The economy is expanding. Noting comments from economist Alan Beaulieu, of ITR Economics ( view more here ,) the 2017 economy looks like a great year for growth. The forecast calls for a bright, sunshiny sky with 3.7 percent growth. It’s been a mighty long time since we’ve enjoyed this type of up cycles. Now is the time for distributors to raise their prices. Join with me as I outline why and where to look for price increases. Why we’ve got low margins today… Downward pressure on margins is the universal distributor complaint. New competitors, supplier sales teams setting prices at unsustainable levels, the internet and customer pushback are all finding their way into the discussion. Further, in spite of some major productivity advancements, operating costs continue to rise. One distributor, who closely monitors operational costs, commented costs have risen nearly 25 percent faster than offsetting gross margin gains over the post-recession era. Clearly, we need to ...