Wally wrote:

Uhhhh, please name the companies that don't buy at the best price
available.

*************************

Not the same thing.

Example: Ma and Pa Electric, at 1234 Main Street, Yourtown USA, need to
order some toasters. They call 4-5 toaster manufacturers and discover
their best available price on toasters is $19@ in quantities of a dozen
or more. Ma and Pa Electric order two dozen toasters.

Walmart needs to order some toasters. They make the same calls, and
discover the best available price is $14@ in quantities of a gross or
more. Walmart doesn't order the toasters at $14, but invites the $14
vendor down to Arkansas for a meeting.

Walmart: We would like to order 400,000 toasters. We will pay $6
apiece.

Vendor: Six bucks? You're kidding. Our pure cost to manufacture a unit
is $8.50. How could we possibly sell them to you for $6?

Walmart: Cut your costs.

Vendor: How can I possibly cut my costs? Materials are nearly $2 a
toaster, labor is $4.75, and plant overhead and taxes about $1.50.

Walmart: Cut out most of the $4.75, and you will be very profitable at
$6.

Vendor: A good worker can build about two toasters an hour. We can't
attract reliable help for less than $8 an hour, plus a few benefits.

Walmart: Sure you can. Just not in the United States. We're buying
400,000 waffle irons every year from X-CO. Their costs were not that
different from your toasters, but they have cut their labor costs to
less than 20-cents per unit. They fired all those expensive,
potentially someday union laborers and moved the factory offshore to
Tumbleweedzia. The government of Tumbleweedzia will build you a new
factory, and forgive all taxes for ten years if you close your plant in
Missouri and build your toasters in Tubleweedzia.

Vendor: I'd hate to do that, some of my workers are the second and
third generations to work at the plant, and we're the largest employer
in our little town.

Walmart: This is a free country. We're not trying to tell you how to
run your business, we're simply telling you what we're willing to pay
for toasters. If you can't supply them for $6 a copy, we will find
somebody else who can and will. Of course you do realize that when
we're paying $6 apiece for toasters, we'll be free to *retail* them
for, oh, say maybe $8.49? What did you say it costs you to *build* a
toaster?