Dear Editor:
A recent letter writer's implication that the Brousseaus are making a huge profit off of beer sales only shows he doesn't understand the term gross profit. Since Liz Maples randomly assigned a price to each case of beer, let's guesstimate that the Brousseaus mark up each case of beer by $2 (Beer has very little mark up and some stores make a profit of only pennies per case of beer.) That means their net profit would be only $210,000 for 105,000 cases of beer. That's a far cry from $2 million.
Now let's subtract from that $210,000 the salaries of all their employees, the cost of their increased security, all the various local, state, and federal taxes, utilities, advertising, all the supplies and equipment needed to run a winery and maintain a vineyard, etc .... Oh, and let's not forget the expense of their lawyer in the seemingly unending battle with the city and Planning and Zoning. Hmmm ... that $210,000 profit doesn't seem to be so much anymore.
