Every Saturday I’ll give you a couple of idioms to learn. An idiom is a saying or phrase whose meaning cannot be taken from the literal meanings of the words.
at a loss: sell something below cost, so the company loses money from selling it.
Example:
We’ll have to sell the excess inventory at a loss just to get rid of it.
company town: a town or a city that is dependent on a particular company or industry for its local economy.
Example:
Detroit is an example of a company town that failed to diversify its economic base.