OCR Text |
Show Business exchanges gain favor But a few get more than they bargain for by Tom Horton account 200 credits, and credits the printer 200 Enterprise Staff Writer credits. Economics of the dark ages is part of the economic system today, according to a growing group of Utah businesspeople. For upwards of a thousand local merchants, the moneyless barter economy is a fact of business life in 1977. They are members of business exchanges, nationw ide networks of goods and services producers w ho trade their wares in an economic system of their own creation. For a few', however, the barter system has gone sour, leaving them a few thousand dollars in the hole and often bitter. Riddle continues, Now, some other member of the exchange, it doesnt have to be the printer, who has $200 worth of credits in his account wants to buy a coffee table. The exchange sends him to me, and I happen to sell him a coffee table for 200 cedits retail, a table which cost me $100 from by supplier. What have I done? I've spent $100. . .the price I pay to replace the coffee table in my inventory. . .for printing that would have cost Continued on page 20 has designed, and plans to build. According to M.A. Salim, president, the company was one of five applicants awarded a grant in Utah. Declining to name a specific sum, Salim estimated the grant was "between $8-12,00- 0. The house, designed by ar- chitect Tom Hamacher, with consultation from solar and mechanical engineer Sherm Jankc and company officers, Salim and Khosrow Shirad. is optimal solar house, according to Hamacher. While an ordinary solar system provides between 30 and 60 percent efficiency, the heating and cooling system in this house will be fueled by solar energy 77 percent of the time. Hamacher said. Continued on page 21 an Ill trade you 937 begonias. So you need a loan. car, which has a market. . . Tired of paying interest? dates? Banks wont touch your Exchanges are becoming increasingly popular, according to Randy Rigby of Exchange Enterprises, Utahs oldest. The Rigby family business began seven years ago, and is now doing $300,000 worth of trading per month, and growing by 30 percent a year. The operation, formerly Business and Professional Exchange, has over 1,000 members in Utah, and is part of a larger network of 31 similar operations in the U.S. and Canada. pro- ject? Robert Langlois will be glad to tell you about his flexible-maturit$30,000 credit loan for his new greenhouse. T.anglois, owner of g The Tree House, a chain of house plant and flower stores, is getting his no-intere- st y fast-growin- financing through Unlimited Business Exchange of which he is a member. Exchange members buy and sell among one another using a system of credits, with one credit equaling a dollar. Heres how credits are used, as explained by Gary Riddle of Business Exchange of Salt Lake. Nobody will generally finance a greenhouse, says Langlois. Theyre just too unusual an item. Its not like getting a loan on a house or a Riddle a furniture store, I need $200 worth of printing postulates, and done. The exchange sets me up with several printers who are members, I choose one, and he does my printing. The exchange debits my own well-establish- business exchange, which agreed to credit his account with enough credits to erect He went his greenhouse. found the necshopping and essary craftsmen who arc exchange members, and he estimates he can complete 95 percent of the project through I may be the exchange. paying a little more because I cant be as selective about the contractors as I would like, but without the exchange 1 would never have even considered the new' greenhouse, he says. A nice way to get a loan? so. thinks Langlois Most business exchanges will make such loans to their members, although a few of them do not do it openly, for fear of getting too many loan requests and too many bad To pay off the $30,000 credits, Langlois will do an equal amount in retail business with debts. Managers are generally pleased w'ith the arrangement. since they are in a position to guarantee the loan other exchange members. The exchange will send him a steady flow of member-customewho want house or will be paid off. by simply sending business to the rs debtor. My cousins place WORLD DATA SYSTEMS INC. Weve always gone to them Theyve always treated us right ... There are a lot of good reasons for going to a certain printer. But if price heads your list, Specialists in there's only one to choose from! Problem-Solvin- g Business Systems Process Control Systems Microcomputers where we guarantee the lowest price Telecommunications Automated Dispatching 36 West Second South Salt Lake City, Utah 84101 Providing BETTER Technology 790 West 3500 South Suite C 1 Salt Lake City, Utah 84119 (801 ) (801)364-104972-873- 4 0 Between 100 and 1000 copies per original, 8'j xll, camera ready copy, black ink. white paper, one side, no solids, screens or halt-tone- . . office plants or flowers until the loan is paid off, a period of time which Langlois estimates at maybe two or three or four He knows the exyears. change will not send him $30,000 worth of business at in effect, foreclosing once on the loan because that would put his cash flow, and thus his business, in jeopardy. ed The businessman went to his Had it with fixed maturity Growing 30 percent a year 1 Tios Corp. of Salt Lake City has received a grant from the Housing and Urban Development Administration to provide solar energy in a home it r With a few minor revisions, business exchanges operate like the farmer who makes cheese, trading cheddar for wine from the vintner down the road. On an adult scale, the operate like a banking system, except theyve eliminated cash. . .a true cashless society within a greenback-grubbin- g w'orld. Say grants funds for construction of solar home HUD s |