Home Tech Support

  • Subscribe to our RSS feed.
  • Twitter
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Facebook
  • Digg

Friday, 3 September 2010

One Outrageously Uninformed Yahoo! Article

Posted on 15:21 by Unknown
I was browsing through my Yahoo! homepage and stumbled upon this article. I looked through the 6 outrageously overpriced items, and I do agree with all of the choices. I suppose that for an article targeted at total laypeople, I can understand why things like "paying for the label" might not make sense at first; that said, I am still astounded as to how a financial article doesn't (appear to) understand why these prices are actually so high. Let's start from the top.

Movie Theater Popcorn

The article here asks why the markup for a bag of popcorn at the movie theater is a factor of six compared to the price for a similar product at a supermarket. It claims to not know the answer to this.
The answer is that in a movie theater, there is nowhere else to get popcorn, and moviegoers like the convenience of buying already-cooked popcorn (as opposed to having to cook and pack their own popcorn). The theater owners have a near-monopoly over the popcorn market inside the theater (as enough people would rather pay more than spend time making their own popcorn), so theater popcorn will of course be more expensive.

Greeting Cards

This follows a similar vein as the popcorn case, though here the card sellers don't have quite as close to a monopoly over the market. For ordinary people, time is precious, and they believe the higher price is a worthy tradeoff for the time saved compared to making a card by hand (after all, one has to buy similar quality paper and pens and think of a witty message (and maybe even a drawing)).

College Textbooks

This is one place where I'm also not sure why the products are so expensive, given the presence and ubiquity of used-book shops (both online and brick-and-mortar) and the rising influence of book rental companies. That said, do consider that prices of goods like cars have experienced similar increases over the same period of time (according to this, the average price of a Ford Mustang in 1985 was $7286, while the current MSRP of a Ford Mustang (2011) is just above $22000). While the increases may be for different reasons, I think it can be partly attributable to plain-old inflation.

Bottled Water

Despite the numerous reports that bottled water is usually packaged unfiltered tap water, perceptions do linger, and the leading perception is still that bottled water is of higher quality than tap water (and, by extension, that tap water is of poor quality). Hence, people would rather pay for the convenience and higher quality of bottled water than spend time filtering tap water and refilling a reusable bottle.

Printer Ink

There are two reasons for this one. One is that there's no alternative to printer ink sold (except to buy another printer). The other is that printer manufacturers lose money on every printer sold, so they recoup it by putting huge markups on printer cartridges. This is also why video games on current consoles still cost $60 even though the disks themselves cost next to nothing to actually produce.

Brand-Name Fashions

Isn't this one obvious? Most of these labels have established reputations, so customers really are willing to pay for the label. It's Microeconomics 101.

I also find it shocking that the material for this article was provided by Investopedia. Why are they writing articles?
Email ThisBlogThis!Share to XShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest
Posted in economics, Investopedia, yahoo | No comments
Newer Post Older Post Home

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Popular Posts

  • Long-Term Review: openSUSE 12.2 KDE
    I did this long-term review on my normal UROP desktop computer with the 64-bit edition of the OS. Follow the jump to see how it fared. Also ...
  • How-To: Make Xfce Like Unity
    This is more or less the sequel to this post. It came about because I wanted to see if it would be easy to make Xfce look like Apple's ...
  • SourceForge, Pages, and Respins
    I may have mentioned this in a previous post, but I have added new static pages to this blog. I wanted to mention this again as I will proba...
  • Review: Trisquel 4.0.1 LTS "Taranis"
    Main Screen + Main Menu I've read a couple of reviews of Trisquel GNU/Linux, an Ubuntu-based distribution which aims to remove as much n...
  • Review: Fedora 18 "Spherical Cow" GNOME
    Although I have reviewed a number of Fedora remixes, I haven't reviewed proper Fedora since the very first review/comparison test I post...
  • Review: KDE 4.6
    A couple days ago, KDE 4.6 was released for the world to enjoy. It boasts myriad bug fixes, new features for applications like Dolphin and M...
  • A Disappointing Review of #! 10 "Statler"
    Before I say anything else, I'd just like to say that the reason why I haven't posted anything in 2 weeks has been due to me being q...
  • Review: Linux Mint 14.1 "Nadia" MATE + GNOME 3/Cinnamon
    Wow. It's been a really long time since I've had the time to sit down and do a review like this. The reason for that is because this...
  • Review: Pardus 2013 KDE
    My spring break is coming to an end (I only have 1.5 more days), so I figured it might be nice to do another review while I still can. Today...
  • Review: Slackware 13.1
    KDE Main Screen I never envisioned myself trying out any of the more advanced distributions like Slackware, Arch, or Gentoo, but having trie...

Categories

  • 11
  • 13
  • 1st birthday
  • 200th post
  • 2010
  • 2011
  • 2012
  • 2D
  • 3 Idiots
  • 3D
  • 4
  • 600-series
  • 600C
  • 670C
  • 7
  • 7z
  • 8 glasses every day
  • A Short History of Nearly Everything
  • Abiword
  • abuse of copyright
  • Acer
  • ACTA
  • Activities
  • Adafruit
  • admission
  • Adobe
  • Adobe Flash
  • advertisement
  • Afghanistan
  • agricultural company
  • airport security
  • Albert-Laszlo Barabasi
  • amarok
  • amateur
  • amazon
  • Amy Chua
  • anaconda
  • android
  • AP
  • apology
  • apple
  • applications
  • April fools
  • aptosid
  • Arch
  • ArchBang
  • Arizona
  • asana
  • asthma
  • asus
  • Athena
  • ati
  • ATT
  • AUSTRUMI
  • autofailblog
  • autonomy
  • avatar
  • ayurveda
  • bad experience
  • ban
  • basmati rice
  • Ben Kevan
  • bias
  • Big Bang
  • big brother
  • Bill Bryson
  • biography
  • birthday
  • blackbox
  • blind
  • blog
  • blog catalog
  • Blogger
  • Blogilo
  • Blogspot
  • BMW
  • Bodhi Linux
  • bombing in russia
  • Book Review
  • bootloader
  • boson
  • brand name
  • break
  • breakfast cereal
  • Bridge Linux
  • British Chiropractic Association
  • broadcast
  • browser
  • BSD
  • Burj Khalifa
  • Bursts
  • bus
  • cable
  • calculus
  • cambridge
  • canonical
  • capitalism
  • care
  • Carolus Linnaeus
  • cell
  • cell phone
  • CentOS
  • central planning
  • CGS
  • Chak De India
  • Chakra
  • Chamber of Commerce
  • chat
  • cheese webcam booth
  • chemistry
  • chicken
  • chicken tax
  • china
  • choice
  • choqok
  • Chrome OS
  • Chromium
  • chrysler
  • Cinnamon
  • Cinnarch
  • City ID
  • class
  • codecs
  • coffee
  • college
  • commodore
  • Commonwealth Games
  • comparison
  • compatibility
  • competition
  • compositing
  • conference
  • congress
  • copyright
  • copyright infringement
  • corruption
  • counterfeiting
  • courts
  • Creative Commons
  • crunchbang linux
  • cryptography
  • crystal
  • CSS
  • CTKArchLive
  • custom linux spin
  • CwF + RtB
  • Daniel Craig
  • Das U-Blog by Prashanth
  • DEB
  • debian
  • debt
  • Dedoimedo
  • deficit
  • democrat
  • denial
  • Department of Justice
  • derivative
  • desktop effects
  • Die Another Day
  • disability
  • disappointment
  • disney
  • distribution
  • DMCA
  • DNA
  • dolphin
  • donation
  • dormitory
  • dream
  • DreamWorks
  • driver
  • DRM
  • Dubai
  • dvd
  • earthquake
  • Ease
  • ebook
  • economics
  • Edmunds
  • Edubuntu
  • education
  • educational
  • EFF
  • electricity
  • elementary
  • empathy
  • Enlightenment
  • enzo tedeschi
  • EPDFView
  • epiphany
  • essay
  • Evince
  • exam
  • excitement
  • eye of gnome
  • F-Spot
  • facebook
  • Faenza
  • familiarity
  • family
  • FBI
  • Featured Comments
  • fedora
  • Fedora Core
  • Feedbooks
  • felicia
  • Fermat's Last Theorem
  • Ferris Bueller's Day Off
  • fifa
  • file sharing
  • first
  • First Amendment
  • first sale
  • Fluxbox
  • Folder View
  • FOLLOW-UP
  • football
  • ford
  • free software
  • FreeTechie
  • frequency
  • FreshOS
  • frisk
  • frivolous
  • Fuduntu
  • Fusion
  • future
  • FVWM
  • Gabrielle Giffords
  • Gauss
  • GDM
  • gentoo
  • George Lucas
  • GhostBSD
  • GIMP
  • Gloobus
  • gloria
  • glyn moody
  • gm
  • Gnash
  • gnome
  • GNOME 3
  • GNOME Activities
  • GNOME Shell
  • gnu
  • Gnumeric
  • google
  • Google Docs
  • Gottfried Leibniz
  • government intervention
  • gparted
  • graduation
  • graphics card
  • GRUB
  • gtk+
  • GUI
  • gwenview
  • gwibber
  • Hackers
  • happy new year
  • hardware
  • Harry Potter
  • health
  • heartbeat
  • Higgs
  • high speed rail
  • hollywood
  • homeland security
  • homeless
  • honda
  • How To Train Your Dragon
  • How-To
  • hp
  • HTC
  • HTML
  • i386
  • ibm
  • Ice
  • Iceweasel
  • identity
  • In Defense of Food
  • incentives
  • Inception
  • india
  • Infinite Monkey Theorem
  • Inside Line
  • installation
  • Intel
  • intellectual monopoly
  • intellectual property
  • internet explorer
  • internship
  • Investopedia
  • ipad
  • iphone
  • iphone OS
  • ipod touch
  • Iraq
  • iron man 2
  • Isaac Newton
  • isadora
  • issues
  • ITworld
  • jailbreak
  • James Bond
  • james cameron
  • japanese
  • jill sobule
  • jim lynch
  • jon
  • Julia
  • Julian Assange
  • justice
  • KahelOS
  • Katya
  • KDE
  • kde 3.5
  • KDE 4
  • kde 4.4
  • KDE 4.5
  • KDE 4.6
  • KDE 4.7
  • KDE Activities
  • KevJumba
  • keyboard
  • Kinect
  • KOffice
  • kolourpaint
  • Kongoni
  • konqueror
  • Kopete
  • Kororaa
  • kpackagekit
  • KPresenter
  • kubuntu
  • kwin
  • Lage Raho Munna Bhai
  • laptop
  • last week of school
  • Latvia
  • law
  • lawsuit
  • learning experience
  • LED
  • legal fees
  • lenny
  • Leonard Mlodinow
  • LG
  • liar
  • libel
  • liberal
  • LibreOffice
  • LILO
  • linux
  • linux live cd
  • Linux Mint
  • Linux Today
  • Lisa
  • live cd
  • live dvd
  • live usb
  • long
  • Lubuntu
  • lunatic
  • LXAppearance
  • lxde
  • LXPanel
  • mac
  • mac os x
  • Madbox
  • madurai
  • Mageia
  • mainstream tech press
  • malware
  • mandriva
  • Manjaro Linux
  • marginal cost
  • mark shuttleworth
  • Mark Zuckerberg
  • market
  • market share
  • massacre
  • mastery
  • MATE
  • mathematics
  • Mayans
  • MBodhi Linux
  • mcps
  • meat
  • mebibyte
  • media
  • media companies
  • medicine
  • MEEP
  • Megabus
  • megabyte
  • mepis
  • Metacity
  • metric system
  • MGSE
  • Michael Nielsen
  • Michael Pollan
  • mickey mouse
  • microsoft
  • microsoft office
  • middle
  • Midori
  • misconceptions
  • misrepresentation
  • MIT
  • MLB
  • Mokshagundam
  • money
  • monopoly
  • mouse
  • movie
  • Movie Review
  • Mozilla
  • Mozilla Firefox
  • Mozilla Prism
  • mpaa
  • multiboot
  • MultiSystem
  • MWM
  • national health service
  • national security
  • nautilus
  • NCAA
  • ncurses
  • netbook
  • Netrunner
  • neutrino
  • new computer
  • new york
  • new york city
  • new zealand
  • newbie
  • news corp
  • NFL
  • NHS
  • NIST
  • normal distribution
  • novell
  • numbers
  • nutrition science
  • nutritionism
  • NVidia
  • NZCS
  • obama
  • okular
  • One
  • open standards
  • open-source
  • openbox
  • openoffice.org
  • opensolaris
  • openSUSE
  • Opera
  • oracle
  • Oxidized Trinity
  • P. W. Singer
  • panel
  • paramount
  • Pardus
  • parenting
  • parody
  • particle
  • patent
  • pay-to-pirate
  • PC-BSD
  • pclinuxos
  • pcmanfm
  • Pear OS
  • pearson education
  • Peppermint OS
  • Peter Pan
  • philosophy
  • Photograph 51
  • photonic
  • PHP
  • physics
  • pidgin
  • Pierce Brosnan
  • Pinguy OS
  • pink
  • Pink Floyd
  • piracy
  • plasma
  • plasmoid
  • poll
  • Porteus
  • power
  • power law
  • prejudice
  • presentation
  • president
  • president obama
  • presumption of innocence
  • Princeton
  • printing
  • prisoner
  • privacy
  • profit
  • programming
  • progress
  • Project Natal
  • promotion
  • proprietary
  • public domain
  • purpose
  • qed
  • QEMU
  • qt
  • quantum electrodynamics
  • quantum mechanics
  • radio
  • rape
  • Rawhide
  • Razor-Qt
  • red hat
  • Reflection
  • Rekonq
  • religion
  • Remastersys
  • rent
  • repossession
  • republican
  • retroactive copyright
  • review
  • rewards
  • RHEL
  • RIAA
  • Righthaven
  • RMA
  • robotics
  • rolling release
  • rootkit
  • ROSA
  • royalty
  • RPM
  • RSS
  • rule
  • rupert murdoch
  • sabayon
  • safari
  • saints
  • Salix OS
  • Samsung
  • sarah palin
  • Saudi Arabia
  • scanner
  • school
  • school network
  • science
  • Scientific Linux
  • security theater
  • selection
  • semester
  • Semplice
  • senior
  • Shiki
  • shooting
  • Shotwell
  • shut down
  • SI
  • sidux
  • Simon Singh
  • simplymepis
  • Skype
  • skyscraper
  • Slackware
  • slander
  • slashdot
  • social media
  • social policy
  • socialism
  • software patents
  • solar
  • SolusOS
  • SolydXK
  • sony
  • sony-bmg
  • SOPA
  • Source Code
  • SourceForge
  • SPARC
  • special effects
  • spying
  • spyware
  • Squeeze
  • SSH
  • Star Wars
  • State Department
  • statin
  • statistical mechanics
  • Statler
  • Stella
  • steve jobs
  • stewart
  • Stuxnet
  • subscriber
  • subsidy
  • substitute
  • sun
  • Sun Tzu
  • super bowl
  • Super Bowl XLV
  • super user
  • Suresh Kalmadi
  • survey
  • Symbicort
  • synaptic
  • tablet
  • Talledega Nights
  • tax
  • tech company
  • Tech Drive-in
  • techdirt
  • Technorati
  • Ted Williams
  • terrorist
  • thanksgiving
  • The Adjustment Bureau
  • The Amazing Race
  • The Art of War
  • The Code Book
  • The Drunkard's Walk
  • The King's Speech
  • The Social Network
  • the tunnel
  • the undercover economist
  • thermophotovoltaic
  • thunar
  • tim
  • Tim Harford
  • tint2
  • torrent
  • Toy Story 3
  • toyota
  • tracking device
  • trademark
  • train
  • treason
  • Trinity
  • Trisquel
  • trivial
  • troll
  • TSA
  • TuxMachines
  • Twitter
  • TWM
  • UberBang
  • ubuntu
  • ubuntu one
  • UK
  • unetbootin
  • unintended acceleration
  • units
  • Unity
  • Unixoid Review
  • UROP
  • US
  • utopia
  • V. S. Narayana Rao
  • VectorLinux
  • vegan
  • vegetarian
  • Verizon
  • vesa
  • Viewnior
  • ViewPad
  • ViewSonic
  • violation
  • virtual desktop
  • VirtualBox
  • virus
  • Visvesvaraya
  • vlc
  • warfare
  • water
  • WattOS
  • wavelength
  • Wayland
  • web-connected printer
  • webcam
  • WebOS
  • weekly
  • whistle
  • widget
  • wifi
  • wiki
  • Wikileaks
  • William Shakespeare
  • windowing system
  • WindowMaker
  • windows
  • windows 7
  • windows vista
  • windows xp
  • Wired for War
  • word
  • WordPress
  • world cup
  • Wubi
  • x11
  • XBMC
  • xbox360
  • xfce
  • xkcd
  • xp
  • yahoo
  • yoga
  • YouTube
  • YSA
  • Zenwalk
  • Zorin OS

Blog Archive

  • ►  2013 (63)
    • ►  September (4)
    • ►  August (9)
    • ►  July (3)
    • ►  June (9)
    • ►  May (7)
    • ►  April (10)
    • ►  March (11)
    • ►  February (6)
    • ►  January (4)
  • ►  2012 (85)
    • ►  December (4)
    • ►  November (3)
    • ►  October (2)
    • ►  September (6)
    • ►  August (8)
    • ►  July (12)
    • ►  June (12)
    • ►  May (7)
    • ►  April (6)
    • ►  March (6)
    • ►  February (9)
    • ►  January (10)
  • ►  2011 (179)
    • ►  December (5)
    • ►  November (8)
    • ►  October (9)
    • ►  September (12)
    • ►  August (15)
    • ►  July (15)
    • ►  June (15)
    • ►  May (16)
    • ►  April (15)
    • ►  March (19)
    • ►  February (21)
    • ►  January (29)
  • ▼  2010 (173)
    • ►  December (24)
    • ►  November (23)
    • ►  October (34)
    • ▼  September (36)
      • The Ideal Linux Distribution, As I See It
      • Sun Tzu and File Sharing
      • Red Hat: The New Big Monopoly?
      • Review: aptosid 2010-02 "Keres" KDE
      • Featured Comments: Week of 2010 September 19
      • FOLLOW-UP: SourceForge, Pages, and Respins
      • Review: ArchBang 2010.09 "apeiro"
      • Presumed Innocent Unless A Digital Pirate
      • 200th Post: Preview: ArchBang 2010.09 "apeiro"
      • Microsoft's Hardware is Good Stuff
      • Whose LXDE Is It Anyway?
      • Featured Comments: Week of 2010 September 12
      • FOLLOW-UP: Review: Mandriva 2010.1 Spring
      • SourceForge, Pages, and Respins
      • Featured Comments: Week of 2010 September 5
      • How I Multiplied Subscribers and Page Views in 2 W...
      • It's Official: Free Online Content Distribution He...
      • Six Divided by Two is Patented
      • Reflection: KDE 4.5
      • First Sale Not Applicable to Licensed Software
      • Righthaven Copyright Suits are like Property Repos...
      • Apple to Third-Party iOS Developers: You Can Retur...
      • Counter-Debunking the 1% Myth
      • Review: Linux Mint "Debian"
      • Classes Begin Tomorrow
      • FOLLOW-UP: How to Oxidize KDE 3.5
      • FOLLOW-UP: Windows 7 on Netbooks?
      • Linux and Breakfast Cereals
      • How to Oxidize KDE 3.5
      • One Outrageously Uninformed Yahoo! Article
      • Review: Kubuntu 10.04 Trinity "Lucid Lynx" (Idea b...
      • Review: Mandriva 2010.1 Spring
      • Movie Review: Hackers
      • Sometimes, Apple Doesn't "Just Work"
      • Review: sidux 2010-01 "Hypnos"
      • Microsoft's Ironic Shutdown Patent
    • ►  August (15)
    • ►  July (18)
    • ►  June (13)
    • ►  May (8)
    • ►  April (2)
Powered by Blogger.

About Me

Unknown
View my complete profile