Being Illegal - A California Cautionary Tale - Page 2

Yes, that's part of my point - but another point I have is for those of us that buy stuff wholesale or partner up with another business to sell our goods (which lots of us do ALL THE TIME at farmer's markets, bake sales, cafes, food trucks, fairs...). You can't just assume the other business follows all the rules, and by partnering up or buying their product it can open YOU up by association. So when I say it made me want to double check my stuff I didn't necessarily mean me... I know MY business, but it also made me want to verify other businesses I work with or buy wholesale from regardless of my relationship with them, and it will make me be cautious in the business relationships I enter into in the future. I can care less what happens to Maude, the liar and criminal, (except in a train-crash-sort-of-way), but I care a LOT about what happens to my friend Dave, who was just totally taken advantage of by someone he thought was a friend, lost $20,000 in product that was confiscated, another $50,000 in renovations that he did specifically to sell this product, has an empty store so he's loosing hundreds in sales every day, and is scrambling trying to re-vamp that business plan. Not to mention freaking out because he is dealing with some scary stuff that threatens all his business and now has a tarnished reputation by association with Maude. He's already gearing up for the inevitable State and IRS audit so he has 2 independent bookkeepers combing his books for any little thing that could get him in trouble and has retained an attorney just in case. If he wasn't already successful in his other ventures he'd be ruined.

If you don't find a message of caution then I blame myself for not expressing myself more fully in the original post - but I see CAUTION in in bold letters all over this.

LOL, when the smoke clears and she gets fully busted I'll post her name. Right now her website is still up, she's still taking internet orders, just had a write-up in a huge national publication and just last week did 3 large events selling her product. Dave told me her attorney is hard at work trying to save her butt. I dunno, maybe he will.

But why would you think to do that? Say you were opening a cafe and you contacted Joe's Popular Bread Company to supply the bread for your sandwiches, would you ask them for their paperwork to make sure they are legal? And then would you contact the issuer of the paperwork to make sure it's valid? Doubtful. You'd assume since they are a separate business operating for over 6 years and they supply bread to several other cafes in town, you'd assume it was A-OK to work with and sell their product.

But again, if you dismiss this as an improbable situation or whatever, that's fine. To me this has opened my eyes to something we all just take for granted, not to mention how serious the penalties are for all involved.

Google will get you nowhere - sorry gals Maybe if I lived in a small town you might be able to piece together who I'm talking about, but SF is huge with lots of famous foodies. There has been no press about this which is why I'm being super vague.

And because I'm being vague it makes it hard for me to fill in some blanks that I am biting my tongue over. But I'll just say this: sure, Dave now knows to trust nobody now, but he's known her for years, she has sold her product thru Whole Foods for years, she has been on TV multiple times, and she has been written up in several national publications. It's not like she's, well, me... a total unknown.

She's not a famous as Bobby Flay, but seriously, if you decided to go into business with him selling his prepackaged and labeled BBQ sauce that is also available at several other retail locations, and wanted to make your own product at your new retail store featuring "Bobby Flay's BBQ Sauce", would you demand a "factory visit"?

I can say I'm regretting posting this thread to begin with, that's for sure.