Monday, May 26, 2008

Extortion

Today while we were at the Irvine Regional Park attempting to purchase a ticket for a pony ride, I noticed a sign on the window of the cashier booth that read:

"Exact Change, Please. (We're Really Low on $1's)"

This was really funny to me, because
the price of the pony ride is $4. If you demand exactly four dollars from countless numbers of people all day long, doesn't it seem a little bit stupid to claim that you don't have any $1 bills? I would think that you would have nothing but $1 bills.

2 comments:

Ryan said...

What is the form of the industry? I can't imagine competition (perfect or imperfect) giving rise to this. Maybe the pony is busy all day long so you don't bring in less revenue if you force everyone to have exact change. But if that is the case, why not raise the price? I am deeply puzzled and starting to suspect that the operators of the pony may not be fully rational...

Dad said...

Apparently the $1 bill shortage is epidemic, because all the ponyriders have to pay with is a $5,$10, or $20 bill, aggravating the situation as change is made. $1 bills leave the facility to be hoarded elsewhere for some sinister purpose.