REMEMBER THE CANDY FACTORY?
This is the place where the workers pack boxes of Turkish Delight! And the candy is so popular, that the workers have trouble satisfying all of the orders.
WELL HERE IS A STORY THAT WILL SHOCK YOU! 😉
ONE DAY…
Tiny Tina was on her way home from work. She was on the bus. Also on the bus was a customer. Tina recognized this customer, because she came to the factory often. Tina could see the boxes of Turkish Delight in the woman’s bag. And Tina watched as the woman got off of the bus.
Then a very strange thing happened…
The woman went over to a garbage can at the street corner. Tiny Tina watched as the woman opened up a box of Turkish Delight and spilled the candy right out into the garbage! Then she put the empty box back into her bag. Tina could not believe what she was seeing! The woman then threw away the candy from her other boxes, too, and then walked off!
“What is going on??!!” wondered Tina? “Was the candy rotten?”
THE NEXT DAY…
The exact same thing happened again! Tina was on the bus. The same customer was on the bus, too. Tina watched as the customer got off the bus, dumped out the candy, put the boxes back in her bag and walked off! Tina could not understand what was happening.
ON THE THIRD DAY…
Tina was on the bus home again. The same customer was on the bus with her. This time, when the customer got off, Tina did too. As usual, the customer threw away all of the Turkish Delight. Tina walked up to the customer. “Excuse me,” she said.
The customer turned around. “Yes?”
“Well,” said Tina. “I couldn’t help noticing that you threw away all of your Turkish Delight. Was something wrong with it?”
“Oh!” said the customer. “I don’t like Turkish Delight! It’s too gooey for me.”
“I see,” said Tina. “But, then, why do you buy it every day?”
The customer explained, “Well, I don’t like the candy, but I LOVE the sticker that is on the box! A lot of customers buy Turkish Delight for the sticker! You didn’t know that?” the customer asked.
“No,” Tina responded. “I didn’t know that.”
“Some people like Turkish Delight, of course,” the customer went on. “But a lot of us buy the candy for the sticker. These stickers are great. We collect them. We love them. We can’t find them anywhere else!”
Thanks for explaining,” said Tina. “Goodbye.”
BACK AT THE FACTORY
And so the next day, when she got to work, Tina went straight to the boss. “Boss!” she said.
“What?!” demanded the boss angrily.
“You are not going to believe this, but lots of customers don’t even like Turkish Delight!”
“That’s impossible,” said the boss. “Of course they do. They buy it like crazy.”
“I know,” said Tina. “But a lot of them just want the sticker!”
And Tina explained everything that she had learned from the customer on the bus.
The boss was amazed. He said “Well, in that case, let’s sell stickers!! We don’t have to bother making so much Turkish Delight! We can just sell the stickers. We will charge 1 cent for each sticker. Go tell the workers to put stickers on sheets. Tell them to hurry hurry hurry! Just get as many stickers onto a sheet as they can and then sell them for one cent per sticker!”
AND SO…
That is what they did. The workers put stickers on sheets and then counted them and sold them. They were very, very popular (and less wasteful).
The sticker sheets looked like this or this or this …
… or this or this …
But there was a problem. Can you guess what the problem was?
The workers needed to count the stickers really fast. They couldn’t do it and they constantly made mistakes!!
GIVE IT A TRY!
Go through these sticker sheets fast. Can you tell how much each sheet should cost? Remember, one cent for each sticker.
Will you get frustrated like the workers at the factory???
Stickers!