“Yes, I could give you ... say, ten percent off on a thousand ... and at twenty-four bottles to the case, twelve cents a case ... would be one hundred and twenty dollars, minus ten percent, would be one hundred and eight ... call it one-naught-five, shall we?”
“No, no. I couldn’t use a thousand cases. Jesus! I meant, say, ten cases.”
“That would be a dollar twenty.”
“Right!” said the man. He slapped down a dollar twenty on the counter. “Boy, that’s some policy you’ve got there!” he said.
“It’s our Get-Acquainted policy,” said Grand.
“It’s some policy all right,” said the man. “Have you got any other ... specials on? You know, ‘two-for-one,’ that sort of thing?”
“Well, most of our items have been reduced for the Get-Acquainted.”
The man hadn’t noticed it before, but price tags were in evidence, and all prices had been sharply cut: milk, two cents a quart—butter, ten cents a pound—eggs, eleven cents a dozen—and so on.
The man looked wildly about him.
“How about cigarettes?”