Double Dip Recession, Peter’s Story

Peter was never the most academic child at school however, when he left and started work at the local factory his hard work was rewarded. After working for the same company for over 20years the recession hit and all the members of staff were offered an attractive redundancy scheme.

The timing couldn’t be better for Peter as a family friend was looking to retire from their sandwich shop and his son was about start University so the extra money would come in handy.

The shop was a huge success with people travelling for miles to sample his special gourmet sandwiches and home cooked foods. With some of his profits Peter decided to invest in some new posters for the shop advertising weekly offers.

Although the large posters were not cheap the takings continued to rise, so much they he decided to take out an advert in the local paper and even booked a radio campaign. The shop was doing so well that by the time his son had returned from his first year at University he was looking at opening another shop in the City Centre.

Whilst his son was home for the summer he planned to help his dad out in the shop. And told his dad about how he should be saving as we were about to hit a double dip recession, the good times will not last forever and he should maximise the profitability while he can.

They spent the next week going through the books and making savings wherever possible. They were reusing the posters each week, cutting the advertising, buying cheaper products and cutting back on the size of portions. His customers soon noticed these changes, specials seemed the same each week, his gourmet sandwiches tasted rather plain and the fillings were tiny.

Within a couple of months his takings had halved and as his son went back to university he gave him a big hug and thanked him for his advice on the double dip recession.