Thanks for all the different inputs! They are surly worth noting and respected.
I like to give just one example of competition in business today that I am dealing with.
MSRP for a GPS system is about 20% or $200 above cost, so for a $1,000 item we have the opportunity to make $200 and this profit should pay for overhead such as employees, insurance, rent, advertisement etc. Competition has made it so there are box movers that are selling these at $20 above cost or at about $820 or less.
Would you risk shelling out $800 of your own money to take a chance of MAYBE having an opportunity to make only $20 on it? Now with that $20, you have to pay your employees, insurance, rent, advertisement etc
Now think of shelling out $1,000,000 in inventory and to only make enough profit to cover the credit card cost of 2%, is that good for small businesses?
Most of these dealers that market these products on the net for 2% over cost normal are out of business in a few months or a year; but not without doing some real damage to the legitimate small business that have been around for a few years. The internet business does not understand the cost of doing business and only know how to low ball the market to get some initial customers volume. These guys have no business being in business but with todays internet opportunities, anyone can open a store in their house with no overhead and sell just about anything they wish on eBay.
This is what the new generation of competition has done, made it so MOST if not ALL of America's standard of living is jeopardize and shifting from a 3 class system to a two class system, you got it because you are rich or you if don't and wish you have it but probably never will.
This is what competition has done to most other countries also, a two class system, the very rich and the very poor.
I have lived all three classes in my life and understand how important the middle class citizens are.
I was born to a very rich family, father died and family lost everything and became very poor and now I earned some of it back with proper investments and I can afford what I wish for. This come back would not have been possible if there are no middle class opportunities such as small businesses. I took risk with and profited from it, just want to have these opportunities available to others that wish to work their way out of a bad environment.
I believe this was only possible in America and no where else in the world. I would be still working for someone and would never have the opportunity to be self independent. This is the reason why I fight so hard to try to keep what is left of the middle class small businesses alive.
Without middle class workers and small business owners, all we will have is giant corporations to deal with and they will just start to take every little benefit from their employees away to compete with the rest of the world. We can take it or do without, and most of us will have to do without because we can't afford it.
All this Safeway labor strikes and furniture workers have little or no impact on my life currently, I will keep enjoying buying food from the grocery stores of my choice and buy what I wish
I just feel that if everyone just subconsciously have it in back of your minds that to be fair and support your local small businesses, maybe we can prolong what is inevitable.

Just because certain Safeway employees that may not like their job very well may have had a few bad days and treaded certain people badly does not make them ALL bad, especially after work. I am sure some of us have bad days and had become rude at one time or another, but it does not make us bad or rude all of the time. We all have our bad days and if you want a great example, DMV and Postal workers seems to be angry all the time, and I think most of them are because the people they have to deal with is rude to them to start with, and they just accepted this as a way of life and their job.
Just like this forum, we all have our differences in opinion, it does not make any of us good or bad, it just makes us different, and thats all.
When I volunteer my time as a reserve deputy, my demeanor turns from being friendly to being very aggressive, why? For my own safety and the safety of my partners.
Don't judge everyone by just one or two unpleasant encounters, we all have our bad days.

I do ride a Japanese bike and enjoy it very much, in fact I own 3 of them, I did not want to be part of the trend of being a H/D rider, H/D was not hurting for business when I looked at them, they have plenty of weekend worriers that is waiting to own one and most of my friends do own H/D or BMW's, so I don't think H/D dealers is hurting and competing as much as some of these Japanese motorcycle dealerships.

Hell, most if not all law enforcement agencies all over the country uses to drive Fords or Chevys because is the right thing to do to support your own country, and they mostly still do, some did switch to Volvos.
They use to all ride H/D's and now they have switch to BMW's or Kawasaki's not because they are not patriotic, but for practical reasons, H/D sound good but can't get out of it's own way!:lol

Again, just my two cents worth, it does not reflect the opinion of this forum and I respect everyone else input and view they have to offer, I found this forum to be very friendly and knowledgeable due to the average age of its members.:rollin

Keep the rubber side down