Great Moments in Supply and Demand

From Peter King, the latest from Yankee Stadium:

So I went to Yankee Stadium the other night to watch Yankees-Angels. Pretty cold. In the bottom of the fourth, a vendor came by. “Hot chocolate!” he yelled. “Hot chocolate!”

I looked at his badge: Hot chocolate $10.

Sixteen ounces of chocolate-flavored water. Ten bucks. I went online to try to quantify the profit margin, and the best I can figure is the Yankees must be making about $9.15 profit on each hot chocolate sold.

I guess the fact that you have a captive audience screws up one’s ability to analyze this from a purely microeconomic perspective. Then again, I went snowmobiling in Yellowstone three years ago and it was 25 below when we started out (reached a balmy 8 degrees later in the afternoon). At our lunch stop we got free hot cocoa. I probably would have paid $79 for it, but I’m assuming the snowmobile outfitter wanted return business one day and decided to take the hit.

(thanks from MooseinOhio who, unlike me, can bear to read Peter King)


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Aaron Moreno
14 years ago

Yankee hot cocoa is the best hot cocoa in the world!

HBG
14 years ago

Lofty economic analysis by PK.

sooperstring
14 years ago

I bet $9.15 that Peter King doesn’t understand the difference between gross profit margin and net profit margin.

Mode:Theif and Lair
14 years ago

I hate to bring politics into this, but you can be sure, Craig, that people that pay that much for hot cocoa voted for Obama and are athiests.

Jen
14 years ago

Yeah, $10 is a bit much. But you also get a nice souvenir cup with that.

The Common Man
14 years ago

And the award for random segue of the day goes to:  Mode: Who Can’t Spell “Liar”.

It isn’t funny if you have to explain it, Chief.

YankeesfanLen
14 years ago

Peter King, from Bangor freakin’ Maine considers it pretty cold?  I spent the longest winter of my life one summer in Maine.
Sooperstring is right- Net profit after labor, overhead and being The Official Hot Chocolate Of The New York Yankees powered by Jeep, brings it down to net of $1.79.
And you can be safe and secure………

Rob²
14 years ago

If the Yankees are paying 85 cents per hot chocolate, they really do have too much money to throw around.

Mode:Theif and Lair
14 years ago

TCM.. You’re right. It isn’t funny if I have to explain it.  But, it wasn’t a segue, there will be some who “get it”, and there might be a couple people who got a chuckle out of it.  I didn’t do it just for you.

Also, I enjoy immensely that you didn’t notice I don’t spell “Thief” correctly either?  Maybe I did it on perpus?  Ah crud, I just explained it to you, now it won’t be funny at all.

Jason B
14 years ago

You did that on porpoise?!?

No sir, dry land.

Larry
14 years ago

I got 20 ounces of hot chocolate in a “souvenier” insulated plastic mug at Penn State a few weeks ago for only $5.  It wasa bit more reasonable in that at least I can use the cup again!

The Common Man
14 years ago

Busted, Mode.  Well done.

Chris H.
14 years ago

Once a year in our neighborhood we have a block party.  Everybody kicks in money and brings a dish, and we get lots of beer and soda and food.

One of the annual traditions is a “golf” game.  Organizers lay out 18 holes.  The tee boxes are just little signposts with hole numbers; the “holes” are also little numbered signposts, with a ring around each (roughly 12” diameter).  The balls are foam or nerf balls with fishing weights wedged inside.  Pavement = water, except for sidewalks (cart path).  You play with a 9 iron or pitching wedge; so long as the ball ends up within the ring, the ball’s in the hole.  Each foursome kicks in cash to play, and the winner takes the pot.

Anyway, the course spans a few streets, and as you progress, you end up quite a ways from party central.  The day gets hot, but you’re nowhere near the cold (and free) beer.

So a few years ago some middle-school kids hit upon an enterprising idea: they put on roller blades, grabbed pitchers and cups, and skated out to the various foursomes selling $2 cups of beer.  Most of us were happy to pay, knowing full well that the beer could be free if we just took a break and walked a few blocks.

Those kids are probably in Yankee concessions management, now.

Jake
14 years ago

okay, I will admit that the “theif and lair” joke went right above my head.  Like, to the degree that the sun goes right above my head every day.

and no googling helps, except to return links to other posts by the same gentleman.

who’d like to dissect the frog for me?

Michael Caraglaino
14 years ago

Not to nitpick, Mode, but you goofed on “atheist” too. Shades of Marv Throneberry, I suppose: don’t bother, Casey; he missed second, too.