A story, and a question.
Some years ago, a school was buying 80 computers. In negotiating between the board, the technology committee, and the vendor, we were within $20 of the vendor's price for what the technology committee wanted over what the board was willing to pay. I said we were within ”spitting distance”. The chairman of the board advised me that spitting distance was $10. This vendor was basically selling for cost. The board refused to budge on price, so I told the vendor thanks for his time, and that he should raise his prices to match his competitors, after that night. He did. The board purchased 80 computers, at $200 more each, within the week.
Today, I was told to fill in for a client's CEO to get a project approved. My instructions were to get the project rolling, no matter what. I was the only one not a CEO, CFO, or COO in the group. The meeting was supposed to run for 2 hours, but some people just try to be impossible. We had to go through each line item cost. On a $3.2 million dollar project, we were within $500. The difference was in where certain matrrials were sourced. Some members wanted to make it up with cheating the workers on labor, which caused lots of argument (apparently CEO's think this is OK to do), but they wanted to deduct this amount from the total. I suggested that, since the day was early, we would just keep voting until we had a consensus. Anyone who voted yes could sign off on the project and leave. I called my ”secretary” (my voicemail) and cleared my schedule. Someone suggested we could vote, but anyone who voted against would forfeit $1 toward the project, each time. This was agreed to. One member put a $100 bill on the table, and said he'd outlast us. Some members complained that they were losing more money than $500. One member said that we were within ”spitting distance”, but another countered that ”spitting distance” was 1%. (Which would be way more than $500, but the argument was for that line item.) After several rounds of votes, there was only the ”out last” member left voting no. I guess the others didn't want to be late for tea-time. Anyway, there was a pile of cash on the table. I finally counted it, and it was more than $600. As the ”out last” member signed and left, I gathered he wasn't happy. He didn't ask for change.
Back at the office, I had to work on a postage machine, and got red ink all over my hands. When I went to wash my hands, I ran across the guy whose place I'd taken. He asked me if I'd killed [the ”out last” member]. I said no, but asked him how much ”spitting distance” was. He asked if I was successful, which I confirmed. He then said, ”it depends if you're for or against”, and walked off.
This project will widen a stretch of road from 8' on each lane to 10'.
How much is spitting distance?
