We have been doing lots of shopping from home these days. I am accustomed to seeing boxes from Amazon in front of my door, but now we even order groceries.
The state of the economy in this time is understandably not ideal. Survival of humans must come before capitalism in whatever form the country decides to apply it. I don’t happen to believe that the bailouts to large corporations will actually benefit those in need of funds. I am on the side of getting money directly to people and I am not convinced that the history of funds for corporations demonstrates that the tax relief and direct gifts of money from the government in this fashion is the best approach. The trickle down concept seems to involve so much overhead that what ends up at the bottom is very much a trickle.
Anyway, there are a few businesses I value and I see the employees and the business as pretty much the same thing. There is a small coffee shop in Webster, Wisconsin, that I visit nearly daily when we spend time at our lake place. I go there to work and drink their coffee. Yes, I could drink the same coffee at home and less expensively, but I am willing to pay for the social experience even though I very rarely say a word to anyone after placing my order.
I can’t really spend time at this coffee shop now and I decided to see if I could continue to do my part to keep them in business at a distance. Sure enough, they have a web site and sell their coffee online. They roast their coffee in these weird air roasters that generate one pound at a time and if you can wait 20 minutes they roast it while you sit and drink a cup of what they are offering that day. When the shop first opened, I told the owner I had heard that some foodies liked to roast their own coffee and did so in an air popper. I was referencing the similarity between the roasting devices they used and the approach I had read about. He smiled, turned around, and pointed to the popcorn air popper on a shelf behind him. His start.
I ordered two pounds of Tanzanian Peaberry – my favorite coffee and what I see if they have no matter where I am. Twelve dollars a pound for peaberry coffee is a great price and this is good stuff. The problem is the way they have to get it to you. Ten dollars for 2-5 day express delivery. The coffee did show up in two days. It was not an urgent matter, but this must be the way they have to get it done. Money just can’t be the only thing that matters. Consider it a random act of commerce.
