We stopped at a local coffeeshop for lunch. While sitting there convincing the wee one to eat his yogurt, I overheard this man who has his own heating oil delivery truck. Just a one man operation. He was saying that it cost 5,000 dollars to fill his delivery truck. Wow. The he said, "One year ago I had a 100,000 line of credit with the oil heating oil distributor. Six months ago it was lowered to 50,000, then 25,000. Now, I have no line of credit and the distributor wants cash on delivery. So now, I have to have cash on delivery from my customers. I can't take checks anymore because if one bounces my business is ruined"
This credit crunch has been on the news for a few weeks now. Big Banks fall, but so are gas prices. But for how long? Food prices have not fallen. The connection between the evening news and daily life can seem disconnected sometimes. Today; however, it is the tenuous connection between being hot and cold, employed or waiting in line at the unemployment office, financial security or financial ruin all distilled in the words of the conversation I heard at lunch today.
3 comments:
We are headed for interesting times, I remain hopeful but now that things are likely to get worse befor they get better.
It's very sobering, isn't it? My husband has hated his job for the past two years, and I've been encouraging him to quit, but these days, I'm a lot less enthusiastic about his chances of finding a comparable position.
At the same time, though, I've been pushing the idea that we could survive on less money, and he's always maintained that we can't. The other day, he was looking at our "bill sheet", and he actually concured that, with a little tweaking, we'd probably be okay :).
Your overheard conversation actually makes me want to cry. I hope that guy will be okay.
It's tough. Many times what is on the news is hard to connect with what is going on in everyday life. Not anymore. I can imagine that there are a lot of small business Persons in the same boat.
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