Some items in grocery stores are marked up at a higher rate than others.
From what I understand (and never having been in the grocery business, I
can't speak from first-hand knowledge) the overall profit margin is about 5%
and their costs (rent, insurance, wages, advertising, etc.) get covered by
that.  Which means high sales volume is critical.

Plus, at a car dealership, it isn't the car sales that really makes the
money and keeps the place in business.  The Parts Dept. helps some, but the
main profit center is the Service Dept.  The Service Dept. is what usually
makes or breaks a dealership.  And if your dealership acts as a district or
regional parts supplier (which we weren't, it was just a small town
dealership) and offer some of your commercial customers a 35% discount
(keeping 5% for yourself), you're still making a little bit off of the
discounted parts and your standard 40% off of the bulk of your parts sales
(parts used by the Service Dept. on customers' vehicles and
across-the-counter sales) so you're still showing a good profit margin.

Norm

-----Original Message-----
Date:    Fri, 23 Apr 2004 22:06:25 -0700
From:    Karl Wolz <wolzphoto@WORLDNET.ATT.NET>
Subject: Re: 2.1 hose price deal NVC

That margin is after paying fro rent, insurance, wages, advertising, etc.
Not direct, item-by-item mark-up.

Karl Wolz
 >
 > I used to work in the Parts Dept. at an Olds/Cadillac, GMC Truck
dealership.  > Our prices were across the board 60% cost, 40% markup.  So
even if we sold  > to someone at a 35% discount, we still had a %5 margin.
Not much, but most  > grocery stores operate on a 5% average profit margin.
>  > Norm