We often stop making popcorn for awhile at the concession stand for local baseball games so that we can clean the popper. We have always got some popcorn on hand in the warming section of the machine while we do this. As I now realize, from seeing how gasoline is marketed, we should be charging $2 a bag for this stored popcorn, instead of the normal $1, while the popper is shut down for maintenance. Even though we have created the "shortage" by our own actions, there is no reason that our income should go down since we have less product because of it. Then, when the popper is cleaned and back in operation, we can gradually lower the price, say to $1.80 for awhile, then maybe $1.65, and so on, before eventually getting back down near $1.00 again.

So if the popping corn and oil price doubles, will you still sell the bags for $1?

Self-created lower supply versus increased cost of materials? Apples and oranges.

However, if the cost of materials drops, we might eventually lower our price, but we certainly won't drop it by the same percentage as the drop in material cost.

Perhaps a better analogy would be at the beginning of the season you buy a truckload of pre-popped pre-bagged popcorn. If the cots of that product drops during the season do you drop your price?

It's not a single business entity that brings the crude to the surface, transports it to the refinery, refines it, ships it to the gas station and sells the end product.

No, but they're all in cahoots.

Yeah, and they promote fuel conservation and impose fuel economy standards on cars then say we have to raise the per-gallon taxes because there isn't enough money to maintain the roads. There aren't enough gallons being sold. 8 cents per gallon profit is highway robbery but 15 cents of taxes isn't enough.

Then they promote water conservation and impose drought restrictions. You guessed it, the water rates go up because they aren't selling enough gallons of water.

People can wait on, or just not buy the popcorn, or buy a substitute product like candy.

People have much less choice when it comes to vehicle fuel.

In economics we call this the elasticity of demand.

or those nachos with fake cheese and stale chips, something about a concession stand makes em taste delicious

now i'm boycotting popcorn.

but don't boycott boy scout popcorn

We're happy to support scouts and love the popcorn but gol darn it's gotten expensive! Seems you get 1/2 as much as you used to and it no longer comes in a tin.

yeah, "its the thought that counts" or so they say.

i wouldn't get away with that. my boys sold it for 12 years so i have a lot of paying back to do. its actually really good popcorn its just so dang expensive. i bought a small can of caramel popcorn the other day and it was $10. my son ate it in one sitting. but i now have a nice can to put crap in.

Then there's government business. The Bonneville Power Admin is a federal agency that controls all the power production & sales in the northwest. A couple years ago, we had an oversupply of water and the hydro power plants were producing more than the grid could handle. It was necessary to shut down the thousands of windmills that line the Columbia River because there was no need for their power.

In private industry, if you over produce, you cut back and take a hit until demand increases or your inventory is down to a marketable level. Not so here. The BPA ordered the windmills shut down but they paid the owners for power they didn't produce, using our tax money to pay them.

wish I could still eat popcorn...