Zippers in a quiet week

A tailor in Assiut orders zippers in the slow weeks of the year, when nobody is asking for anything. By the time school uniforms arrive by the armful, she has boxes of them on the shelf behind her.

Her neighbour does it the other way. He orders when he runs out, which always happens in the busiest week, when the supplier is short, prices are up, and a mother is standing at the counter waiting. Some years he finds them. Some years he sends customers away and they do not come back.

The arithmetic is not complicated. Ordering early ties a little money to a shelf for a few weeks. Running dry at the wrong moment can cost a season of customers. When the first cost is small and the second is serious, the reserve is not caution. It is the job.

The same is true of things that are not stock. Savings, patience, a list of people who might help, the energy to start something new. Each can be kept near zero and refilled in a panic, or kept full while it is easy and drawn on when it is needed.

The difference is who sets the date. Run things close to empty and the crisis decides when it arrives, usually at the worst possible time. Fill up early and you still face the hard moment, but on a day you picked, with something left behind you.