Arrrr I'm a Mighty Pirate

It’s a rare treat for me to walk around the city during the day. Even though I live in the city, I miss the hustle and bustle due to work obligations, so it’s quite interesting to see how it actually springs to life when I’m not around.

Anyways, to cut a boring story short, while walking down somewhere to meet someone (you’ll have to excuse the vagueness of my descriptions here – but no it’s nobody of ill repute in case you were wondering) for an appointment. Out the corner of my eye I noticed a street vendor, trading in medicinal goods, with some Reflex goods. Yip, the Reflex packaging is that damn attractive – man! Whoever’s responsible for that brand here in South Africa sure is/are good.

At first, I thought that the product might have been a rip off, but on closer inspection it was the real deal. I inquired how much it was and the lady gave me a price that was well below our cost of importing even when I was still involved in the company. Unless the Rand has dramatically strengthened and my brother and co have decided to deal with hawkers, the street vendor must have acquired the product through channels of pilferage.

I had the idea in mind to shut down that operation, but on consideration I realized that the poor street vendor was probably just trying to make a living and feed her 5 children somewhere. She probably just sourced the product from someone else in any case; whatever the situation I decided to just let her be.

I’m not going to tell you the exact whereabouts of where this street vendor is, because I don’t want you cheap bastards looking for it and buying products from there (sorry, but I know I’m pigeon-holing everyone here…but I know I’d probably do it too). It just irritates me that some people work seriously hard to get a product like that out and someone comes along, steals it and sells it as their own.

It certainly makes me think twice with regards to the issue of piracy and I’m certain that what I felt today is what some people in the music and film industry feel like when they see all their hard work littered across the internet.