Visions of sugarplums

"Twas three months before Market for the home textiles biz.

Everybody was whirring, their minds in a tiz.

The samples they'd packed were flown here and flown there.

In hopes that some orders would make business flare.

When from the back office there arose such a clatter,

We sprang from our CADs to see what was the matter.

Away to collections we flew like a flash,

Tore open the letter and swooned with a crash.

Our very best client, so smart and so slick,

Must have been playing a bizarre sort of trick.

More crushing than blows, the chargebacks they came.

Our chief ranted and railed, and then cursed them by name.

"Darn co-ops! Dang shelf fees! Blast auctions and delivering.

My margins! My profits! I'm seeing them withering.

From the shelves of May Co. to the shelves of the Wal –

They blast away, blast away, blast away all!"

And then, in a twinkling, we saw on the fax

A series of papers that made us relax.

As we drew out the sheets and then passed them around

We discovered we'd landed an order profound.

The volume — it staggered! The numbers — how merry!

We realized right then we'd grab big market share-y.

With the size of the work we'd be living on planes.

But with that kind of order, no one would complain.

It was product unique, a right jolly good coup.

(Though we knew we'd see knockoffs without further ado.)

A call to our source, and with assurances said,

Soon gave our rivals to know they had something to dread.

We mapped out a plan and went straight back to work.

We prepped Team Logistics 'til they were berserk.

And at the same time we labored on those,

We whipped up another cool thing to propose.

Our chief sprang to the phone, to his account gave a pitch.

One more big job like that would make our firm rich.

And I heard him exclaim, with an abundance of cheer,

"Many orders to all, and to all A Good Year!"