A Stitch in Haste

As part of the preparations for my trip, I had to make a toiletries run at a pharmacy near my work. Which meant having yet again to do battle with my own personal econo-Grendel:

How can a 11-ounce can of shaving cream cost $1.49 while a 1.5-ounce travel size shaving cream, of the same brand and in the same store, cost $2.49?

All tastes and preferences are subjective. I suppose therefore that there could be a small population of travelers for whom conserving space is all-important — for them, "less" is not just "more" but "a lot more" — and it could be perfectly rational for such people to pay such a high premium for the convenience of travel sizes. But is that population really so large that manufacturers and retailers actually accommodate them? (Again, this is not a hotel sundry shop or a "price gouging" airport newsstand making emergency sales — it's just a plain vanilla pharmacy in midtown Manhattan.)

The alternative explanation is, of course, that people are stupid.

---

So what does this have to do with "Lines — Long and Short, Fair and Unfair, Smart and Stupid"?

Well, I made the logistical faux pas of undertaking my shaving cream quest on the day when the Ben and Jerry's across the corridor from the pharmacy was having its annual "Global Free Cone Day."

But as we all know, there ain't no such thing as a free ice cream cone: the line, which was not moving fast at all, was by my estimate at least 100 people long, snaking all along the underground halls of Rockefeller Center.*

One hundred people or more waiting probably an hour or more for a scoop of ice cream that would normally sell for maybe $2-3. (*And, given that it was Rockefeller Center, a good chunk of those people were probably tourists — for whom the opportunity cost of their time would be inordinately high.)

Two seemingly irrational economic phenomena in the span of a few minutes. It was quite depressing.

And there was more to come:

Lines were so long Thursday [May 8] at some of the 86 Papa John's stores offering a large, pizza for 23 cents that police stood nearby to make sure people didn't get unruly.

The Louisville, Ky.-based company agreed to the offer after a franchisee in Washington, D.C., made T-shirts calling star LeBron James a "crybaby." The shirts referred to James' complaints about hard fouls during a playoff series victory over Washington. The company also will donate $10,000 to the Cavaliers Youth Fund. The 23-cent price is a homage to James' jersey number.

Now again, all tastes and preferences are subjective, and perhaps some LeBron James fans endured the line not just for essentially free pizza but also to inflict economic woe upon Papa John's for their "cavalier" attitude towards fans (a bit like, e.g., attending a Marlins game just to boo them). Point conceded.

But spending (in the strict economic sense) one's time, perhaps several hours, not only "not doing something else" but also spending it in uncomfortable circumstances, just to get a $12 pizza? Sorry, but I'm having trouble not dismissing these people as idiots.

(Via Perfect Substitute.)

For Discussion: Would you have stood in either the ice cream or pizza line if it was already long and slow-moving? What would your rationalization be?