Mid 963 ARR (37 BBY)
Rushelli Zuspattalt, our new Head of Sales and Retail, was in her element. Once Cota and I had come up with our idea, we had recruited Rushelli to make it happen. Rushelli, was a woman in her mid-30s from Naboo's second city of Moenia where she had previously managed a chain of flower shops. This gave her an eye for aesthetics, which was essential for any public facing business on Naboo.
We really had been rushing the shop launch, but we couldn't afford to risk slipping behind on sales, if we wanted to have the credits coming in to keep up our contract with Rebaxan. We had identified a large vacant shop space right next to Theed Market Square. Like most prominent Naboo buildings it had a rounded shape, in yellow sandstone with a green roof. We deliberately kept the space as uncluttered and open as possible to ensure a smooth circulation of customers and the small army of over 100 sales assistants we had managed to assemble.
Rushelli had personally redesigned our logo, which was our company name stylised in Naboo calligraphy. To me it looked more like a cosmetics brand, but we were a proud Naboo company, and it would not hurt to look the part. I knew our tech could be all the more successful if it were seen as fashionable rather than simply useful. A large version of the logo was placed prominently over the main entrance, but currently covered in a large cloth.
We had worked tirelessly to clear through our order backlog, so we could stockpile devices for the big launch. We had 80,000 devices on hand, which we hoped would be enough for first few days of demand. The opening was due to happen in an hour's time, but there was already a growing crowd of people out in the square, looking around to see what was about to happen.
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No one in Theed had ever seen a retail 'event' such as Black Friday or the boxing day sales. This they would not soon forget. In just a few hours, thousands of people had come through the shop and our sales assistants, were being run ragged keeping up with the orders.
Jestos, had with admirably foresight, hired some security bouncers for the day, who were heroically managing the crowds as best as they could. The Naboo are too polite and civilised to really push and shove each other, but there were a lot of passive aggressive glances and determined shuffling going on.
Rushelli and I had briefly addressed the crowd from a small platform when the designed time arrived. This was the first time I had spoken in front of an audience, and I was extremely nervous, even if the Naboo would never be so coarse as to heckle. Still, I managed to read out my carefully prepared remarks to polite applause. I think I will need a lot of practice before I can pull of the fancy product launches in grand auditoriums I had remembered from Earth.
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Cota, Rushelli and I were sat in the back room, with Aria keeping us up to date as the sales came in. As much as I don't see myself as money obsessed, but we sold over 3,000 devices in a single day from this single store. Thanks to our deal with Rebaxan and our production efficiency improvements, we were making over 500 credits profit on each SuperPAD sale, even after accounting for the staffing and other costs. On top of that were the sales of accessories and communication upgrades adding an extra trickle to our income.
All told we made well over 2 million credits of profit in just eight hours. The coming days were not quite as dramatic, but within a month we were soon back to waiting anxiously for our next supply shipments to keep up with the even growing demand.
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"You started a riot in the central market!"
"Lieutenant, I think that's exaggerating a little. No one was hurt, they were just…very excitable."
"You will let us know in advance of anymore stunts like that."
In hindsight, we really should have given the Security Forces a warning of our launch. The irate holo-call from Lieutenant Panaka was entirely understandable reaction to the incident and perhaps would have been even worse if not for our existing good relationship. We knew this would be putting ourselves out in the open with our actions, and that we would start attracting a lot more notice and attention as a result.
"I understand you promoted this event by sending a message to every SuperPAD you had previously sold."
"Yes, and it occurred to us that if there should be a significant emergency in future, we would be willing to send out such a message on behalf of the Security Forces."
Panaka grunted his acknowledgement of this, not wanting to admit to the benefits of this whilst he was so irate with us.
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That attention manifested in a visit to our facility from an official of local Chamber of Commerce, a number of local journalists and various officious regulators, all keen to inspect everything from our finances to our health and safety. We deflected a lot of questions, keeping very disciplined with our line that we just wanted to put affordable tech in the hands of people of Naboo.
One meeting that stood out was from the Naboo Holonet Authority. Given Naboo was a relatively small planet in terms of population, the holonet was run by a government service. Holo-communication on the planet was free, covered by the Government's own income, it was only interstellar comms that came with charges. Apparently, our devices had been noticeably increasing the amount of traffic their network was having to process.
The problem was not really about the number of devices, even before many people had holocomm systems in their homes and businesses. The issue was how people were using the devices. With access to holocomms around the clock and the ability to record and send messages, it was placing a growing demand on the system. It wasn't an immediate problem, but if we sold millions of devices, it could crash the entire planetary holonet.
In one sense, this wasn't our problem, it is the Government's responsibility to meet the needs of the people of Naboo. However, I felt that would not be a particularly constructive attitude, as if the Government failed to act, it was our business that would suffer. We agreed to look for ways to help them in principle, with Jaarl and I exploring possible solutions.
We were even visited by the Prince of Theed, Yan Veruna. Theed doesn't have a Mayor, but instead an elected prince or princess. Yan was a distant cousin of the current king, and was much like a lot of Naboo politicians, an older man who tried to come across as grandfatherly.
The prince of course praised us on a thriving new business in the city, making all the usual platitudes, making a point to look very impressed at our facility. However, he seemed to be implying that our long-term success was far from guaranteed and that we may need his support in future. In fact, imply did not do it justice, it was clear he wanted something.