Vendors and Competitors

Having been back at my old job for almost a month now, I find out just how severely the state of the economy has affected the businesses of vendors and competitors world wide. In the three months while I was "laid-off," several vendors from around the world went out of business. - One of the vendors supplied a product that was a major seller for the company I work for! During a conversation with a customer this morning, I learned that two of the major competitors of said company are literally running on a shoe string with as minimal staff as possible to meet customers' demands and skirt overhead. I was shocked to learn this, being out of the loop for even that short a period of time. Wow!