holland furnace company manufactured home furnaces. the company's marketing strategy involved door-to-door sales, which employed a large workforce. this model, if not unique to holland furnace, was nevertheless unusual. from the standpoint of arnold maremont, a businessman who had been purchasing holland furnace stock, it was unprofitable. these practices also implicated holland furnace in charges of unfair trade practices. (an investigation of these practices by the federal trade commission had already been pending for a year at the time of the events underlying the decision in "cheff".) sales representatives for holland would go door to door posing as official inspectors. claiming to be employed by the homeowner's utility or by the local government, these salesmen would disassemble the furnace, refusing to reassemble it for lack of spare parts. holland's core business lay in "replacement" boilers.