F.A. Farm

Yesterday, I drove a 75-mile round trip to a meeting and the person who set up the meeting didn't show. There were two of us who drove down and the cost in mileage, lunch and wasted time was approximately $100. Obviously, I  won't be doing business with this person in the future. The offending (in several senses of the word since this is quite a rude way of conducting business) party is the owner of a produce market in Everett and he is looking to cut his costs. He already sells produce to stores in Ferndale and Bellingham and right now his truck is traveling empty back to Everett twice a week. The idea was to provide a link in the transportation chain, so I can sell more produce in the Seattle metro area, which is approximately 100 miles south of me. The idea was quite doable, and I have been flogging multiple transport solutions for three years now, but all good ideas fail if you cannot trust someone to actually show up at a meeting they proposed. Now we both lose. There is also a larger problem exposed by this example. Now, as times are getting tougher, we need to keep our agreements. I have some ideas on how business practices have deteriorated over the years, but I still don't accept them. In other words, I understand how people overschedule, get spaced out, run late, etc. The key point is that I don't accept it. Simply put, how can I expect to get paid if you cannot be trusted to do something as simple as show up for a meeting? We all need to inculcate more business ethics into our behavior in this time of troubles. This is key to establishing greater ties of community. To steal a phrase from Gilbert Shelton, "Community will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no community."