[HPforGrownups] Wizarding Professions

[manawydan]

No: HPFGUIDX 108550

 Steve wrote:
>Another good example, Fred and George's Joke shop; let's look down the
> road several years and assume the business is very successfull. Fred
>and George aren't going to have time to make everything themselves.
>So, the will have a whole factory full of people; probably several
>factories. One that specializes in fireworks. In that factory, one
>person will work on rockets, another on Cathrine wheels, another on
>firecrackers, another on complex airborne displays. Just the fireworks
>factory alone will probably have many many emplyoyees. Then the joke
>part of the business. Some guy will sit on an assembly line all day
>long enchanting trick wands, another guy will form the wands from
>sticks of wood, etc... etc.... In another department, a whole crew of
>people will make trick sweets.

An interesting thought, and one where there's very little canon, is whether
production in the WW is based on factories or on workshops. All the
businesses we see in the books appear to be small ones - we don't hear the
factory hooter going at Ollivander's and hundreds of wandmakers streaming
out to the pub at lunchtime, for example!

The only _possible_ exception are the broomstick makers, where there's a
slight implication that one or two manufacturers dominate the market for
"quality" broomsticks. That's not to say of course that there aren't dozens
of "village broommakers" turning out the kind of slow steady ones that are
great for getting Mrs Witch to the farmers' market to do her shopping, or
for the kids to learn on, but wouldn't get you anywhere against a Nimbus or
a Firebolt.

So maybe, rather than having a factory attached, Gred and Forge would have a
network of small suppliers up and down the country, each of whom had a good
line in producing whatever was wanted.

I do wonder what happened to Gambol and Japes, though. Can Diagon Alley
_really_ support two joke shops?

Cheers

Ffred

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