I lived in Seattle for 35 years. I knew the folks at Park Place pretty well. I tried several times to buy a Ferrari from them. They simply would not sell the car for a fair price when the knew a sucker would walk through the door later. The entire car business in Bellevue was built on the back of MSFT. Jimmy Barrier opened the first MB Dealer in Bellevue in 1983. Today he has almost every high end dealership there. MB, Audi, Porsche, Jaguar, Volvo, and Rolls Royce. I bought a Porsche and a Jag from Barrier in the 80's. In the early days MSFT payed most of the employees with options as a major part of the compensation package. Suddenly you have thousands of young people with $ coming out of their ears. Park Place started in the mid 80's. Suddenly there are customers with lot's of dough and they simply did not understand anything except it is beautiful, I want it, and I have cash. I know many people that simply caught the wave and got very rich selling stuff to MSFT and their employees. I used to be asked what the impact of MSFT was on the local community and my response was just drive around the area you will see lots of < 5's driving really expensive cars. OK if any women are reading this I apologize now, it is just a fact.
