Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: HONEST (05/31/18)
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TITLE: The True Cost of Fudge | Previous Challenge Entry
By Jennifer Liang
06/07/18 -
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“First of all, Mr. Alkins, there will be no calling me by my father’s name. My name is Jeremiah. Second, I don’t shake hands with cheaters and those who take advantage of hard working families like the Bardells. Are we clear?”
“Perfectly.” Pushing his intercom button Cal summoned his secretary for tea and cookies. Searching for a distraction he perused through his contract with Bardell Fudge and couldn’t find any reference to why he was being accused by the son of his best customer.
“You don’t know why I’m here, do you?” Jeremiah’s mannerisms were as icy as they had been the moment he stepped in the office.
“To be honest, I don’t. We strive to be an honest business and sell only the highest quality chocolate. For twenty years your father has been treated fairly.”
“Then why did I find a discrepancy in our accounts?” Jeremiah’s eyes narrowed. “Your selling price is the same as the media just announced this morning was a drastic jump from just last year. How can we have been buying it for that much for so long?”
“What? As a chocolate maker I read that article and unfortunately we have had to make adjustments just like they said we would. We always use fair market value! I make an unbeatable chocolate but why would I profit from the people who could least afford it? We want the world to taste products made from our chocolate, not price it away from the common man.” Cal was becoming more and more irritated by the moment.
“You mean, you’ve been pricing it up and down according to the market?”
“Of course!”
“Why then do I have the same figures in my books every month? My dad writes the checks and I know for certain he has never been late.” Jeremiah paused a moment as the realization hit. His father always paid in cash and insisted on making the payment himself.
“I’m sure you remember now. Mr. Bardell pays in cash every first Friday. He says that’s because the chocolate is the most important ingredient of his fudge and he wants to be sure I get paid for it. I figured it was some little quirk of his not wanting to deal with the banks. The last one was just four days ago. Do you want to see our receipt?”
“Sure.” Cal rummaged through his desk and finally found the paper. “Do you need from previous months? This was after the most recent spike in price.”
“Yes, please.” Jeremiah found that the numbers matched his records.
Cal summoned his secretary once again and after a few moments she returned with several receipts dating back one year. “We always keep the receipts for a year.”
Jeremiah poured over the receipts and eventually found numbers that did not match. For six months they were all for significantly less than the steady number he was accustomed to having his father withdraw from the bank account. Was his father in the business of cheating the customers? How could they build their reputation on overpriced fudge?
“Here’s your handshake now Mr. Alkins. Sorry for calling you a cheater. I never doubted my father, until now.”
“That’s okay Jeremiah. I will be glad to keep doing business with Bardell Fudge far into the future if you are in charge.”
“You can call me Jer.”
“Well then, Jer, it is. See you next time. Maybe you’ll be bringing me cash?”
“Yes, I will insist on accompanying my father. No way will I let him give you the right amount and pocket the rest.”
“It will be a real pleasure doing business with you then. Good bye.”
Jeremiah found himself later that evening contemplating his life the last fifteen years. His father had always managed great family vacations and expensive gifts even when the business was apparently on the verge of failing. He had been so little that he was in ignorant bliss but now with his fancy accounting degree that wouldn’t happen anymore. He braced himself for a long hard chat with his father in the study.
“Father, I have something to talk with you about. It’s time to make things right.”
“I know. God has been preparing me for this moment. Have you ever read Habakkuk 2?”
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