As Costco, Sam's Club and their big-box counterparts illustrate, offering customers discounts for buying in bulk can be a route to success. The question for vendors is this: just how much discount for how much quantity? Not enough discount and customers won't bite. Too liberal of a discount will eat up your profits.

What's more, this becomes more than a straightforward supply and demand equation, since demand for the second item depends on the price of the first. Demand for the third depends on the prices for both the first and second, and so on.

In case we-and more importantly, the Obama Administration-needed another reminder, a number of developments on Tuesday underscore why jobs is the number one problem facing most people in this country.

Not financial reform, not the oil spill (although this is a huge disaster that must be contained), not Afghanistan (another huge disaster that must be addressed).

Score one for the customer. Business management software maker SAP unveiled a new, tiered support system on Thursday with cheaper options, caving to pressure from users.

The new model will offer all customers a choice between its customizable enterprise support package and a cheaper, standard package with basic support functions.

You know things are bad when vices start taking hits.

On Tuesday, the Vintners Federation of Ireland said that at least 4,800 pub jobs were slashed in the past 12 months. To boot, more than half of the bar owners polled by the group, which represents 4,600 Irish publicans around the Dublin area, said they will lay off more workers over the next year.

It's enough to make an Irishman-possibly even this one-weep over his Guinness. But if he does, it sounds like he'll be doing it from home.

Even there he may find he's plopped down a few extra quid for the pleasure. That's because, even though being an unemployed beer swiller is a bummer, the overall business of beer is good.