Okay, today’s column is on informal economics. At what price will we decide that a purchase is worth going for? Retailers are doing this all the time. It even gets discussed about the pricing of ebooks. At what price will you not buy the ebook but the hard copy or no book at all?
What brings this to mind? Worlds of Fun last night. We have been swimming at the Oceans of Fun section every night this week after work until it closed at 7 p.m. But on Fridays in July Oceans of Fun closed at 9 p.m. So we planned to go out to swim around 7:30, swim until 9 p.m., and then stay until 10 p.m. to watch the weekend fireworks (every Friday and Saturday in July in honor of July 4th).
So of course I received an e-mail from Worlds of Fun on Friday about their Friday fun, which included $1 hot dogs being sold at the America tent in the Americana section. So that price point made us change our plans. Instead of just walking around and possibly taking a ride or two, we walked over to the America tent and purchased the $1 hot dogs.
So apparently we decided that paying a $1 for a hot dog and bun was worth it, even if we could purchase an 8-pack for $0.99 and an $8 pack of buns for $2.00. So we paid $4 for something that we could pay $2.50 for ourselves.
They also had chips there. I asked the price — $1 a bag. We didn’t get those. Apparently $1 is good for a hot dog, but not good for chips. Why? I was thinking I would have paid $1 for 2 bags, but not 1.
The prices included the taxes too. They didn’t want to mess with coins — it was a cash only operation — no credit either. Good thing we planned to bring cash, just in case. Another economics factor. How much extra cost would coins have been to keep on hand. A lower price probably made them more money with even bills.
At The Rainbow 