Tuesday, September 4, 2012

The Price of Milking It


I’ll always remember the month I spent travelling the Australian Gold Coast as one of the greatest in my life. Some friends and I rented a place in Byron Bay, surfed every day surrounded by easy going people and always had the fridge stacked with bacon and fruits. 

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

One of the major concerns on the average backpacker’s mind is food. Especially if you’re a big guy who’s used eating around six meals per day. The local supermarket (HomeBrand I think it was called) had this great thing where after 21:00pm they would sell grilled chicken for half price. No need to tell you I was starting to look like a grilled something by the time I left. 

This was in the beginning of 2004 when I was just a stupid kid (later became a stupid adult) without any professional education or real understanding of the market forces. But this grilled chicken thing will follow me every time I’ll walk into any grocery store.

Stop Playing With Your Food

I hate waste, especially when it comes to food. My father in his endless wisdom always said food was for eating and was appalled by the concept of “food fight” or any other use of food other but eating it.

The first thing my Economics professor taught me was how prices are determined by supply and demand. In other words, people will present a certain demand for a product at any given price. Since then I can’t help to think about that Aussie grilled chicken every time I go out to buy some milk.


How come a box of milk with an expiration date due in a week cost the same as milk which expires in another two weeks?

 Basically they are not the same product. The value each milk box brings me is different. One has double the value of the other. The demand for week old milk is far lower than the demand for fresh milk but still they both cost the same. Does that sound right to you?

My suggestion is simple; once a dairy, meat, Vegetable or any expire-able product is close to the end of its shelf life, just cut the prices accordingly and trust me – it will be sold.

Once the price drops -> demand goes up. Especially for such basic goods. Simple as that.

I just fixed the food retail world with my awesomeness. How about that?

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