I found out late yesterday out that my buyer (who placed this order) is "no longer 'in position"! (they wouldn't tell me any more). This will likely mean the product is now "orphaned"
That's because you are a mouse trying to sleep with an elephant (see what I wrote on page one!)
There now follows another story -
When I was working my way through college, I worked as a truck driver for a vegetables wholesaler. We each picked up about 20 tons of stuff at the railhead about 60 miles away and drove to the wholesaler, who then redistributed for a large regional chain and the drivers then took the assorted vegetables to each store.
At the same time, a small vegetable wholesale business in a shed sold ONLY to single stores, hospitals, hotels and restaurants. He sourced his stuff directly from local farmers and farmers in Spain and Portugal, as well as some stuff from the large internationals. His produce was always better and fresher than ours.
My employer thought that this operation was unimportant and could be ignored. We had 40-foot trucks, he had little vans, we had a pukka warehouse, he had a shed. He dealt with small-fry that only ordered a few boxes, we only dealt with complete pallets.
We had two customers, the military and this one large regional chain. He had dozens and dozens of customers.
On completion of my studies, I left. Shortly afterwards, that chain was bought out by a huge national chain who had their own warehousing and distribution. At about the same time, the military base in that town was closed.
My former employer twisted this way and that, to get the business back on track, but debts mounted up, wages went unpaid and he folded.
The small operation is still there. Today they employ 25 staff and have over 400 customers, as well as selling directly to the public and have just started a new branch, selling exotic fruits and vegetables and are building a whole new warehouse on two levels.
