You don't seem to understand the fact that EI does have manufacturing costs since they pay someone else to make specific products for them. They don't have the expense of buildings or equipment to make the products but they do have to pay the manufacturer to make the products for them. Since they pay to have specific products manufactured this is indeed manufacturing costs. If they don't pay they don't get the product.
In your candy bar example the candy company example all the manufacturing costs are directly assigned to the manufacturer since they make a certain amount of candy bars relating to the anticipation of the amount that they will sell during a certain time period to retailers or middle men. Nothing at all like when EI calls and orders 500 Yankee urns to be built and sends the money to pay for just that number to be built.
As far as the statement about me hanging out at the candy store you have no concept of my lifestyle and I have none about yours either so in the future it would be better to just keep the conversation about the company and the stock.