บท 138: Taking over other shops in Diagon Alley
Jin Karther was not having a good day.
Hell, he was not having a good week.
And this was the week in which most of his merchandise was sold, it was likely that he was not going to have a good year either.
Jin was the owner of the shop that sold Magical Trunks in Diagon Alley.
In fact, his was the only shop that sold trunks in all of Magical Britain just like how Olivander was the only one who sold Wands.
The profession was in his blood and the trunks were something that his family had be selling for generations in this very shop.
The very shop which was now filled with trunks which should have already been sold out by this time in any other year.
But this year, that genius brat Harry Potter had opened a shop in Diagon Alley as well.
A shop that also sold Magical Trunks that the other people seemed to like more than his. Well, the ones that they sold were not technically trunks but trolley bags instead.
He had seen those bags. Hell, he had bought one of them himself and brought it home with him to check on it see how it worked.
He had thought that someone had stolen the secrets behind the making of trunks by studying the charms and runes on one of his trunks but that was apparently not the case.
And the charms and runes put in that bag were highly sophisticated and for the lack of a better word… new in his opinion.
Not that it was a bad thing. In fact, once he had gotten over his bruised ego, he had quickly realized that the Trolley bags from the Magical Goods Shop were far better than the ones in his own shop.
That thought irked him to no end and he quickly understood why the people bought his Trolley Bags instead of his trunks.
Well, aside from the fact that the Trolley bags were also lighter, better looking and easier to travel around with then his trunks.
The problem with this whole situation was that he had relied too much on the teaching of his father and grandfather and had not given much thought to progressing in his craft.
If he had tried to make his trunks better when he was younger then maybe by now his own trunks would have been able to compete with the newer Trolley bags but now it was too late.
Not to mention that before that shop opened, there was no other competition in the market and so he hadn't even thought of trying to make better magical trunks.
That kind of thinking had now come back to bite him in the ass and he didn't liked the result of his previous inaction.
If things continued to progress like this, then he would easily lose his shop within three years.
Of course, he could always steal the design of the Trolley bag and start producing them as his own but his pride would not allow him to do such a thing.
Not to mention that he didn't wanted to get on the bad side of Harry Potter whose simple words caused a whole mob to form outside the Ministry just two days ago.
So with no solution in sight, he finally decided to go and visit the rival shop owner whose Trolley Bags had driven him to the corner.
Maybe they would be able to come to some kind of mutual agreement that would not force him to go bankrupt.
—————
When Jin went to the Magical Goods shop once again and asked to meet the inventor of the Trolley Bags to the receptionists, she pointed him to another room that he had not noticed before.
He opened the door and saw that it was a receptionist room which was similar to the one outside the Minister's office but better.
He was rather surprised to see the owner of Florish & Botts as well as the owner of Slug & Jiggers Apothecary were waiting there as well.
And he had a pretty good idea as to why they were here.
The new library opened inside the Mall must have decreased the business of the Florish & Botts shop while the potions sold by Andromeda were far better than the potions sold in Slug & Jiggers Apothecary.
Not to mention that the owner of the Apothecary was a generally unpleasant and rude person and that his shop smelled worse than a week old dead fish.
There was also the fact that now that Harry Potter has started selling his own books in the mall and has opened up a library, how long will it take for him to open books shop.
He was sure that if such a thing happened then the owner of Florish & Botts would be in a worse condition than him.
He had a feeling that the only reason why Madam Malkin was not here as well was because the Clothing shops in the mall did not sold Hogwarts robes and only focused on muggle clothes instead.
When he had first heard about the clothing shop, the idea of a wizarding shop selling muggle clothes had seemed preposterous to him.
After all, why would any witch or wizard buy muggle clothes when they could buy more dignified Magical Robes instead.
But the long line of customers that had stood outside that shop the last time he had visited the mall clearly indicated that the muggleborns and halfbloods didn't think that way.
That was also the day he realized that being a pureblood and living in a pureblood dominated society had made him blind to the likes and dislikes of the witches and wizards connected with the muggles.
Perhaps that was also why a halfblood boy was able to invent the Trolley Bags while he kept crafting the old trunks.
The three of them kept sitting in silence for a long while, neither of them willing to initiate the conversation when the door to the office finally opened.
Inside the office sat a good looking man with dark black hair who was looking intently at them with a focused gaze.
Jin could instantly tell that this man was someone important even though he had no idea who the man actually was.
He straightened his back and looked directly in the man's eyes who nodded in approval and told them to take a seat.
"There's no need for introduction." The man said as soon as they sat down. "I already know who all of you are. You're the owner of the Bookstore, you're the guy who sold potions and potion ingredients and you're the one who makes those heavy trunks." The man said while pointing at them one by one.
He felt a bit irritated at being called the 'One who makes those heavy trunks' because he had never thought of his trunks a heavy.
When he was young his father had told him that the heavier a trunk was, the sturdier it would be and the sturdier it would be, the more charms and runes you could apply on it and the longer it would last.
But his father had also warned him to not make the trunks too heavy as that would make them a chore to carry around and he had always made sure to follow his father's words to the letter and only made trunks which were not too light yet too heavy.
Plus only a few people had ever complained about his trunks being heavy and all those people had been muggleborns so he had not put much thought behind their words.
But after seeing the light Trolley Bag, he realized with some trepidation that his trunks were indeed far more heavy than their counterparts which was why he stayed silent and didn't interrupt the man.
There was also the fact that the man seemed like a no nonsense kind of guy and seemed to value his time a lot so interrupting him for something like that didn't seemed like a good idea either.
Since the three of the didn't said anything, the man started speaking.
And continued speaking for the next five minutes.
The jist of his speech was pretty simple.
The man knew that there shops were shops were in trouble. They knew that their shops were in trouble. And there was nothing that they would be able to do about it.
They might have been in business for a long time but they would not be able to compete against their company.
The man's words rang true but the truth was a hard pill to swallow so before the black haired man could even complete his words, the owner of the Slug & Jiggers Apothecary stood up angrily and left the room, making sure to close the door rather forcefully before he left.
Surprisingly, the black hair man only paused for a second because of the noise before he continued speaking like nothing had happened and Jin wondered if the man even valued their talents all that much.
The man finally stopped his long speech by giving them the option of either working for their company and getting a good salary or clinging on to their dwindling business until the end and going bankrupt.
Jin was very, very surprised when the Owner of Florish & Botts instantly jumped at the chance of closing his shop and working for the new book store being opened in the Mall.
Turned out that the owner of the Florish & Botts had lost all his savings from the shop to other people due to his habit of excessive gambling and now he was already close to getting bankrupt.
So instead of letting this opportunity slip by him, he had grabbed onto it firmly and didn't seemed to want to let go of it anymore.
The black haired man seemed pleased with this before he turned to face him.
He rubbed his chin for a while, thinking about the proposition given to him.
He knew that he would not be able to compete with the Trolley bags because of their highly evolved design but he didn't want to let go of his shop either.
"In need some time to think about this decision." He said somberly and the man gave a nod before ringing the bell kept at his desk.
Soon enough a secretory opened the door and Steve Jobs gave him a nod and said "You have three days to think about the proposition Mr Jin. My secretory will escort you out."
Jin looked at the beautiful woman who gave him a smile and motioned him to come with her.
He gave the woman a tentative smile back before getting one last look of the room where the owner of Florish & Botts was now carefully reading a parchment.
Then the door closed behind him and he quickly started thinking about one of the most important decisions of his life.
Author's Note:- Whenever something new is invented in our world, something old becomes obsolete.
Just like how when electric bulb was invented and table lamps became old fashioned and vanished from our society with time, I believe the same thing will happen if someone introduces new inventions in the Magical World.
Hope you like the chapter.
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