Elderly Man Barred from Selling Homemade Fruitcakes

[Annie]

I was just going to post that unless he was 'advertising' I think this is wrong. Well, he had a small, homemade sign in his window offering the fruitcakes for sale. That's what would bring in the health department. I still think this is silly, seems an inspector should have just told the gentleman, "Remove the sign and tell your 'customers' to spread the word."

 

[catzmeow]

And of course finding the assets of a street vendor who's unlicensed would be so very easy... as would finding the person to sue if he weren't licensed.

Good luck with that.

Except...that isn't the scenario in this story. This is a long-established resident of a rural area who is selling fruitcakes by word of mouth to customers who are mostly NEIGHBORS AND FRIENDS.

County bans Redding man's fruitcake sales : News : Redding Record Searchlight

See the difference? Perhaps its that I look at these issues from an urban perspective and when I think of someone selling food on the street, I think of something very different than you do when you picture your neighbor's chicken coops.

Having been to Redding, where this incident occurred, i can assure you that if you needed to find Jack Melton for a faulty fruitcake, and sue him, he's in the local phone book.

The thing is...a lot of people in small towns sell items like this to make money on the side. In the south, it's pecans, or boiled peanuts, or fresh-caught seafood, or home grown peaches. In the midwest, where I grew up, it was jam or jelly. My boyfriend's mom sold something like 30 dozen Christmas cookies to neighbors and friends who don't have time to bake them themselves.

This is the sort of commerce that occurs daily in small towns and rural areas, and the government doesn't need to butt into it. This is government solving a problem that didn't exist.

 

[Annie]

Except...that isn't the scenario in this story. This is a long-established resident of a rural area who is selling fruitcakes by word of mouth to customers who are mostly NEIGHBORS AND FRIENDS.

County bans Redding man's fruitcake sales : News : Redding Record Searchlight



Having been to Redding, where this incident occurred, i can assure you that if you needed to find Jack Melton for a faulty fruitcake, and sue him, he's in the local phone book.

The thing is...a lot of people in small towns sell items like this to make money on the side. In the south, it's pecans, or boiled peanuts, or fresh-caught seafood, or home grown peaches. In the midwest, where I grew up, it was jam or jelly. My boyfriend's mom sold something like 30 dozen Christmas cookies to neighbors and friends who don't have time to bake them themselves.

This is the sort of commerce that occurs daily in small towns and rural areas, and the government doesn't need to butt into it. This is government solving a problem that didn't exist.

I went to the referred site of the original link, it stated he had a sign in his window. How the health department found this guy? Someone had to rat him out, but it would be the sign that provided the basis. If he'd stayed with word-of-mouth, doubt this would be an issue.

 

[Chris]

I think all fruitcake sales should be barred.

Those things taste like shit.

 

[ABikerSailor]

Hey Jillian, ya Betty Boop *****, chill out on the old man. WTF.....you're not happy unless you're carving cash out of someone who doesn't have enough?

............you're a *****.............

By the way y'all.....here in Amarillo, all the bars generally get visited between 8 and 12 in the evening by little old men and women, carrying coolers full of burritos. Matter of fact, when I was working at the Military Entrance Processing Station here, every morning around 8:30 or 9, a dude would come through with burritos for 2 bucks each, and never had a problem. He'd also come back around 3 in the afternoon.

Do those people have permits? Nope. Do they need 'em? Not really, because if you ever end up sick, the word spreads fast, and then they're out of business, because nobody will buy their chow.

Kinda like what is happening to the oil companies right now.

 

[jillian]

How uncalled for.

Sorry I've been polite to you. Apparently wasted on you.

Go back to being pretend spiritual.... jerk.

 

[Care4all]

so it was in a small town neighborhood, where only neighbors would see this small sign in his window and he has ONLY SOLD 10-14 pies a year for the past 10 years?

This was most CERTAINLY a neighborhood thing and should NOT have been banned...even with the small sign in the window for the neighbors to see...

If he harmed anyone, he would NOT have been so hard to find....they pick up the pies at his house, no? They have to walk up to his door and ring his doorbell and ask for a pie......right? Or did he set up a stand on a busy street?

I thoroughly can understand Jillian's point of view if this were some vendor on the corner of 75th street and 21st avenue in Brooklyn....but not in this case.

 

[Annie]

How uncalled for.

Sorry I've been polite to you. Apparently wasted on you.

Go back to being pretend spiritual.... jerk.

Yet over and over we agree on many issues, but no rep?

 

[jillian]

Yet over and over we agree on many issues, but no rep?

lol.. sorry about that. fixed now.

 

[ABikerSailor]

How uncalled for.

Sorry I've been polite to you. Apparently wasted on you.

Go back to being pretend spiritual.... jerk.

Listen....if he's only selling around the neighborhood, they should leave him alone. Matter of fact, there is a friend of mine named Cody over here in Amarillo. Every Sunday, from 10 until around 1 or 2, he serves breakfast at this little spot he's built out back. There is no permits, he's outside of the city limits, and they can't screw with him, although they've tried. Breakfast is 5 bucks by the way....all you can eat. He makes enough money that way so he doesn't really have to hold down a job.

If you're gonna have a beef about that, then I stand by calling you a *****. Why? Because the old man isn't harming anyone. Matter of fact, he's bringing in quite a bit of good karma to others and making a buck or two at the same time.

 

[Annie]

so it was in a small town neighborhood, where only neighbors would see this small sign in his window and he has ONLY SOLD 10-14 pies a year for the past 10 years?

This was most CERTAINLY a neighborhood thing and should NOT have been banned...even with the small sign in the window for the neighbors to see...

If he harmed anyone, he would NOT have been so hard to find....they pick up the pies at his house, no? They have to walk up to his door and ring his doorbell and ask for a pie......right? Or did he set up a stand on a busy street?

I thoroughly can understand Jillian's point of view if this were some vendor on the corner of 75th street and 21st avenue in Brooklyn....but not in this case.

I agree, though he should be forced to remove the sign. Granted in his case not a big deal, the demand for fruitcakes, no matter the quality, is limited. On the other hand, had the sign been for snickerdoodles? Well demand may have made him wealthy and beyond his ability to produce with cleanliness.

 

[Annie]

lol.. sorry about that. fixed now.

Wow, if whoring can get such a quick response, imagine if I posted a pic. LOL!

Thanks, Jill.

 

[jillian]

Nothing wrong with a little bit of whoring. lol...

I prefer to think about it as a "gentle reminder".

 

[Annie]

Nothing wrong with a little bit of whoring. lol...

I prefer to think about it as a "gentle reminder".

Not able to return, but you know I 'love ya', except when I don't.

 

[jillian]

yeah, I know.

 

[catzmeow]

Listen....if he's only selling around the neighborhood, they should leave him alone. Matter of fact, there is a friend of mine named Cody over here in Amarillo. Every Sunday, from 10 until around 1 or 2, he serves breakfast at this little spot he's built out back. There is no permits, he's outside of the city limits, and they can't screw with him, although they've tried. Breakfast is 5 bucks by the way....all you can eat. He makes enough money that way so he doesn't really have to hold down a job.

One of my favorite places to eat in Pittsburgh is in the kitchen/restaurant of a Caribbean lady who serves lunch (curried goat, curried fish, curried chicken, etc.) in Homewood. Delicious, plentiful food. If she EVER served bad food to her customers, her word of mouth business would end in a split second.

There is a difference between transient food vendors with no accountability and people who have a small, word-of-mouth business that relies on local customers. Those places police themselves...they have to.

 

[Annie]

One of my favorite places to eat in Pittsburgh is in the kitchen/restaurant of a Caribbean lady who serves lunch (curried goat, curried fish, curried chicken, etc.) in Homewood. Delicious, plentiful food. If she EVER served bad food to her customers, her word of mouth business would end in a split second.

There is a difference between transient food vendors with no accountability and people who have a small, word-of-mouth business that relies on local customers. Those places police themselves...they have to.

Send a recommend to Guy at food network.

 

[ABikerSailor]

One of my favorite places to eat in Pittsburgh is in the kitchen/restaurant of a Caribbean lady who serves lunch (curried goat, curried fish, curried chicken, etc.) in Homewood. Delicious, plentiful food. If she EVER served bad food to her customers, her word of mouth business would end in a split second.

There is a difference between transient food vendors with no accountability and people who have a small, word-of-mouth business that relies on local customers. Those places police themselves...they have to.

Exactly. So why go after a dude who has sold fruitcake for several years, and NOBODY got sick?

They should only go after the ones that put people in the hospital IMHO, at least as far as food vendors go.

And.....being a licensed food place ain't necessarily the best either. IHOP here in Amarillo (and right next to I-40) ended up with TWO bad cases of salmonella in less than 6 months.

Nobody died, but lots of people got sick.

 

[Shadow]

Alll of those things are already exempt from regulation. That's not what was being talked about here. But you know that. In fact, what we're probably talking about is someone who set up a stand and decided to sell to the public... not his friends, not his neighbors, not his fellow church-goers.

You know I always give you props, but I disagree with you on this one. In a city like NY, you see people selling food on the street all the time. I'm afraid that I prefer knowing that they have to live by certain rules before they can sell food.

You are wrong. Here in NM they have closed down bake sales,popcorn sales and snowcone sales at schools . Spahgetti dinner, pancake breakfast and Posole fund raisers at both schools and churches etc. Unless these items are purchased at a store or restaurant (and not homemade) they are prohibited. The state has recently taken a lot of flack for this, because the schools especially, relied on these funds for childrens activities for the year.

NM is run by a bunch of liberals (corrupt ones at that) and has been for years..

 

[ABikerSailor]

You are wrong. Here in NM they have closed down bake sales,popcorn sales and snowcone sales at schools . Spahgetti dinner, pancake breakfast and Posole fund raisers at both schools and churches etc. Unless these items are purchased at a store or restaurant (and not homemade) they are prohibited. The state has recently taken a lot of flack for this, because the schools especially, relied on these funds for childrens activities for the year.

NM is run by a bunch of liberals (corrupt ones at that) and has been for years..

No wonder I don't like Bill Richardson. But, at least now, he's going to be outta there for the next 4 years.

I do like NM though.....one of the nicer places to ride through on a scooter. One thing that I always thought was odd about the place though....it seems as soon as you cross the state line, the sky gets brighter with deeper colors somehow.