America 1919-Chapter 733 - : 252, Despair

Chapter 733: 252, Despair

“The sun in Kansas City is rather glaring!”

John Hartford had just stepped off the train and was looking up at the sun with some annoyance. He usually enjoyed the warmth of the sunlight, but today, for some reason, he detested it.

Perhaps it was because of his mood!

That was the conclusion John Hartford finally reached.

Earlier, he had asked Josh Hunter to call Apollo Chain twice, wanting to meet with Donnie, but the response he got each time was that Donnie Block didn’t have time right now.

John Hartford knew that it wasn’t that Donnie had no time; he was just waiting for John to show weakness by personally making the call!

...

As the company’s pressures were mounting and A&P’s losses growing more severe, John Hartford could no longer bear it. He had taken the initiative to call Donnie. Then, the ever-busy Donnie had time, after all, inviting him to Kansas City.

“Sir, the car is ready; we can go directly to the Apollo Chain headquarters!”

Josh Hunter stood next to John Hartford, speaking softly. He knew his boss wasn’t in a good mood, so he dared not speak loudly.

John Hartford nodded without saying anything, got into the car, and went straight to Apollo Chain’s headquarters!

The car stopped under the building of Apollo Chain headquarters. John Hartford looked up at the unimposing building and frowned slightly. He knew that as soon as he stepped inside, a fierce battle awaited him today.

Shaking his head to clear all thoughts from his mind, John Hartford, led by Winston Marl, walked into the building, entered the elevator with an expressionless face, and reached the top floor to meet Donnie Block, who was waiting for him in the conference room.

The very man he wanted to kill the most at this moment!

Although Donnie hadn’t been waiting at the entrance of the building for John Hartford, when John walked into the meeting room, Donnie rose and opened his arms.

“Dear John, I’m delighted to see you here; I hope our upcoming negotiation will be a pleasant process!”

No matter how much John Hartford wanted to kill Donnie at the time, he still showed a smile, “Dear Donnie, I’m confident that as long as both sides adhere to a win-win situation, we’ll indeed have a pleasant process!”

The two sides sat down on opposite sides of the table.

John Hartford didn’t make any small talk and went straight to the point, “Donnie, we’ve come here with the intent to solve problems, so whatever demands you have, as long as they’re not too excessive, A&P is willing to comply with Apollo Chain’s requests!”

“Since you’re so straightforward, John, I won’t beat around the bush. Here are our terms. If you can accept them, the promotional war between Apollo Chain and A&P can end today!”

Donnie rested his crossed hands on the table, a smile on his face.

Winston Marl, sitting beside Donnie, handed a document to John Hartford.

It contained Donnie’s demands for A&P!

John Hartford took the document and started reading it seriously, but the contents were… too excessive. If John Hartford wasn’t suppressing the rage inside him, he was worried he might have slammed his fist on the table and stood up!

After John Hartford had read all the documents, he let out a breath and forced a smile.

“Donnie, we’ve come in good faith, but I don’t see any sincerity from your company in this plan. It feels more like a humiliating treaty of surrender!”

Donnie shook his head, “John, if that’s what you think, then you’re really misunderstanding us. Think about it; if we abide by the contract terms, we could monopolize the entire United States retail channel. The profits that would bring—I assume I don’t need to tell you, do I?”

John Hartford shook his head, “Forming an alliance is indeed a good thing, but this alliance requires A&P to unconditionally follow Apollo Chain’s orders, with Apollo Chain as the leader. How is that different from Apollo Chain acquiring A&P?”

The first condition mentioned in the agreement was to establish an alliance between Apollo Chain and A&P. Being an alliance, there would be issuing of commands.

Naturally, Apollo Chain would be the one issuing these commands.

Moreover, the key issue was that, within this condition, there were two additional stipulations: one, from now on, all goods transportation for A&P must be handed over to Donnie’s United States Logistics; two, A&P was to give up its warehousing plans and also hand over its warehousing operations to United States Logistics.

In this way, the lifeline of A&P’s goods movement would be in Donnie’s hands. At that point, if Donnie wanted to target A&P, he could simply impose conditions to cut off A&P’s supply and that would be enough to seriously affect A&P!

“Why A&P suffered such heavy losses in this promotional war, the key reason is logistics. Right now, A&P relies on train transport which, while cheaper, can’t deliver goods to A&P’s stores. Hence, A&P needs to reorganize its logistics, which invisibly increases costs.

About the warehousing situation, I know that A&P has plans to establish its own warehousing centers, but building warehouses that fit A&P’s volume of goods is not a simple task. Most importantly, this requires a substantial investment of manpower and resources, and considering your company’s current financial status, do you really have the cash for it?”

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