ctory of its own. It buys the razors from a large
electrical appliances manufacturing complex which turns out several
other name brand electric razors as well. The trade name company does
nothing except market the product. Its budget, by the way, calls for an
expenditure of six dollars on every razor for national advertising."

"Well, what are you getting at?" Tracy said impatiently.

Frederic Flowers had reached his punch line. "All right, we've traced
the razor all the way back to the manufacturing complex which made it.
Mr. Tracy, that razor you bought at a discount bargain for twenty-five
dollars cost thirty-eight cents to produce."

Tracy pretended to be dumfounded. "I don't believe it."

"It can be proven."

Frank Tracy thought about it for a while. "Well, even if true, so what?"

"It's a crime, that's so-what," Flowers blurted indignantly. "And that's
where Freer Enterprises comes in. Very shortly, we're going to enter the
market with an electric razor retailing for exactly one dollar. No name
brand, no advertising, no nothing except a razor just as good as though
selling for from twenty-five to fifty dollars."

Tracy scoffed his disbelief. "That's where you're wrong. No electric
razor manufacturer would sell to you. They'd be cutting their own
throats."

The Freer Enterprises official shook his head, in scorn. "That's where
_you're_ wrong. The same electric appliance manufacturer who produced
that razor there will make a similar one, slightly different in
appearance, for the same price for us. They don't care what happens to
their product once they make their profit from it. Business is business.
We'll be at least as good a customer as any of the others have ever
been. Eventually, better, since we'll be getting electric razors into
the hands of people who never felt they could afford one before."

He shook a finger at Tracy. "Manufacturers have been doing this for a
long time. I imagine it was the old mail-order houses that started it.
They'd get in touch with a manufacturer of, say, typewriters, or
outboard motors, or whatever, and order tens of thousands of these, not
an iota different from the manufacturer's standard product except for
the nameplate. They'd then sell these for as little as half the ordinary
retail price."

[Illustration]

Tracy seemed to think it over for a long moment. Eventually he said,
"Even then you're not going to break any records making money. Your
distribution costs migh