Educator for a Day and
The race to the lowest price goes in a circle

With the November issue of the e-retailer over the past 18 years, we have most frequently suggested readers participate in Teach In Day. The event works with local schools and has people from the community teach classes for a day. We have always been fond of it as it allows us to tell students about becoming business people.

While many of us have our successors come from within the family, you could be the one that peaks the interest of a young person who eventually becomes a small business owner.

The event is now called, "Educator for a Day" and for 2017 will be held on Thursday, November 16. Let us suggest your contacting local schools to learn more about participating.

We found an interesting report this past week from Forbes. It stated that prices at Costco were 57% lower than Whole Foods. Perhaps that is not surprising with the design of Costco being in the discount/quantity purchase format of businesses. That, and with Whole Foods having a nickname of "whole paycheck".

However, Whole Foods is now owned by Amazon. While Amazon can use Whole Food stores for distribution of the products, you would not expect Amazon to begin dropping the prices at Whole Foods to make it competitive with Costco; you just don't buy a business and then destroy its business model.

So, what is the point of this "circle"? The first is "caution" - be careful about what you read and hear about small business and how the Internet is going to destroy the traditional model. The second is dropping prices leads a business to becoming a commodity - whether you sell products or services. He who becomes a commodity last is the winner. It is never about how much your revenue is. It is always about how much you get to keep.

Small Business Saturday is November 25. Be sure to participate.