Update on My Most Abusive Vendor
A while back I profiled my most abusive and annoying vendor, which turned out to be .. the government. After profiling some of their practices in a quiz format, I wrote:
Give up? Well, most of you have probably guessed that this vendor
is... the government! Or specifically, the Colorado Department of
Wildlife and the specific product discussed is fishing licenses. That
is why this particular vendor can get away with practices that no
company that actually has to compete in the market place would ever
attempt, and, in a couple of cases, gets aways with practices that
would be illegal for a private company.
I have an update, again for fishing license sales but this time from the Arizona Department of Fish and Game. My business only sells fishing licenses. We have no call for hunting licenses, and in fact hunting is illegal on the lands surrounding the store in question. But in January each year, the government FORCES me to take a whole pile of hunting license and duck stamp inventory as a prerequisite to get the fishing license inventory. I have to hold this inventory, unused, in my safe all year. I cannot return it until the end of the year, and if I lose it or forget to return it (12 long months after it was sent to me) then I have to pay for it all. Lovely.
M. Hodak:
Can you sue a state agency in federal court for violating federal antitrust laws? What you got there is a Section 2 violation.
May 10, 2007, 3:01 pmBill:
Annoying, to be sure, but completely in character. Once a government agency becomes a bureaucracy (about 10 minutes) the original purposes are completely subordinated to administrative convenience.
The rot goes to the top...note that the congress has exempted itself from many of the requirements that they force on their subjects.
May 10, 2007, 3:15 pmLiberty:
Of course it would be preferable to not have to hassle with licenses in the first place, but since you're stuck with it, why not just sell hunting licenses? Perhaps some folks buying fishing licenses would also want a hunting license despite not being to immediately use it.
May 11, 2007, 7:53 amsteep:
I always buy my Utah licenses on line these days. Maybe you could
May 11, 2007, 8:30 amjust setup a self-serve kiosk of some kind to use the AZ system.
There would be no profit in it, but there's also
no credit card processing fees.