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The economic reality of the bodegas, which none of you have pointed out, and rob doesn’t seem to understand is that there’s typically another one within a block or two. One cannot raise prices above another or they’ll lose all the business to the lower priced place.
That said, most of these bodega owners seem too clueless or stupid to know what the competition is doing.
and when you making lots of money, the price differential for daily stuff has little to no impact – ie dont even notice or notice but dont give an F to change routine. if you making peanuts, you’ll notice any small change and such small change will feel big and impact routine. So REAL takeaway here is to make the most you can else little shit like this will bug you frequently. Money isnt everything but having some certainly makes this small stuff moot. So go get some and dont stop
“You charge what you can get away with.”
This is incorrect. Businesses price to maximize profits. Read a book.
Yes, etson. The conundrum rob set up was that Van Leeuwen ice cream products (and by extension, all yuppy-endorsed high end food and other products) by their high price, cause lower end products, say Mr. Softee or Pathmark Ice Cream to go up in price. We have said one has nothing to do with the other. Starbucks charging $5 for a cup of coffee does not make the coffeecart guy sell his for more than $1. Apples and oranges. Different markets, different buyers. As you said.
Should Starbucks coffee be $5? or Van Leeuwen ice cream scoops $4? If one does not think that is a worthy price that you are willing to pay, then don’t go there. If enough people feel that way, they will either reduce their price, move to where they can command that price, or go out of business. That is the way business works, pure and simple.
“what a vendor does with a product after it’s purchased wholesale is hard to control.â€
THIS is all I’m talking about.
“In the case of buying a pair of beautifully made Italian shoes or handbag, there are some concrete criteria for measuring quality and value. Up to a certain point. Then beyond a certain point, I think you get into the luxury stratosphere where you are buying status on top of the other stuff. ”
you’d be surprised how much luxury shit isn’t really made by the brands at all. royalties baby. your fancy pair of chanel sunglasses cost $10 to make.
yeah bxgrl. DEAD and MASTERS are the key words in art I guess …Whether they created an art form or perfected an art form. I can’t really say anything past that as I really don’t know much. All I know is from attending art auctions and hearing the art auctioneers try to justify the prices of paintings and lithographs lol.
Donatella, I dont hate the Yankees but am not that incented to switch teams. Not the switching type. If the yanks were like the 90’s team, I would be more tempted – O’Neil is one of my fav players on that team (very jealous he wasnt a Met)
I read a book “Seven Days in the Art World”, written by Sarah Thornton, who is a sociologist/writer who trys to describe the art world, contemporary trends/fads, its players, creativity, the intellectuals and the marketing machine for art. In the end, you realize that tastes and popularity are really fickle and pricing reflects that.
In the case of buying a pair of beautifully made Italian shoes or handbag, there are some concrete criteria for measuring quality and value. Up to a certain point. Then beyond a certain point, I think you get into the luxury stratosphere where you are buying status on top of the other stuff.
And with modern art, there is this whole wierd overlay of approval by the taste makers and then the status overlay kicks in and prices can go anywhere. But some people actually do focus on art as investment and try to create categories of art and go to auctions and try to estimate values based on that. The bigger picture has to do with the overall economy, liquidity etc. Certain categories of art actually move with alternative investments, like gold and real estate. In the boom boom days of easy money, highly leveraged wall street, etc. you had a totally different market for art, since such a large percentage of the market for art is people with a lot of money, many of whom might be categorized as the financial industry monied classes, who aren’t as monied as they used to be.
I am not making any kind of commentary here on ice cream pricing.