The expeditionary force began to dominate Southeast Asia by recruiting defeated soldiers

Chapter 340 Buy Nanhua brand canned fruit and get a model of Zheng He's treasure ship

"The advertisement in the newspaper is actually true? Will they really reward a brand new Spontiac?" Martha covered her chest with her hands, still a little bit unbelievable.

"Honey, let's go in and take a look, won't we know?"

Soon Johnson led the family to the entrance of the mall and saw several female shopping guides shouting with loudspeakers:

"During the opening seven days, there will be a daily raffle to give away a Spontiac sedan. Today's top prize hasn't been announced yet, so everyone is encouraged to participate!"

"Nanhua brand canned pineapple has enough sugar to kill you, and there's a special discount if you buy a dozen at a time! Everyone is welcome to come into the mall and try it!"

"Buy 6 bags of fresh coffee beans and get 1 free!"

"You get points for shopping, and when you collect enough points you can redeem them for gifts, up to a radio!"

In this "simple" era when people generally only knew how to paint roadside billboards and advertise in newspapers and on the radio, this marketing method that is normal in later generations can only be described in one word, that is "indiscriminate killing".

Listening to these tempting advertisements, Mrs. Martha, as a housewife, has put in 1000% effort and is ready to go in for a shopping spree.

Johnson, an electrical engineer, was staring at the stylishly dressed female sales assistants.

Of course, he was not attracted by the bunny girls, but was looking at the small electric microphones in their hands, thinking.

When the Picard family finally squeezed through the gate following the flow of people, Mrs. Martha, who was almost being pushed, finally stepped on the blue brick floor with her somewhat worn round-toed leather shoes.

If it were before the war, she, a housewife, would certainly not be so indecent, but with the implementation of the rationing system, the system of only being able to buy two pairs of new shoes a year forced her to be frugal.

But at the moment, she no longer cared about the leather shoes on her feet.

It was simply that the family of four was so shocked by what they saw that they were speechless.

Rows of towering shelves are filled with a wide variety of goods, stretching as far as the eye can see.

Of course, there is a constant flow of people that seems to have no end in sight.

The shopping guide with a friendly smile on her face brought them a bamboo shopping basket, and the family of four began their shopping trip in the mall as if they were Liu Laolao entering the Grand View Garden.

This is different from the traditional way of buying meat at a butcher's shop, vegetables at a grocer's shop, groceries at a grocery store, and tools at a hardware store.

New Era Department Store completely overturned the Picard family's perception. It was not only large, but most importantly, it had everything. It seemed that anything one needed could be bought here, and the prices were not expensive.

"Mom, look!" However, for Billy, none of these were as attractive as a cute black and white animal.

He grabbed Martha's plaid skirt and ran to the food section, where the shelves were filled with canned Nanhua pineapples with pandas painted on them.

On the packaging of the glass canning bottles, each panda is posing in a different posture. Some are holding a bamboo scroll of "The Analects of Confucius", some are flying a P-40 fighter jet, and some are busy in the rice fields. The bottom of the can is printed with "Collect 12 different packaging to exchange for a Zheng He treasure ship model."

Johnson picked up a can and looked at the Zheng He treasure ship spelled in later generations' pinyin, feeling a little strange:

(During the Republic of China era, the international use was Wade-Giles romanization, such as Peking, Chiang Kai-shek)

"Zheng-He Bao Chuan? What is this?" He looked at the picture next to it again. "It seems to be a small-scale model of a ship?"

At that time, collecting and assembling wooden sailing ship models was still quite popular among the upper and middle classes in the West, so John quickly realized from looking at the picture that this was some kind of miniature sailboat model.

However, for Johnson, he was more familiar with famous sailing warships such as the "Victory" and the "Constitution".

Instead, it was his son, Billy, who was only 10 years old, who made a startling statement:

"I know. These are the ocean-going ships used by the ancestors of those Orientals more than 500 years ago. They sailed to the Spice Islands on these ships!"

"Oh, my dear little genius, can you tell me where you learned this knowledge?" Martha was very surprised by what her son said. She bet that teachers in public elementary schools would never teach such knowledge.

"It was George. He told me that in the comic book he lent me."

"Read less comics and study hard, so that when you grow up, you can become a respected engineer like your father." Martha touched her son's head. At this time, White Eagle had not yet started happy education, and naturally still attached great importance to his children's education.

Johnson didn't say anything, he just looked a little strange.

Aren't these popular science history comics for children supposed to talk about the history of white people, like Columbus's discovery of the New World, Napoleon's expedition to Russia, etc.?

Or is it like The Adventures of Tintin by Hergé, the pre-war Low German writer?

Johnson was puzzled. Would anyone in White Eagle really be interested in publishing a comic about an ancient Eastern nation? Or, in other words, could he make money?

Johnson, a straight man with a background in science and engineering, naturally didn't know that as long as the story itself was interesting enough, even if it was about an ancient Eastern country that the White Eagle people were not so familiar with, those children would still be able to read it with relish.

It’s like many years later, the young people in Baiying were addicted to “Fighting Sphere” and enjoyed it so much that they quit drugs.

Mother Martha dotingly picked up a cardboard box and placed it in the bamboo shopping basket:

"Then let's buy a half dozen (6 bottles) of cans this time, okay, my dear little genius?"

Because the export version of Nanhua brand canned fruits such as pineapples, yellow peaches, and lychees used a lot of sugar (all cheap corn syrup added by the unscrupulous Zhang Chi), and under the wartime rationing law, canned foods did not require a large number of ration points like fresh foods, so these cans with panda heads painted on them had long been popular in the social circles of White Eagle housewives.

After all, in times of war, nothing can make people happier than eating something sweet.

Therefore, even though Nanhua brand canned fruits are a little more expensive, housewives are more willing to buy them.

(United Fruit: So love disappears, right?)

Billy nodded vigorously with a happy look on his face, while his sister Emily curled her lips.

She was not interested in pandas or sailboat models, but rather the plastic dolls with changeable clothes attracted her more.

"Mulan?"

Emily muttered to herself as she looked at the packages on the shelf in the distance. The doll, with its heroic appearance and exotic dress and armor, was so eye-catching.

Exquisite packaging, cute and moving posters, a voice in Emily's heart told her to buy, buy, buy!

But the next moment Emily was shocked by the expensive price tags on the shelves.