average american beauty

"Caroline, are you sure we're going to take this photo box to the expo? It seems a little troublesome." Vivienne looked at the half-arm-long, seven-to-eight-inch-high "wooden box" in front of Caroline. box," asked hesitantly.

"This is the latest private camera, and you don't need a professional to operate it," Caroline said with a smile and glanced at Francis next to her, their "photographer" today.

The latter nodded cooperatively and made a gesture of pulling the camera.

"It's a pity I didn't bring little Alice here today, otherwise I really want to take a picture of her too." Vivian reached out and touched the casing of the camera curiously.

"I've never had a photo taken outside a photo studio. After the photo is taken, how do we get the photo?".

"Send it to the camera film company, the film in it is enough for us to take a full hundred photos at a time, and then we just send the camera case and the film inside to the camera company, they will develop the photos and replace them New film, send it back to us together." Caroline blinked at Vivienne,

"After we come back, I will make a special trip to your house to take pictures of Alice."

This kind of private civilian camera has been very popular in the past two years, and the price is not high. A camera plus film only costs more than 20 yuan.

In fact, Caroline had been tempted for a long time, but only recently had time to buy it back.You know, this is an opportunity to use images to record the world a hundred years ago!

Don't look at what Caroline is saying here, but in fact, it is the first time she has come into contact with this kind of camera.During the few years she has been here, she has not even been to a photo studio in person, and she has only "passively left the country" in newspaper interviews with Meisi.

Caroline was looking forward to today's itinerary.

Most of the people in the photos now have rigid expressions and postures. When it comes to posing for photography skills, it is estimated that few people can compare with myself who once lived in a world where everyone had a smartphone.

With her own command, she has the confidence to use the camera to leave some good memories for her future self and relatives and friends.

The Columbus Fair officially opened at the end of May and is expected to remain open until October.There are countless tourists who come to visit with their families.

These millions of monthly visitors not only bring prosperity to Jackson Park on the South Side, where the Expo is located, but also bring unlimited opportunities to businesses throughout Chicago.

The hotel and catering industry is often full. In previous years, during the social season, some customers would be lost due to customers going on vacation. This year, due to the holding of the expo, the turnover has been rising steadily.

In order to attract a large number of itinerant customers to Meisi Department Store and Select Store, Caroline, who has not been idle for a long time, began to rack her brains to conceive a lot of suitable activities.

After all, seeing a great opportunity right in front of you, how could you not seize it?

The most important exhibits of the expo are today's technology, manufacturing, transportation, gardening and art, etc., such as the latest materials, the most advanced assembly line production technology and power technology, which manufacturers in various fields want to know urgently of.

So many people around Caroline, including Ms. Green and Uncle Andrew, went to the expo to browse carefully early in the morning, and looked for technologies and products that could be cooperated.

Ms. Green was also invited to attend the Columbus Fair Women's Conference.

As for Max itself, although it has a certain influence in Chicago's retail field, the expo is not its booth.

Therefore, although Meisi has also done some publicity here, there are not many.Caroline is busy with the business activities in the Meisi store every day.

As a result, Caroline's originally planned exposition trip was delayed again and again under the influence of busy work, and Caroline did not arrange the time until July.

In order to visit the exposition this time, Caroline not only bought the long-awaited camera in advance, but also asked for an extra day off from Ms. Green.

She didn't do it entirely for "fun", but also wanted to see if there were any investment opportunities that she could discover.

Caroline often feels that although she came from a later life, she does not have much advantage in discovering opportunities in advance, so she is occasionally a little unwilling.

Just like in the past two years, when she discovered that the company that produced the personal camera she bought later was the company that would lead the personal camera and film market for hundreds of years in the future, the company had already achieved considerable results. No investment is accepted at all.

Later, when she finally discovered the existence of Coke, which will be popular in the world in the future, this drink was originally sold as a drug drink in pharmacies. It has already been discovered by businessmen in related fields and purchased and promoted.

There are countless similar examples.

In the beginning, Caroline felt excited and regretted every time she found a familiar name or product.

Later, she became more and more "Buddhist" about it.

In this era without the Internet, the reputation of products and companies, even if there is marketing, is mainly based on word of mouth from customers and posting pictorials.Even if a reporter from a local newspaper can be interviewed, at least they have made some achievements in this field.

And those who can discover business opportunities, even if they are not the inventors of the product, are mostly people who have had contact with the product in the first place.Just like Caroline herself in Meis, she can always think of some activities and promotions that can be tried in Meis.

But it’s different in other fields. Caroline herself is not a professional investor with strong assets, seeing all directions and listening to all directions. It is really difficult to find certain opportunities.

She even felt that even if God put the first batch of "Coke Concentrated Drink" in front of her when she went to the pharmacy, she probably wouldn't have noticed, after all, it wasn't called "Coke" at that time...

Therefore, although she often regrets being a step late, she also understands in her heart that this is a normal phenomenon.

This time, apart from those in the field of science and art, most of the other ordinary commodities that can come to the expo, whether it is food, drink or use, have already achieved some achievements in their respective fields.

However, there are always some small commodities that are in the early stages of development, and I want Caroline to take a look at them again. Combined with what she has heard and seen since the start of the expo, she has set a few possible small goals in her heart.

Of course, she also made a presupposition for herself, even if none of them succeeded, she told herself not to be too disappointed.After all, she can live well without relying on these "misty opportunities".

Besides, life is still very long, maybe there will be "opportunities" that she can meet in the future.

After taking the luggage and the box containing the camera, Caroline, Francis, and the Vivienne couple who agreed to go together boarded the carriage together.

This time, Caroline took a one-day vacation, plus the original rest day, which happened to be two days of shopping in the exhibition area.

After all, the entire venue is so big that it is absolutely impossible to finish shopping in one day.

If she doesn't have a job, Caroline would like to live here for a longer period of time. It is close to the lake area, and the buildings and gardens that have been carefully designed and built for several years are also beautiful. It is also a good vacation.

After arriving at the venue, everyone first went to the hotel where they stayed to put down their luggage, and then came to the expo venue.At the entrance, I asked someone to take a group photo, and after making an appointment for the time and place to meet again, the two separated temporarily.

The ticket price of the expo is not expensive, only [-] cents per visitor, and the price of children's tickets is even lower.Because Caroline and Francis brought extra personal cameras, they had to pay an additional two dollars.

In the venue, the most important venues all adopt a unified design style. The white building exterior walls are matched with marble sculptures, combining classicism and industry.In addition, there are many bridges connecting countless waterways with lakes.

Many buildings here are not made of steel bars and brick walls, but semi-temporary buildings built only for this exposition.Even so, their exquisite design and gorgeous appearance still made Caroline not want to turn her eyes away.

With the mentality that one glance is one less, Caroline took a lot of photos of the landscape with Francis while touring this western-style garden.

Francis has been to the expo with Uncle Andrew before, so he is very familiar with the pavilions and layout here, so he can focus more on Caroline.

"Franz, the camera you just took was looking at me, right?" Caroline looked back at Francis, who was fiddling with the camera, and raised the corner of her mouth.

"Why don't you tell me in advance, so that I can make a nice expression."

Francis calmly returned her smile, moved her gaze from the round lens of the camera box to Caroline's face, and paused for a few seconds before saying,

"You look good no matter what expression you have."

Continuing to grin, Carroll walked over and glanced at him.

The two of them are spending more and more time now, and Francis is not as shy as she was at the beginning, because of a certain sentence or a certain action of hers from time to time.On the contrary, sometimes, his inadvertent words and deeds can make Caroline blush slightly.

Caroline straightened her collar and adjusted the angle of her hat. Today, she wore a simple-decorated wide-brimmed sun hat for sun protection. Certain angles would cast large shadows on her face, which appeared in the black and white photos. Not pretty.

"Let's take a picture", Caroline did not do the classic actions of those "ladies" when taking pictures, but leaned half on the white fence beside the waterway, supported the fence with one hand, and looked at the camera slightly sideways.

The long skirt she was wearing today was originally designed to narrow the waist, and the hem of the skirt reached directly to the instep, which made her figure appear to be well proportioned, and it also saved time thinking about the posture of the lower body.

Pedestrians passing by turned their heads to look at the young lady in a long blue dress by the fence: she looked like a girl who had stepped down from a pictorial, fashionable and beautiful, with bold and confident camera movements that made people not want to look away.

Francis quickly took a photo, then put the camera case into the suitcase, stepped forward and took Caroline's arm naturally,

"We've seen enough outside, do you want to go in and have a look?"

Caroline nodded, and the two of them first went to the nearest Honor Square, where most of the exhibition halls and exhibits were related to industry.

Caroline's technical knowledge is limited, but she has a good understanding of the clothing and accessories related technologies involved in Meisi's own factory, or the related manufacturing processes involved in Uncle Andrew's shoe factory, so it seems It doesn't feel boring.

Moreover, the venues and exhibits are introduced in detail, and many company employees who brought these products are also actively receiving tourists and potential future customers.

Here, Caroline found the first product she was looking for, which she had considered when conceiving the riding boot design for Andrew's shoe factory, the zipper.

In fact, Caroline didn't know that zippers would appear here. After all, in modern times, who would consider in which year and in which city those common items in life were invented?

But because she had mentioned the zipper with Isabella and Frances, Frances was quick to notice the product during her last visit.

At the beginning, Francis was a little surprised besides being interested, but he still suggested to Uncle Andrew to see if this design can really be used in the design of his own boots.

But after a simple experiment, they found that although the concept and development prospect of this so-called zipper patent are good, the cost is quite high because it is purely handmade by the designer.In addition, this "zipper" looks very fragile and cannot bear much external force at all, so it cannot be used in the production of shoes at present.

There are many manufacturers similar to them who are very interested in "zipper", but the final conclusion is the same as them:

This seems to be a very useful patent, but it cannot be practically applied in the short term, and cannot be mass-produced in the medium term. However, the long-term variables are too large, so few people want to risk cooperation in the end.

After returning, Francis and Caroline talked about the specific situation of this "zipper". Although they also mentioned its shortcomings, they still couldn't stop Caroline's strong interest.

"I know this design can't be applied yet, but you can't deny that if it can solve the current problems, even if it only solves part of them, it will have great prospects." Caroline and Francis stood in the patent display area, her hands What is in it is the contact information and intended cooperation information just obtained from the zipper patent designer.

In the conversation with the designer just now, Caroline did not hesitate to praise herself, and directly expressed her interest in zippers and her optimism for its prospects.

"The perfection of patents is a very complicated process, just like the Edison laboratory back then, but it was burning money all the time."

Francis knew that his girlfriend had her own insights and acumen in business, but he felt he needed to remind Caroline.

Of course, Caroline did not intend to directly invest in this product by herself. After all, although her assets are getting richer now, investment in patents is still too far away for her.

She was thinking about Meisi.

Meisi now has its own apparel manufacturing factory and its own product design department, and perhaps there will be more possibilities in the future.

After Caroline knew that the zipper had appeared at the exposition, she had already expressed her optimism for the patent with Ms. Green.

After learning about the situation, Ms. Green's opinion on this is to ask Caroline to investigate in person and give her a feasibility report first, including future practical possibilities and cooperation intentions accepted by the designer.If she thinks it's worth it, think again.

This is one of the reasons why Caroline is so direct today.

Moreover, Caroline believes that the zipper patent cooperation will far outweigh the disadvantages for Meisi in the long run.

For Max, even if zippers cannot be mass-produced at reduced cost for a long time, they can still be used in high-end clothing.The follow-up investment in perfecting the zipper design is still a fraction compared to the benefits that the zipper can bring to Meisi in the future.

So Caroline is quite confident about future cooperation.

As for Caroline's own investment direction, she is also considering it.

A month ago, Caroline had re-entrusted Mr. Longo of the real estate company to resell the piece of land she bought a few years ago.

When Caroline first bought it, it was originally for investment. The suburbs of the West District were a newly developed area three or four years ago. In the past two years, factories have successively settled there.Although the peak period of rising land prices has passed and the market has been fluctuating, the land prices in the West District have also risen more or less in the past two years.

So after deducting various handling fees, Caroline made a net profit of nearly 200 yuan.The real estate industry has not been stable in the past one or two years, and such a rate of return is already very satisfying to her.

At that time, a land of several hundred yuan was a big investment for Caroline, which not only consumed most of her savings, but also caused her to bear the installment debt for a short period of time.

But for the current Caroline, the money can be earned in one or two months during Meisi's peak business season.So when the check came in, she didn't feel any disturbance in her heart.

Mr. Longo really wanted to start a new business while helping her sell the land, but Caroline declined. She has no idea of ​​buying a new real estate for the time being.

One is that the real estate industry has experienced frequent ups and downs recently. It was already in a clear decline, but after the start of the World Expo, it quickly recovered with the prosperity of the economy.So after selling the land, Caroline decided to wait and see at least until next year.

Furthermore, Caroline now prefers to buy her own independent property rather than land.But she is working in Meisi now, and it is more convenient to live in an apartment in the city center.

Although owning her own detached house has always been one of Caroline's dreams when she came to this world, but actually buying it means that Caroline still needs to hire at least one maid to take care of the house, and may have to raise another one. A private carriage and a coachman, for her alone, the cost of living is a bit high, and it is not cost-effective.

In addition to real estate, Caroline can only pay more attention to suitable opportunities in normal times.After all, investment is a very risky thing, and Caroline is not a high risk taker.If she doesn't have confidence in the product or company (such as knowing that it will be successful someday), she'll still try to be conservative.

But Caroline will not give up looking for opportunities, just like now.

The author has something to say:

The description of the camera in this article refers to the introduction of Kodak’s private camera in the early days, and the part related to the exposition refers to the introduction of the Chicago Columbus World’s Fair (Baidu + Wiki), no quotations, including private settings~

In addition, a few hundred more words were added to the end of the previous chapter, and those who have already bought it can read it directly.