MreRvJ: GJRISTMAS l-o

n UYING is more, much more, 9 than a person sitting at a desk with a telephone Rolodex, a packet of purchase orders, a box of Tums and a week's supply of ballpoint pens.

Purchasing is, indeed, the Bottom Line, for without the right price to start with, nothing really happens from that point on.

The old cliche that "nothins happens until you sell something; might well be true but there are more "real" goods purchased than "phantom" and the realists far outnumber the Houdinis.

Show me the best buyer in the business and I'll show you a purchasing agent who should have placed one more call, or waited for one more.

Show me a "big buyer" in the business and I'll look for a person over six feet tall and one weighing about two hundred pounds.

There's always a better deal out