Perché al cine i popcorn costano di più?

WHY POPCORN COSTS MORE AT THE MOVIES AND WHY THE OBVIOUS ANSWER IS WRONG – The Armchair Economist (revised and updated May 2012): Economics & Everyday Life – Steven E. Landsburg

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Punti chiave: La discriminazione di prezzo spiega tutto – isolare i clienti secondo le loro caratteristiche – I clienti dei blockbuster hanno una domanda di popcorn più robusta – Un minimo di monopolio è sempre richiesto: in concorrenza perfetta discriminare è impossibile – 

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Popcorn is expensive because, once you have entered the movie theater, the theater owner has a monopoly.

Note:LA SPIEGAZIONE PIÙ COMUNE

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Once you enter the theater, the owner has a monopoly on a lot of things. He is the only supplier of rest rooms, for example. Why doesn’t he charge you a monopoly price to use the rest room?

Note:E IL MONOPOLIO DEL BAGNO?

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When I go to watch a movie and buy a quart of popcorn, I am quite indifferent between paying $1 for the popcorn and $7 for the ticket or paying $3 for the popcorn and $5 for the ticket.

Note:PREZZO BIGLIETTO E PREZZO POPCORN

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some moviegoers like popcorn more than others.

Note:IL FATTO CENTRALE

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the purpose of expensive popcorn is to extract different sums from different customers.

Note:SCOPO

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In a seller’s paradise, each customer would be charged exactly his reservation price

Note:PREZZO MASSIMO

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When you buy a Polaroid camera or a ticket to Disneyland, your expenses have only just begun.

Note:DISNEYLAND

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Expensive film extracts more from the heavy users, and Polaroid sensibly believes that the heaviest users are willing to pay the most.

Note:ABBINATI ALLA POLAROID

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why should a coupon for 50 cents off a bottle of detergent be a more effective lure than an ad announcing that the price of detergent had been slashed by 50 cents?

Note:PERCHÈ I BUONI SCONTO?

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Discount coupons are intended not to lure customers in general but to lure a certain class of customers—namely, those who would shop elsewhere in the absence of a bargain. The device works only if the discounts end up in the right hands

Note:ALLETTARE I TERZI INCONSAPEVOLI

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Sometimes an easily identifiable group, such as students or senior citizens, is particularly sensitive to price. In such cases, sellers give discounts to those groups directly.

Note:VECCHI E STUDENTI

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Did you buy this book in hardcover or in paperback? It might interest you to know that the production costs for the two kinds of binding are very close to equal. By pricing the hardback several dollars higher, the publisher effectively charges different prices to different classes

Note:COPERTINA RIGIDA

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Airlines charge different prices depending on whether you stay over a Saturday, hotels charge different prices depending on whether you make reservations in advance, car rental agencies charge different prices depending on whether you belong to a frequent flyer program, doctors charge different prices depending on your income and your insurance status, and universities charge different prices depending on your grades and your family’s income.

Note:ESEMPI DI DISCRIMINAZIONE

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But if this is the whole story, then why don’t popcorn lovers simply patronize a different theater?…The theater that sold a quart for $2.50 instead of $3 could attract all of the big popcorn eaters… Why don’t we see popcorn price wars?…

Note:PROBLEMA

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So one more ingredient must be added to the price discrimination story. Price discrimination can work only when the seller has a monopoly of the appropriate kind.

Note:UNA FORMA DI MONOPOLIO DEVE ESISTERE

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The standard textbook example of a perfectly competitive industry is wheat farming. No wheat farmer has any control over market conditions, and no wheat farmer represents a significant share of the market. That is precisely the reason why wheat farmers do not give senior citizen discounts.

Note:CONCORRENZA PERFETTA

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if price discrimination is as common as our many examples seem to indicate, we are forced to conclude that monopolies are everywhere.

Note:MONOPOLI OVUNQUE

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One product at two prices requires monopoly power, but two products at two prices is the normal order of things.

Note:DIFFERENZIAZIONE DEL PRODOTTO

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Doctors charge wealthy patients more than they charge poor patients. Is this price discrimination? Perhaps. But perhaps wealthy patients are in general more demanding

Note:FINTE DISCRIMINAZIONI

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And finally and once again, why is popcorn so expensive at the movie theater? If this be price discrimination, whence the monopoly power?

Note:DA DOVE IL MONOPOLIO DEL CINEMA?

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The Locay/Rodriguez response is that popcorn eaters cannot go to another theater without splitting up their social groups.

Note:SPLIT GROUP

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Let’s stick to theaters with low-priced popcorn, and I’ll occasionally pay for your tickets.

OBIEZIONE COASIANA