#77 It's a long way from Penny Apples
Monday, September 6th 2010 @ 11:16 PM
04.11.2010: We have a winner, see below!
Premium MembershipGeorgiaLock said on Wednesday, November 3rd 2010 @ 1:42 AM:
Hi all, Justin asked me to judge the contest based on the responses to the question asked. Firstly let me say how kind it was for Bill Cullen to provide a prize for this contest and I enjoyed reading this chapter. So anyway, back to the contest at hand. I have decided to give 1st place vote to Aidan Wilson based on the quality and large number of recommendations he had offered. Well done Aidan. A special mention should go to Karl Herbst for his contribution and indeed many thanks to all the contestants.
Well that is it. I enjoyed judging and would be happy to do this again someday soon.
Thanks
Georgia
01.11.2010: The competition is now closed so thank you to everyone who entered the competition. I have asked Georgia Lock to act as Judge for this contest and understand she will be annoucing the winner later this week. Kind Regards Justin Barry
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The chapter is all about the story of the young lad Liam learning to buy, learning to sell, learning about people and friendship.
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Educational Feature & Competition
(Prize: Copy of the book signed by Bill Cullen!)
COMPETITION (Prize open to members only)
Closing Date: 30th October :: Winner announced 1st November
Competition Question: What advice would you give Liam to maxmise his profits?
Just click on Add a comment below to give your answer
EDUCATIONAL FEATURE
Chapter 14 from the book (A CHRISTMAS BONANZA)
Mother Darcy had a perpetual street trader’s licence for a sales pitch in Henry Street for the month of December. She’d been selling there since she was a girl. Tinsel balls, coloured streamers, plastic toys and Christmas decorations. It earned a meagre few shillings in the wettest month of the year. Near drowned she’d be from the rain.
But after the war, business started to pick up and the street became much busier. Mother Darcy’s pitch was one of the best, outside the Henry Street side of the General Post Office. The side door to Number 4 Post Office Buildings, home at that time to the fledgling Radio Éireann. In fact, the pitch alternated daily from one side of the street, at the GPO, to the other, outside the Monument Creamery. The ‘No Parking’ signs were switched to ‘Parking’ every second day, so that the shops on each side of the street could have a break from the traders. Both pitches were only a few paces from Nelson’s Pillar and it was here that the weekend shoppers left Henry Street for the bus stops on O’Connell Street for the trip home.
It was here with Mother Darcy that young Liam spent the month of December. Straight down after school, not to the Ma with the fruit at Cole’s Lane, but to Mother Darcy in Henry Street. Learning the spiel. ‘Get your bells, balls, balloons and tinsel. Get your monkey on a stick.’ This was an exciting and glamorous time in Dublin. The street was decorated with brilliantly coloured strings of lamps from one side to the other. Giant flashing Santa Clauses. Carol singers, bell-ringing, crowds of people. The war was long over and people’s optimism was showing in the laughter and gaiety of Henry Street. It was still a poor country, money was scarce, but the warmth of the Irish people came shining through at Christmas. Laughing and joking and buying, up and down the street.
And it was here that the young fella got a thorough schooling in economics and marketing. A business course on the streets it was, a practical compendium of the law of supply and demand. It started with balloons, which at the time were sold for a penny each. They weren’t a great seller, lying inert in a box on the tray. Until Liam brought down the Da’s bicycle pump and some sticks. He became an expert at blowing up the balloons exactly right and tied the neck with a thread to a stick. With a dozen balloons blown up, in a wide spectrum of colours, he’d be off to the bus queues and no bother selling the balloons. The kids loved them. Bawled for a balloon. And if you accidentally let them grab a stick it was a definite sale because they would never surrender it. Explode it with a bang, maybe – and that was still a sale – but never give it up. On the stick Liam could get three pence for two balloons and even two pence each for the popular orange colours. Perception. Added value.
Most of the sales items were purchased either from the Northlight Razorblade Company at the back of Walden’s in Granby Row or from ‘Hector Grey, Wholesaler of Fancy Goods’, who had a store in Liffey Street. Hector became a mentor of young Liam and scoured the Far East – Japan, Singapore and Taiwan – during the summer months, ordering goods for the Christmas rush.
‘No, Liam,’ he’d say, ‘them dolls are selling slow on the street this year. Try these fluorescent Santas instead. Great value too.’ And in this way, he guided the young fella to the best sellers.
‘You’re selling loads of balloons,’ Hector said to Liam one day. ‘I hope you’re making a good profit.’ The ten-year-old youngster looked up at him.
‘What’s profit, Mister Grey?’ he asked.
‘Profit, my son,’ said Hector, ‘is the difference between the price you buy the balloons for and the price you sell them for.’
‘Yes, Mister Grey, I think we’re doing all right there with the profit,’ Liam replied quickly.
Hector raised his bushy eyebrows and said, ‘Well you have to do better than all right, Liam, you have to make sure you get your one per cent. You buy these balloons for sixpence a dozen. Ha’penny each. So you must sell them for a penny each. Get your one per cent profit, d’ya see what I mean?’
‘Yes, I do, Mister Grey,’ said Liam. ‘Double your buying price is the price to sell for. Buy for a penny, sell for two pence, buy for a shilling, sell for two bob. That’s the one per cent profit, is it?’
‘Yes, me son, that’s it,’ said Hector. ‘That’s what ya need to make it worth your while with all the work you do. As for me, here in this shop with overheads to pay . . . ’ and he paused at the young lad’s quizzical look. ‘Overheads, Liam, is me expenses: the rent on the shop, the rates to the Corporation, the electricity bills, the shipping costs on the goods, the import taxes, the staff I employ, that’s me overheads,’ he explained as the young fella nodded.
‘With my overheads to pay,’ Hector continued, ‘sure I have to get two per cent if I want to clear a few pounds at all.’
So Liam continued the balloon-selling and never forgot the wise teaching of Hector Grey, and even managed to get his own two per cent on some sales items over the years.
It was with Hector too that Liam learned about negotiating, and credit terms and bulk discounts. The first year buying from Hector, Liam saw Mother Darcy paying for her purchase on the spot. Cash up front. But the following December, after some experience with the Ma in the market, Liam watched Molly buying the stock.
‘That’s four pounds, seventeen shillings,’ Hector said, ‘but we’ll round it off at four pounds fifteen shillings to you, Molly.’ It was the first Saturday morning and Liam was with Mother Darcy all day because school was closed.
‘Are we not good customers now, Hector?’ Liam asked. ‘With a track record? We must be your best buyer for balloons and we’ve Aunt Julie with us this year. With three of us selling on the street, we’ll be your biggest customers.’
Hector looked at him. ‘And that you are, Liam,’ he said. ‘That’s why I just knocked two shillings off the price for Molly.’
Liam smiled and said, ‘That’s great, Hector, and thank you very much. But at the fruit markets the Ma gets an extra bit off when she buys all her apples from the same supplier for a month. Suppose we didn’t buy off Northlight and gave you all our business this year, would we get a better price?’
Hector smiled and looked at Molly. ‘Now isn’t this fella learning fast, Molly me girl,’ he said. ‘You can be sure I’ll make it worth your while to buy exclusively from Hector Grey. If you buy a hundred pounds’ worth off me this month, I’ll refund you eight pounds. No few bob here and there. We’ll add up everything you buy, and if ya go over the ton I’ll give you back eight quid, and we’ll run a credit line, so you don’t have to pay me until Christmas. How’s that?’
Before Liam could respond, Molly said, ‘Well, the blessings of God on ya, Hector Grey, but aren’t you the dacent man. Sure that’s terrific, isn’t it, Liam, and I’ll shake hands on the deal.’ And they did indeed shake hands.
Outside the shop, Molly said, ‘Well done, Liam, that’s a great deal ya got. Only now we’ll really have to get working, to sell a hundred pounds’ worth of stuff before Christmas.’
‘We might have got a bit more off him, Molly,’ Liam said.
Mother Darcy stopped her pram and looked at him. ‘Son, you did a great job in there with Hector,’ she said, and she smiled at him. ‘And if we get the eight pounds, half of it is yours. But I also want you to remember that I’ve been a customer of Hector Grey for a long, long time. It’s friends we are and he’s helped meself and your Mammy when we needed it. So you don’t squeeze a friendship. You take the price a friend gives you, so that’s why I took his eight pounds when you could have squeezed him to ten. Maybe. For us, you see, a friendship is more valuable than a little money. So yes, always push for a good deal, but never push for more from a friend. You support your friends. Business is a two-way street between the buyer and the seller. We need each other and there’s more to life than money. Didn’t you enjoy the man’s jokes and the cup of tea he gave us and the help he’s given you?’
Liam looked at his granny and nodded. She was smiling gently at him. Even her eyes were smiling. And he smiled back at her, this small woman with her hair tied up in a bun and her black shawl wrapped around her, over her white coverall. Smiled at each other privately, they did, as the swarms of Saturday-morning people rushed up and down past them. Molly put her hand out and tossed Liam’s hair.
‘Come on now, son, let’s get up to Aunt Julie and get to work. We’ve a busy month ahead if we’re to make that bonus of Hector’s.’ She grabbed the handle of the pram and away with her up the street. Liam looked after her for a long minute. He was learning to buy, he was learning to sell, and he was now learning about people and friendship. And Molly Darcy had the wisdom of the ages.
 | Bill Cullen is an Irish businessman, philanthropist, reality tv & media personality. He is the former owner of the Renault Ireland franchise until it was taken under more direct control by Renault in 2007. A well-known figure in Ireland, Cullen has made numerous appearances on RTÉ's The Late Late Show and his autobiography became a best-seller. He is listed as one of Ireland’s top 100 businessmen |
