[#Occ]upy the wine shop

Zis is ze story of two French men, two men who owned ze small business...
(I'll cut back on the phony French accent now )

For five generations Msr. Farine and his family had been bread makers in the small village. They were known for wonderful, hearty breads and croissants, the scent of which filled the air, floating on the morning breeze. Farine made a comfortable living, with three kids in school and their daughter learning the family business.

Just up the cobble stone road was Msr. Gourmande. He had just moved to the village from Paris and had taken his wealth to invest in wines: French, American, Argentinian, Australian... whatever could sell at the most profit was fine with him.

Msr. Gourmande noticed within a few months living in town that people had quite a bit of money, were happy, and spent a fair amount on his more expensive bottles of wine - mostly French. The gears in his head started working overtime and he recognized a great scheme was in the making...

His contractors and construction men soon arrived from Paris to build a new bakery, one that would take more profits from this rich town; but he needed to be sly. Upon completion of the bakery and a 3-year plan of success Msr. Gourmande opened the doors. He took significant losses in order to sell his bread at a full 50% discount under Msr. Farine.

At first people objected, but within a few months, and some crafty rumors by Gourmande, the people had turned against Farine - even with cutting his profit to near zero he was unable to compete.

Sadly, after losing face in the community, unable to pay his taxes and for his wheat, Msr. Farine closed his family business and arranged to move to another village where his brothers now lived.

Upon the closing of Farine's bakery, Gourmande's long devised plan, Gourmande added chocolate croissants and espresso to his menu (so people wouldn't care so much that his daily bread products rose to higher than Farine's had ever been.)

Eventually Gourmande became wealthy and opened a second shop on the other side of the small town - paying the lowest wage anyone had seen. He bought some Real Estate and raised rents. He then purchased the petrol station and raised those prices too.

"I deserve these profits" he yelled, when his neighbors complained. "I can charge whatever I wish and you will pay it!"

Eventually, as the small town had been close-knit and aware for many generations, they called on Farine and told him the story of Gourmande's plans. The people all saw through Gourmande's horrible morals. The village must reclaim it's beauty and smiles, it's fresh croissants on the morning breeze. But how?

People gathered together and confronted Gourmande, telling of his profit mongering and how Farine's children could not attend school due to lack of funds. They spoke about lower petrol prices, lower rents, and lower food prices - but Gourmande just laughed, knowing he had beat them in his game!

With some craftiness of their own the townspeople discovered that Gourmande's insurance was ending soon; their insurance man was sent on a nice vacation paid for by the townspeople, on the sly.

It was a windy night with a slight chill, mist over the local forests.... not a night a fire would normally start. But as fate would have it the firemen were never able to make it to Gourmande's bakery on time... it burned flat to the ground, every last counter, every chair, even the oven.

The next day people made signs and spread the word about Gourmande's plan and how he had stolen what was rightfully theirs: fair markets, honesty, subtle profit, and freedom of choice. They picketed in front of his wine shop and spread the word to every last villager.

The next week, Friday, no one knew how that rabid wolf got into Gourmande's gas station but it seemed as though it was a sign from above.

As Gourmande made not a single cent from any of his businesses and took a large loss on his burnt down bakery, he thought about changing and about what he had done to this small town. He wondered... maybe I was wrong to take all I could. But luckily for him he wrote it off to bad luck and looked for other towns to rob. For afterall, he knew himself... some might call him a sociopath and a greedy bastard but he knew himself well; he was a Capitalist.

I enjoyed that
I like the name farine, doesnt that mean flour (in italian its farina)

reply to post by el1jah


close! The names are French for "flour" and "glutton/greedy"

reply to post by Thermo Klein


so awesome

reply to post by el1jah


Thanks! I love writing stuff like this

just gonna bump this once...

is that allowed?

reply to post by Thermo Klein


bump it up as much as you want.


I do!!!


ahahhaha

anyway. I liked it in the beginning when it was written with the french zzeeee zzzeeeez

Zis is ze story of two French men, two men who owned ze small business...
(I'll cut back on the phony French accent now )

you would have had me all the way if you had kept up with the french accent.

kudos

reply to post by Thermo Klein


So rarely do we get to see the dark side of capitalism explained so well. Nicely done.