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Title: Electronic Cheese
Author: Allan T. Price
Article:
On her twenty-third birthday Angela dragged herself out of bed
at 5am to get ready for another ten-hour workday. Monday to
Friday she did a two hour round trip to various boutique cheese
makers before nine am then ran her store until five in the
afternoon. However, today was Saturday so she could sleep in a
little if she left the paperwork until after work. She struggled
out of bed. Better to get up and do it before she opened up her
shop.
Sunday afternoon at her birthday party, her older sister again
started preaching to her about websites. What did the Web have
to do with hand-made cheeses? Sick of Helen not taking 'no' for
an answer, Angela shifted her ground. "I'd love to have one, but
it would be too expensive." "They are cheaper than you'd think."
Helen smiled. "I'll pay for it, for two months. Call it an extra
birthday present." "Fine, waste your money...As long as I don't
have to do anything." "Well, you are the cheese frea...
connoisseur. I'll need a few hours of your time to design your
webpage. Tuesday? About three?" A few more hours added to her
usual sixty hour week? Helen clearly had no idea how hard Angela
worked. "It will have to be after work."
So Tuesday, after another ten-hour day, Angela spent time
designing a webpage. She listed all of the cheeses she stocked
with a standard order form. To her surprise, Helen had the
webpage up on the Internet the next day. So Thursday, she stayed
after work sending out the two orders that had been placed via
the website. The next week, she got a couple of orders, and then
it was three or four per week. Angela kept careful track so she
could prove it wasn't worthwhile.
"Well, Helen. Your webpage has made me a grand total of a
hundred bucks." She held out five twenties. "Would you like it
to cover the cost of the website?" Helen smiled and leaned
across the table. She took one of the offered notes. "That'll
cover it." "No, take enough for the whole month." "Sis, twenty
will cover the two months I promised, and leave me two dollars
tip for my work."
The following Tuesday, feeling foolish, Angela started filling
orders during quiet times throughout the day, rather than
staying after work. So, her days were busier, although back to
only ten hours long. However, there was now more quiet time for
some reason. Less people were coming into the shop. So on
Friday, she had all of Thursday's web orders done by midday. A
half hour later, she'd sold the last of the Asadero she hadn't
yet wrapped to send out. Hopefully, no-one else would want any.
Just after two o'clock an irritable woman came in and asked for
two pounds. Asking her to wait, Angela dashed into the backroom
and took the wrapping off a two pound parcel of Asadero to fill
this customer's order. Then, she spent twenty minutes staring at
the wrapping with its neat label showing the name 'Jessica
Sabine', a woman who wanted Asadaro cheese and now wouldn't be
getting it. Feeling guilty for her 'theft', Angela rang one of
her Asadero makers.
"Jose, can you send me some more Asadero? It's a rush order, so
wrap it and post it to..." Angela stared at the discarded
wrapping in her hand with its neat address label. "Can you send
it direct to the customer?" "I guess so, if you cover the
postage." She read out the address.
It turned out that most of her suppliers were willing to send
out cheese for her if she covered postage costs. Two turned her
down flat, and one agreed, but with the condition of doing it
only if she emailed the details. "It will save me scribbling
down addresses." Steve looked across his farm avoiding her eyes,
"and having to stress about my terrible spelling." She nodded.
"Addresses can be tricky." "I've heard they are, even if you
aren't dyslexic." He looked her in the eye, blushing. "That's
why I became a cheese maker, instead of getting an office job."
He looked around again, at his animals and his workshop, slowly
smiling. "Gee, to think I have to do this instead of being bent
over a desk all day."
Helen set up Angela's computer to forward orders to the correct
supplier, and printed out the website to stick on the front
door. When she saw it, Angela nearly took it down. "Why does
anyone need the website if they are at my store?" Helen
shrugged. "People may walk past, and decide later that
they...People must walk past on Sunday when you're closed." For
the next week Angela dropped off wrapping paper and labels when
she collected cheese. Then she spent Sunday visiting new cheese
makers to find replacements for the two that wouldn't mail
cheese to her webpage clients. Feeling bad about automatically
sending them orders, Angela talked to her bank and arranged to
pay her suppliers automatically too.
During the last month of winter Helen caught the flu and gave it
to Angela. Helen recovered in two days, but Angela was in bed
for a week and her shop stayed closed. Returning the following
Tuesday Angela found some spoiled cheese and a lot of messages
on her answering machine. At first she heard mostly complaints
about her being closed. Then there were some apologies because
their cheese had arrived promptly. Surprised, Angela reviewed
her records. While she was ill, some people who'd normally shop
in her store had used her website since Helen had listed it on
her door. All of her website customers had ordered, paid, and
received their cheese, all without her being there. Feeling
melancholy and slightly useless, Angela threw out the spoiled
cheese, closed up and went home to bed.
That afternoon, she lay in bed and considered her finances.
Sadly, she couldn't survive without running her shop. The
webpage sales were almost enough, but not quite. At midnight,
she woke up feeling ridiculous and subtracted 'rent - shop' from
her list of expenses. Then 'utilities - shop'. That tipped the
balance, even ignoring the savings of not driving out to collect
cheese, or her no longer suffering any losses due to spoilage.
Surely all her loyal customers would adjust to buying over the
Internet, given time. Heck, she could visit her favorite
customers personally to help them. Then all she'd have to do is
stay in touch with them and her cheese makers by email.
Two days after her twenty-fourth birthday, Angela dragged
herself out of bed at nine am. After taking three days off,
she'd have to work a solid four-hour day and actually leave the
house, rather than just checking things on her computer.
About the author:
Allan T. Price<br /> <a
href="http://www.m6.net">http://www.m6.net</a><br /> Allan T.
Price is a creative writer working for a living, until he can
find his own 'cheese'. Once he finds it, he'll set up a website
and write novels while the money just pours in. Allan T. Price
is a creative writer working at M6.Net: 'The web-hosting company
for humans.' M6.Net is working hard to help humanity experience
the power and freedom to develop thei
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