<story><title>Distributor cancelled an order and we need to move 30k bags of coffee [updated]</title><url>https://www.modest.coffee/2022/12/how-we-got-grifted/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>lisper</author><text>Others have pointed this out, but no one has actually done the math yet, so...&lt;p&gt;6000 &amp;quot;units&amp;quot; for $250,000 is $41&amp;#x2F;unit.  At wholesale.  For a product that retails for $16&amp;#x2F;bag.&lt;p&gt;It is just inconceivable that no one noticed this discrepancy.  This is not a &amp;quot;grift&amp;quot; by the distributor, this is an elementary and obvious fuckup by the producer.&lt;p&gt;In fact, it&amp;#x27;s so elementary and obvious that it would not surprise me a bit if this whole thing turns out to be a publicity stunt that succeeded spectacularly well, at least for a little while, because once the cat is out of the bag all the people who bought that coffee will realize that they are the ones who got played.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>dtnewman</author><text>From the article:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; &lt;i&gt;June 2022 comes, and the orders for this retailer start coming in from the distributor. This coffee was shipping to five distribution centers so we were receiving multiple orders. The orders were large but we thought we could handle it. Then the orders kept coming, spread apart by days.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;So it sounds like they had an initial agreement for 6000 units, but the actual purchase orders were coming in piecemeal.&lt;p&gt;There&amp;#x27;s no question that these business owners made some stupid mistakes and probably failed to read the fine-print. On the other hand, when you are a small business looking to grow, you learn as you go along. And oftentimes you have about zero leverage with a multi-billion dollar distributor or a supermarket. You can&amp;#x27;t really ask them to change their legal terms from their boilerplate language because fuck if they are going to get their lawyers involved to change boilerplate documents at the request of a new manufacturer fulfilling a tiny order [1]. So you sign anyway and hope for the best.&lt;p&gt;[1] Reminds me of my friend who got a lucrative job offer from a large investment bank out of college, but wanted to adjust the terms in the non-compete section of their contract (something you hear suggested a lot by people here on HN). They literally laughed at him when he suggested it and said something sarcastic along the lines of &amp;quot;yeah, let&amp;#x27;s phone our legal team and tell them that the  first year analyst wants a personalized job contract&amp;quot;.</text></comment>
<story><title>Distributor cancelled an order and we need to move 30k bags of coffee [updated]</title><url>https://www.modest.coffee/2022/12/how-we-got-grifted/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>lisper</author><text>Others have pointed this out, but no one has actually done the math yet, so...&lt;p&gt;6000 &amp;quot;units&amp;quot; for $250,000 is $41&amp;#x2F;unit.  At wholesale.  For a product that retails for $16&amp;#x2F;bag.&lt;p&gt;It is just inconceivable that no one noticed this discrepancy.  This is not a &amp;quot;grift&amp;quot; by the distributor, this is an elementary and obvious fuckup by the producer.&lt;p&gt;In fact, it&amp;#x27;s so elementary and obvious that it would not surprise me a bit if this whole thing turns out to be a publicity stunt that succeeded spectacularly well, at least for a little while, because once the cat is out of the bag all the people who bought that coffee will realize that they are the ones who got played.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>phphphphp</author><text>the units weren’t purchased, though, it was an order. If we take them at their word that they worked with a broker, then there’s numerous ways this could have happened. For example, the broker could have said “they’ll pay you $x per bag and they need 6,000 units” which would explain the discrepancy. After all, the order was for “units” but what’s ultimately being sold is bags — so there is some translation happening somewhere.&lt;p&gt;The businesses entire pitch is ethics, it would be batshit crazy to try and run such a gambit when ethics is core to their business.</text></comment>