Business owners do, on a regular basis. My wife brought home a brochure from a company that provides audio systems to schools.
This particular company was offering home use type consumer electronics packaged in a roll around cabinet and calling it a professional sound system. They wanted $3,000 for it, which included a 3 year warranty and some training on how to use it.
I priced the items at Best Buy, and could get it all except the cabinet for about half.
We went to Guitar Center/city? and asked them what they could do for us, basically asking for a school discount. We got real professional equipment for $2700, my son and I put it together in a hundred dollar cabinet we got from another store, and delivered it to the school. The money was PTSO funds, not tax dollars, but still, the company was attempting to fleec the school district with substandard crap.
Another time my wife brought home a laptop computer. The school IT guy said it needed a new mother board and it would have to be sent out for repairs to the tune of many hundreds of dollars.. I opened it up and found a loose connection, repaired it, returned it.
Businesses that supply schools fleece the taxpayers routinely. Ignorant school employees don't know squat about the equipment they buy, and the vendors know that.
My god, I can't believe I'm about to do this, but I am going to come to the defense of the school district (possibly--I have no way of knowing if this applies to school districts or not but it does to the highly regulated company I work for).
As someone who who does the purchasing for my department in the company I work for, we are only able to order out of one catalog. This is mandated by the state, who has a whole division of enforcement officers on property. Regardless, we must purchase (state law for my company) a certain percentage of products from minority and women owed business's. The term is MBE/WBE (look it up). These catalogs are 3 inches thick full of typical office supplies and the like.
The first time I purchased from such catalogs, I was aghast at the prices! Everything was approximately double retail value. Let me give you an example of something I ordered last week for my office. A vertical filing cabinet (4 rows high, 26 inches deep)....the price $350 plus shipping. I saw the exact same cabinet at Office Depot just the other day for $119! It makes me ill every time I purchase from the MBE/WBE which I am mandated to do.
Utah I can't tell you with any degree of accuracy (because I don't know for sure) but my guess is the purchasing person at the local school district that grossly over-paid for the item, was doing her purchasing from just such a catalog.
Now follow the money...what type of political candidates do you suppose the owners of the MBE/WBE's support in elections? How much do these business owners contribute to political campaigns for various candidates to maintain their monopolies on office supplies in return for laws which mandate MBE/WBE products being purchased? Hardly a free market? My company does not complain as we just pass these costs on to the _________________ (fill in the blank--this is a test).
In other words, these politicians have created a nice little ratchet for themselves to ensure their continued election victories. In the meantime the public is being nailed with a stealth tax that no one even knows about, least of all the consumer who ends up paying the tax in the end.
Utah, my guess is what you saw with the piece of equipment was a MBE/WBE purchase out of a similar catalog. I would bet $10,000 that I am indeed correct.
If you don't believe me, ask any bar owner in the Chicagoland area how much he pays for a case of beer? He will say something like $40. But that is more a union thing and a story for another day. I do believe I did at least open your eyes a bit.
Correct answer: Customer
