On: Google Reader shutting down

[pyre]

  | 'lose money on each customer, but make it up on volume.'

I think that you meant something else. Nobody "makes it up in volume." ;)

[Agathos → pyre]

If only you had been there to warn pets.com.

[eru → pyre]

I guess you are not a native speaker? (Neither am I.)

It started off as a joke, then it became a lame joke, and now it is just an idiom.

According to the Economist style guide, in writing, you can either use fresh expressions, or expressions that have been so worn out that they are just part of the language now and no longer register. Avoid using expressions that are over-used, but not to the point of becoming idiomatic, yet. Those will annoy your readers.

[krallja → pyre]

That's the joke.

[wpietri → krallja]

Quite literally: https://www.google.com/#q=well+make+it+up+on+volume