13 Western Produce

Western Produce is a company that buys and sells fruits and vegetables. We buy produce from farmers and sell it to grocery stores and restaurants.

Here is how our business works: We buy produce from farmers. Often we pay the farmers before they plant the vegetables. The farmers promise delivery at a certain date. Once we have the produce, we have to transport it to the restaurants and stores very quickly. Produce is only good when it is fresh.

Many people work for Western Produce. We employ buyers who know how to buy produce that is high quality. We need people who know how to sell produce to stores and restaurants. Because we have a plant where produce is packed, we also need workers to prepare the produce, as well as managers for the plant.

Handling money is a very important part of this business. We need to pay for food long before it is delivered. Since we need to pay out money long before we can collect a profit, we need credit. We borrow money from banks. We try to get the lowest rate possible.

Like most businesses, Western Produce has a lot of clerical help. Our clerical staff types letters, keeps records, and files papers. Many of the clerical people use computers. Most of our letters are written on word processors. Western Produce also uses computers to keep records on the crops we have bought on the farms and the places where we sell them.

Questions:

1. What does Western Produce deal in?

2. How does the company work?

3. What kind of people work in the company?

4. Why is it important for the company to know how to handle money?

5. Why does the company need a lot of clerical help?

14 Tristate Transportation

At Tristate Transportation, we own and operate many large and small trucks, and our job is to transport goods from one place to another. Our area of operation covers this state and two neighboring ones. This is why we have the name Tristate. Our company has garages in all three states, where we keep and repair our trucks. We also have warehouses, where we can store the goods we are going to ship.

This office takes care of the business end of our operations. It has bookkeepers to send out our bills and to pay the ones w« receive. We also employ people who are called schedulers. They figure out which trucks need to go where, and which truckers are going to drive the trucks. They have to determine the most effi­cient, cost-effective routes for our trucks. Of course, we also need salespeople to tell other companies about our services. And secretaries and clerks work here in the office to keep our records.

Because we work in more than one state, some of our employees have to spend time filling out forms and papers that we are required to send to government authorities. We have to do a lot of paper work to show that we are following the laws of the fede­ral government and of all three states in which we work.

The president of the company is Bradley Stone, and he has his office in this building. Usually he gets to work before anybody else and leaves the office later than the other workers. He has a lot of responsibility since he makes the key decisions about the direction of our business.

Questions:

1. What job does Tristate Transportation do?

2. Why is the company called Tristate?

3. What kind of specialists does the company employ?

4. Why does the company have to do a lot of paper work?

5. What have you learned about Bradley Stone, the president of the company?