Note Ford's explicit injunction against buying large amounts of materials ahead of requirements just to get a good price.

The principles described in the page at right actually originated with Benjamin Franklin, whom Ford cited explicitly as an influence on his own thinking. "You call them goods; but, if you do not take care, they will prove evils to some of you. You expect they will be sold cheap, and, perhaps, they may [be bought] for less than they cost; but, if you have no occasion for them, they must be dear to you. Remember what Poor Richard says, 'Buy what thou hast no need of, and ere long thou shalt sell thy necessaries.' And again, 'At a great penny worth pause a while:' He means, that perhaps the cheapest is apparent only, and not real; or the bargain, by straightening thee in thy business [reducing your available cash, i.e. straightening your circumstances], may do thee more harm than good. For in another place he says, 'Many have been ruined by buying good penny worths'"