In article ,
Here's an idea wrote:

"Harold & Susan Vordos" wrote in message
...

"Chuck" wrote in message
...
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. Then, in the last go-'round, when
prices dropped back down 20-cents or so, his stayed high.
Consequently, I stopped buying my gas there. Then, one day I stopped
and asked, with all due respect, why their price had previously
reflected that of the same brand station in the next town, but this
time had stayed high? His reply? "Go down there and buy your gas."

Done deal, and for ever. Any time I find a business that has that kind
of
attitude, I not only don't patronize them, but I make sure that others
understand their attitude. There's nothing like negative advertising
to
sink a business, and it's the cheapest and easiest advertising a person
can
get, with plenty to go around. All it takes is a go-to-hell attitude
displayed to the consumer like the example above.

Mother in law owns the small town (500) paper. Town grocery decided it
wasn't worth advertising in the paper for $300 for the month. Mom stopped
buying food there. Any guesses on how much a family with 6 kids spends at
the grocery?

If they shop efficiently, in the $250-300/month range. However, grocery
stores are a _low_ margin operation. 4% gross profit is a "healthy" store.
that $300 of revenues means maybe $10-12 gross profits.

Then, there's the _other_ side of the story. The town I grew up in was
considerably bigger -- metro area circa 250,000 -- but it was a one-
newspaper town. Just after the Korean conflict, the paper raised it's
ad rates significantly. The local owner of three grocery stores went
in to 'talk about it'. The paper said, in almost so many words, "If you
don't like our rates, advertise in another newspaper". He pulled _all_
his newspaper advertising. Eliminated 'advertising' as a line-item in
his budget. *REDUCED* his shelf prices by the amount of the expense
reduction. Sent a one-time mailing to every household in town, announcing
why he wouldn't be running any more newspaper ads, what he'd done with
his prices, and asking people to patronize his stores. 15 years later,
he had 10 stores in town, and the _smallest_ of his stores did twice
the volume of the next-largest store in town.

Since that time, they've run a newspaper ad precisely _once_. And _never_
done any radio or TV advertising. The one occasion was to mark the opening
of a new "showplace" store -- lots of exotic vegetables, etc. And more than
twice the square footage of any prior store.

They bought one full-page ad, and the newspaper ran a THREE PAGE (three _full_
pages, including the entire front page of the 'family' section) "feature"
story about the new store. (Yes, the newspaper management was _drooling_
at the thought that they might start behaving like a 'regular' grocery
again -- picking up several full pages of ads every week.)

They're a _strange_ operation. They don't advertise -- that one newspaper
ad was the *only* piece of paid-for advertising they've done in more than
FIFTY YEARS now. They don't even hang sale signs in the windows. Or
have sale flyers in the store. Their prices are generally stable/predictable,
and -- except for 'loss-leader' sale items at other stores -- usually lower
than at the competition. Combined with superior customer-service (would you
believe that they _still_ have the 'bag boys' take groceries to your car
and load 'em for you?), it's a _very_ successful model.