Chapter 114: The Ground Beneath the Club

A white shirt, slightly too small, with a thin little vest worn over it. It managed to look professional while adding a certain visual appeal. The dark gray skirt below was admittedly rather short, but this kind of outfit had already become common enough.

Work was hard to find now. Everyone was trying very hard.

William glanced at her and nodded. He looked at the badge pinned to the girl’s chest. It bore the title “Sales Manager.” Perhaps this was the cheapest form of privilege ordinary people could enjoy.

Aside from the title, there was also a name: Beth. A very ordinary name.

She held a clipboard in one arm, with a pen in her other hand resting against it. She looked quite professional, and at the same time she was asking William about his preferences for buying a car.

This was a very common little trick. Recording a customer’s preferences in front of him would make the customer feel valued. In reality, that “value” would not take long to be resold to certain consulting and research agencies, as well as automobile manufacturers. Perhaps it really was a form of attention, but it was an attention that could be sold for money.

For customers like William, who were buying luxury cars, their “attention” could be sold for a higher price.

William named several requirements. It had to be attractive, dignified, somewhat serious, and noble.

The moment he said those requirements, the girl immediately became interested. She led William into another showroom, where some of the better-known luxury cars in the Federation were displayed. Most were sedans.

Sedans were more expensive, and their appeal across different social groups was broader. Even the President’s official car was a luxury sedan, which made people even more convinced that sedans were suitable for formal occasions, unlike those business vans known for their strong “value for money.”

People’s understanding of business vans usually came from the fact that they were suitable for family use. So even when business vans were no worse than sedans in materials and technology, their prices were still much lower because they were not considered formal enough.

With so many luxury cars displayed together, William was somewhat surprised that the girl could name each one and its manufacturer without hesitation. In William’s eyes, these sedans were all more or less the same.

Perhaps because of the limitations of current industrial processes, or perhaps because of prevailing aesthetic standards, sedan designs did not differ much overall. Some cars from different brands could not even be distinguished from the outside.

This greatly reduced William’s desire to choose a car. Since their shapes were all more or less the same, what he was buying was merely a different badge.