Swaps, tradesies, in-kind, barter, whatever you name it we have had some interesting exchanges over the years. Early on, in our first location a young man came around peddling hair-cuts. If you know us even a little bit then you will know that it wasn’t considered risky for either of us to get coiffed by a complete stranger in exchange for a couple of pounds of coffee. We had our eye on the eventual story we’d tell. Voilà. Another time, in the same location a fella came around with all sorts of wares he was “kicking out” at fantastic savings. We picked up a few calculators that looked like they were straight from a Fisher Price catalogue, but they were BATTERY OPERATED. We couldn’t pass them up. We also got the smallest portable TV ever….it kinda worked. And for fun we got an emergency battery powered flashlight -warning light gizmo that was actually used by one of our employees when we told him we needed to get a coffee order delivered ASAP. He balanced it on the roof of the van, switched on the warning lights and took off. They worked. For years we exhibited at various specialty food trade shows. One year in Boston, at the conclusion of the show we went from booth to booth to shop for exotic foods for a meal that we hosted for our friends later that week. We had ostrich, fancy vegetables with chutney, and fancy wine. It was fun swapping for the groceries. For about eight years, we had a booth at the Maine Made Products trade show. It was a three-day affair and put a lot of strain on our little company. The day prior to the close of the show we would go from booth to booth to see if our fellow exhibitors would be interested in trading coffee for their goods. We had been a very popular booth since we gave endless cups of coffee away to them. We would take orders and make dibs on what we would like from their booths. That night we would go back to North Berwick and fill the orders to trade at the conclusion of the show. It was a lot of fun returning home with the loot that we shared with our employees who held down the fort in our absence. For a couple of years, a t-shirt rep would visit us and lay out piles of samples from the end of year inventory and we would all shop while he tallied the worth on coffee. We still wear some of those tees. We’ve struck deals with a few tradesmen for small jobs that needed attention in exchange for coffee. Now a days we provide coffee to places like the Portsmouth Music Hall in exchange for a page of advertising in their handbill and some tickets to a few shows. It would be cool to do more trading but really, how many pounds of coffee would it take to cover car repairs, or electric bills?
BLOG ELEVEN
Swaps, tradesies, in-kind, barter, whatever you name it we have had some interesting exchanges over the years. Early on, in our first location a young man came around peddling hair-cuts. If you know us even a little bit then you will know that it wasn’t considered risky for either of us to get coiffed by a complete stranger in exchange for a couple of pounds of coffee. We had our eye on the eventual story we’d tell. Voilà. Another time, in the same location a fella came around with all sorts of wares he was “kicking out” at fantastic savings. We picked up a few calculators that looked like they were straight from a Fisher Price catalogue, but they were BATTERY OPERATED. We couldn’t pass them up. We also got the smallest portable TV ever….it kinda worked. And for fun we got an emergency battery powered flashlight -warning light gizmo that was actually used by one of our employees when we told him we needed to get a coffee order delivered ASAP. He balanced it on the roof of the van, switched on the warning lights and took off. They worked. For years we exhibited at various specialty food trade shows. One year in Boston, at the conclusion of the show we went from booth to booth to shop for exotic foods for a meal that we hosted for our friends later that week. We had ostrich, fancy vegetables with chutney, and fancy wine. It was fun swapping for the groceries. For about eight years, we had a booth at the Maine Made Products trade show. It was a three-day affair and put a lot of strain on our little company. The day prior to the close of the show we would go from booth to booth to see if our fellow exhibitors would be interested in trading coffee for their goods. We had been a very popular booth since we gave endless cups of coffee away to them. We would take orders and make dibs on what we would like from their booths. That night we would go back to North Berwick and fill the orders to trade at the conclusion of the show. It was a lot of fun returning home with the loot that we shared with our employees who held down the fort in our absence. For a couple of years, a t-shirt rep would visit us and lay out piles of samples from the end of year inventory and we would all shop while he tallied the worth on coffee. We still wear some of those tees. We’ve struck deals with a few tradesmen for small jobs that needed attention in exchange for coffee. Now a days we provide coffee to places like the Portsmouth Music Hall in exchange for a page of advertising in their handbill and some tickets to a few shows. It would be cool to do more trading but really, how many pounds of coffee would it take to cover car repairs, or electric bills?