My friend Jim told me about an experience he had in Chicago in 1983 when he was opening up a new business on the fifth floor of a Wabash Street building. The landlord told Jim that each business in the building had to contract with a local rubbish firm to haul trash from the building. The trash haulers would have access to the freight elevator and would empty barrels left there and return the empty barrels to the same spot. Jim noticed a sign on a truck that was picking up trash down the street, called the firm, set up an account, and mailed in a deposit.
For the next week or so, a man from the firm would arrive via the freight elevator and empty the trash barrels. The following week a new guy appeared at the freight elevator with a form to fill out to order trash removal service. Jim explained to the guy that he had already made arrangements to have the trash picked up by another firm.
“Vito picks up on this block”, the man told him. At first Jim thought there might be issue a communication issue so he explained again, slowly, that he had already made arrangements to have the trash picked up by another firm. By this time the man had grown frustrated and repeated, this time in a louder tone of voice, “Vito picks up on this block. You don’t get it.”
And then Jim got it. This was Chicago and garbage hauling was tightly controlled by organized crime.
Jim promptly canceled his contract with the other hauling firm and from that time forward, Vito’s firm hauled the trash from the building.
