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Long time ago I worked at a startup that was making profit from day one, and growing off reinvesting the profit. Zero external investment or debt. The founders finally sold it to a big corp that was on a buying spree. When the accounting people from the big corp started reviewing the finances they looked up surprised and said "These guys are fucking grocers!".

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What does the grocer comment mean?

Simply that the company had profits. This was pre dotcom crash and these were 20-something flashy MBA dudes that had been told to buy terrible money sinkholes left and right, and were seeing positive cash flow in an acquisition for the very first time. For them it was ludicrous and somewhat quaint, like an old grocery store earning money for the owners every month.

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