108

Bjorn found a red pen next to the fridge, and noted down the change of schedule on Frank's spreadsheet. Feeling peckish, he proceeded to make himself a ham and cheese sandwich, which he brought with him back into the living room.

There was still nobody there, and the comfy chair was where he left it, squarely in front of the large window by the coffee table. The sleet was giving way to a light drizzle, and there were hardly any snowflakes fluttering around outside. But the drab view had a sombre fascination to it, and Bjorn was happy just siting in the easy chair for a while, munching his sandwich while contemplating the grand silent nothingness of the arctic.

Seemingly out of nowhere, Bjorn was suddenly reminded of the slogan used by David's Pharmacy. "The sky is not the limit," hovered in his head as a quirky thought, and he found himself wondering what the limit is, if not the sky. "What a silly slogan," he thought as he contemplated the absurdity of the quote. "Why would anyone want to go beyond the sky?"

Then, waking up from his meditative state, he realized that the slogan was actually staring him right in the face all along. He had put the Lundby Gazette face down on the coffee table, and the ad for David´s pharmacy was right in front of him, with the slogan as its title.

Having finished his sandwich, Bjorn picked up the newspaper and after a brief look at the ads on the back, he started reading the articles, starting with the front page headline which read: "Will the boom turn to bust?"

The article was all about the spectacular increase in commercial activity that had blessed the little community with plenty of business and job opportunities. And retail had been particularly blessed with ever growing demand for all the cheap products available in the village. People were coming from all over Finnmark county to buy cheap stuff in Lundby, and a new make shift supermarket had been opened in an abandoned warehouse at the port in order to handle the expected all time high influx of shoppers over the weekend. An improvised petrol station had also seen the light of day over at the port.

Entrepreneurs, both local and not so local, were scrambling to take advantage of the unique tax benefits offered in Lundby. However, the article pointed out that the current state of affairs would not likely last for much longer. Competing businesses outside of Lundby were petitioning government agents in Oslo to crack down on the village and level the playing field by introducing tariffs and taxes. And it would be naïve to think that the central government would not act to save and help struggling businesses in Kirkenes, Neiden, and even Alta and Tromso by introducing tariffs, not least because this would add to the coffers of the central government in Oslo.

The article concluded that things would soon become much harder for businesses in Lundby, and that exuberant investments into retail businesses at this point was extremely risky. The retail market could easily be reduced to just a fraction of its current size. And with popular support for such an action from local merchants outside Lundby and ordinary people living far away from the village, unable to take advantage of the great bargains to be had in Lundby, the likelihood of high tariffs being introduced seemed a near certainty.

The article was level headed in many ways, but Bjorn found its aggressive tone towards the government in Oslo surprisingly harsh. The journalist was completely ignoring the fact that the government had actually created Lundby in the first place. Levelling the playing field, as it were, made perfect sense, both from the viewpoint of local disadvantaged businesses and from the viewpoint of the government. And with most people unable to take advantage of the bargains in Lundby, the new regulations would have little political impact. Bjorn agreed with the article's conclusion, but did not see it as necessarily a bad thing, considering how many people would actually be better off by an intervention.