Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Running with the hare and hunting with the hounds....er....!?

I've this penchant for landing myself in piquant situations and today it was just such a dilemma!

Actually, it had started a couple of months back, to be precise. The caretaker of our residential area, along with the existing vendor who was running the bakery outlet within our precincts, had recommended handing over the enterprise to a new vendor. And after taking in the pros and the cons, I'd decided to sign a contract with Molly, for a year. Things have been going fine and many of the residents had begun to show a sneaky preference to her as against Sunny - her competitor of sorts as he trades grocery - who has been an old hand and has been running his outlet for the last three to four years.

To let you into a secret, my loyalty is with him - and mind you, this is against the understanding that the 'President' doesn't take sides - as the fact remains that Lekha and her deputies purchase their wares from his shop, due to its proximity!

Molly and Sunny have been having their business rivalry, in that they both stack fast moving items like the soft drinks, ice creams etc to cut into each other's clientele and I didn't mind the competition, because in the process I as a customer, was being assured of - borrowing a phrase from the parlance of defence deals - the 'best bang' for the buck!

But things seem to have reached a point where both the sides have begun playing dirty and this is what Molly had come and apprised me about, this evening. It was just the other day that I'd asked the both of them to be in constant communication to arrive at a mutually acceptable working arrangement but nothing seems to have worked.

I've called them for a dialogue tomorrow evening where I'm actually gonna tell them that they've to agree to a policy of give and take, to finalise the stuff that they are going to stock and sell by reducing the commonality. As a customer, I know that it's against my interests!


Tailpiece.

It's my fond hope that, to avoid feuds among the vendors, I do not let down the customers' interests as that is my priority!!

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