At the end of the Qing Dynasty, there was a pear paste shop in Zhabei District, Shanghai. The business was very prosperous, and a plaque with three characters "God knows" was hung at the door of the shop.
"God knows" opposite the Li Gao shop is a fruit shop named Yu. The Li Gao shop became famous because of this fruit shop.
In the eighth year of Guangxu's reign, the Yu family fruit shop transported fifty baskets of pears from Laiyang, Shandong to Zhabei District, Shanghai. Because of the long distance, the skins of the pears were torn, and after being exposed to the rain, the transportation to the destination began. It's rotten, no matter how you dry, dry or peel it, you can't sell it.
There was a small shop opposite, and a couple lived there. They had no food to eat. Seeing that the Yu family had thrown away many rotten pears, they picked them up, peeled them, and dug out the rotten eyes. They tasted very sweet. , he cut the peeled pear slices into small pieces and sold them for five yuan per copper coin. The business was very prosperous. The couple went to Yu's fruit shop and bought baskets of rotten pears. Anyway, the pears are worthless when they are rotten, so the craftsmen are happy to sell them all at low prices. After buying more, the couple peeled the pears and put them in a large vat and marinated them with sugar. This made them more delicious and sold more popularly once they were on the market. Later, the couple bought rotten pears everywhere, peeled them off and boiled them into pear juice in a pot to make sugar paste. There are no pears to eat in spring, so people want to eat pear candy, which suddenly became a famous product in the south.
The next year, the imperial minister went on a tour to Zhabei District in Shanghai. He bought pear paste candy and ate it. It was sweet, sour and delicious, so he took the candy to Beijing to present to the Empress Dowager Cixi. Cixi was coughing and felt so good after eating it! She then sent a message to the couple to pay tribute to the pear paste candy. The couple's business expanded and they officially opened a pear paste shop.
The owner of Yu’s fruit shop secretly inquired and finally found out that these pear paste candies were made from rotten pears. He was red-eyed, jealous, and even more afraid of offending the emperor, so he wrote a piece of paper at night and wrote: The words "God knows" were posted on the door of the couple's pear cream shop. The next day, the couple looked at the words "God knows" and were stunned for a while, knowing that someone was causing trouble. The male boss laughed and said, "I was just thinking of a font size. Someone wrote the font size and delivered it to the door today, which is really great. Even the emperor has eaten the pear candy in my store. He is the emperor of the day, so he should be called 'God knows' . I will use these three words as a signboard!" He wrote the signboard very big. When people came to see it, they knew that the emperor and the queen mother loved pear candy, so the business became even better.
The owner of Yu’s fruit shop failed to curse, but instead made his business more prosperous, and his words were used, which made him even more angry. He also drew a turtle on the wall of the pear cream shop, with its head retracted into its belly, and wrote "Shameless". The next day, the couple at the Ligao Shop were stunned again when they saw it, and then said at the same time: "We use the turtle as a trademark. Ligao candy relieves coughs and prolongs life, and turtles also live longer." Since then, this trademark has become a well-known trademark in Shanghai.
Being able to regard setbacks and plots as opportunities, seeking advantages and avoiding disadvantages, and successfully resolving them is a universal way for businesses!