Chapter 51. Storm 2.
The outdoor floor on the fifth floor of Mancheon Department Store’s Jamsil branch.
Hyeonu and Eom Yoseop were waiting for the department store to close.
Once the department store closed for business, interior work had to begin immediately and be finished before opening hours the next day. If they were to finish the interior, set up the mannequins, props, and even display the products, time was extremely tight.
At last, the music and announcement signaling the end of business hours flowed out.
The shoppers disappeared one by one, and the interior company that had been waiting in advance came in.
“Over here, sir.”
The owner of the interior company spoke with easy familiarity.
“Hey there, Assistant Manager Eom. We’re here to do construction for your one-store brand.”
“Ah, why would you say that? I told you we’ll pass a hundred within this year.”
“A hundred? Haha, can I really look forward to that?”
“What’s a hundred? There’ll be even more next year. Sir, consider yourself lucky to have met me. Before long, I’ll be putting up an entire building.”
“Haha, just hearing that makes me feel good. As expected, our Assistant Manager Eom is the best when it comes to saying things that put people in a good mood. All right, then. We’ll get to work.”
“Yes. Thank you for your hard work, and since this is our first store, please pay special attention to it.”
No matter who he met, no matter what state he himself was in, he always made people feel good.
The owner of the interior company and his workers immediately began work, and after Eom Yoseop went over the precautions, he walked over to Hyeonu.
“Now that work has started, if things go quickly, it’ll be done by five in the morning, and by six at the latest. If it goes later than that, we could have a problem. I’ve called the store manager, the sales staff, and Supervisor Jeong for five, so Hyeonu, you can come at that time too.”
“What about you, Assistant Manager?”
“I have to stay here. I can keep an eye on things and catch little naps off to the side, so don’t worry and go on home. You’ll have to wake up early tomorrow and come back.”
“All right. Then good luck, and I’ll see you at dawn tomorrow.”
“Yes. Get home safely.”
Hyeonu had taken a few steps when Eom Yoseop called him.
“Hyeonu.”
“Yes?”
“For some reason, my heart is pounding. It’s not as if this is my first or second time opening a store.”
“······Mine is pounding too.”
Eom Yoseop let out a small laugh.
It was because hearing Hyeonu—who seemed like he wouldn’t blink even with a knife at his throat—say that his heart was pounding sounded like a joke.
“It’s just one store······. I’m sorry the beginning is so insignificant.”
Hyeonu lifted the corners of his mouth and smiled faintly.
“It won’t be that insignificant. Even if it’s just one.”
It was only one store, but he was confident it would create a huge sensation no one had expected.
* * *
The product displays and various related tasks that had begun at five-thirty in the morning were only barely finished by nine-thirty.
After checking the computer system one last time, Eom Yoseop asked the store manager.
“We’re good, right?”
“Yes, Assistant Manager.”
After looking over the store from end to end, he asked the store manager again.
“What do you think? Does it look like it’ll sell well?”
“How could people not buy this? The planning is a jackpot. Just make sure we don’t run short on stock. I’ll sell everything that comes in.”
There was plenty of stock.
They had made products for ten stores, but only one store was opening.
“Then I’ll trust only you, Manager.”
“If you don’t trust me, who will you trust? Do you know how many times I’ve been sales king?”
“Haha, that’s exactly why I worked so hard to bring you in, Manager.”
Eom Yoseop had truly put in tremendous effort to secure the store manager.
Among salespeople, there were a few store managers who were well known, and brands competed fiercely to recruit such managers.
Among them, in order to bring in the current store manager, who was top class, Eom Yoseop had practically given up his liver and gallbladder.
It was to make up for the shortage of stores with the ability of the sales staff, if nothing else.
“Then please get ready. I’ll go see the employees for a bit.”
Eom Yoseop walked over to Hyeonu and Jeong Hunseok, who were watching from some distance away from the store.
Hyeonu spoke first.
“You must be very tired. You stayed up all night yesterday.”
“I’m fine. I’ll watch the response for a while, then go to a sauna and sleep for just an hour.”
He let out a sigh.
“Haa······ I just hope there’s a response.”
At last, the department store opened.
People began coming in little by little, and then one couple stopped in front of the store.
“Oh! Isn’t this that documentary?”
Hearing his girlfriend’s words, the man turned his head.
Inside the store, a sign reading “DISCOVERY” was hanging, and on the large LED screen beneath it, highlights from the Discovery Channel were playing with a fair amount of tension.
A man wrapped in an anaconda, the tense face of a man rock climbing, a photojournalist filming from a jeep in front of a pack of hyenas eating their prey······.
They were scenes anyone had seen at least once on an actual documentary channel.
“Oh! You’re right.”
The woman asked the store manager.
“Is this a brand made by Discovery?”
“Yes. It’s the original Discovery outdoor brand.”
“It really is. Discovery made clothes too?”
The store manager answered with a relaxed smile.
“Of course. But in Korea, you’re our very first customer. This is the first store in the country, and today is the first day of opening.”
“Wow, amazing. Oppa, let’s take a look before we go.”
“Should we?”
The man and woman bought a matching pair of parkas and left the store.
Wearing the clothes they had just bought, with the clothes they had been wearing placed in shopping bags, the couple walked off arm in arm, looking extremely satisfied.
It was because of the special feeling that they had bought original Discovery products and were the first in Korea to wear these clothes.
In truth, the clothes had not been made by the Discovery Channel, and saying they were the first in Korea to wear them was a little strange too.
But it was not a lie.
They had officially contracted the Discovery trademark rights by paying royalties, and the couple were not merely the first in Korea, but the first in the world to wear them.
Of course, the couple had mistakenly assumed it was a brand that had already been released in America.
In that way, people were drawn in half by curiosity at the name Discovery, and when they left, they carried shopping bags with Discovery written on them.
Before they knew it, closing time was approaching.
Hyeonu, Jeong Hunseok, Choe Wonhyo, and Choe Mijin had all finished their work and were watching from a little distance away from the store.
Despite the late hour, there were still many people inside the store.
People who had come in out of curiosity piled up, and because of that crowd, even more people were drawn in.
Choe Mijin, who was looking at the store with trembling eyes, asked Choe Wonhyo beside her.
“This means it’s selling well, right?”
Choe Wonhyo replied with a bewildered expression.
“It seems like it is······ but I’m not sure either. Since I’ve only been going around to companies and factories, I don’t have a feel for sales.”
He turned to Jeong Hunseok beside him and asked the same thing Choe Mijin had asked.
“Supervisor Jeong, this means it’s selling well, right?”
Jeong Hunseok seemed dazed as well.
“I-It seems like it? Compared to the stores around us.”
The surrounding stores were all sparse and empty.
Even people who had been about to enter other stores saw the crowd and changed course, and upon seeing the DISCOVERY sign, went in to check what kind of clothes they were.
Just then, the department store’s closing music began to play, and Eom Yoseop walked over with his dress-shirt sleeves rolled up.
Far from getting an hour of sleep, he had not even been able to go to the sauna, and had helped with store work all day.
It was because so many clothes had sold that they had to constantly bring items from the warehouse.
With beads of sweat dotting his forehead, he spoke with an extremely bright expression.
“I made a reservation at Jinsatto Pork Galbi right up ahead, so please go on first. I’ll close things out and bring the store manager and sales staff with me.”
Choe Mijin, who still had not received an answer to her question, asked Eom Yoseop this time.
“It went well, right?”
Eom Yoseop chuckled and replied.
“Why are you asking something like that? You’re seeing it with your own eyes······. It’s a total super, super, super, super, super jackpot. Mijin, before long, people will be calling you Director. You’re the designer who launched a hit brand, after all.”
“······.”
Eom Yoseop returned to the store, and everyone headed off for the company dinner.
* * *
Around the time they had grilled some meat and downed a few glasses of soju, Eom Yoseop came in with the store staff.
“Welcome.”
“Sit here.”
“You worked hard today.”
As Eom Yoseop sat down amid the warm welcome and Hyeonu poured him a drink, Jeong Hun-seok asked,
“How much did the sales hit?”
The group, who had been chatting, instantly fell silent, their attention fixed on Eom Yoseop’s mouth.
“How much do you think we hit?”
“Did it pass a hundred million?”
“Of course it passed a hundred million.”
“Hmm······ One hundred fifty million?”
“Hah······ That’s a bit stingy. Higher.”
“Two hundred million?”
“Keke, four hundred thirteen million eight hundred ninety-seven thousand won.”
Everyone’s eyes went wide.
“We sold two hundred twenty-eight long padded coats in the million-won range. For something to blow up like this on a weekday, with no event and no advertising, is probably a first in department store history, hahaha.”
That day’s company dinner was filled with nonstop laughter.
But this was only the beginning.
Because over the weekend, things truly became chaos.
So many people flooded in that even the department store security guards had to be called in to control the crowd, and the line waiting to pay grew so long that they even used the department store’s POS registers to sell the clothes.
The department store itself had gone into emergency mode.
A real sensation was sweeping through.
A sensation called Discovery.
And not long after, that sensation began turning into a storm.
* * *
Min Jeong-ae, president of Mancheon Department Store, was drinking coffee as she looked over the report in her approval folder.
Since she had the normal sales figures and cash flow for every division—department stores, hotels, marts, and resorts alike—in her head, she did not receive ordinary reports.
However, she had even the smallest matters that differed from the norm reported to her immediately.
Given the nature of the business, managing only those anomalies was enough to manage everything.
As if there were no particular issues, the brief report contained the following line.
‘Jamsil Branch, newly opened outdoor brand DISCOVERY showing rapid sales growth,’
She tilted her head.
The name DISCOVERY felt as if she had heard it somewhere before.
When she entered the Jamsil Branch’s real-time sales status, then went into the outdoor section, her eyes widened slightly.
Then she muttered,
“What is this? It’s even higher than the sales of the luxury boutiques.”
It was only the sixth day since they had opened for business.
The sales, which had been tremendous from opening day, were growing explosively with each passing day.
But something was strange.
They were generating truly explosive sales, yet the only store they had opened was the one at the Jamsil Branch.
She immediately picked up the receiver.
“Have the car ready.”
* * *
Accompanied by bodyguards and an aide, Min Jeong-ae took the escalator up to the outdoor floor on the fifth level.
It was not difficult to find the Discovery store.
There was one store in particular swarming with people, and security guards were managing the area in front of it.
As she approached the store, a security guard tried to stop her, but her bodyguard stepped forward first and stopped him instead.
“VIP.”
“Pardon? Ah!”
Only then did he recognize Min Jeong-ae, and he stepped back in surprise.
Standing in front of the store, Min Jeong-ae observed it closely with sharp eyes.
It had the atmosphere of a luxury boutique holding the kind of sale that happened only once every few years.
After watching for a while longer, she turned and walked away with a single remark.
“Tell the executive managing director in charge of sales for the department store division to be waiting outside my office.”
“Yes, President.”