No one I know ever seems interested in knowing the wholesale price of a suit he's buying.

          I've never heard of anyone walking into a restaurant with a couple of eggs in his pocket and asking the cook to deliver them sunny side up, please.

          I've always thought that the retail car business was unique.  I don't think so anymore.  Times have changed.

          There are still a few places in this country where you can get away with cost plus.  Tell me the cost, and I'll add my profit - no muss, no fuss.  But that doesn't happen much anymore.

         Bo Eaton, when he was cEO at Chrysler, said that the last dumb customer walked in the door around the middle of 1998.

         The good news is that it's the Internet.  The bad news is that it's the Internet.

          The Internet has given customers more information about everything, including the car business.  The Internet has given car dealers the potential to communicate with their customers better than ever before.

          But the Internet has armed customers with all the information to make them as well informed as the best salesman, maybe better.

          It's a different world today, and it's going to stay that way.  The retail business is still full of reward and challenges.  That's the one thing that's not going to change.

SOURCE:  Automotive News