kong or Shenzhen Shatoujiao (Zhongying Street), which is close to Hong Kong, to sell fish and vegetables, and then directly "smuggle" some clothes and cloth back to Humen "practice stall". Tan Zhiqiang is the director of Humen Town Economic and Trade Office. In 1980, when he was still young, he often went to "Foreign Goods Street" because there were many beautiful things there. "In those days, people often came to check, including the industrial and commercial departments in the province. When they came, the people who set up the stalls scattered with goods." Boss Su said that they were "ghosts" in those days. The industrial and commercial departments often come to "encircle and suppress", and all the goods seized will be confiscated. In order to avoid "encirclement and suppression", they sometimes choose to set up stalls at noon or at night after work; Sometimes I only take a small part of clothes and go home to pick them up after they are sold out. Uncle Liang said that when they brought goods back to the stall, they were always afraid. But they need money, and the enthusiasm for wealth is hard to be "encircled". ◎ Initial emergence of scale (from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s) Set up a management committee to build a clothing market If the government of Humen Town invested in the construction of Humen's first large-scale professional clothing wholesale market, Fumin Fashion City, in 1993, which is the most conscious guidance for the construction of Humen's professional clothing market, then the "Industrial and Commercial Self employed Workers Management Committee" (referred to as the "Personal Management Committee") established in Humen in 1981 was the government's unintentional "support" for Humen's yet to take shape clothing market at that time. This "support" has accelerated the formation of the embryonic Humen garment professional market. The "Personal Management Committee", which was just established in 1981, is still a very poor unit. It can only rely on borrowing and self financing. It runs a simple stall stall market along the street and along the lane, and the market centralizes the original messy stalls for unified management. At that time, there were about ten staff members of the "management committee". Their job was to ride a broken bicycle through the streets every day and collect market management fees from stalls. In the early days, a clothing stall charged 5 yuan a month, and a fruit stall charged 1 to 2 yuan a month. Boss Su, who was first engaged in the clothing business in Humen, obtained a business license in 1982 or 1983. He recalled that at that time, the government had set up several fairs, such as Shuangqiao (now opposite the old People's Hospital of Humen), Old Fumin, and so on. The early clothing stalls, like other small commodity stalls at that time, were simple and crude. By the end of the 1980s, there were hundreds of merchants specialized in clothing business in Humen (excluding the still existing "booths" small traders), It has formed a certain scale. It's unusual to earn ten thousand yuan a day Boss Su said that since about 1988, Humen's clothing market has become popular. The clothing market in the mainland has also gradually awakened. At that time, there were so many people doing clothing trade in Humen that customers began to involve the mainland and even abroad. At that time, he pulled a load of clothes back from Zhongshan and would be robbed by the wholesalers in an instant. At that time, he had a shop in Laobaijia Shopping Mall. He ordered directly from a jacket manufacturer in South Korea. The goods were delivered to Hong Kong and transported to Humen by truck at night. Many wholesalers in Wenzhou, Zhejiang and other places waited in front of his stall overnight, and a truck of goods would be robbed before dawn. "The wholesale price is 300 to 400 yuan for each piece, and I can earn 50 yuan on average for each piece. It's OK to make a net profit of 10000 yuan once a day. If you make more goods, you can earn more," said Boss Su. In the late 1980s, Tan Zhiqiang, the current director of Humen Economic and Trade Office, also engaged in clothing business for several years. At that time, the clothing industry in Zhongshan and Guangzhou was more developed than that in Humen, and there were many clothing enterprises. He basically went there to pick up goods. It's very easy to sell in Humen, and you can earn 1000 yuan or 2000 yuan in any month. At that time, people's wages were two to three hundred yuan a month, which was very considerable compared with his income. "At that time, there were seven or eight hundred clothing stalls in Humen, and everyone could earn a lot of money. But the number of people earning 10000 a day was very rare." However, to the surprise of Boss Su, Tan Zhiqiang and hundreds of clothing vendors in Humen in those years, it has become very common for people who make clothes in Humen to earn 10000 yuan a day only a few years later. ◎ Golden Decade (the last decade of the 20th century) Family clothing workshops become popular In the 1970s, Chen Yuling, a Taiping girl from Humen, had a sewing machine. Her sister usually makes clothes for villagers in need. Around 1982, Chen Yuling, who "liked clothes since childhood", went to work in the state-owned Taiping Garment Factory with a monthly salary of 36 yuan. At that time, Humen's stall market had already taken shape. "Ghosts" like Boss Su could earn 36 yuan in one or two days if they were lucky. In 1984, Chen Yuling listened to her mother's advice, came out of the factory, took her unemployment certificate to change for a private business license, and joined in the flood of stall setting. The price of going out to pick up the goods is much higher than the cost of making them. Chen Yuling's sewing machine has increased to three or four sets. She found an assistant and knew how to make clothes and sell them in the market every day. "At that time, there were many families like me in Humen, and they seemed to be popular." In 1986, the "Personal Management Committee" built a "big market" with more than 300 stalls in Taisha Road, which is now the market for the old rich. One of the stalls is Chen Yuling's. Chen Yuling said that in the years after 1986, most of the old rich people could earn more than 100000 yuan a year. How can a small booth support such a large turnover? Chen Yuling said that wholesale from other places was not their main purchase channel at that time. The endless sewing machine sound of every household in Humen Taiping seems to explain everything. Chen Yuling's generation of hardworking clothing businessmen did not realize that they had created a unique development model of Humen clothing industry - "front store and back factory". Although their workshop could not be called a factory at that time, it had formed the prototype of this unique model. The front store and the rear factory lead to a 500 year business opportunity "Some people say that the 10 years from 1990 to 2000 are hard for Humen clothing merchants to meet in 500 years." This folk saying is an interpretation of the popularity of Humen clothing market in the last 10 years of the 20th century. Humen Town Government evaluated the Fumin Fashion City, which was put into use in 1993, as "one son settled, all live". On October 5, 1992, the "Personal Management Committee" registered and established Humen Fumin Service Company, borrowed more than 70 million yuan, purchased 9988 square meters of land, and built Fumin Commercial Building (Fumin Fashion City). At that time, this ten storey building with more than 1200 shops, vertical elevators, escalators, sightseeing elevators and other supporting facilities attracted too many people's attention in Humen. Jiang Huazhou, a Fumin company, introduced that on the opening day of Fumin Fashion City on November 21, 1993, the temperature dropped from 18 ℃ to 5 ℃, and more than 1000 shops just opened in Fumin Building sold out all clothes instantly. Some clothes prepared by some shop owners for garbage disposal were snapped up. It seems to indicate the "myth" created after this building. At that time, Chen Yuling had three shops in Fumin Fashion City. Today, after many years, she recalled that 1993-1996 was just the beginning of the prosperity of Humen clothing industry. After 1996, Chen Yuling described that people in Fumin Fashion City were so crowded that they could not walk every day. They were all wholesalers from all over the country. "At 7:30 in the morning, I pulled a load of clothes. Sometimes the goods don't need to go into the shop at all. At the gate of the Fashion City, the wholesalers even act as porters, and directly get on the car to unload and buy them." It's hard to ask Chen Yuling how much she has made every month since then. This can only be achieved through the increase of the rent and price of the shops in Fumin Fashion City. In 1993, Fumin Fashion City opened, and a deposit of several thousand to 30000 yuan was enough for one shop. The monthly rent varies from hundreds to thousands, which can be said to increase month by month in the future. In 2002, Chen Yuling sold her shops, one of which was 9 square meters and sold for 3 million yuan. At the price of 5 million yuan, the shop owner is definitely unwilling to sell it. The rent of one shop also soared to 78000 yuan a month, with the highest being more than 100000 yuan. A few years ago, the peddler who set up a stall in the alley would easily earn 10000 yuan a day if he operated in Fumin Fashion City. People can only use "myth" to describe this phenomenon, and can only use "500 years hard to meet" to evaluate the market situation. Academics believe that it is one of the manifestations of the national economic prosperity, people's poverty to food and clothing, and their focus on the pursuit of quality of life more than 10 years after the reform and opening up. Humen Garment People and Humen Town Government seized this "500 year rare" opportunity with the development model of "front store and back factory" intentionally or unintentionally. Like the old Fumin market ten years ago, the "mythical" trading volume of Fumin Fashion City is supported by more than 1000 garment factories behind more than 1000 shops, and Fubang International, with hundreds of employees, is as large as Chen Yuling. ◎ Brand development (since 1990s) The trade fair became a famous brand of Humen In the first half of 1996, Tan Zhiqiang, who had set up a clothing stall for two years in the late 1980s, often carried a bag with his colleagues on business trips. The bag was full of small advertisements promoting Humen clothing, as well as several clothes for changing. Tan Zhiqiang is on a business trip for a week. Harbin, Beijing, Wuhan, Chengdu and other cities with clothing markets should go once. "When you go to a place, you can advertise every clothing store door to door. Tell the merchants that Humen is going to hold a clothing trade fair, and hope they will come to attend." Tan Zhiqiang said that he didn't know that Humen had clothes until he went out in 1996. Therefore, he realized that it was correct for the government leaders of Humen Town to plan to hold a clothing exhibition in Humen after they went to Dalian to participate in the "Dalian International Fashion Festival" in 1995. At that time, Humen had no experience in holding exhibitions, and even did not know how to write the invitation letter. At that time, the Hong Kong funded garment enterprises in Humen were "unwilling to play with the government". They have run all over Humen again