19111006 22:17:02

19111006 22:17:02

EQ-S-1818

The ambient noise in the small bar was rapidly increasing, now that the workers of the second shift from the nearby factory were starting to file in. Speech in coarse Germanic and Slavic tongues filled the air. There was some discussion of the work conditions and the need for the Union to ask for a push to change things inside. Others exchanged the latest news about their wives and children. Maroa sat with Daniel Christenson at a table against the wall opposite of the bar, and lazily glanced from one corner of the room to the next to see that the quantity and volume of the other patrons were indeed increasing. It was at this point that he felt ready to get to the point of the meeting and discuss business.
"So, listen Danny, did you hear about the new building being raised over there on G? Pritte wants it to be a full tower for women's fashion. He thinks that getting them all under one roof would help each other out."
"Yeah, I have." Daniel took a long sip from his beer mug to give a moment to phrase his reaction to this news. "The risk that I see of it is that the business will be relying on customers from around here, and these are mostly people who won't have the kind of money to spend on high fashion."
"Oh, of course, of course it won't compete with the shops on C, no. That'd be foolish. But, I don't think that's the goal of this new place. No, I think that they want to get sellers and customers who want something just a bit nicer than the usual stuff that they usually buy, that's all."
"Right. So have you heard anyone that's signed on to the place?"
"Yeah, I've heard a few names, and well, I was wondering if you would want to be considered too."
Daniel's lips pursed tightly shut and his eyebrows pointed downwards in response before he spoke.
"Me? You - me? C'mon now, not me. We have a good deal now. Things are working well. I've put your stock out for years and sales have increased for just as long. You gotta be kiddin. You put me over there, I can't keep prices the same. No new customers will come for that, and the customers I got now will find someone else on C like that asshole Rothchild or whatever."
"Danny, listen, we know that." Maroa's tone and pacing was elongated now. He had to set the pitch. "We know you can't keep the price up, and we're ready to account for that. And you just said why we're asking you - you got the good customer prestige. You move over to this new place, people will see your name and think that there's someone of high class right near by. You'll be the anchor to help the other businesses in there."
Daniel still found himself resistant to the proposal. The prestige and clientele was among the reasons that he even tolerated running the business now. Moving his business to this neighborhood meant that he'd have to deal with more of the kind of people who he saw around him in this bar. Less refined. Poorer. Foreign. But he contemplated a bit more and realized that this was them reaching out to him - this wasn't his idea. If anything, he had a bit of leverage in the proposal. With this in mind, he began to test how much leverage he had.
"Well, look, you said we got to set new rules, so yeah let's say we do that then. Sure, sure." Daniel nodded his head with an air of control of the conversation. "Let's say we set the new share to ten percent."
"No. Ha ha, no. I won't do ten. You're asking from forty to ten. No."  Maroa smiled while he shook his head.
"All right, fifteen then."
"Danny, Danny boy." Maroa laughed louder now. "What if I told you that... you said, 'that asshole Rothchild', yeah; what if I told you he'd be willing to move there for thirty."
"Let him. His funeral. Means more business for me too if he goes."
"Maybe that's true, yeah. Maybe that asshole gets more business movin than you get stayin too, though. That's what he thought. Heh, he said you'd dig your heels in. He was right. That asshole was right."
Daniel snorted through flared nostrils. Did Rothchild make him to be that predictable?
"Oh, and on your thought, Danny," Maroa added, "if you do stay, and your business does go up, and your customers do go up, we might need to set a new rate ourselves too. It would only make sense."
"How much would it go up?"
"I don't know. But it would go down if you moved."
Danny audibly grumbled. Maroa calmly took another drink from his beer mug.
"Twenty eight." The last T in the word eight snapped out of Daniel's tongue as he said it.
"Twenty eight? Yes... yes, I think we'd agree to twenty eight. I got you word on this? I'll pass this along?"
"Yeah, yeah, twenty eight. Damn it."
Maroa nodded with a smile. His limit of fifteen was far surpassed.