At this moment, Ding Yue noticed An Yujia in front of his office desk and suddenly realized, "Miss An, you’re here. Please, have a seat. Big White, pour some tea for Miss An."
Sitting in the chair in front of Principal Ding’s office desk, An Yujia smiled and said, "Principal Ding, has the secretary told you? I’ve come mainly to report to you on the leasing situation for our school’s campus shopping center and the admission of businesses."
Ding Yue nodded and immediately asked, "So how is it? How many businesses have moved into our campus shopping center by now?"
Right now, Ding Yue just wanted to know this figure.
"Principal Ding, actually... it’s not very optimistic."
An Yujia slightly furrowed her brows, then passed a document she was holding over to Principal Ding, "This is a list of the businesses that have signed shop contracts so far."
Upon hearing this, Ding Yue took the document handed to him by An Yujia and then asked, "Not many businesses are willing to come?"
Ding Yue glanced at the list of business names on the document. Some were familiar, while others he had not heard much about.
There were quite a few milk tea and snack businesses.
Such as Nayuki’s Tea, coco, Luckin Coffee... Delicious Duck Necks, Zhou Heiya, and so on.
There was also an internet café business, planning to open a cafe inside the campus shopping center.
This was actually quite good.
There were also places like Game City and others.
Ding Yue did not see any of those well-known brand businesses that one typically finds in a shopping center.
Even though the consumers at Mist City Arts and Science University were students,
one should not underestimate the students from Mist City Arts and Science University. Each one of them comes from a wealthy family, and their consumption power is very strong!
"There are a total of more than a hundred businesses."
Ding Yue finally looked at the number of businesses.
Confirmed it was only a little over a hundred.
"I remember... the number of large and small shops in our campus shopping center is nearly 1,500, right?"
Ding Yue compared the number of shops in the campus shopping center with the number of businesses that had signed contracts so far.
Indeed, just like An Yujia said, it was not looking optimistic.
"Yes, this summer we managed to bring in these hundred or so businesses, and they have already started to move in one after another... Moreover, another two hundred shops are reserved for our school’s students to start their own businesses. Nevertheless, more than half of the shops have not found any businesses to move in," An Yujia said with a hint of helplessness.
This issue was indeed causing An Yujia quite a headache.
Because from the start, An Yujia had placed great importance on attracting businesses to the campus shopping center, even personally visiting several big-name businesses.
But in the end, the result was not satisfactory.
Many businesses thought that Mist City Arts and Science University was just too remote, and besides, the idea of opening a large shopping center inside a school, how could that work?
How many students could there be in a university?
"Why are there only so few businesses? To be honest, this is quite below my expectations, and many well-known brand businesses are missing, sigh," Ding Yue said with a sigh.
In a shopping center, aside from having a lot of small businesses, there must also be large brand businesses because such brands have a certain level of drawing power and reputation.
Even in many shopping centers in commercial hubs, there are various luxury brands, and their popularity is quite impressive.
It seems like the campus shopping center at Mist City Arts and Science University doesn’t appear to hold much appeal to those businesses, right?
Ding Yue began to ponder the reasons why.
"Principal Ding, from what I’ve gathered, most businesses are reluctant to come because they believe that the consumption power at Mist City Arts and Science University cannot support such a shopping center," An Yujia immediately shared her findings with Principal Ding.
Ding Yue fell silent for a moment, then asked, "How many students do they think Mist City Arts and Science University has?"
"When I started discussing with them, I said that our Mist City Arts and Science University, with all four grades and the addition of master’s and Ph.D. students, would have at least 100,000 people," An Yujia replied. "But many businesses don’t believe it, thinking that Mist City Arts and Science University will have at most 70,000 to 80,000 students. They consider this volume too small, especially since it’s a student consumer group. Unless it doubled, there would be potential."
As soon as Ding Yue heard it, he burst into laughter.
An Yujia was stunned for a moment and looked at Principal Ding to ask, "Principal Ding, what are you laughing about?"
"I’m laughing at how short-sighted those business owners are, one after another!"
With a cold laugh, Ding Yue said, "Do you know how many freshmen at Mist City Arts and Science University already completed their registration yesterday and the day before?"
An Yujia shook her head.
Although she had seen Mist City Arts and Science University bustling with people these two days, she didn’t know exactly how many were new students.
"In just two days, 38,000 people have completed their freshman registration!"
"38,000 people! That many?"
Upon hearing this, An Yujia was completely taken aback.
"Hehe, those who say that our Mist City Arts and Science University has at most 70,000 to 80,000 students really are short-sighted, yes, yes, after this year’s enrollment is finished, there will indeed be around 80,000."
Ding Yue shrugged his shoulders, murmuring to himself.
This year it was estimated that they could enroll more than 40,000, or even 50,000 new students.
Together with the original 30,000 plus students already attending, that added up to around 70,000 or 80,000, didn’t it?
But that’s just three grades!
Next year’s enrollment will include four grades.
If about 50,000 new students could be enrolled this year, then next year, barring accidents, the number would only increase, not decrease!
By then, the number would be upwards of 130,000.
In another year, when the current junior students graduate, there will be only over 9,000 of them, and a new group of freshmen will be recruited, and that number will surely be not less than 40,000 or 50,000, not just 9,000.
After one or two more years, the number of students at Mist City Arts and Science University will surpass 200,000!
With such an enormous student body, and most students coming from families with fairly good economic conditions, their consuming capability is obviously not going to be weak!
"Principal Ding, wouldn’t that mean by then our Mist City Arts and Science University across all four grades, along with masters and doctorate students, will have a student population surpassing... fifteen... no, 200,000?"
An Yujia’s eyes widened.
She found it simply inconceivable.
A university with a student population exceeding 200,000 would definitely become the only such institution in the entire Xia Country!
"Right, I have great confidence that we will exceed 200,000 people," Ding Yue said with confidence, nodding.
"If that’s the case, those businesses really have been short-sighted, but back when our student population was only a little over 30,000, it’s true that the businesses misjudged," An Yujia reflected and felt she could use the current data of new student registration to once again approach those big brand businesses about setting up shops.
Perhaps there would be a turnaround.
"Mmm, Miss An, your analysis makes sense," Ding Yue thought for a moment, then said, "Why don’t you contact those businesses again? Give them another chance, if they don’t seize it, it won’t be so easy for them to get such an opportunity in the future."
"Alright, Principal Ding!"
An Yujia immediately nodded her head, preparing right away to contact those businesses: "I’ll go now."
As An Yujia stood up to get to work, Ding Yue suddenly thought of something and called out to her, "Miss An, wait a minute, regarding the cinema business, I saw on the information sheet that it wasn’t there, you don’t need to contact them."
An Yujia couldn’t help but be startled.
In a mall that integrates leisure, entertainment, and shopping, a cinema is undoubtedly indispensable.
Which shopping mall on any pedestrian street doesn’t have one or several cinemas?
Previously, An Yujia had been in talks with Jinyi, a cinema business, but just like the other big brand businesses, it wasn’t very optimistic about the campus mall of Mist City Arts and Science University.
Could it be that Principal Ding was planning to open a cinema himself?
"I’m planning to open a cinema in the campus mall myself!"
Ding Yue said with a faint smile, looking at An Yujia.
As expected, An Yujia guessed correctly.
"But Principal Ding, if we’re to open a cinema, we need to register many procedures," An Yujia pushed up her glasses, then said confidently, "But leave those to me; I’ll manage them as swiftly as possible. Right now, many departments in Mist City are very supportive of handling the affairs of Mist City Arts and Science University..."