Used to be, at the dump, would be three or four of my competitors – us freelance trash haulers. I noticed, almost two months ago, that there were fewer of us. My work was booked ahead about two weeks then, but had since declined to the point that I wasn’t busy for a full day. The few encounters at the dump confirmed that we were all slow – I asked whenever I saw one of the others.

I called my old customers, looking for some repeat business. Several told me that they had found someone else. Pressing got the admission that I had not disappointed them, but had been severely under priced. His name was Grifler.

I found his ad in the paper and set up a visit. As the day approached I started parking my truck around the block. I had a nice pile in the back yard.

Grifler drove up in an old van – seriously not big enough to do this kind of work. His price was very low. We shook hands and he went to work. Somehow he got my entire pile into his van. When I expressed interest he carefully kept me from looking inside.