A very beautiful girl walked up to a department store's fabric counter  and
said, "How much is this?""Only a kiss a meter," replied the smirking man
assistant."That's fine." replied the girl. "I'll take for meters." The
assistant quickly measured the material, wrapped it and then gave it to the
girl. Taking it, the girl turned and pointed to an old man standing beside
her. "MY grandpa will pay the bill." she said.

Oops, not Friday any more.

> ....most grocery stores operate on a 5% average profit margin.....
> But the big difference is that a large part of the inventory in a
> supermarket is turned over every 72 hours.  In a past life I've 'done
> the numbers' for retail operations and a big factor is 'time on the
> shelf' and the cost of money.  An operation that stocks all the little,
> obscure parts so that they are available across the counter virtually on
> demand has a BIG chunk of change tied up in parts for a long time.   We
> have a number of vendors that have made that commitment to be able to
> provide us with the parts we need  to keep our 15 to 20+ year old
> vehicles running.  I don't argue with their prices and just hope that
> they are making enough money to be able to stay in business so I can get
> what I need when I need it.  If they could turn the bulk of the items
> they sell every 72 hours like a grocery store then the  markup could be
> lower.  Until then I keep in mind a sign I saw on the wall in a pizza
> joint many years ago  "We don't argue with the competition that sells
> for less, they know what their product (and service, my addition) is
worth".
>