I'm a wild woman. Yes, I am. I woke up early (for a day off, 6 AM is early), went to Walmart. We rode with a nice driver. He's from Vietnam, got caught by the bad guys, prisoner of war. Got out, came here. Nice guy, couldn't be nicer. We've ridden with him before so we enjoy him.

Once we got to Walmart, breakfast. Took my pills, got out my list, I'm ready to shop. I start at the "Non-perishable" side and work my way across the back to the perishable foods. As I passed the craft department, I noticed more Red Heart Zebra yarn! I only bought one additional skein. I'm cutting back. I also found size 8 *(5mm) 16-inch circular bamboo needles for $2.44. That is an insanely good deal. I couldn't believe it. I bought all 3. I got some Chappel Hill garlic sausage, oh, that is the best. I got Ron some spicy pre-cooked sausage patties, bacon, and other good things. When I feel more energetic, I'll have Ron cut up the Chappel Hill sausage so I can cook it. I hate cutting raw meat. Yuck.

When I got home, I couldn't wait to (1. Put up the needs refrigeration stuff) get out my new circular needle and play with it! I have to say, it was a tad splintery but it's not bad. I got out some 220 sandpaper I have and used it with great success. It's better than aluminum "circs", and no worse than the $10 wooden circulars. It makes me realize the outragous markup the craft stores charge on that stuff, they have no problem... eek. Walmart is so popular for a basic reason, one I try to emulate. They buy low, sell low.

Ron and I have gotten into trouble at work with a Buy-Low/Sell-Low philosoply. Virtually every item we sell is covered by a contract. We have to sell sodas for 70 cents, and candy bars for 75. We do have a few "gray items". A good example -- the granola bars. I found a great deal on them, 22 cents a bar. Ron and I try to keep a certain percentage food cost (food cost is X% of the final cost). We decided that 50 cents would be fair. The other vendor was buying them from our wholesale supply company and selling them for 75 cents (but we didn't know at the time).

The other vendor has the Buy-Low/Sell-High philosopy. If you can buy an item for 18 cents, and sell it for 60, then you ought to. Except he's been complaining a lot about poor sales. When I was at Walmart today I saw peanut bars, 10 for $2.42. According to our contract, we ought to be selling them for 75 cents. If you want a Peanut Bar every day what are you going to do? I doubt they'll come to us. People are cheap, they want a good deal, that's been my philosophy. A good example, I'm not wild about root beer. But when I worked at a linen shop I would buy root beer from the soda vending machine because the guy sold generic root beer for 40 cents, name brand sodas 60 cents. For a dollar, I could get a soda and a candy bar. Or I could get a "Coke".

Ron agreed. So we put the granola bars in at 50 cents. We sold 2 cases a week. Then a customer complained to the other vendors that their granola bars were more expensive. OOoooh. It was ugly. They felt attacked. They actually had granola bars written into the contract at 75 cents. Ron's boss's boss actually told him "We're in this business to make money" - not realizing that selling 2 cases a week at, say, $30 profit a month was a lot better than selling two cases a MONTH at $24 profit. We're still making more money than the other guy.

No. And when we raised prices, sales dropped like a rock. Of course. People want a good deal, they'll go out of their way to get it. Like I did.