Cue the Happy Days theme song. Howard Cunningham owns a hardware store in Milwaukee and has been in business for over twenty years. When a nearby resident experiences a leaky faucet, he removes the suspect rubber washer and brings it over to Howard’s store to purchase a replacement. On the surface, this is a simple retail transaction. Peeking beneath the surface reveals a complex symbiotic dependence.
Obviously, Howard’s store requires the steady flow of cash from a thriving, well-maintained community. The community requires access to the components necessary to perform standard maintenance. The word “dependence” has acquired a dark meaning of late, finding itself pinned with a hyphen to the back end of words such as “chemical” and “emotional.” In this instance, the organism known as a neighborhood survives through a network of bonds that are rarely, if ever, recognized or acknowledged. Howard knows, through experience, what he should keep in stock and the residents go to him in confidence that the solutions to their mechanical problems are waiting somewhere within one of the store’s dusty bins. This is one example of a bond of dependence, requiring both parties to perform their roles in a predictable manner.
Howard also sells to (and purchases from) local businesses whose proprietors belong to the same community groups as Howard. In the case of Joe, he builds boilers, as many as five a month, and relies on Howard to maintain a consistent stock of a particular size of bolt and nut, for which he pays full price, and gladly. It’s a standing order of five hundred each and as soon as Joe walks out the door with his goods, Howard is on the phone with his supplier ordering the replacements.
One day, Joe walks into Howard’s store and blurts out some exciting news. A large-scale boiler plant in Chicago has burned to the ground and its owners are …
Source : Fastenerblog.net – Read the full Article via Fastenerblog.net: More musings from Guest Blogger, Charlie Accetta.