Chapter 7

The Hyenas of Capitalism - Chapter 7 (7/215)

Maru continued to feel uneasy.

As he rode the truck into Cheonhajae, he felt anxious seeing the shabby panel walls, the mountains of scrap, and the employees sorting through the junk in tattered clothes. Finally, he sighed when he saw the two makeshift beds placed side by side in the container.

"…Are you sure this is okay?"

"Of course! We're just starting out, so we have to work hard!"

"Are we both sleeping here? What about the other employees?"

"They all live in nearby villages. I drive them to and from work in the truck. Oh, by the way, that's your job now."

Leaving the sighing Maru behind, I introduced him to the employees and then immediately drove the forklift with Maru in it, heading out.

As I had promised to be open with Maru, I took him around like a piece of gum, showing him the deals.

"Are we buying this for 300 won per kg, 385 kg, so 115,000 won? Who's going to buy this?"

"Ugh, it's so dirty. Bro, you mean this can make money?"

"That one was 40 won per kg, but this one is 200 won? Isn't it the same iron? What's the difference?"

"Bro, my back hurts from sleeping on the makeshift bed."

With complaints and doubts, by the seventh day, things started to change.

When the goods had accumulated to a certain extent, I contacted the buyer to arrange for the shipment. When Maru saw the price of the goods being shipped out that day, he was shocked.

"100 won per kg??? 2500 won??? Didn't we buy this for 40 won?"

"It's not just the price increase; we paid the employees to sort it, so there were labor costs."

"But how many times the profit is this? Just a few days of work?"

"At least double, and at most five times."

"Well, it's good to make money, but why are people buying this?"

"Metals are bought, compressed, and sent to smelters. Then steel is produced, and factories make products from it. Consumers buy and use them, then we collect the waste and sell it to the buyers. It's recycling."

I shrugged as if to say, "See?"

Looking at the shipping documents with a stunned expression, Maru seemed proud and felt recognized.

Even though I had shown some respect by treating him as a human being while collecting waste from factories, I couldn't shake off the feeling of being looked down upon as a scrap dealer. Now, it felt like all that was being compensated.

"How about it? Now, do you see the scrap as money? It's a kind of occupational disease. Everything looks like money."

"You're right... This is money."

From that day on, Maru started to learn actively. The flow of the scrap business, what is scrap iron and non-ferrous metals, what might make money and what might not, and how to set prices.

Even if he were to go independent after learning, I asked him to help for at least two years, and Maru readily agreed. After nearly a month of working together, it was different from when he was alone.

We could comfort each other when something went wrong, share the inside stories we couldn't tell the employees, and even have a drink of makgeolli before bed. Bringing Maru along was indeed the right choice.

"How about it? This month, we made 12 million won."

"Really, it's like blind money, bro."

"I told you, believe what people say."

Maru and I clinked our makgeolli glasses and downed them in one shot.

"Wow, makgeolli after work is special."

"By the way, bro, it seems a new scrap yard is opening near the industrial complex. I saw they were putting up metal panels on the site earlier."

"Really? It's about time."

It had been nine months since the registration system changed, and scrap yards were starting to open in promising locations across the country. This Ansan Industrial Complex was so large that even two scrap yards were insufficient.

"Did you give the kickback to the person in charge of the new client we just landed?"

"Of course. He looked surprised that I would give him such a small amount."

For about a month, I started giving kickbacks to the waste management personnel at companies that produced relatively high-value items.

For every 200,000 won worth of waste collected, I gave about 20,000 won.

It wasn't a large sum, but it wasn't negligible either. The condition for the kickback was simple.

When new competitors came in and offered a price, they had to tell me and sell to me if the price was the same.

They might have agreed to do it for the extra money, but the scary part about such kickbacks is their continuity. 20,000 won adds up to 200,000 won, which becomes a weakness for the employee.

Ultimately, employees who wanted to keep receiving the kickbacks and didn't want their boss to find out had no choice but to sell to me.

I didn't even make unreasonable demands like asking them to lie to their boss to get a lower price; I just asked them to tell me the price and match it.

"That's how they get more and more entangled."

"Exactly."

"Anyway, I've taken over all the metal companies in Ansan Industrial Complex. If we maintain this, the amount of waste will increase as the companies grow."

"Congratulations, bro. I'm envious."

"That's why I'm saying."

I quietly told Maru.

"Maru, you'll stay in Ansan Industrial Complex. I think it can run smoothly even without me. So, I need to expand my business outside. I'll only check in once a week. Can you take responsibility and manage it?"

"Wait, no, bro. I've only been here for a month. I don't know anything. You're leaving this to me?"

"I haven't been here for a year either. Anyway, just visiting regular clients is already a tight schedule. We need more employees, and we don't need new clients. Just maintaining the current ones is enough. Don't you know I set this up after working in a scrap yard for a month?"

Maru hesitated, feeling the burden.

"It's a bit... overwhelming."

"Instead, I'll give you a 200,000 won monthly salary."

"Really? For real?"

A 200,000 won monthly salary was a considerable amount in 1994. Surprised, Maru listened as I added more.

"Sure. And save the money. Do you want to be an employee forever? I'm not satisfied with a small industrial complex. I'm aiming for a national or even global level. How can I be tied down to a small complex? Who will run this scrap yard then?"

"Um..."

"You know my income, right? It could be yours too. I'm not saying it will definitely happen, but it's not bad to build up operational know-how in advance."

"Right. I understand. I'll do my best."

After a two-day handover, I drove the truck to the scrap yard of the former boss in Seoul. The boss's scrap yard was still the same, shabby and old.

The boss had been running the scrap yard for over a decade. If I roughly calculated the money he made in five years from the subsidiary of Cheonhajae, it would be at least in the tens of millions.

I wondered if the boss was even richer. Thinking about it, a New Grandeur wouldn't be a luxury.

"Boss! I'm here!"

The boss was hammering something as he did when I first came. He turned his head toward me when he heard my greeting.

"Hey, who's this? Isn't it Park Sol? It's been a while."

The boss welcomed me warmly, which made me feel good.

"Are you doing well?"

"I'm doing well. How about you? Is your business going well?"

"Terrific. You might even envy me."

"Hehe. Young people should do well. Come in."

I entered the office with the boss and shared the stories of the past six months.

The boss was envious of how well I had done with Cheonhajae and clapped when I mentioned the amount of scrap collected each month.

"Definitely, the industrial complex is different. I only deal with household waste, so I don't know much about that side."

"Is that so? It's definitely different. We don't have the old ladies and grandpas with hand carts. Occasionally, 1-ton truck drivers stop by to sell things, but it's rare since we're in a remote area."

"That's true. It's good to see you doing well."

Seeing the boss smile made me feel good. After running the business myself, I realized how much he had shared his knowledge and even the phone numbers and prices of the buyers, which were very sensitive information. It was a great favor.

"So, why did you come?"

"Now that the industrial complex is stable, I want to explore new routes. I came to ask if you know anything."

"New routes?"

"Yeah, what I mean by routes is..."

"I understand that much. I learned a lot from talking to my son. I'm not that old."

"Really, you know about the X generation?"

"X generation? It's on TV all the time. How could I not know? Anyway, for new routes, wouldn't it be better to break into a nearby industrial complex?"

"I thought about that, but... if we break into another nearby complex, it would only slightly increase our current income, right?"

"That's not a slight increase..."

I pounded my chest and said,

"At least we need to move up a level. How about targeting large or medium-sized companies?"

The boss shook his head.

"That's really difficult. Look for other ways."

"Why?"

"Small and medium-sized companies are different from large and medium-sized companies."

The boss explained that while small and medium-sized companies mostly produce simple parts as subcontractors, large companies are different.

Large electronics companies, for example, not only produce waste but also defective products called "half-finished" items, which are partially completed but have minor flaws. Many of these defects are so minor that they don't affect the product's use.

For example, a slight gap in the plastic seam of a TV.

If these items were released to the market, they could affect the price of genuine products, so the security regulations are strict, and they only deal with buyers who have guaranteed sales and scale.

"In other words, they don't trust small players."

"Exactly. The buyers aren't fools. They need to build a track record of sales to target large company waste. It's still too early for you and me."

"I see... But..."

My eyes lit up.

"Those defective items... they smell like money."

The boss turned serious.

"Don't even think about it. Do you know how well large company auditors track things? If you get caught, you'll end up in jail trying to make a quick buck."

"Right, right. I wasn't planning to do it right away."

"Right away? You mean you'll try it later? Don't have useless thoughts. Focus on your current work."

I agreed and changed the topic.

"Anyway, what other routes are there?"

The boss started to think.

While he was thinking, I noticed something interesting. It was a computer.

"Wow, boss, people are throwing away computers now?"

"Seems like they're upgrading to 386 or 486 computers."

"Still, to throw away such expensive computers? Are they broken?"

"But that's a real headache."

"Why?"

"Know how when you take apart appliances, you get green boards with chips?"

"Those small things with chips?"

"Right. Before, with things like washing machines and TVs, they were small, so we just included them with the scrap iron. But when you take apart a computer, you get a large board, and it's hard to dispose of. No one wants to buy them."

The boss showed me a board about the size of two bookends, with a green background and black chips densely packed on it.

"This is a board?"

"Right. I wish someone would take it. Do you want to try?"

"I'll take one if you give it to me."

"Also, about the new routes. I heard insurance companies do auctions?"

"Insurance companies do auctions? What can I bid on at an insurance company?"

"I just heard it, so take it as a reference. If there's a car accident or a fire at a store, and insurance is in place, the insurance company pays out. Once the payment is complete, the damaged items become the property of the insurance company. They then gather these items and auction them off. You might want to look into that."

"That's not bad. Even if I buy the car scrap, I can make a decent profit by extracting the non-ferrous metals inside."

"Seems like the profit isn't as good as you might think. It's an auction, so there's competition. But if you consistently win bids, it can be quite profitable. Look into it."

"Got it. Thanks."

After hearing about the auctions, I returned to Cheonhajae and took out the board the boss said was a headache.

"What's so hard to dispose of?"

I examined it from all angles and tried to break it in half. It looked hard, but it tore like cardboard, with great difficulty.

"What is this made of?"

Looking at the torn cross-section, it seemed like a hard sheet, but upon closer inspection, there was something brown. When I examined it more closely, it was copper.

"Wow, there's copper in here?"