Dan was skeptical about Richard's plans and asked him directly:
- Sir, but why did you decide that retail chains would advertise your products?
"It's simple, Mr. Silver. We'll offer retail chains an exclusive marketing campaign to boost sales. For products they're looking to sell in large quantities, they'll offer free Squeezies for purchases of multiple units. These Squeezies won't be available on store shelves, making them exclusive. Furthermore, there will be a whole collection of Squeezies that many children will want to collect. In turn, children will motivate their parents to buy the store's products to add to their Squeezies collection. To achieve this, retail chains will need to commission advertising targeted at children under fourteen.
- I don't think this will work.
"It sure will, Mr. Silver!" Richie said confidently. "Trust me, a professional-a kid who already wants a collection of Scratchies!"
***
The transmigrator had an extremely eventful summer. He and John flew around the world: China, the USA, Japan. He even celebrated his ninth birthday on a business trip to Tokyo.
In China, Richard contracted with a large plastics factory to make the fasteners for five American cents apiece.
In principle, it would have been possible to make it cheaper, but then the quality of the products would have been lower. Richie wanted his clippies to be made of high-quality plastic, so the price was appropriate.
The transmigrator underestimated the popularity of the products, or rather, the large-scale advertising campaign that many large retail chains decided to resort to.
In Britain, he managed to secure contracts with Kingfisher and Asda, which each ordered 100 million units. Furthermore, Walmart in the US contacted Richie and placed an order for 300 million clippies. But that's not all. When the Japanese learned about clippies, they contacted the young businessman. The retailer Ion ordered 200 million clippies, based on their designs. In response, their competitor Ito Kaido similarly contacted Richie and placed an order for the same quantity, based on their designs.
Richie sold the clippies at double the markup, meaning they were ten cents each. And to ensure retailers wouldn't turn down the promotional items, they were given away as a free bonus.
Incidentally, Dan Silver managed to secure contracts with Pepsi, Coca-Cola, and Nestlé. Together, these companies ordered a total of one hundred million Clippys, though they wouldn't agree to a price of one dollar. With each of these corporations, he managed to negotiate a price of fifty cents per unit for the promotional product. In other words, one in nine Clippys was promotional and covered the cost of ten. This meant one thing: the product hadn't even begun production and sales yet, but it had already covered the purchase costs and generated a profit of five cents per ten units.
In June, Richie made a down payment of fifteen million dollars, almost all the money he'd received from his father, to the factory contracted to produce the clippy. The boy was left with six hundred thousand dollars, which he used to pay for flights, hotels, and other expenses.
By July, the transmigrator had a fortune in his possession. Payments for advertising clippies from corporations had arrived-fifty million dollars. Of that, thirty were set aside to pay the contract with the factory, and the remaining proceeds were subject to merciless taxation.
In the UK, companies that earn more than £1.5 million a year pay a 30% tax on their profits. Those earning less pay a 19% tax. So, Richie had to fork over $5 million, but he ended up with $10 million. In other words, if not for the tax, he would have been left with the same amount he started with.
Of course, Richie had to pay the money into the treasury by the end of the year. So it wouldn't have been a big deal if he'd continued using it. But the guy immediately decided to pay off his debts to the country rather than circulate other people's money.
Throughout this year and the first half of next year, up until May, funds from retail chains to which large quantities of the "Squeezers" will be supplied should be deposited into Richie's company accounts. That's another eighty million dollars. That means, taking into account all expenses, taxes, and the recouped funds, the net profit will be fifty-one million dollars.
It would seem like a piece of plastic nonsense that costs pennies, but it brought the transmigrator a fortune.
Starting from the end of August, all TV channels were broadcasting:
Clippy, watch and repeat how I clip.
Or:
"Mom, mom, look, the little ones."
Everything worked out just as Richard told Dan-the retail chains themselves paid for the television advertising to boost sales of stale products using the plastic clippies. So, the plastic pieces aren't actually being sold, but they're still generating profit for their creator.
In Britain, Japan, and the United States, it would be hard to find a person who didn't know what a paper clippy was. However, who was behind this wonderful piece of plastic and profiting from it remained a mystery to the general public.