stefan... the a,b,c and right on down to e-commerce
one day little stefan became envious of his neighbor, big mikey, who for years sold lemonade in front of his house for ten cents a glass.
little stefan borrowed one dollar from his father, and went to the convenience store and bought the necessary ingredients. little stefan knew it would cost him ten cents a glass to make the lemonade, but how could he take customers away from big mikey...what to do, what to do, what to do......the next morning lil stefan opened his stand and offered his lemonade for nine cents a glass...and in doing so, he took some of big mikey's non loyal customers away. at the end of the day lil stefan discovered he had but ninety cents left...so back to the convenience store, to buy enuff ingredients to make nine glasses.
the following day as lil stefan woke up...he saw big mikey lowering his price to nine cents...lil stefan knowing the value of taking customers away at any cost, dropped his price to eight cents...only to discover that he would only be able to sell seven glasses the next day...
it went as this for a little over a week...until lil stefan had no more money left to buy ingredients...and as he swallowed his pride, walking over to big mikeys stand he noticed that big mikey was again at ten cents a glass..."big mikey, how do you do it...i tried, offered the same lemonade, lowered my prices, and took customers away...and" at that moment big mikey interrupted.."lil stefan...where did you buy the ingredients?..." i bought them at the convenience store..and it cost me ten cents a glass..." big mikey just smiled..." no wonder lil stefan, i buy my ingredients at the hyper market and it only costs me five cents a glass...."
big mikey went on to be a big business man who challenged and beat the biggest and bluest lemonade stand in the world,,,lil stefan went on to be a internet stock analyst.
the moral of the story...never, ever, ever, sell something below your cost...it's far better to take your money and buy an ice cream cone..
interesting comment to you my negative thinking friend...the definition of "commerce"..."the interchange of goods,wares,products,between nations or individuals either by barter, or by purchase and sale"....whereas the definition of "business"..."the means of a livelihood, for the purpose of profit"
those e-commerce guys really fit the definition...i'm glad big mikey is a business man! ...ed a.
p.s...by the way 'capitalism"...."a tendency toward concentration of wealth"....how my little inexperienced, naive friend can you accrue wealth by losing money?...you have a lot to learn!!!! |
