Alice: I would be hard pressed to blame Wal-Mart for what happend to the vendor you referred to. Anyone in business should recognize the danger of devoting too much of the business to one client, regardless of who it is. Lose the client and you are up the proverbial creek wihtout a paddle. If your argument is that vendors make the mistake of relying too much on Wal-Mart and run the risk, of ruin, I certainly would agree with you.

Nicole: you have heard the story, probably, about the efficiency expert the owner of a ice cream store brought in to evaluate his business. He was selling ice cream cones for a nickel (five cents U.S.) and customers qued up four abreast in a line that extended for blocks buying his ice cream cones, but he was going broke. The expert advised him that his ice cream cones were costing him ten cents to produce, so he would have to raise his prices. The business owner told him he was crazy. "That," he said, "would screw up my volume!"

DougR