"Karl Townsend" wrote in message
...
I'm curious, how do you think a small business should do it?

Preferably, the honest way. As a consumer, I run when I get that "greasy
feeling" about the place that I am doing business. Hidden charges are a great
way to give your customers that "greasy feeling".

This economy is hard on everyone. I an quickly figuring out how to lower my
standard of living, and that will create a domino effect that will just make
things harder on others who depend on my business. Like me, they will just have
to figure ways to get along with less.

Just today, I noticed that the resturant increased the price of a soft drink
to $2.29. The domino effect will be that next week I will order water with my
meal. The domino effect of that might be that the resturant will compensate by
increasing the price of their meals, which might mean that we will stop going
out to eat on Fridays, which might mean that the waitress will not be able to
make her house payment, which might mean...

It is a terrible cycle. The business that survives will be the business that
figures out how to keep its customers happy, loyal, and coming back no matter
what else happens.

Every other small business is in the same boat. For my 2 cents, I think we're
looking at serious inflation after the fall elections. Ag products just seem
to be getting hit first. (been to the grocery lately?)

Where have you beeen? The "serious inflation" has been here for months,
perhaps years. The government has managed to delay the news by "cooking" the
numbers to make the CPI appear lower than it really is. Folks are just now
starting to figure out that they have been had.

Vaughn