Bluescreendeath :
I see no reason why management would lie to employees regarding what the store pays for items...
Seriously, in the retail business, it does not help if your customers, or competitors know what you are paying. Pricing strategy is what they all live or die by, and employees are never going to be allowed to get the real numbers on purpose. Remember all the articles you see, some of them here on Tom's even, where they take stuff apart and try guess what it costs to make the item? (although their pricing logic is usually way off base most of the time) Point is, what companies pay for products in retail business is tough to know the actual truth of it, unless you are senior purchasing agent.
But, some companies may let the employee know, especially if the company is employee owned. Still though, getting back to the original conversations, not every pays the tray price, or even close to it.