Originally Posted by Snake Doctor

Well these companies, unlike yours, have more than one person working there and more than one thing going on at a time....so let me try to give an example.

Southwest orders a 747 from Boeing. They do not pay for it in advance, they may put up some good faith money, but they're not paying for the entire plane.

So now Boeing needs raw materials, labor, etc to build the plane (a roughly $200 million plane). They have to front the expenses until the deal is final....they do this via a credit line, corporate bonds, etc.

Your local grocer may have several hundred thousands of dollars worth of inventory. That doesn't mean that he had to have that much cash on hand (above and beyond other expenses) to open the store.
He used a credit line to buy the inventory. If he can't get a credit line and has to use his available cash to buy inventory, the shelves will be pretty bare.

In some cases yes the vendors provide the products on credit...but in that case it's the vendor who needs a credit line from a bank or something similar, because they had to front the expenses to produce and deliver the product.

Businesses like these aren't like yours where you don't order a server or order a design or buy content with money you don't have....it's alot more complicated than that.

Even most cities, counties, and states require credit to function...because tax collections are quarterly or annual, but they have to pay their expenses every month. That's why the credit crunch was hurting both business, individuals, and government.