[The Poet]

Perhaps this true story will shed some light on some of the questions above . . . and perhaps not.

Remember those Webkins things, those "beanie baby"-type stuffed toys with the web code that let kids go online to adopt and interact with the characters? They became a redhot fad for a time. Well, a woman who'd just taken over a long-established shop here in town wanted to get into this fad, but could not find a wholesale supplier of these toys that still had them in stock. So she went online to purchase them, thus to be able to offer them to her potential customers. This meant that, instead of paying a few dollars for them, then marking them up to the "normal" retail of $8-$12, she was purchasing many of the most-popular characters for $25-$30, then turning around and selling (or trying to sell them) for $50-$60 each. A man from a neighboring town came in with his little girl, who "just had to have" one particular of these, but when the father saw the price he flipped out about the gouging the woman was attempting . . . to the point where he actually ended up in jail for threatening the woman's life.

Now, she was an idiot for thinking her idea of buying merchandise at inflated prices was a proper business plan. The father was triply an idiot for allowing his daughter to wrap him about his finger so completely, for getting so angry at the woman for charging what she wished for something noboby actually needed anyway, and mainly for letting his mouth write his @$$ a ticket to the pokey. And the little girl? Well, she at least had the excuse of youth for her idiocy.

A "hot" cigar which a local B&M cannot easily acquire may have put this owner into the same situation. Does that make him dishonest? No, not if his aim is to satisfy his customer's demands. Does that make him foolish? No, not if he manages to sell the product at an inflated price. Does that make him in danger? In this day and age, perhaps so.