Aimee liked working Sundays because lots of customers brought their dogs in, but sometimes she would get bored after they closed, when she ended up waiting for her parents to finish the office work.
"I still don't see why I can't go to the riding academy and adventure camp this summer," Aimee said, trying to sound oh-so-reasonable. "It's only two weeks out of the whole summer, and they're a month apart."
Sarah, Aimee's Mom, answered without looking away from the computer, "I wish you could Aimee, but I told you we can't afford to send you to both."
"Oh come on Mom. You buy stuff like Kongs for three bucks and sell 'em for eight, don't you? We should be rich by now," Aimee countered.
"Now that's funny," Aimee's Dad, Nick, said as he turned his chair to face Aimee and her Mom. "You don't actually think that means we make 5 bucks profit do you Aimee? You're smarter than that."
Nick saw a teachable moment, so he continued, "Before you try to spend that 5 bucks on vacation, we're going to have to use part of it to pay the shipping on the Kong, then pay a crew member to unpack the box and check it against the P.O., add them to stock, hope the advertising we're paying for actually gets somebody in here to buy it, and then we get to pay someone else to wait on them. And before we actually get to break even on that Kong, we get to pay the rent, the cleaning service, the electricity, and everything else."
"Remember Aimee," Sarah reminded her youngest, "we always stress product knowledge and customer service because increasing sales is the best way to help us be more profitable when you're on the floor, but don't forget everything else we need to do to make the store a success takes time and money too."
Every retailer quickly learns there's a lot more to the business than selling something for more than you paid for it.
