Rabid Reseller: Invasion of APEC sees opportunities lost

Rabid received an offer too good to refuse the other week. Uncle Tony announced he was taking a week’s leave and suggested Rabid mind his computer store while he was away. Now Uncle Tony has a really swank store right in the heart of the CBD and he said we could keep all the profits we made in return for minding the store! What a guy! The nephew, Sk8er Boi, jumped at the chance to run Rabid’s humble premises while we looked after the flash shop in town.

At last! A chance to earn a decent wad of cash! We could hardly wait until Monday morning to start earning our prize. We don’t get into the CBD that often so we weren’t too fazed by the massive traffic jams. This is what city folk put up with all the time, unlike the sleepy suburb we call home. One of our fellow passengers on the train said it was worse than normal because there were a bunch of foreign presidents coming to town. That seemed a bit weird. You’d think they’d have their own transport and wouldn’t be crammed onto CityRail.

Things got even weirder when were asked to show our identity papers before we could get through the fence to reach Uncle Tony’s shop. Okay, we admit it’s been a while since we visited but we don’t remember the fence. And what’s with all the people in uniforms everywhere? Must be some sort of police convention. Maybe we could sell them a bunch of iPods. They looked like they could use something to cheer them up. Never mind. The shop beckoned. Riches awaited.

And so did we. Waited that is. That stupid fence made it near impossible for customers to get to the shop. We sat and stared at passers by but they were on the other side of the fence and carrying banners wishing the president a safe and speedy trip home. How friendly these city folk are towards visiting dignitaries. But that wasn’t helping us reach our sales targets. But then things improved markedly when three blokes dressed like they walked off the set of Men in Black sauntered into the store. Not sure why they needed to wear sunglasses inside and we couldn’t’ figure out why they kept talking to their sleeves either.

But they were very interested in the computers on display. In fact they must have been real geeks as they insisted on opening every single PC and tearing the innards out. We did suggest that there would be a charge for reassembly if they didn’t buy the computers but they just grunted and said it was for national security and anti-terrorism. Seems they were worried about exploding batteries or something. We thought those had all been recalled already. Then they bundled everything in the shop into some huge wheelie bins and disappeared into the back lane.

They told us to charge everything to the Amex card they produced and also said we could add a little extra for the inconvenience! Now that’s more like it! Sold the whole stock in one go to the Men in Black! Uncle Tony won’t believe how well we did. Although we’re still not sure the whole thing was legitimate. I mean really, do you think some bloke called Bush has that much credit on his Amex? They must think we’re from the bush ourselves. We called the cops and dobbed them in for credit card fraud. Had to do the right thing. We still don’t understand why we’re the ones in custody. And don’t you normally get to call a lawyer? They always let you do that on TV. If anybody’s listening, can you get a message to the nephew?

Gotta go!
Interrogators waiting!

apec invasion lost mobility of opportunities sees