Every product on the market has a variety of costs built into it before it is ever put up for sale to a customer. There are costs of production, transportation, storage, advertising, and more. Each of these costs must bring in some profit at each stage: truckers must profit from transporting products, or they would not be in business. Thus, costs also include several layers of profits. The selling price of a product must take all of these costs (and built in profits) into consideration. The selling price it self consists of a markup over the total of all costs, and it is normally based on a percentage of the total cost.
    The markup may be quite high, 90 percent of cost, or it may be low. Grocery items in a supermarket usually have a low markup, while mink coats have a very high one. High markups, however, do not in themselves guarantee big profits. Profits come from turnover. If an item has a 50 percent markup and does not sell, there is no profit. But if a cereal has an 8 percent markup and sells very well, there are reasonable profits.
    While most pricing is based on cost factors, there are some exceptions. Prestige pricing means setting prices artificially high in order to attract select clientele. Such pricing attempts to suggest that the quality or style of the product is exceptional or that the item cannot be found elsewhere. Stores can use prestige pricing to attract wealthy shoppers.
    Leader pricing and bait pricing are the opposites of prestige pricing. Leader pricing means setting low prices on certain items to get people to come into the stores. The products so priced are called loss leaders because little or no profit can be made on them. The profits are made from other products people buy while in the store. Bait pricing, now generally considered illegal, means set ting artificially low prices to attract customers. The store, however, has no intention of selling goods at the bait prices. The point is to get people into the store and persuade them of the inferiority of the low priced item. Then a higher priced item is presented as a better alternative.
    A common retail tactic is odd priced products. For some products of $300, the store will set the price at $295 or $299.95 to give the appearance of a lower price. Automobiles and other high priced products are usually priced in this manner. For some reason $7995 has more appeal to a potential car customer than $8,000.
    Bid pricing is a special kind of price setting. It is often used in the awarding of government contracts. Several companies are asked to submit bids on a job, and normally the lowest bidder wins. A school system may want to buy a large number of computers. Several companies are asked to submit prices, and the school district will decide on the best bid based as well on considerations of quality and service.  In the first paragraph, "markup" most probably means ______.