Alan Bass is a toy distributor.

He buys products directly from hobby kit and toy manufacturers.

So plastic model kits, model train sets, model rockets that most of us shot off when we were kids.

And he sells them to brick and mortar hobby and toy stores in the U.S.

The stores that we deal with are generally small.

Smallest ones we deal with are about 1,000 square feet, which is about the size of a very

small one-bedroom apartment.

And so we're servicing any independent store that does not need to buy in depth.

We offer breadth, not depth.

Now, being the middleman, exposes Alan to some risk. Once he's bought goods from the manufacturer, there he is. There are

no refunds. So if his customer stopped buying, it's his problem. There was a mass market customer that

was purchasing an item from us that we had manufactured specifically for us in China. And they

were buying thousands at of time. And so we were stocking multiple thousands at a time. And then one day

with no notice, they told us they found another supplier, probably their own factory.

And I believe we are still working on getting rid of that inventory.

And I think that was about 15 years ago.

What was the toy or product?

It was a custom playset, like a plastic playset for kids.

It's like a castle and nights playset.

It's a really awesome item.

We just had about 10,000 of them.

I'm Dan Heath, and this is what it's like to be.

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