"That's impossible, Hutton. Such large-scale renovation and reconstruction will cause the company's stock price to plummet. We'll be ruined before the competition even starts. I still stand by what I said earlier—only new stores can be decorated in the style of Valentino Urban Retail," Claude, the chairman of Sears, said with a frown. He couldn't understand why Hutton had suddenly changed his mind when they'd agreed on a plan just the day before.
Hutton, who hadn't slept all night, his eyes bloodshot, placed the latest data in front of Claude:
"Our tiered membership recharge data has dropped sharply, and sales figures over the past two days have also declined. The downward curve these two days is extremely dangerous—it means we're losing a large number of customers. I thought about it all night. We all assumed that the sudden popularity of Valentino Retail was partly due to its tiered membership system. But that's only part of the reason. If the shopping experience is poor, even the best customer-attraction strategies will ultimately fail to retain customers. I don't know how many new customers their company has gained, but judging from the customers we've lost, it's highly likely they've gone to Valentino. When one side gains and the other loses—Claude, you should understand what that means!"
Claude's expression turned serious instantly. After flipping through the data, he leaned back in his chair and rubbed his brows. Sure enough, every promise of future support that Governor Dewey had made the previous day required him to spend enormous resources in the present. What truly worried Claude was: facing someone of Leo's caliber, even if he spent huge amounts of resources, could he really win? But Claude, who had already made his choice, knew that if he tried to back out now, he would likely end up pleasing no one.
Claude, who had worked in retail for years, decided to see the situation for himself.
Directly opposite Sears' headquarters—almost as if on purpose—stood a Valentino Urban Retail store.
When Claude and Hutton walked into the store, they never expected their presence to cause a commotion. It wasn't because they started smashing things or robbing the place; it was because Sears' own employees—some shopping, some checking out—subconsciously hid when they saw their chairman and CEO.
At that moment, Claude finally realized that the problem wasn't Hutton overreacting—it was far more serious than he'd imagined.
Claude immediately stopped an employee he recognized, a mid-level manager at the company. Glancing at the Zippo lighter in the man's hand, his anger flared up. He snapped at the employee:
"We have our own retail store right downstairs. Why on earth would you come to a competitor's store to buy things?"
The employee hung his head and replied:
"Our store downstairs only stocks over 30 new products a week, and they're usually gone by Tuesday. It's already Friday today."
Claude looked at the rows of Zippo lighters on Valentino Urban Retail's shelves, confused:
"We're an established retailer. We clearly have more access to goods than they do. Why haven't they sold out, but we've run out so quickly?"
The employee was left speechless, his heart pounding—he had a bad feeling he might lose his job.
Hutton stepped forward to break the awkward silence and explained:
"This is the busiest area in Brooklyn, but it's a mid-to-high-end market. Most people here have decent incomes and are the target demographic for Zippo lighters. Claude, take a closer look—other than a few daily necessities, this store basically doesn't stock items commonly used by low-income groups."
"Ha, how deliberate of them—to set up such a high-end store right across from our company," Claude said.
Hutton, who had experienced the eye-opening night before, invited Claude to Valentino Urban Retail's unique window-side coffee lounge area. As soon as they sat down, a store clerk poured them two cups of coffee.
"Don't you know I'm the chairman of Sears—your competitor?" Claude asked the clerk in surprise as she served him coffee.
The young female clerk replied:
"I do, but our company's membership handbook is a loose-leaf version updated daily, with one copy per store. You and Mr. Hutton here are both Diamond Members of Valentino Urban Retail. Both of you are entitled to free coffee and light meals in the lounge area of any Valentino Urban Retail store."
After speaking, the clerk brought over small desserts.
The atmosphere became even more awkward. All the Sears employees who had just hidden from their bosses turned their eyes toward them.
"What are you looking at? We're here to study the competition. Get back to work!" Hutton snapped.
Once everyone had left, the two men stared at the coffee, cakes, and the spacious, bright lounge area in silence.
It was Claude's long sigh that broke the quiet. He picked up a dessert and took a bite. Compared to the dishes made by top chefs he'd tasted before, the flavor was far inferior, and the cream was of poor quality—but for the working people who'd been there earlier, it was already a rare treat.
He turned to the clerk, who was now sitting idly on the checkout counter after the customers had left because of them, and asked:
"Is this treatment only for Diamond Members?"
"Silver Members and above all get coffee. Silver Members get small bread rolls as dessert, while Gold Members get cake," the clerk replied.
Claude couldn't help but sigh again. He said:
"These meticulous details in the customer experience are indeed effective for attracting and retaining customers. But I assume the salary of a clerk who's proficient in both checkout work and customer service must be quite high."
"No matter how high it is, it's less than the total salary of three sales clerks plus one cashier at our mid-sized retail stores. Besides, those employees of ours don't know how to provide customer service. Also, I need to tell you the truth—this store isn't some deliberate trick by them. Every single one of their stores carefully selects products to match the purchasing habits of the local community," Hutton said.
"How is that possible? If that's really the case, I'm actually less worried. Customer tastes change quickly—they can shift in just a month or two. The high-salary analysts Valentino Urban Retail has hired will only drastically increase their operating costs," Claude argued. As a seasoned retail professional, he knew well how important good analysts were to a store—but he also understood that the profits of a single store could barely cover the salary of a top analyst.
Sears also had a professional team of analysts. After in-depth calculations, they had concluded that evenly distributing products across all stores in various regions was the most cost-effective strategy. Their main task was to study consumer habits across different regions, i.e., different states.
"Maybe," Hutton replied.
In contrast to Claude's optimism, Hutton felt uneasy. He believed Valentino Urban Retail must have found a way to reduce analyst costs—because he refused to believe that a super-rich man who had amassed billions of dollars would be foolish.
Claude was slightly annoyed by Hutton's pessimism, but he knew this wasn't the time to blame his subordinate. He adjusted his mood and said encouragingly:
"Hutton, I admit Valentino Urban Retail's customer experience is excellent, but Sears is no slouch either. What's more, we have twice as many stores as they do, and our brand has a nearly 100-year head start on theirs. I promise you—apart from decorating new stores, I'll also try to persuade the shareholders to set aside a portion of last year's dividends to renovate old stores in batches. At the same time, we need to learn from their approach to tiered member benefits. Hutton, this isn't the first time we've faced competition. I believe that under your leadership, Sears will defeat our competitors completely, just like we always have. Buck up—you're our commander in this business war."
After speaking, Claude stood up and left the store—he didn't want to stay there for another second.
However, despite all the encouraging words he'd said to Hutton, deep down, he'd already grown dissatisfied with him. He felt that Hutton, who had served as CEO for a decade, had lost his former drive—and even began to consider whether he should replace him mid-battle.
Hutton felt nothing in response to Claude's encouragement.
The previous day, he had been inspired by Governor Dewey's words, thinking that even billionaires only succeeded by luck, and as a seasoned retail veteran, he could definitely defeat Leo. But after his experiences the night before and that morning, he no longer held any hope of beating Leo. The reason was simple: the other side knew all his cards, but he knew nothing about the other side. How could he possibly win this game?
Hutton dismissed Claude's proposal to "learn from Valentino" with disdain. He knew well that in business, only innovation could defeat competitors. However, Claude was his boss—and Hutton had no choice but to carry out his orders.
No matter what Hutton thought privately, as a professional employee, he executed Claude's arrangements flawlessly. Soon, both old and new stores were equipped with tables and chairs, and sales staff received instructions from headquarters on providing tiered member benefits like coffee and desserts.
Regrettably, though, their salaries weren't increased—and headquarters also failed to provide timely training on how to track and distribute the free coffee and desserts. The consequences of this were beyond what Hutton had imagined.
Fernando, a Filipino-American professional servant, had recently become the servant of an up-and-coming pianist, with a quite generous salary. The only downside was that the pianist was Black. But that didn't matter to Fernando—because in America, Filipinos were often regarded as part of the social underclass, and Fernando had long since given up on caring about dignity. All he cared about was money.
Previously, he had heard from many of his peers that shopping at Valentino Urban Retail could save a lot of money. But Fernando was a conservative man who hated change, so he still preferred to shop at Sears, where he'd always gone. Especially recently, since Sears had also started imitating Valentino Urban Retail by implementing a tiered membership system, Fernando felt he'd found a "great opportunity" to save money for himself.
He'd been going even more frequently these past two days—because he'd discovered that the staff would offer him free coffee and desserts. So, every morning when the Black pianist started practicing, Fernando would sneak out. To save money, he even skipped the breakfast allowance his employer gave him, planning to fill his stomach with free coffee and desserts instead.
Calculating that he'd save another sum of money, Fernando hummed a tune happily. After checking out and carrying his purchases, he sat down by the window. Based on his experience the previous day, he expected a clerk to bring him coffee and desserts. But that day, he waited and waited, and no one came with his "breakfast."
He turned around and looked at the female sales clerks leaning on the counter, staring at him with disdain. Normally, Fernando wouldn't dare to lose his temper with these white women—but for some reason that day, perhaps hunger gave him courage, he imitated his employer's tone and said:
"Ladies, where are my member benefits? Let me remind you—I'm an A-tier member!"
"Sir, your employer is the A-tier member, not you," the sales clerk replied dismissively.
Fernando was overwhelmed with shame. He wasn't a forgiving man, so he waited until Sears closed, then stood on the street outside the store. He didn't plan to do anything outrageous—he just wanted to see what these women were up to, and why they hadn't given him the coffee and desserts he was entitled to.
His patience paid off. He watched as the clerks walked out chatting and laughing, each carrying a large piece of cake and a big bucket of coffee.
"So that's it! They stole what was rightfully mine. I'm going to file a complaint!" Fernando thought angrily.
Fernando wasn't the only one who'd had this experience. Soon, Sears' headquarters inbox was flooded with complaint letters. This attempt to imitate Valentino Urban Retail was forced to stop after just one week.
Meanwhile, troubles didn't end there. Sears also encountered problems with the decoration of its new stores. However, Hutton's subordinates did manage to find out where Valentino Urban Retail's shelves were manufactured. But it was a small-scale factory, and the owner admitted that Valentino Retail's orders alone would keep them busy until the end of the year—they simply had no capacity to take on new orders.
The furniture manufacturers they'd worked with before said they could take over, but they demanded extra time to make molds and an additional fee. This would not only delay the project but also increase costs.
Claude, who hated wasting money, once again considered backing out. Hutton had a huge argument with him, and although Claude finally compromised, Hutton knew deep down that his job at Sears was now hanging by a thread.
After half a month of waiting, it was early February, and all fifteen of Sears' new stores in New York were finally renovated. At the same time, Hutton had learned from his previous mistakes and provided professional training to sales staff on how to properly distribute tiered member benefits.
However, desperate blows kept coming. Valentino Urban Retail launched a series of combined promotion strategies: customers who accumulated purchases for seven consecutive days could enjoy a 20% discount; a "Happy Sunday" event, where all products were 20% off every Sunday, with additional discounts for members; and product-specific discount coupons—though to use these seemingly cost-effective coupons, customers had to buy the specific products listed on them.
But what Hutton thought was the most brilliant move was the anonymous prepaid cards. He knew well that these cards had recently become a hard currency in the hands of New York civil servants. Anyone trying to handle large or medium-sized official matters would find it almost impossible to get anything done without a few prepaid cards in hand.
To counter this, Hutton immediately began copying the idea—after all, it didn't require much cost. But within a week of launching the cards, the other side had the audacity to sue them for bribing officials.
Claude, his boss, immediately turned to Governor Dewey, preparing to countersue. But to his anger, multiple district courts in New York had already received similar cases and thus refused to accept theirs. This forced Claude to adjust his strategy, trying to make their cards slightly different in nature from Valentino's.
As it turned out, this only led them into a trap. The billionaire Valentino directly spent $1 million to hire a team of top lawyers. Hutton could tell at a glance that it would take at least two years for the other side's lawsuit to conclude. But their own lawsuit was "fast-tracked"—the trial was scheduled for the following month. Hutton learned that Claude was now visiting Governor Dewey's Long Island estate almost every day.
Since the competition had started, just one month earlier, Hutton was shocked to discover that Valentino Urban Retail had opened 100 new stores in New York State alone.
Suddenly, the door to the CEO's office was thrown open. A senior executive rushed in, waving a copy of The World and shouting:
"Hutton, something terrible has happened! Valentino Urban Retail actually released its financial report for January!"
Hutton asked in surprise:
"They're not a public company—why would they release a financial report?"
As soon as Hutton finished speaking, his heart sank. Unless—this was deliberately done by the other side to hit Sears Retail. At the thought of this, Hutton quickly took the newspaper. The first thing that caught his eye was the headline of the front-page news:
The New Battlefield of Business Giants: Valentino's Retail Empire!