Inventory and Customer Databases

I have spent many hours looking around, and testing various databases. From main stream overpriced ones like Act! and Filemaker, to various no named crazy expensive specialty ones. In the end, the best one I found was Microsoft Access. I have a long list of reasons why I chose it.

1. It was the only one that could actually look like my original vision.
2. It was one of the few that could have a customer database, an inventory database, and an order tracking database... all in one. this will allow each customer to be tied to various items and orders.
3. It could work like an Excel database for tracking, and a simple to read form for customer extended information, both at the same time.
4. It already came with MS Office, so to me, it was free.
5. There is a Freely downloaded Beta copy of Office 2010 free for everybody until October 2010.
6. The 2010 version, once built, will work through a web browser, so my assistants can access it too.

The only real downside, was that it is a whole new language to program it to do what i wanted. So, this involves either paying a coder $300-400 on eLance.com to do it for me, or (like I usually prefer) spend a few hours learning how to do it myself.