election freebie stores learn about price floors
The Dupont Circle Krispy Kreme is handing out free doughnuts to all comers today (though they’re trying to convince people to show their ‘I Voted’ stickers first, against very stupid, anti-doughnut, federal election laws). And guess what: handing things out for free causes some discomfort:
In an almost-too-good-to-be-true foreshadowing of the Obama presidency, the donutistas said that they were concerned about running out of the free election-themed donuts. Apparently, when you give something away for free, it’s hard to know how much of it to make. They’d resorted to (semi-illegally) demanding to see “I Voted” stickers for the special donuts in order to stretch out the supply. They also said customers weren’t as polite as usual. Go figure—when people feel entitled to something, they act as if they value it less. Who could have foreseen such a thing? Oh, wait.
But these patterns of human behavior certainly don’t apply to handing out, say, free healthcare or mortgages. That’s some mighty strong foreshadowing, Krispy Kreme. Yes we can!
(via Jeremy H)