• Peter A. Salinas is a career journalist who has been covering the used-vehicle industry for more than 12 years. He is the managing editor of Dealer Business Journal.

In terms of securing inventory over the years things have become both easier and more difficult.

The expanded reach of the Internet, Apps, Web sites, electronic condition reports, the rise of online advertisers have all made the life of used car and new car dealer as well — better. Managing the complicated formula for securing the right inventory at the right price for your particular business model at the auctions is easier than ever before.

If you rely on wholesalers, their job is easier and they can pass along some savings to the retailer, or at the very least buy fewer back.

The other side of that equation — consumers’ ease of access to information — has resulted his or her ability to shop for their vehicle literally from wherever they are and has created tighter margins for the dealer.

Still, despite all the technology, all the information, all the time, effort and sweat a dealer still has purchased products wholesale and must deliver them at a retail price that makes sense for his business model. The dealer must earn a profit. Bottom line — the bottom line is the bottom line. It’s the skill of the sales person to sell value and hold gross. It’s the look, feel and ambiance of the dealership that entices the customer to come to your store, decide on a vehicle and drive away. Whether it’s the buy here-pay here business model, the retail used car business model or the franchise new-car business model, every retailer must earn a profit. That profit come from keeping overhead as low as possible, and maximizing gross profit on every deal. Dealers sell not only the vehicles on their lot but additional services such as securing financing for the customer, service contracts, new floor mats, anything they can to enhance gross profit yet still satisfy the consumers and have them come back or recommend family or friends.

There’s a term I learned from the auction industry analysts many years ago. Automobiles, whether new or used, I was told are a depreciating asset. Their value melts over time. Vehicles on the lot are often referred to as snow cones. Remember that term.

It has always been so. It’s true in any business. When you go to a big box home supplies and services store to buy a bag of mulch, you expect to pay for the cost of the mulch and however much it takes for that retailer to sell you that bag and still be able to sell it again tomorrow. When you buy that DVD player from the electronics store, the salesman or the checkout person typically asks you if you would like the 2-year or 5-year service plan with that. It’s commonplace. We’ve all come to expect it.

But now things are apparently changing. As you’ll see in articles and columns in this magazine this month the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, in an effort to make things fair, equitable, easy to understand for the consumer, wants to restrict the ability of retailers to earn a profit from helping secure consumers financing for their new or used vehicle. They feel that ability for dealers to increase rates on consumers with poor credit on their own may lead to discrimination against ethnic minorities.

That’s pretty damning. They are saying dealers cannot be trusted.

I had a friend once tell me a story about snow cones. Seems his family had the concession rights at a local marina and offered snow cones to hot and thirsty summer marina guests. He had his kids and a few other relatives sell the colorful, flavored, frozen treats. He paid them well and put one of his kids through college. Seems the markup on frozen water, crushed and spiked with sugar is pretty good. He told me he spent more on the paper cups, spoons and napkins than he did the actual water and flavorings. The snow cone machine actually paid for itself in just a couple of weeks. All in, the snow cones cost him under 10 cents. He retailed the snow cones for $3, and that was 10 years ago. That’s a markup of 2,900 percent. Pretty good deal.

Don’t get me wrong here, I’m not calling for a CFPB investigation of snow cones, bottled water, coffee, and I’m all for transparency, but let’s use some common sense as well.