Tuesday, October 21, 2008

New Twist on Selling

My sister-in-law works for a local mail-order company that is in the business of selling Southern food to anyone willing to pay to have it shipped. The company has been around for ages and is a well-known local landmark. (No, not Hickory Farms.)

A few years ago, the gentleman that started the business decided to retire and sell the business. Another business man saw the opportunity and bought the business. Then he installed his daughter as the manager. She has no more management experience than a package of bacon.

A couple of weeks ago, the town held a country ham festival and the business donated hams.

My sister-in-law subtracted the donated hams from the inventory so when the next order was placed, they would be replaced.

The manager reviewed the order and wanted to know why those hams had been subtracted since they hadn't been sold.

My sister-in-law just looked at her boss.

Her boss explained, "We didn't sell the hams. We don't need to replace them."

Sister-in-law: "But we don't have the hams anymore. Why wouldn't we replace them?"

Boss: "Because we didn't sell them."

* * * * * * * * *

The company is now in the business of selling the idea of country ham rather than the ham itself. Saves on purchasing, storage, packaging, and shipping.

Win / win.

4 comments:

Susan said...

See, this would work for me because I don't eat ham. Sell me the idea of ham, woman. ;)

Anonymous said...

Susan~ It's kind of like the idea of running. I like to think about it, but I don't actually want to do it.

heather said...

major win-win since i love ham but don't love the sodium. :)

(what a flippin idiot! even cheeks gets that you have to replace what you no longer have and she's just now working on 3 digit subtraction.)

Anonymous said...

Heather~ It truly boggles the mind.