There’s an art to making people think they are getting more for their shrinking dollars than they actually are. From Jeffrey A. Tucker at The Epoch Times via zerohedge.com:
Every event organizer with experience knows that venue size really matters. If you have 30 people meeting in a room with no extra chairs, it feels like a crowd. If you have 5,000 people meet in a venue designed for 50,000, it is a failure and flop. That latter scenario I actually witnessed, at an event at which I was tagged to speak, and it was depressing and sad, really a disaster.
It could have been otherwise if the organizers had correctly estimated the demand. Instead I rolled up to a huge but largely empty parking lot, and rattled around an exhibitor space with plenty to exhibit but hardly anyone seemed to be there. There were in fact thousands in attendance but once the feeling of event failure seized the place, people could not wait for it to end.
From that experience, I learned: always underestimate the number of people you expect. It’s not easy because every event organizer is excited for what he is doing. There is a tendency to believe that everyone else shares your enthusiasm. It’s the same with homeowners who put their houses on the market at far too high a price, or authors who imagine that their book will become a bestseller.
The subtle psychology of full and empty, high and low, profoundly affects economics too.
The size of the Whole Food bag within the last several weeks has shrunk by a third or so, and gone up in quality.
The reason will be clear to anyone with experience in marketing. If you have spent $150 and walk out with a bag only halfway full, you feel ripped off, and sense that you have not received your money’s worth. But if you shrink the bag and the customer walks out with a full sack of stuff for the same amount of money, some of the edge seems to disappear.
Pappy taught me to check labels for sizes and certain synthetic ingredients that will get you on the McHealthcarez hampster wheel.
Spotted some rip off the other day on the closeout aisle with two packs of different sizes for same item.
My favorite is the cereal half way down the bag before you hit any when making the trail mix.
Added some Butterfinger pieces and Cheerios to the YUGE freezer bag!
My organic food bag shows just how virtuous I really am, I’m helping. (picks nose)
As they throw out litter on the way home.
This just in from Poptone:
Lions