In junior high, my entrepreneurial spirit took hold and I began selling candy at my school. This was not the sort of sanctioned candy sale put on by one of the school's organizations or at the school book shop. No, this was my own sort of shop, where I wandered around the school with tons of (at the time) kids' favorite candies - Now and Laters, bubble gum, Lemon Heads, Fireballs, etc. The candy was concealed in my long winter coat. Through a twist of fate, the inside pocket of my coat had torn and I was able to use the entire lining of the coat as an enormous pocket for the stashing of my product. Sure, some kids at other schools sold illegal narcotics, but at our school, sugar was our students' drug of choice and I was their supplier.
The profits were enormous, as I was able to markup everything by 100%, and I had no real overhead costs. Sure, in some cases, I had to take the time to repackage everything. For example, when you buy a bag of 100 sticks of gum, you need to break it down into something more palatable to your average junior high consumer, like bags of ten. There was some effort involved, however, as the nearest store from which I could replenish my stash was about 10 miles away - 10 miles of insane, mountainous hills. Fortunately, my mother was supportive of my new found career, once I told her about it.
Unfortunately, my school was not as pleased with my job creation spirit and did not seem to feel I should be aiding the youth of America in their pursuit of a sugar fix and early onset diabetes. I guess they wanted to have the market cornered for themselves. In any event, after much back and forth, and repeated harassment, my budding career was brought to a halt. Mostly as a result of supplier difficulties. I guess the only people more upset with me selling candy to the masses were the ones supplying me with the product. Even though the store that supplied me was in a completely different town and they were incredibly unlikely to be able to sell to these people otherwise, they were somehow outraged that I was able to make such a sweet profit. They probably would have never known I was doing it but I guess sooner or later they got suspicious as to where the seemingly limitless supply of candy I was buying week-in and week-out was going and questions were asked.
Another bright future cut short. In retrospect, however, it was one of my favorite jobs. I set my own prices and my own hours and I never had to worry about someone else slacking off.
The profits were enormous, as I was able to markup everything by 100%, and I had no real overhead costs. Sure, in some cases, I had to take the time to repackage everything. For example, when you buy a bag of 100 sticks of gum, you need to break it down into something more palatable to your average junior high consumer, like bags of ten. There was some effort involved, however, as the nearest store from which I could replenish my stash was about 10 miles away - 10 miles of insane, mountainous hills. Fortunately, my mother was supportive of my new found career, once I told her about it.
Unfortunately, my school was not as pleased with my job creation spirit and did not seem to feel I should be aiding the youth of America in their pursuit of a sugar fix and early onset diabetes. I guess they wanted to have the market cornered for themselves. In any event, after much back and forth, and repeated harassment, my budding career was brought to a halt. Mostly as a result of supplier difficulties. I guess the only people more upset with me selling candy to the masses were the ones supplying me with the product. Even though the store that supplied me was in a completely different town and they were incredibly unlikely to be able to sell to these people otherwise, they were somehow outraged that I was able to make such a sweet profit. They probably would have never known I was doing it but I guess sooner or later they got suspicious as to where the seemingly limitless supply of candy I was buying week-in and week-out was going and questions were asked.
Another bright future cut short. In retrospect, however, it was one of my favorite jobs. I set my own prices and my own hours and I never had to worry about someone else slacking off.
1 comments:
My husband did the same kind of thing . . . with a similar ending, except he was cut off by the school not wanting its profit margin for fundraisers ruined.
Post a Comment