I've been loyal to Walmart for almost 20 years, and I can't even get a free candy bar from them without stealing it.

I've been a small business owner before. While I especially appreciated and valued the business my customers gave me, and would do all I can to make them happy, at the end of the day I couldn't afford to charge them less for anything I wouldn't have charged a new customer for.

The only discount I was able to afford was bulk discounts because it usually brought in more profit dollars. I'd rather make $200 and a 20% profit margin on ten items than make $80 and a 33% profit margin on two items any day. $200 is always more than $80, even when you make less per unit on average.

Verizon works the same way. They give the same deal to everyone, unless you start exceeding a certain quantity of line or are part of a purchasing group that has exceeded a certain number of lines. Once you're part of the bulk system, they start considering discounting your bill.

For instance, every state has a state employee discount simply because the pool of potential customers is worth the 15 to 20% monthly discount. Collectively, they make the company more money, with a slight hit on profit margins. But, at the end of the day, a million bucks is more than ten thousand bucks.

It's simple business math and etiquette, yet somehow customers think they're owed the world simply for handing over money. If that were the case, I would have bought the world a few times over by now, and so would the rest of you.